NEWSRACISM & DISCRIMINATION

When a few passengers on an Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight, a carrier run by Delta, noticed two imams dressed in Islamic garb on their flight on Friday, they asked that the passengers be removed.

So what did the pilot do? He went right ahead and kicked the Muslim passengers off the flight!

Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul, who hold high religious positions in the Muslim community, were heading from Tennessee to North Carolina when the incident occurred. According to Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations, the men "went through security, even went through secondary security, and got on the plane."

The plane was taxiing out when the passengers complained that they were uncomfortable with the men being on their flight.

In an ironic twist of fate, the men were headed to North Carolina for a conference on prejudice against Muslims, or Islamaphobia.

I was teaching my daughter to grind traditional medicines near our sacred Puberty Rock when the boaters intruded upon our ceremony site.

Their beer-infused shouts echoed across the McCloud River canyon, and as they passed they called us “fat Indians”, chugged alcoholic drinks in our sacred space, and even flashed us.

Recreational boaters had been interfering for the full four days of my daughter’s Bałas Chonas, or Coming of Age ceremony, but now Marine was about to complete the ceremony by swimming across the river where her tribe would receive her as a woman.

As the Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu, I was supposed to be laying down blessings. I was supposed to be in a ceremonial state of mind, but instead I was furious at the thought of my daughter having to enter the water with those people on it.  How would you react if a band of motorcyclists barreled through your daughter’s christening?

With only 150 signatures sent to Georgia legislatures, a local Native American tribe has successfully used Change.org to get a discriminatory bill dropped!

One of the Creek Tribes, the Kialegee Tribal Town, wanted to come home. Then the Georgia State Legislators tried to prevent Indian Tribes that are recognized by the state from acquiring land for purposes other than casinos.

After the legislators got over 100 e-mails through this Change.org campaign, the House Judiciary Committee signed off the bill as "died in committee."

"We’ve drawn a line in the dirt, and it happens to be our dirt," said Wallace Seabolt of The Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee, who started the petition. "We don’t ask anything except to be allowed to practice out culture, our traditions, and to share that... I think Change.org is really great. I’ll be in touch if there are any more things we need to work on.”

These tribes are recognized by Georgia and the bill (SB 62) would have unconstitutionally placed a severe hardship to require them to wait until the General Assembly is in session to get approval for a purchase or transfer of land. Local Native American activists argued, successfully, that such a policy would constitute illegal interference over American Indian tribes and violate the American Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968, Subsection 1302(8).

A big congrats to everyone involved, and thanks for taking action!

The 4th graders at Crescent Elementary School in Sandy, Utah recently won a contest run by a local radio station. They were the class that entered the most anti-bullying pledges on the stations website, and their prize was a visit from Miranda Cosgrove, star of Nickelodeon's popular show iCarly, and a rapidly rising tween star in her own right.

Cosgrove spent an hour taking photos with the 90 excited 9 and 10-year-olds and signing pictures for them. Many of the students are even more committed to standing against bullying after the visit.

"People don’t realize it’s hurting them and they grow up being afraid of people," said 9 year old Cameryn Bennion.

As a young soldier, I remember wearing the patch of the 2nd Infantry Division on my shoulder with a sense of pride and honor; even today it takes considerable space on a plaque in my home that displays the military awards and insignia that I have earned and worn over the years.

I can still roll off the Division motto —the gallant unit the patch represents— with the same sense of vigor in which I had repeated countless times back then. "Second to none!"

These days, I also see the same patch in the pictures of U.S. soldiers proudly displaying the bloodied bodies of the innocent and unarmed Afghani civilians that they maliciously slaughtered. Part of the self-dubbed "Kill Team," this platoon of young infantry men devised countless strategies to murder civilians then set it up as a legitimate attack.

They were proud of having killed so many out in the open and with impunity.

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.

Nickelodeon, the largest children's television network, reaches 214 million homes in the United States, and they're about to reach a whole bunch more in Ukraine.

Viacom, Nickelodeon's parent company just struck a deal to bring 200 episodes of their live action shows to the eastern European country for the first time. The line up will include shows like True Jackson, The Troop, and Drake & Josh.

It will also include episodes of iCarly, the popular program about a girl who creates her own online show. Unfortunately iCarly also features frequent insensitive jokes about 'hobos', teaching young people that it is okay to make fun of the homeless and those who are less fortunate.

If you think making fun of hobos is as tasteless and unfunny as we do, please sign our petition asking Nickelodeon to apologize.

Late last year, a Boston nightclub ended an event for black Harvard and Yale alumni for fear that the long line of African Americans outside the club would attract 'gangbangers'. Now, after months of legal wrangling, the club owner has agreed to apologize!

It all began just before Thanksgiving, when a black Ivy League alumni group claimed that Cure Lounge in Boston prematurely ended an alumni party held at the club on November 20 for fear that a line of African Americans outside of the nightclub would attract “local gangbangers,” according to Michael Beal, a Harvard alum who helped organize the event. Some alumni had traveled across the country to attend the event, and the incident made international headlines after the alumni group accused club management of racial discrimination.

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…”