Michael Dunn Case More Clear Cut Than Zimmerman
Opio Sokoni, head of the Jacksonville, Florida, NAACP, said Michael Dunn’s guilt in the killing of Jordan Davis was even more obvious than that of George Zimmerman in Trayvon Martin’s death. “Only the most rabid racists were actually standing behind Dunn, saying that this guy was innocent,” said Sokoni. “Then we realized there were some of those people on the jury.” Dunn was convicted of attempted murder, but the jury deadlocked on first degree murder charges.
Russell “Maroon” Shoatz Wins 22-Year Battle
“We were ecstatic that the efforts of so many bore great fruit,” said Ayanna Rauf, fiancé of former Black Panther Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, who was released into the general Pennsylvania prison population after 22 years of solitary confinement. Seventy year-old Shoatz, who is now blind in one eye, told Ms. Rauf: “I have to practice walking again without shackles and chains.” Rauf said she and Shoatz are “looking forward to our marriage, in June,” and hope to win commutation of his sentence by the governor.
Molefi Asante Complicit in Anthony Monteiro Firing
Dr. Wilmer Leon III, host of Sirius XM Radio’s “Inside the Issue” program and an academic ally of Temple University’s embattled African American Studies professor Anthony Monteiro, is “incredibly impressed with the level of support” Monteiro is receiving from the community. Dr. Monteiro was effectively fired by Dean of Liberal Arts Teresa Soufas with the complicity of African American Studies department chair Molefi Asante. “It appears as though, after Dr. Asante became somewhat secure in his position, he became an instrument of Dean Soufas,” said Dr. Leon.
Ras Baraka in Lead for Newark Mayor
Amina Baraka, widow of poet-activist Amiri Baraka and mother of Newark, New Jersey mayoral candidate Ras Baraka, said her son “is on the side of those who are oppressed and cannot find a way out of the system.” A city councilman and high school principal, Ras Baraka is generally considered the frontrunner. Former mayor Cory Booker, now a U.S. senator, “was not interested in the neighborhoods,” said Amina Baraka, while her son wants to make the Port of Newark and the international airport “pay their fair share of taxes.”
Wanted: A Populist Trade Policy
With most Democrats opposed to giving President Obama “fast-track” powers to ram through his Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade treaty, it’s time to come up with a “populist trade program that puts people and the planet first, and that can be openly discussed in a transparent way,” said Kevin Zeese, co-director of It’s Our Economy. The Obama administration has shrouded TPP talks in secrecy.
CARICOM Discriminates Against Haitians
Ezili Danto, director of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, said the Caribbean economic community, CARICOM, “treats Haitians pretty much the same way that Europeans do.” Haiti is the only CARICOM member whose citizens are required to hold a visa to visit other CARICOM countries. Ms. Danto was interviewed by Dedon Sankara on Uhuru Radio.
Venezuelan Protesters are Frustrated Minority
The opposition is disrupting life in Venezuela because it keeps losing elections and continues to receive millions of dollars in funding from the United States, said Samuel Moncada, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations. “We have had 18 elections in 15 years, but we are still a dictatorship” according to the U.S. government and corporate media, said Moncada, at a New York event honoring the late President Hugo Chavez.
Unless Black people are healthy and safe then no community is healthy and safe.
Although prisons have become hot spots of the pandemic, most of the penal overseers have taken only token measures, if any, to evacuate inmates.
In the South Bronx, Dr Melissa Barber battles COVID-19, putting into practice the lessons she learned in Cuba, at the Latin American School of Medicine.
Time and again, Black radicals have pressed for an expanded scope of political and economic freedoms, for Americans at home and for people abroad.
“There’s something profoundly liberating for people who’ve been told all their lives that they ain’t shit to stand up.”
