Blog Assignment 4

http://www.demos.org/inequality/article.cfm?blogid=253418EE-3FF4-6C82-577DD9D0F5761F04

http://www.demos.org/inequality/article.cfm?blogid=E569229C-3FF4-6C82-5A359B404D13308A

The above links are to blogs on www.inequality.org by Dedrick Muhammad. In them, he speaks about the lack of progress in equality and pay between blacks and whites. Forty years after the Kerner Commission's recommendations for 'the creation of two million jobs, both public and private; fully subsidized on-the-job training for the chronically unemployed; federal assistance to all schools that worked to end de facto segregation; federal funding for year-around compensatory education programs serving disadvantaged children; a uniform national welfare standard to bring everyones' income up to the poverty line; income supplements for those who could work and a guaranteed minimum income for those who could not; and six million new and renovated units of housing for low and moderate income families', the only thing that was instituted was 'anti-riot legislation rather than the social programs' the Kerner Report advocated.

The inequality in pay has not improved much...from $.55 for every white dollar in 1968, to $.57 thirty years later. This even though more blacks are achieving college educations at a higher rate than before, from 30 percent in 1968 to 79 percent in 2002. Over a lifetime, black high school graduates earn $300,000 less, college graduates $500,000 less, and those with advanced degrees earn $600,000 less than whites with comparable educations.

Mr. Muhammad says that, 'In general these students have lived lives segregated by race and class and have not seen the differences in education, life style, and opportunity for the elite of America. The elite of America often times are even less aware of the disadvantages that so many endure.' and 'Today and yesterday, the prevailing white liberal response to racism is/was sympathetic rhetoric and band-aid measures - a poverty program here, an anti-discrimination law there, but nothing that would funnel the kind of economic and educational resources into black communities that might bring clear and substantial progress toward true equality. The white conservative response is/was to blame the African-American for an inferior work ethic and inferior morals.'

This continuing situation does not say anything positive about this country, where we're supposed to exemplify tolerance, equality, and other lofty sentiments. We're running around the world attempting to impose our way of life on others, when we can't take care of the problems we have at home. As Mr. Muhammad claims, 'the Kerner Commission was right, but blacks have been left on the wrong side of inequality'. (400)

Blog Assignment 3

http://www.sldn.org/templates/press/record.html?record=4097§ion=2

The above link is to a press release from the

Blog Assignment 2

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070507F.shtml

Christian Reconstructionists Are Trying to Take Dominion in America - and They Have Powerful Friends
By Jeremy Leaming
Church and State

Monday 02 July 2007

"A recent conference held by American Vision, a radical ministry that toils away to "help Christians build a truly Biblical worldview," displayed the growing organization of the dangerous Reconstructionist movement."

The above is at the heading of an article I recently found republished on the Truthout site. This article is one of the scariest things I’ve read in awhile…and there have been a LOT of scary things in the news in recent years.

The article is a report on a gathering at the LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center that was hosted by American Vision, a group that has been advocating making America a Christian nation. They push Christian Reconstructionism, “a form of fundamentalism that argues for re-writing American history, dismantling secular democracy and constructing an America governed by "biblical law." Reconstructionists seek to impose the criminal code of the Old Testament, applying the death penalty for homosexuals, adulterers, fornicators, witches, incorrigible juvenile delinquents and those who spread false religions.”

By their own acknowledgement, they’re “on the extreme fringe of society today”, but their influence is growing, and they’re becoming more vocal, claiming that other groups (gays, women’s rights groups, civil rights groups) are doing to Christians exactly what American Vision wants to do to everybody who doesn’t goosestep to their rigid beliefs.

My previous blog was about the Taliban, Islamic fundamentalists who want to kick the Middle East back to the Dark Ages. This group is the twin to the Taliban, and the inroads that American Vision and others of that ilk have made into our government is enough to keep me awake at night, and equally frightening is that nobody seems to be making much of an effort to thwart their efforts.

Hopefully the American public will wake up before it’s too late and we find ourselves in the same situation as the population of Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Below is the link to the site where the article appeared originally. (346)

http://www.alternet.org/story/55717

Blog Assignment 1

I was reading a New York Times article about Safia Amajan, who had served as chief of the women's affairs department in Kandahar Province in Afghanistan for five years. She was assassinated by suspected Taliban gunmen as she was walking to work.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/26/world/asia/26afghan.html?
ex=1183089600&en=5275f8b8e4a5fc0b&ei=5070

When people who are being oppressed choose to stand up for what they believe, it becomes a threat to those who oppress. Why does one group feel the need to control another? Is it fear? In this case, the Taliban forces women to live a nearly subhuman existence, with no rights and controlled by the men in their families. If they become widowed, they're reduced to begging in the street to support their families, but if they go out on their own without a male family member they're beaten.

Why does the Taliban have this attitude toward women? Ms. Amajan was an advocate for women, working for women's rights, education and vocational training. When women are educated and empowered, they're harder to control, and if the Taliban can't control women, what is their purpose?

Ms. Amajan was well-liked and respected, but was obviously considered a threat. Her assassination has created an atmosphere of fear, which will make it less likely that other women will carry on her work. (212)

Blog Assignment 1

This is my first time writing a blog, so I'm looking forward to the experience...