Undercurrents

Nashawn Williams was brutally attacked by racist whites in Plainfield while waiting for a school bus in Oct 2007.  Minister Cornell Lewis will bring the family to Hartford for a Press Conference on Saturday July 12th at 11 AM.  This is the first time Nashawn Williams will publicly speak about the attack and having a group of whites taunt the family while inside their home.  Police are trying to close the case; no witnesses or arrests.

Place: Charter Oak Cultural Center

Address: 21 Charter Oak Avenue, Hartford

Date/Time: Saturday, July 12 at 11 AM

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I just saw Dessa Rose, the main stage production of the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. It’s not your run-of-the-mill high school play. These kids kick ass and take no prisoners. Public education at its finest. Students come from participating towns in central Connecticut. Great acting, singing, dancing, live music by students and a few ringers. Call 860-757-6388 for tickets. The theater is at 359 Washington St., Hartford. Parking garage adjacent to the theater or park on the mean streets of Hartford. We did. Show times Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

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The gang rape committed by the embedded mass media on Jeremiah Wright will never be acknowledged, but history will record it as a sample of 21st Century racism. Wright is the hapless victim of neobigots, paid promoters of a popular racism that proceeds not from the presumed superiority of the white race but from its presumed inferiority. (more…)

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In the early hours of this morning, the Connecticut legislature passed a watered-down but still dangerous change to the existing “three strikes” criminal sentencing statute. The change requires that judges double or triple the mandatory minimum sentence for a person classified as a persistent dangerous felony offender. The amendment also requires that if a prosecutor does not choose to seek harsher sentencing in a case involving someone who qualifies as a persistent violent felony offender, the prosecutor must state on the record his or her reason for not doing so. The bill as passed also provides sums that can only be described as pocket change for the Public Defender’s office and for re-entry services for previously incarcerated people.

Thanks to the battle waged by the Clean Slate Committee and its allies, as well as the stalwart opposition of a few principled legislators, this new law is a far cry from the kind of three strikes that Governor Rell demanded. The fact remains, however, that the process that permitted this morning’s amendments to pass speaks volumes about the version of “democracy” that the existing political system provides. (more…)

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Angela Davis will be speaking at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain on Thursday, April 24th. She will be taking part in two panel discussions, the first at 2:00 titled “Are Prisons Obsolete?” and the second at 5:30 titled “Race, Class and Gender Issues in American Society.” The talks are in Torp Theatre in Davidson Hall.

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“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position . . . And if he was a woman of any color he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.” - Geraldine Ferraro

In responding to the comments by former vice-presidential candidate Ferraro, the media and political pundits have mostly focused on her suggestion that Barack Obama would not be a serious candidate for president if he were not African-American. That type of comment is well known to anyone who has spoken up to defend affirmative action programs.

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The Pew Center on the States very recently revealed their report One in One Hundred: Behind Bars in 2008 which lays out a very sobering and distressing outlook of the US Prison Industrial Complex. This report is particularly pertinent given the CT Legislatures total avoidance of the unacceptable increases in the prison population in Connecticut and seemingly ignoring alternative means to incarceration.

Some key findings are:

The US incarcerates more people than any other country in the world (more…)

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Cornell Lewis has passed along this information:

Join the Black and Latino Caucus in a public forum to discuss Discrimination, Diversity and Disparity issues within the Departments of Public Safety and Corrections–2:00pm in LOB Hearing Room 2D.

2:00-3:00pm public testimony
4:00-5:00pm Public Testimony

However, at 1pm in front of Gov. Rell’s Office a group of activists, community leaders and clergy will have a press conference to tie in discrimination in the public sector with the plight of Andrew Crumbie. (more…)

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I recently heard a great piece by Mumia Download link as we approach the Remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this Monday.

Mumia, in quoting Vincent Harding, noted that: America has largely chosen the path of amnesia rather than true remembrance of the man. (more…)

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This morning a stick-figure drawing of a lynching was discovered in a CCSU men’s restroom. In a letter to students and faculty, CCSU President Jack Miller called the drawing a “racial insult” and said the incident would be treated as “a hate incident.” (more…)

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