NEWSMULTICULTURALISM

Congressman Gary Miller of California shared a stage in February with another speaker who intimated that marines should kill a group of Muslim-Americans who were gathered for a charity fundraiser nearby. Later on, the crowd from the event chanted a slew of bigoted and racist taunts at people arriving at the fundraiser.

8,500 Change.org members petitioned Miller to denounce these comments, but he hasn’t listened. He hasn’t shown a hint of remorse for his role in the event.

So I hope you’ll join me in picking up the phone, and ask him kindly to issue an apology for legitimizing this sort of violent and hateful rhetoric.

Last Friday, activists around the US sprang into action after the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) posted this video on YouTube [alternate version here], showing protesters outside of a Muslim community fundraiser. The protesters shouted slurs such as, "Muhammed was a child molestor," "why don't you go beat up your wife like you do every night," and "you beat your women and you rape your children.”

Though the greatest outrage came when Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly mentioned she had a son serving in the Marines then added, "I know quite a few Marines who would be happy to help these terrorists to a, uh, early meeting in paradise."

The video quickly gathered more than half a million views on YouTube, was covered in on a multiple high profile blogs, and we launched a petition here on Change.org calling on Congressmen Ed Royce and Gary Miller, who both spoke at the rally, to denounce the hateful and violent rhetoric.

It’s no secret that folks in Congress have their differences. But whatever their party affiliation, ethnic background or religious beliefs, we can all agree that they love their country and what it stands for, right?

Maybe not.

During a recent interview, Florida Congressman Allen West suggested that fellow Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota is anti-American because he practices Islam.

“The Shalom Show” host Richard Peritz asked West, who’s new in Congress, to explain how he plans to interact with legislators who have different beliefs from him—specifically Ellison, one of only two Muslim legislators in the House. West’s reply sparked instant controversy: “When you run into someone that…really does represent the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established, you’ve got to be able to defeat them intellectually in debate and discourse…”

As the frenetic excitement about southern Sudan's recent referendum wears off, the challenges of building up a new country from scratch loom. For some segments of southern Sudan’s society, the obstacles are even greater.

“The women of southern Sudan are ‘the marginalized of the marginalized,’ as Dr. John Garang used to say,” said Anyieth D’Awol, quoting the late rebel leader who saw many of the problems in Sudan originating from the Khartoum government’s negligence. As one stark example, literacy in southern Sudan stands at 24 percent, but only 12 percent of women can read and write.

Anyieth is southern Sudanese, but she first visited the South when she was 27. She studied human rights in the UK and has a law degree, fields she pursued because “I never thought I would stay in England. Always knew I wanted to come back to Sudan.”

“I don’t have a war story,” she said, in a tone that almost sounded like she was apologizing.

Shortly after our nation’s leaders called for more civil discourse in light of the Tucson shooting at a political meet-and-greet, Maine Gov. Paul LePage made a classy move and told the NAACP that it could “kiss my butt.”

Why? Because the civil rights group reportedly complained that LePage, a Tea Party-backed Republican, declined to attend an event it had organized in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“They are a special interest," LePage told CNN affiliate WCSH. "End of story... and I’m not going to be held hostage by special interests. And if they want, they can look at my family picture. My son happens to be black.”

Sure, the NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but it shouldn’t be written off as a special interest group. Founding members of the organization—which has been around since 1909—included whites such as Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz.  The NAACP has always focused first and foremost on civil rights, which is not a special interest, but an issue of concern to all Americans. That said, it’s not only unfortunate that LePage knows so little about the NAACP’s history and mission, it’s also unfortunate that he decided to mouth off about the group in spite of his unawareness.

Looks like California's celebration of Martin Luther King Day took a turn for the... Arizonian. This month students and faculties from two California campuses are fighting the demolition of their ethnic studies programs: Asian American Studies and Cal State Los Angeles and American Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz.

Late last year Dean James Henderson at CSULA offered students and faculty a grim holiday gift – notification that he had decided to suspend Asian American Studies, indefinitely. To date, the only explanation Henderson has offered is lack of faculty, student, and community support – which he announced at a November 29 meeting to a roomful of concerned faculty, students, and community members. Since then, a grassroots movement in support of retaining the program has been swelling both on and off campus (check out Immigrant Rights blogger Gabriel Garcia's post on it).

CSULA is located in the San Gabriel Valley, which holds one of the largest Chinese populations in the country. Asian American Studies – which was just established in 2005 – failed in the Dean's eyes to meet enrollment numbers. However, the decision of a Dean to dismantle the program without prior discussion with students and faculty is a threat to more than just one department on one campus.

"Cutting AAAS is an attack on the university’s diversity and threatens the already tenuous support of the campus’ Chicano, Latin American, and Pan African Studies programs as well," explains a grassroots website launched in opposition to the suspension. In light of Arizona's recent ethnic studies ban, CSULA's decision is another threat toward the demolition of valuable ethnic studies programs throughout the country – and this isn't just a theory.

In the United States, mature discussions of race and racism are rare. Instead of openly engaging with the complex ways in which all of us experience race everyday, Americans tend to shy away, calling themselves “colorblind”.

A worrying example of this trend surfaced last week when Alabama-based NewSouth Books announced their release of a censored version of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn that will replace the word “nigger” with “slave” and “injun” with “Indian”.

Tell NewSouth Books to stop whitewashing our nation’s past! Please sign the petition to keep the censored Huck Finn off the shelves!

Auburn University English professor Alan Gribben originally envisioned a censored Huck Finn after becoming uncomfortable uttering the words during public readings. Middle and high school teachers privately confessed that they shared his discomfort when teaching the book in their own classrooms, he claims.

Dr. Gribben says removing the offensive words will make the text more comfortable to teach and therefore more accessible to students.

The problem with this argument is the book then becomes an example of erasing another part of our country’s challenging racial past.

As a high school sophomore, I remember an African-American student refusing to read Huck Finn because of the use of the word “nigger” – a rare moment of protest that both confused and intrigued me. But instead of engaging the student’s concerns in a deeper discussion that could have comforted the student and helped the rest of us clarify our own racial understanding, the English teacher threatened her with disciplinary action and let the opportunity slip away.

On Dec. 20, 1860, the people of South Carolina signed the Ordinance of Secession. This gave the state the distinction of being the first to break away from the Union. But more importantly, the ordinance helped usher in the Civil War.

Now, 150 years later, some South Carolinians are celebrating the ordinance with a secession ball in downtown Charleston, during which guests will not only sport pre-Civil War attire, but take in a dramatization of the secession ordinance’s signing and watch a band named Unreconstructed (as in 'before Reconstruction') perform pieces such as “Dixie.”

One group who is not taking part in the festivities is the South Carolina NAACP, The State newspaper reported. That’s because the organization says the ball amounts to nothing more than a celebration of slavery.

Lonnie Randolph, head of the group’s South Carolina chapter, likened the event to a celebration of the Holocaust or a celebration of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Those may not be the most apt comparisons, but the sentiment behind them is clear. Slavery was a grave social injustice that touched the lives of millions of Africans, and to celebrate a war that largely involved the institution is to downplay its significance. In essence, the NAACP’s boycott of the secession ball has reopened the debate about why exactly the Civil War was fought.

It's true.  Somewhere deep in the darkest pits of the system there exists a heart - and every once in awhile we get a glimpse of it.

This week California Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced a private bill that allowed for the release of Steve Li, a San Francisco college student who had spent the past two months in detainment awaiting deportation to Peru – the country his family migrated from when he was just eleven. Completely unaware that he was residing in the country illegally until the moment his door was busted down in an immigration raid, Li's story caught massive attention and shed a humanizing light on an issue that is often oversimplified.

Li's case was far from the stereotypical circumstance when discussing immigration policy in the political arena. He didn't maliciously sneak over the border to squeeze out an anchor baby, nor did he cargo himself in the back of a van in order to exploit the economy through a thriving career in grape-picking. He simply did as a good young person should: he followed his parents, went to college and pursued a career in nursing. Regardless of one's personal politics, it's hard to deny that sending a kid back to a country where he knows absolutely nobody is pretty messed up (haven't you seen Home Alone 2?).

Upon the announcement that Li was granted freedom, the best that conservative commenters could muster was along the lines of "If there was proper legislation, he would've been deported at 11 instead of 20!" Niiiiiice. Words of wisdom from the type of person who would probably have no qualms with smacking Elian Gonzalez in the face with an oar. When dealing with the immigration issue on a person-by-person basis, it's much more difficult to maintain the political stance 'deport them all.' Plus, someone like Li cannot be accused of "sucking the system dry" when he's sitting in detainment telling reporters that he can't wait to go home so he can study.

The bigger message we should learn from Li's case is that a person's story is seldom ever cut-and-dry, and effective immigration reform requires legislation that considers the diversity in past and present situations that immigrants experience.  Senator Feinstein addressed Li's case largely due to the overwhelming number of petitions for Li, such as the hundreds of signatures collected on Change.org.

The battle is not over. The private bill only delays his deportation process by 75 days, and when asked about her decision to introduce Li's private bill, Feinstein referenced the DREAM Act, which still holds the key to Li's lasting peace of mind. If passed, the DREAM Act could be a saving grace for many young people who find themselves in situations similar to Li's – who simply want to live in the country they were raised to call home.

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GOT A TIP FOR US? Is there a story or campaign in your area that we'd want to know about? E-mail us at humanrightstips@change.org. Please also follow Change.org's Human Rights page on Facebook and Twitter. Photo Credit: 依靈

Lady Gaga, the Jersey Shore cast and the gang from Avatar are expected to be this year’s most popular Halloween costumes. But some folks aren’t interested in dressing up as a pop culture icon or even a traditional ghost or goblin. Instead, they use Halloween as a time to flaunt racial stereotypes by dressing up as a black person, a Geisha girl, a sexy Pocahontas or an Islamic terrorist. Yes, all of these costumes exist and, yes, they’re all offensive. Why?

Let’s start with the black person costume. In Halloween world, “African American” is synonymous with “ghetto.”  Kohl’s Corp. demonstrated this when it featured a “Ghetto fab” wig in its online Halloween store. Because the wig consisted of a short curly Afro, there was public pressure for Kohl’s to pull the item from its stock because the name suggested that African-American hair is “ghetto” hair.  Due to the controversy, Kohl’s eventually removed the “Ghetto fab” wig from its collection.

“We are both embarrassed and apologize for the offensive nature of the merchandise description,” said Vicki Shamion, Kohl’s senior vice president of public relations, in a statement.