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Solly Mack
Solly Mack's Journal
Solly Mack's Journal
February 28, 2025
Trump lies about who was disrespectful but that's me stating the obvious.
Trump will use his behavior and demands, that he is blaming on and attributing to Zelenskyy, as an excuse to abandon Ukraine.
January 30, 2025
The Human Cost of Legal Exception: Haitian Refugees at Guantánamo
While the current notoriety of Guantánamo Bay is focused on its use as a detention center for alleged terrorists against the United States, this is not the first time in history the island has been used to indefinitely detain individuals.
Starting in the early 1990’s, refugees from Haiti were detained at Camp McCalla and Camp Bulkeley. As many as 12,500 could be detained in the camps at any time, and in 1992 the camps almost reached their full capacity. At the height of the influx in 1992, some 34,090 Haitians had passed through the two camps. Conditions in the camps were deplorable. While U.S. officials allowed limited self-governance, decisions such as sanitation and food rationing were made by the military. With such conditions towards the end of the Haitian detention instability and rioting occurred, particularly in Camp Bulkeley – the camp used for Haitians with HIV/AIDS. The prolonged detention ended with most of the refugees being repatriated back to Haiti, some facing torture or even death.
Haitian refugees began leaving before the 1990s. Many fled repression from Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, whose corrupt regime ended in 1986 only to be replaced by a military junta in 1988. The irony of the refugee crisis is that the U.S. was instrumental in supporting the Duvalier dictatorship as a Cold War ally. The first of the refugees were the wealthy and elite, but by the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the Haitians who would be held in Guantánamo Bay were the poor.
The Haitians refugee crisis at Guantánamo Bay resonates today, and is an example of how Guantánamo serves as a legal exception that allows the U.S. government to detain terrorist suspects indefinitely. Upon leaving Haiti, these refugees were often intercepted by the U.S. Navy or Coast Guard and, due to the implications of illegal immigration and the perceived socio-economic threat of an influx of Haitians by American politicians, Guantánamo Bay became the perfect solution. Once there, they were not considered to be on U.S. land and therefore not subject to the protections afforded to persons on sovereign U.S. soil. Basics such as access to legal representation for asylum claims and protections under international human rights laws, which the U.S. has agreed to observe, were not guaranteed. Guantánamo Bay’s “Legal Black Hole” became the buffer to either force Haitians back to Haiti or risk being detained for upwards of ten to twenty years.
Guantánamo Public Memory Project
Beginning in 1991, over 32,000 men, women and children fled Haiti in makeshift boats. Many were pro-democracy activists seeking refuge after a military dictatorship overthrew President Aristide. Intercepted by the US Coast Guard, they came to crowded camps surrounded by barbed wire at GTMO to pre-screen their asylum claims.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service classified most Haitians in GTMO as “economic migrants”. Despite the political dangers at home, many were quickly returned to Haiti. Others endured lengthy detention as they waited to learn if they could enter the US.
US courts declared that Haitians detained at GTMO had “no substantive rights” under law, but Haitian detainees fought to improve camp conditions and asserted the urgent need for due process. Protesters were punished with solitary confinement and women were made to undergo humiliating physical examinations. “When we protested,” one detainee recalled, “I was beaten…made to sleep on the ground like animals, like dogs, not like humans.”
President George H.W. Bush responded to the crisis in May 1992 by ordering the Coast Guard to stop bringing Haitians to GTMO. The order returned all detainees to Haiti but was criticized for violating the Geneva Conventions’ treatment of refugees. Two months later, about 250 HIV-positive Haitians remained. Through hunger strikes and collaboration with human rights activists and lawyers, these refugees gained entry to the US and won a case to “close Guantánamo” in 1993. But the government maintained its right to hold refugees at GTMO indefinitely, opening the camp for future uses.
HIV-positive Haitians at Guantánamo Bay
In the early 1990s, with the arrival of thousands of Haitian immigrants, Guantánamo Bay served as one of the first sites of mass HIV testing for immigrants. Over 260 individuals tested positive and were segregated in Camp Bulkeley, a tent camp surrounded by barbed wire. Haitians reported limited mobility, poor sanitation, and insufficient and unclean water.
Medical Care at Guantanamo
Guantanamo, including Camp Bulkeley, is served by a Battalion Aid Station clinic and a naval hospital. The clinic has two military physicians, a family-practice specialist, and an infectious-disease specialist. Patients can also be transferred from the clinic to the hospital.
Although the military physicians are capable of providing general medical care to the Haitian detainees at Guantanamo, the facilities are inadequate to provide medical care to detainees with AIDS. The physicians themselves first raised this issue in May 1992, requesting that specific HIV-positive patients be evacuated to the United States because adequate medical care could not be provided for them at Guantanamo. Some of these requests were denied by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. At the trial, the United States conceded that the medical facilities at Guantanamo were insufficient to treat patients with AIDS “under the medical care standard applicable within the United States itself.” One explanation for the refusal to accept the recommendations for transfer was provided by the special assistant to the director of congressional and public affairs at the Immigration and Naturalization Service; the special assistant reportedly remarked to the press, “They're going to die anyway, aren't they?” Judge Johnson characterized the attitude held by the Immigration and Naturalization Service -- that there is “no value in providing adequate medical care when a patient's illness is fatal” -- as “outrageous, callous and reprehensible”5.
Johnson further described what the Immigration and Naturalization Service euphemistically called a “humanitarian camp” as “nothing more than an HIV prison camp”5.
GTMO Memory Project: Refugee Detentions - Haitians
A lot to explore at links. Please read. Shameful history of Guantanamo Bay regarding refugees and immigrants seeking asylum in America. Under Trump, how much worse it will be.
The Human Cost of Legal Exception: Haitian Refugees at Guantánamo
While the current notoriety of Guantánamo Bay is focused on its use as a detention center for alleged terrorists against the United States, this is not the first time in history the island has been used to indefinitely detain individuals.
Starting in the early 1990’s, refugees from Haiti were detained at Camp McCalla and Camp Bulkeley. As many as 12,500 could be detained in the camps at any time, and in 1992 the camps almost reached their full capacity. At the height of the influx in 1992, some 34,090 Haitians had passed through the two camps. Conditions in the camps were deplorable. While U.S. officials allowed limited self-governance, decisions such as sanitation and food rationing were made by the military. With such conditions towards the end of the Haitian detention instability and rioting occurred, particularly in Camp Bulkeley – the camp used for Haitians with HIV/AIDS. The prolonged detention ended with most of the refugees being repatriated back to Haiti, some facing torture or even death.
Haitian refugees began leaving before the 1990s. Many fled repression from Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, whose corrupt regime ended in 1986 only to be replaced by a military junta in 1988. The irony of the refugee crisis is that the U.S. was instrumental in supporting the Duvalier dictatorship as a Cold War ally. The first of the refugees were the wealthy and elite, but by the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the Haitians who would be held in Guantánamo Bay were the poor.
The Haitians refugee crisis at Guantánamo Bay resonates today, and is an example of how Guantánamo serves as a legal exception that allows the U.S. government to detain terrorist suspects indefinitely. Upon leaving Haiti, these refugees were often intercepted by the U.S. Navy or Coast Guard and, due to the implications of illegal immigration and the perceived socio-economic threat of an influx of Haitians by American politicians, Guantánamo Bay became the perfect solution. Once there, they were not considered to be on U.S. land and therefore not subject to the protections afforded to persons on sovereign U.S. soil. Basics such as access to legal representation for asylum claims and protections under international human rights laws, which the U.S. has agreed to observe, were not guaranteed. Guantánamo Bay’s “Legal Black Hole” became the buffer to either force Haitians back to Haiti or risk being detained for upwards of ten to twenty years.
Guantánamo Public Memory Project
Beginning in 1991, over 32,000 men, women and children fled Haiti in makeshift boats. Many were pro-democracy activists seeking refuge after a military dictatorship overthrew President Aristide. Intercepted by the US Coast Guard, they came to crowded camps surrounded by barbed wire at GTMO to pre-screen their asylum claims.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service classified most Haitians in GTMO as “economic migrants”. Despite the political dangers at home, many were quickly returned to Haiti. Others endured lengthy detention as they waited to learn if they could enter the US.
US courts declared that Haitians detained at GTMO had “no substantive rights” under law, but Haitian detainees fought to improve camp conditions and asserted the urgent need for due process. Protesters were punished with solitary confinement and women were made to undergo humiliating physical examinations. “When we protested,” one detainee recalled, “I was beaten…made to sleep on the ground like animals, like dogs, not like humans.”
President George H.W. Bush responded to the crisis in May 1992 by ordering the Coast Guard to stop bringing Haitians to GTMO. The order returned all detainees to Haiti but was criticized for violating the Geneva Conventions’ treatment of refugees. Two months later, about 250 HIV-positive Haitians remained. Through hunger strikes and collaboration with human rights activists and lawyers, these refugees gained entry to the US and won a case to “close Guantánamo” in 1993. But the government maintained its right to hold refugees at GTMO indefinitely, opening the camp for future uses.
HIV-positive Haitians at Guantánamo Bay
In the early 1990s, with the arrival of thousands of Haitian immigrants, Guantánamo Bay served as one of the first sites of mass HIV testing for immigrants. Over 260 individuals tested positive and were segregated in Camp Bulkeley, a tent camp surrounded by barbed wire. Haitians reported limited mobility, poor sanitation, and insufficient and unclean water.
Medical Care at Guantanamo
Guantanamo, including Camp Bulkeley, is served by a Battalion Aid Station clinic and a naval hospital. The clinic has two military physicians, a family-practice specialist, and an infectious-disease specialist. Patients can also be transferred from the clinic to the hospital.
Although the military physicians are capable of providing general medical care to the Haitian detainees at Guantanamo, the facilities are inadequate to provide medical care to detainees with AIDS. The physicians themselves first raised this issue in May 1992, requesting that specific HIV-positive patients be evacuated to the United States because adequate medical care could not be provided for them at Guantanamo. Some of these requests were denied by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. At the trial, the United States conceded that the medical facilities at Guantanamo were insufficient to treat patients with AIDS “under the medical care standard applicable within the United States itself.” One explanation for the refusal to accept the recommendations for transfer was provided by the special assistant to the director of congressional and public affairs at the Immigration and Naturalization Service; the special assistant reportedly remarked to the press, “They're going to die anyway, aren't they?” Judge Johnson characterized the attitude held by the Immigration and Naturalization Service -- that there is “no value in providing adequate medical care when a patient's illness is fatal” -- as “outrageous, callous and reprehensible”5.
Johnson further described what the Immigration and Naturalization Service euphemistically called a “humanitarian camp” as “nothing more than an HIV prison camp”5.
November 22, 2024
In 2019, President Donald J. Trump suggested using the military base as a large-scale holding pen for immigrants from around the world, and he has promised to revive and toughen his immigration agenda if he wins re-election.
The article is from September 2024, but it shows the very real possibility of Trump detaining (some of) those he seeks to deport to Guantanamo.
There's a Migrant Operations Center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In case you didn't already know. History of Haitian and Cuban refugees being held there.
Not saying with certainty that he will. Am saying don't be surprised if he does. It is an option for him. At one point, the detention center held about 50,000 refugees/immigrants/migrant detainees.
Inside the Secretive Facility Housing Migrants at Guantanamo Bay
U.S. officials have considered expanding it as crises like the chaos in Haiti send desperate people toward American shores.In 2019, President Donald J. Trump suggested using the military base as a large-scale holding pen for immigrants from around the world, and he has promised to revive and toughen his immigration agenda if he wins re-election.
The article is from September 2024, but it shows the very real possibility of Trump detaining (some of) those he seeks to deport to Guantanamo.
There's a Migrant Operations Center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In case you didn't already know. History of Haitian and Cuban refugees being held there.
Not saying with certainty that he will. Am saying don't be surprised if he does. It is an option for him. At one point, the detention center held about 50,000 refugees/immigrants/migrant detainees.
Six in Ten Current ICE Immigrant Detainees Have no Criminal Record, Study Reveals
Six out of ten undocumented immigrants currently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have no criminal record, according to an analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
In all, ICE detention centers held 38,863 individuals as of November 3rd, 23,588 of whom lacked any criminal background whatsoever, representing 60.7% of the detained population. Among those detainees with criminal records, "many have only minor offenses, including traffic violations," TRAC noted.
The study also revealed other insights about ICE facilities including the fact that the number of detainees held by ICE has been rising in recent months. October saw an increase of nearly 1,500 individuals compared to September.
Other insights included that over half of all detainees are housed in facilities in three states: Texas (12,017), Louisiana (6,779), and California (2,957) and that the largest detention facility in the U.S., the Adams County Detention Center in Natchez, Mississippi, holds an average daily population of 2,067 individuals.
Six out of ten undocumented immigrants currently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have no criminal record, according to an analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
In all, ICE detention centers held 38,863 individuals as of November 3rd, 23,588 of whom lacked any criminal background whatsoever, representing 60.7% of the detained population. Among those detainees with criminal records, "many have only minor offenses, including traffic violations," TRAC noted.
The study also revealed other insights about ICE facilities including the fact that the number of detainees held by ICE has been rising in recent months. October saw an increase of nearly 1,500 individuals compared to September.
Other insights included that over half of all detainees are housed in facilities in three states: Texas (12,017), Louisiana (6,779), and California (2,957) and that the largest detention facility in the U.S., the Adams County Detention Center in Natchez, Mississippi, holds an average daily population of 2,067 individuals.
September 30, 2023
If you can, give a listen.
Thanks!
Solly
Michael Harriot's "Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History" (of black history)
Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History
A podcast with Michael Harriot.
Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History, is a Black history lesson unlike any other. Equal parts funny and informative, each episode mixes comprehensive research, Harriot’s unrivaled comedic wit and an assortment of celebrity guests, including Yvette Nicole Brown, MSNBC’s Joy Reid and Charlamagne tha God to help bring Black stories you’ve likely never heard to life.
Podcast schedule page for Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History Also contains link to open podcast on your computer.
Drapetomania was the term coined by the racist doctor Samuel A. Cartwright who claimed that slaves wanting to escape bondage must be mentally ill because slavery much improved the lives of black people bought and sold into slavery. He published a paper on his racist concept.
When people talk of slavery not being that bad, or of "good" masters, or slavery being beneficial to those enslaved, you can see the concept of drapetomania running through such thinking. ("Why are those people complaining, slavery wasn't that bad?" - the implication being something must be wrong with black people to think slavery was bad. The are plenty other examples out there.)
A podcast with Michael Harriot.
Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History, is a Black history lesson unlike any other. Equal parts funny and informative, each episode mixes comprehensive research, Harriot’s unrivaled comedic wit and an assortment of celebrity guests, including Yvette Nicole Brown, MSNBC’s Joy Reid and Charlamagne tha God to help bring Black stories you’ve likely never heard to life.
Podcast schedule page for Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History Also contains link to open podcast on your computer.
Drapetomania was the term coined by the racist doctor Samuel A. Cartwright who claimed that slaves wanting to escape bondage must be mentally ill because slavery much improved the lives of black people bought and sold into slavery. He published a paper on his racist concept.
When people talk of slavery not being that bad, or of "good" masters, or slavery being beneficial to those enslaved, you can see the concept of drapetomania running through such thinking. ("Why are those people complaining, slavery wasn't that bad?" - the implication being something must be wrong with black people to think slavery was bad. The are plenty other examples out there.)
If you can, give a listen.
Thanks!
Solly
September 23, 2023
Panel finds 9/11 defendant unfit for trial after CIA torture made him psychotic
A military judge at Guantánamo Bay has ruled a 9/11 defendant incompetent to stand trial after a military medical panel found that the man’s sustained abuse in CIA custody years earlier had rendered him lastingly psychotic.
A military medical panel last month diagnosed al-Shibh as having post-traumatic stress disorder with secondary psychosis, and linked it to his torture and solitary confinement during four years in CIA custody after his 2002 arrest.
Defense attorneys and a UN-appointed investigator have argued that the five 9/11 co-defendants should be given physical and psychological care for the lasting effects of the torture they underwent while in CIA custody under the Bush administration.
The five 9/11 defendants were variously subjected to repeated waterboarding, beatings, violent repeated searches of their rectal cavities, sleep deprivation and other abuse while at so-called CIA black sites.
A military medical panel last month diagnosed al-Shibh as having post-traumatic stress disorder with secondary psychosis, and linked it to his torture and solitary confinement during four years in CIA custody after his 2002 arrest.
Defense attorneys and a UN-appointed investigator have argued that the five 9/11 co-defendants should be given physical and psychological care for the lasting effects of the torture they underwent while in CIA custody under the Bush administration.
The five 9/11 defendants were variously subjected to repeated waterboarding, beatings, violent repeated searches of their rectal cavities, sleep deprivation and other abuse while at so-called CIA black sites.
August 9, 2022
February 9, 2022
February 10, 2022
February 12, 2022
February 18, 2022
Then: August 8, 2022
FBI executes search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago in document investigation
Obviously, Trump did not turn over everything and the stalling was no longer tolerable. Hence, the search warrant being served and executed.
From February 7, 2022: Trump Presidential Records at Mar a Lago.
"In mid-January 2022, NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) arranged for the transport from the Trump Mar-a-Lago property in Florida to the National Archives of 15 boxes that contained Presidential records, following discussions with President Trump’s representatives in 2021," the National Archives said in a statement, confirming a report in The Washington Post.
“The Presidential Records Act mandates that all Presidential records must be properly preserved by each Administration so that a complete set of Presidential records is transferred to the National Archives at the end of the Administration,” Archivist David S. Ferriero said in the statement, adding that the National Archives “pursues the return of records whenever we learn that records have been improperly removed or have not been appropriately transferred to official accounts.”
The records agency said it believes Trump still has more records that need to be turned over and that "Trump’s representatives have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives."
The agency revealed last week that Trump had torn up numerous documents when he was president that were supposed to have been preserved.
“The Presidential Records Act mandates that all Presidential records must be properly preserved by each Administration so that a complete set of Presidential records is transferred to the National Archives at the end of the Administration,” Archivist David S. Ferriero said in the statement, adding that the National Archives “pursues the return of records whenever we learn that records have been improperly removed or have not been appropriately transferred to official accounts.”
The records agency said it believes Trump still has more records that need to be turned over and that "Trump’s representatives have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives."
The agency revealed last week that Trump had torn up numerous documents when he was president that were supposed to have been preserved.
February 9, 2022
The National Archives and Records Administration has asked the Justice Department to examine Donald Trump’s handling of White House records, sparking discussions among federal law enforcement officials about whether they should investigate the former president for a possible crime, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The referral from the National Archives came amid recent revelations that officials recovered 15 boxes of materials from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida that were not handed back in to the government as they should have been, and that Trump had turned over other White House records that had been torn up. Archives officials suspected Trump had possibly violated laws concerning the handling of government documents — including those that might be considered classified — and reached out to the Justice Department, the people familiar with the matter said.
The referral from the National Archives came amid recent revelations that officials recovered 15 boxes of materials from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida that were not handed back in to the government as they should have been, and that Trump had turned over other White House records that had been torn up. Archives officials suspected Trump had possibly violated laws concerning the handling of government documents — including those that might be considered classified — and reached out to the Justice Department, the people familiar with the matter said.
February 10, 2022
Donald Trump's months-long withholding of presidential documents from the National Archives – he stored up to 15 boxes at his Mar-a-Lago estate for nearly a year – could spark yet another investigation of the ex-president.
The National Archives and Records Administration is being pushed to investigate whether Trump improperly took classified information with him when he moved out of the White House on Jan. 20, 2021. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has requested information related to the probe.
The National Archives and Records Administration is being pushed to investigate whether Trump improperly took classified information with him when he moved out of the White House on Jan. 20, 2021. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has requested information related to the probe.
February 12, 2022
One source familiar with the situation says the document turnover has “not been fully resolved” and says Trump is still in possession of documents the Archives wants. The Archives hinted at this in a statement earlier this week.
“Former President Trump’s representatives have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives,” the Archives said in a statement.
“Former President Trump’s representatives have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives,” the Archives said in a statement.
February 18, 2022
The US National Archives confirmed on Friday that officials found classified materials in boxes of documents Donald Trump improperly removed from the White House – and that they had alerted the Department of Justice (DoJ).
The disclosure is expected to escalate an investigation by the House oversight committee into whether Trump violated the Presidential Records Act of 1978 by removing and destroying White House documents.
In a letter to the committee, David Ferriero, of the National Archives and Records Administration (Nara), said it had “identified items marked as classified national security information in the boxes”.
“Because Nara identified classified information in the boxes,” he wrote, “Nara staff has been in communication with the Department of Justice.”
The disclosure is expected to escalate an investigation by the House oversight committee into whether Trump violated the Presidential Records Act of 1978 by removing and destroying White House documents.
In a letter to the committee, David Ferriero, of the National Archives and Records Administration (Nara), said it had “identified items marked as classified national security information in the boxes”.
“Because Nara identified classified information in the boxes,” he wrote, “Nara staff has been in communication with the Department of Justice.”
The National Archives said Friday that documents former President Donald Trump removed from the White House in early 2021 included classified national security information and that it has contacted the Department of Justice about the matter.
The agency "has identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes" that Trump stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. Fla., the National Archives and Records Administration said in a letter to Rep, Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.
The agency "has identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes" that Trump stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. Fla., the National Archives and Records Administration said in a letter to Rep, Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.
Then: August 8, 2022
FBI executes search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago in document investigation
Obviously, Trump did not turn over everything and the stalling was no longer tolerable. Hence, the search warrant being served and executed.
May 3, 2022
By Region, nationwide, and Indigenous. Also by State.
Donate.
Call them.
Volunteer to be drivers and hosts. Drivers can travel the entire distance or switch off with other drivers. Hosts open up their homes to women who are traveling for healthcare, sometimes with their kids.
This isn't the first (or second, third, fourth, etc.) time I've posted this type of information. Fortunately, Esquire and GQ have made a fuller list of resources to share.
There are already networks within America to help women get needed healthcare. Have been for years.
Be a part of the solution.
Yes, voting for pro-choice (pro-LGBTQ rights, pro-civil rights, etc.) candidates is a must. But there are additional things people can do to help.
Help prevent a woman's death - Donate. Volunteer.
I do.
Thank you,
Solly Mack
Abortion Funds: Donate/Volunteer/Hosts/Drivers. Links.
By State. An alphabetical list of Abortion Funds in each state that has one. You can donate to help women get the healthcare they need.By Region, nationwide, and Indigenous. Also by State.
Donate.
Call them.
Volunteer to be drivers and hosts. Drivers can travel the entire distance or switch off with other drivers. Hosts open up their homes to women who are traveling for healthcare, sometimes with their kids.
This isn't the first (or second, third, fourth, etc.) time I've posted this type of information. Fortunately, Esquire and GQ have made a fuller list of resources to share.
There are already networks within America to help women get needed healthcare. Have been for years.
Be a part of the solution.
Yes, voting for pro-choice (pro-LGBTQ rights, pro-civil rights, etc.) candidates is a must. But there are additional things people can do to help.
Help prevent a woman's death - Donate. Volunteer.
I do.
Thank you,
Solly Mack
January 5, 2022
The thing is, those differences mean, and have always meant, equality versus inequality. Freedom for
some but not for others. Constitutional rights for some but not for others. Privilege for some and restrictions for others. Advantages for some and disadvantages for others. Opportunities for some and roadblocks for others.
Those differences have meant the difference between life and death for the entirety of America's history.
Those differences matter.
Those differences spark conflict because they should spark conflict. Because no nation that prides itself on the slogan "beacon of light" unto the world should ever tolerate inequality or discrimination on any level. You don't get to claim with your mouth what your laws and practices don't reflect without sparking conflict.
You don't get to claim the aspiration while working to undermine it all at the same time.
Changes to the power dynamics, to the social paradigm, bring hope to those who have been denied the experience of full citizenship - and full citizenship includes feeling safe in your rights - merely pointed to a law on the books doesn't mean a person gets to experience the full meaning of the rights on those books. (You can vote - but pass this test first - or you have to travel 25 miles to the nearest poll, or you must jump through this hoop or that hoop. You can marry - but you can't marry here, or plan your wedding here, or buy your cake here. You can buy a house, but you can't live in this neighborhood. You can work, but you can't get a living wage, or a safe work environment. You can have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - but only if you look like us and think like us.)
Change also means the dominant cultural must stop manufacturing reasons for why they should be dominant to others. They must stop trying to oppress others in order to remain the dominant power. You're not losing any rights or being penalized. You're just no longer allowed to penalize others for not being you. No longer allowed to discriminate. You must accept that all Americans have the right and privileges of full citizenship - instead of chipping away at those rights.
We can't set aside a difference that means someone else will lose out on their rights. We have no right to bargain away the rights of others - and that's exactly what the Conservatives want. They don't want compromise - they want capitulation. They will only accept change that looks like change but still gives them the advantage - no real change at all. They see a gain by those not them as a loss to them - when it isn't.
That's a mighty significant difference.
You can't come to the table with those who only seek an advantage and expect to find common ground.
Someone intent on denying you your humanity will never agree that we share a common humanity.
We will never be treated as Americans by those who see us everything but American.
November 19, 2021
The Rev. James Reeb was a white Unitarian Universalist minister who worked with poor people in Boston. Although he was married and had four young children, he answered the call of Dr. Martin Luther King for clergy to come to Selma, Alabama, to protest violence by state troopers against civil rights marchers.
On March 9, 1965, Reeb and two other UU ministers, Rev. Orloff Miller and Rev. Clark Olsen, were walking back after dinner to a meeting led by Dr. King when they were attacked by a group of white men. One hit Rev. Reeb in the head with a club. The blow was fatal; Rev. Reeb died March 11, 1965.
(January 1, 1927 — March 11, 1965). Reeb was an American white Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston, Massachusetts who, while marching for civil rights in Selma, Alabama, was beaten to death by segregationists [1]. He was 38 years old.
James Reeb was born in Wichita, Kansas. As a Unitarian Universalist minister, Reeb was active in the civil rights movement, and encouraged his parishioners to do the same. With his wife and four children, he lived in poor black neighborhoods where he felt he could do the most good. Until a few months before his death, he had been Assistant Minister at All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, D.C.
A member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Reeb took part in the Selma to Montgomery protest march in 1965. While in Selma on March 9, Reeb was attacked by a white mob armed with clubs, which inflicted massive head injuries. He died in a Birmingham hospital two days later. His death resulted in a national outcry against the activities of white racists in the Deep South, although some expressed indignation that it took the death of a white man to incite such a national outcry. This is to be compared with the case of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot by police in Selma two weeks earlier while protecting his mother from a beating; his case attracted much less national attention.
President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the events in Selma "an American tragedy," which, he said, should strengthen people's determination "to bring full and equal and exact justice to all of our people." Johnson's voting rights proposal reached Congress the Monday after Reeb's death.
Elmer Cook, William Stanley Hoggle and Namon "Duck" Hoggle (from left to right) were charged with first-degree murder after James Reeb's death and later acquitted at trial.
The Murder Of The Rev. James Reeb
The Rev. James Reeb was a white Unitarian Universalist minister who worked with poor people in Boston. Although he was married and had four young children, he answered the call of Dr. Martin Luther King for clergy to come to Selma, Alabama, to protest violence by state troopers against civil rights marchers.
On March 9, 1965, Reeb and two other UU ministers, Rev. Orloff Miller and Rev. Clark Olsen, were walking back after dinner to a meeting led by Dr. King when they were attacked by a group of white men. One hit Rev. Reeb in the head with a club. The blow was fatal; Rev. Reeb died March 11, 1965.
(January 1, 1927 — March 11, 1965). Reeb was an American white Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston, Massachusetts who, while marching for civil rights in Selma, Alabama, was beaten to death by segregationists [1]. He was 38 years old.
James Reeb was born in Wichita, Kansas. As a Unitarian Universalist minister, Reeb was active in the civil rights movement, and encouraged his parishioners to do the same. With his wife and four children, he lived in poor black neighborhoods where he felt he could do the most good. Until a few months before his death, he had been Assistant Minister at All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, D.C.
A member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Reeb took part in the Selma to Montgomery protest march in 1965. While in Selma on March 9, Reeb was attacked by a white mob armed with clubs, which inflicted massive head injuries. He died in a Birmingham hospital two days later. His death resulted in a national outcry against the activities of white racists in the Deep South, although some expressed indignation that it took the death of a white man to incite such a national outcry. This is to be compared with the case of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot by police in Selma two weeks earlier while protecting his mother from a beating; his case attracted much less national attention.
President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the events in Selma "an American tragedy," which, he said, should strengthen people's determination "to bring full and equal and exact justice to all of our people." Johnson's voting rights proposal reached Congress the Monday after Reeb's death.
In 1965, civil rights supporter James Reeb, a white Unitarian minister, was murdered in Selma, Ala. Three men were arrested, tried and acquitted. No one was ever held to account.
Elmer Cook, William Stanley Hoggle and Namon "Duck" Hoggle (from left to right) were charged with first-degree murder after James Reeb's death and later acquitted at trial.
4th Killer Identified years later
The murder of Boston minister James Reeb in 1965 drew national attention at the time and spurred passage of the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed the Jim Crow voting practices that had disenfranchised millions of black Americans.
The case remains officially unsolved. Three men charged in 1965 with attacking Reeb and two other ministers on a street corner in Selma, Ala., were acquitted by an all-white jury.
But a four-year NPR investigation, led by Alabama-based reporters Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace, found an eyewitness to the attack who has never spoken publicly about what she saw. She said the three men acquitted in the case — Elmer Cook, William Stanley Hoggle and Namon O'Neal "Duck" Hoggle — were, in fact, the men who attacked Reeb.
That witness, Frances Bowden, also described the participation of another man, William Portwood. In an exclusive interview with NPR, Portwood confirmed his participation in the 1965 assault.
"All I did was kick one of them," Portwood said.
The murder of Boston minister James Reeb in 1965 drew national attention at the time and spurred passage of the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed the Jim Crow voting practices that had disenfranchised millions of black Americans.
The case remains officially unsolved. Three men charged in 1965 with attacking Reeb and two other ministers on a street corner in Selma, Ala., were acquitted by an all-white jury.
But a four-year NPR investigation, led by Alabama-based reporters Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace, found an eyewitness to the attack who has never spoken publicly about what she saw. She said the three men acquitted in the case — Elmer Cook, William Stanley Hoggle and Namon O'Neal "Duck" Hoggle — were, in fact, the men who attacked Reeb.
That witness, Frances Bowden, also described the participation of another man, William Portwood. In an exclusive interview with NPR, Portwood confirmed his participation in the 1965 assault.
"All I did was kick one of them," Portwood said.
In Kenosha, Wisconsin, after the shooting of yet another black man by the police, protests against police brutality took place.
Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot seven times in the back by a white Kenosha police officer, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
During the demonstrations and unrest, Kyle Rittenhouse shot and murdered two people and wounded a third.
All the victims were white. True, none of the victims bore the title of Reverend.
You don't have to be a good person to be murdered and no one should be allowed to play judge, jury, and executioner - even if you think someone deserves to die.
Your personal opinion of someone's character or actions does not give you the right to murder them. Doesn't give anyone the right to murder them.
Kyle Rittenhouse knew nothing about his victims when he gunned them down. He just saw them as other - as BLM and "Antifa". Two boogeymen of the right-wing.
James Earl Ray and Byron De La Beckwith both thought they had the right to play judge, jury, and executioner. As did the Elmer Cook, William Stanley Hoggle, Namon "Duck" Hoggle and William Portwood, the four men who murdered James Reeb, as well as attacking two others.
As did the murderers of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.
As did every white person involved in a lynching - whether actively doing the lynching or happily cheering it on like it was a social event.
As did all the white people who verbally and physically assaulted every black student trying to get an education.
They all thought they had a right to attack, to kill. They all told themselves they were just trying to protect their children or their businesses, their town, or their "way of life".
They all felt justified.
To their warped thinking, it was self-defense.
White allies have died in the cause of Civil Rights - be it about the right the vote, segregation, or police brutality.
That means they died in the fight against racism.
To pretend race has nothing to do with a white ally, or even perceived white ally, dying at the hands of a racist shows a blindness to how racism works and how racists see everyone not them.
If you take the side of racial justice, you are their enemy.
It's not just a case of a white person killing other white people.
It's a case of a racist killing people they see as traitors to the race. Or their "way of life" - however they cloak their racism.
Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot seven times in the back by a white Kenosha police officer, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
During the demonstrations and unrest, Kyle Rittenhouse shot and murdered two people and wounded a third.
All the victims were white. True, none of the victims bore the title of Reverend.
You don't have to be a good person to be murdered and no one should be allowed to play judge, jury, and executioner - even if you think someone deserves to die.
Your personal opinion of someone's character or actions does not give you the right to murder them. Doesn't give anyone the right to murder them.
Kyle Rittenhouse knew nothing about his victims when he gunned them down. He just saw them as other - as BLM and "Antifa". Two boogeymen of the right-wing.
James Earl Ray and Byron De La Beckwith both thought they had the right to play judge, jury, and executioner. As did the Elmer Cook, William Stanley Hoggle, Namon "Duck" Hoggle and William Portwood, the four men who murdered James Reeb, as well as attacking two others.
As did the murderers of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.
As did every white person involved in a lynching - whether actively doing the lynching or happily cheering it on like it was a social event.
As did all the white people who verbally and physically assaulted every black student trying to get an education.
They all thought they had a right to attack, to kill. They all told themselves they were just trying to protect their children or their businesses, their town, or their "way of life".
They all felt justified.
To their warped thinking, it was self-defense.
White allies have died in the cause of Civil Rights - be it about the right the vote, segregation, or police brutality.
That means they died in the fight against racism.
To pretend race has nothing to do with a white ally, or even perceived white ally, dying at the hands of a racist shows a blindness to how racism works and how racists see everyone not them.
If you take the side of racial justice, you are their enemy.
It's not just a case of a white person killing other white people.
It's a case of a racist killing people they see as traitors to the race. Or their "way of life" - however they cloak their racism.
July 1, 2021
Distancing language.
Liars use it all the time.
Practiced liars can use it well enough to place them at the center of an event but still, somehow, miss the crucial moment of an event.
The dancing lie - one that weaves in, out and around the truth. Always leaving wiggle room for clarification and plausible deniability.
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