UNC Sit-In Against Union Busting and Sweatshops Continues…

By Linda Gomaa, Chapel Hill, NC

Several students and workers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are entering the sixth day of a sit-in in Chancellor James Moeser’s lobby, the longest sit-in at UNC since 1993.   About 25 students and workers entered the administration building on Thursday, April 17th and have been occupying it ever since.  These students and workers are affiliated with Student Action with Workers (SAW), a UNC group affiliated with United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) international, as well as several other campus groups that are part of the Sweatfree Coalition and community-based youth group, Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST).

Rev. Wright, Obama and racism in the U.S.

By LeiLani Dowell

FIST in New York City

Now that a Black presidential candidate has a real chance of winning the Democratic nomination and even the presidency, we’re once again asked not to talk about oppression. We’re supposed to reject the teachings of, for instance, Malcolm X, and even Martin Luther King Jr. We’re supposed to deny what, for so many poor and oppressed peoples in the United States and throughout the world, is a clear-cut reality. We’re not supposed to be angry—and we’re definitely not supposed to speak up and fight back.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Such is the case in the media-bashing of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former spiritual mentor of presidential candidate Barack Obama.

In a media flooded with racist, sexist and anti-LGBT images and voices, the words of a Black man calling the U.S. on its violence and oppression are labeled “hate speech.” Obama’s opponent for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, went so far as to put Wright on a par with Don Imus—who is back on the air even after his racist, sexist rants made international headlines.

The attack on the Rev. Wright is nothing less than nationalist baiting and anti-patriot baiting. It is being used not only to undermine Obama’s campaign, but particularly in an attempt to defeat the Black struggle.

The media, as they will often do when attempting to defile someone’s character, have reduced Wright’s comments to mere snippets and sound bites of supposedly inexplicable outbursts against the U.S. Even in that limited context, it is hard to find fault in his words.

For instance, the idea that HIV was created to target people of color (and LGBT people) is not new, and understandable given the overall government attack on those communities.

That Charming Man: Morrissey, a Racist too?

By Yolanda Carrington

Morrissey at the South by Southwest Festival, 2006.

The United States isn’t the only society plagued with xenophobia, as a recent controversy over a legendary singer’s remarks shows. And we sure aren’t the only society where white folks’ understanding of systemic racism is jawdroppingly low, nor is this great land the only society where most white folks will do anything to avoid discussing race. The latest racism scandal in the entertainment world involves not a tired shock-jock or stand-up comic, but the ethereal voice behind such classics as The Queen is Dead and Meat is Murder.