The following post is from James Rucker, executive director of colorofchange.org:
ColorOfChange.org members gathered at the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland Tuesday to confront District Attorney Tom Orloff over his handling of the Oscar Grant case, and to demand that he explain his decision not to charge a second BART police officer for his actions in the moments leading up to Oscar Grant's murder.
The event was a huge success and garnered lots of good local news coverage, including reports from most of the local TV news media. Our members delivered more than 20,000 petitions -- collected in less than two weeks -- to Orloff's office. This number reflects just a portion of the nearly 45,000 ColorOfChange members who have expressed outrage, demanded justice and pledged vigilance since Oscar Grant's murder on New Year's Day.
We sent Orloff a strong message that the public is continuing to watch his handling of this case. Orloff now has to answer the charge that he is failing to uphold California law in his refusal to bring charges against BART police officer Tony Pirone (who struck Oscar Grant in the face, apparently unprovoked, and then kneeled on Grant's neck as the 22-year-old Hayward man was shot in the back and killed by another BART officer). We're deeply concerned about what Orloff's lack of action against Pirone says about his commitment to pursuing justice throughout the case, and we think it's essential that people who care about justice for Oscar Grant continue to demand accountability.
Our effort was supported by Dereca Blackmon, a leader of the Oakland-based Coalition Against Police Execution. Dereca and I addressed the crowd before joining ColorOfChange members to carry the stacks of petitions into the courthouse and up to the ninth-floor, where the District Attorney's staffers accepted them without much comment. We're still waiting for a public response from Orloff.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Several Takes on Obama's first 100 days
site for these POVs on Obama's first 100.
That Black Girl Site.
After 100 days are there signs of a post racial America?
BCNN1.com Black Christian News
Lots of Energy, No Miracles
Dr. Frank Page "Disappointed"
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Earth Day - Be Black and Green
People of African descent are bigtime victims of pollution and
environmental mismanagement. Be aware of what's being done
to our people locally and globally and do what you can to act and/or
speak out against this outrageous treatment.
Remember....
African-American children are three times as likely to die of asthma-related causes.
I scanned google for a few sites to get you started.
Good news
And of course, there is Lisa Jackson,
who in January became the first African-American head of the EPA.
Before joining the Obama administration,
Jackson was New Jersey’s commissioner for environmental protection,
where she proved that a tough administrator can use environmental
law to save African-American lives.
She pushed for tough new legislation against
the trucks and ships that ruined Newark’s air quality,
and she led over 1,000 compliance investigations in Camden and Paterson,
cities that had been ignored by previous commissioners.
environmental mismanagement. Be aware of what's being done
to our people locally and globally and do what you can to act and/or
speak out against this outrageous treatment.
Remember....
African-American children are three times as likely to die of asthma-related causes.
I scanned google for a few sites to get you started.
- Earth Day Africa
- Uhuru Earth Day event draws from Africa
- African Conservation Foundation's Page
- Black Folks, Green Thumbs
Good news
And of course, there is Lisa Jackson,
who in January became the first African-American head of the EPA.
Before joining the Obama administration,
Jackson was New Jersey’s commissioner for environmental protection,
where she proved that a tough administrator can use environmental
law to save African-American lives.
She pushed for tough new legislation against
the trucks and ships that ruined Newark’s air quality,
and she led over 1,000 compliance investigations in Camden and Paterson,
cities that had been ignored by previous commissioners.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Response to AFRICAN AMERICAN BLOGSPHERE; GAINING STATURE IN THE WORLD OF NEWS.
Response to - AFRICAN AMERICAN BLOGSPHERE; GAINING STATURE IN THE WORLD OF NEWS.
on The World Of Ensayn Reality Blog
"How to drive more of the Black collective to the internet and the Black blogsphere?"
My feeling is with you, I never stop thinking about ways to reach the Black masses. One important way to get answers is to broaden the question. So we can add ----How to deliver the contents of the internet and the Black Blogosphere to the Black coillective?---- to the original question.
I think we shouldn't forget that while we have been many moons in America, we are still more of a verbal culture than a written one. Griots have always been an important factor in African communication, history and genealogy many generations of information was passed on unbroken by this means. Up until the point where many of us, in the diaspora, were hijacked and thus pulled completely out of the loop, this means of communication was working for us.
Even then, after several centuries our young folks are coming full circle with Rap.
A rapper may be compared to a griot telling stories of the things that folks in the village want to know about. It is another spoken word means of communication which has proved to be very effective. So much, that millions have been spent in America to divert and circumvent the original form, in an attempt to subvert the output and once again minstralize our image while at the same time raking in tons of money.
Rap reaches so many people around the world, that it truly is a force to be reconed with. People of all cultures find it appealing but especially those of the African Diaspora . Outside the US I have seen quite a few progressive presentations and productions being utilized by young people to express their impression of how they perceive and are determined to respond to their sociopolitical environment.
African Underground: Hip Hop in Senegal
even sometimes a personal risk to speak out for the cause of liberty and justice.
While we may appear to be separated, we are not alone.
Cuban hip hop group protests racism and injustice
Media Activist Davey D on media consolidation ncmr 2005
VoxUnion.com is a fantastic site that IMO all Black bloggers would benefit plugging into.
My favorite feature on this site is the Freemix Radio concept, that suggests we all create mixtapes
of music, news, current events and such and listen then pass them on and if we have the resources create more add to it and pass that along too. I could see this model working for e-mail newsletters as well.
There are others also out there working and we all have to somehow communicate with one another in order to
consolidate and or coordinate at least some of our efforts in order to take advantage of the fact that right now we have potential access to millions of people. In the last ten years I have seen a number of excellent productions come and fall by the wayside because of lack of support and the people producing them just couldn't maintain their level of output while working alone.
Blogging, youtube, podcasting, skype and more resources are available, in various combinations for those of us who will challenge our imaginations. Never before and (when this window closes) possibly never again, will we have such a fantastic opportunity. We have to talk about it, we have to learn real fast how to combine efforts for maximum use of input.
And yes, I think we have to do everything we can to drag the collective, (even if kicking and screaming) right along with us.
I'll close with this message from
Davey D at the NCMR 2007
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