Here is an article written by a white student at Union Theological Seminary. When two students, one black and one white, participated in a peaceful protest against injustice on Friday night, what happened was that black and white bodies were not treated equally as a line of riot cops approached. Two officers went after the black one, and a second later an officer grabbed the white, whispering, "Just get out of here" and threw him to the ground. Is God color blind? At least for him, justice was blind in America. The promise of justice seems to be elusive. What about Asian kids? Asians usually keep silent about race and accept our compliant role as a model minority. But if they were in the picture, chances are more likely negative, which has been predictable around this area after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. So the racial conflict cannot be a matter only for the African-American and Muslim. Back in 1942 some 120,000 Japanese descents living in the US were placed in internment camps in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Our parents who came to this country in the early 1960's remember a very different society from the one we live in today. Racial segregation was normative back then and has only changed through the Civil Rights Act of1964 and the Immigration and Nationality act of 1965. The latter struck down race-based immigration quotas that prevented Asians from entering the United States. The Civil Right Movement is fruit from the African-American's struggle and pain. We encounter another struggle for justice and equality due to the law enforcement's lack of accountability in violent action against minority. Their illegal action should not be the rationale for necessitating heightened national security that otherwise will turn the nation into a police state.
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 1. Democrats divided on their path to 2016
In the six weeks since their repudiation in the midterms, Democrats have seen the opening of fissures within their once-disciplined ranks, marking the start of an internal struggle between now and the 2016 election over the ideological identity and tactical direction of the party.. (WP) |
He's stepped into the tricky terrain of racial issues and police brutality, with an impromptu Open Forum at the Starbucks Support center in Seattle, in which he offered Starbucks employees a chance to sound off about their own experiences with racism and racial issues.(Time)
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President Obama on Wednesday ordered the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba and the opening of an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century as he vowed to "cut loose the shackles of the past" and sweep aside one of the last vestiges of the Cold War. (NYT)
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A defector who once worked as a computer expert for the North Korean government says that it has a vast network of hackers devoted to cyberwarfare against perceived enemies of the Stalinist state.(CNN)
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They find traditional notions of gender too confining, even ill-fitting. They are challenging the idea that men must dress a certain way, and women another. And they are rewriting the rules and refashioning clothes so that they can dress and accessorize in whatever way feels right to them.(NPR)
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It looked as if things could not get worse for the South Korean airline executive mocked around the world this week for throwing a tantrum over a bag of nuts.(NYT)
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