By Slumberjack

Gary Coleman R.I.P.

My interest in the show during the late 70s had little to do with the ‘what you talking bout’ routine, as entertaining as that was, but as a young male teenager in the late 70s, admittedly it had more to do with Dana Plato’s tight jeans.

At any rate, the concept of a white benefactor taking in two black kids from the ‘ghetto’ and raising them in an atmosphere that was portrayed as better and more sophisticated certainly fell through the crevices of youth at the time.

The clichéd notion of a sitcom, whereby proper grounding in the manners and etiquette of whiteness through practice, trial and error of course, [there'd be no lame punch lines without it] could transform two poor black kids into presentable facsimiles of whiteness in harmony with their surroundings didn’t reveal itself for what it was until later in life.

The sadness that comes with the passing of a human being is compounded by the realization that he was discarded by the corporate entertainment industry when he was determined to be of no further use to them.

This is the everyday reality of corporatism, where its cruel ramifications are more often than not first visited upon those who are disadvantaged in this society from the outset, regardless of the station they might achieve in life.

So, G8/G20 leaders are coming to Toronto on June 25/26/27. And the area around the downtown is basically turned into a gated community, with three zones of influence. The “red zone” near the Metro Convention Centre will require a pass to get in and out of, and there will be checkpoint stations to ensure nobody gets in there who is not allowed.

The total cost of G8/G20 is topping ONE BILLION DOLLLARS.

There will be 10,000 security personnel in the city, taking up hotel rooms, etc, all of which adds to the gigantic tab (I’m still a bit unsure as to who is paying, except “taxpayers” in a general sense).

I of course don’t mind paying taxes, for health care, education, affordable housing, but magically, those things COST TO MUCH to build and maintain. They cost WAY TOO MUCH.

But a Billion dollars on security, accomodations, travel, and what-the-fuck-else, yeah, that gets approval.

There’s a deep dissonance to me about the way that security for a handful of the planet’s worst “elected” “leaders” is treated and the way the countries “led” by those “leaders” prioritize the needs of their more vulnerable and marginalized people. It’s beyond shame, it’s beyond ridiculous. It’s a farce of humanity.

And as a relatively rich Westerner, I’m ashamed. And I’ll be there, at the barricade, at the wall.

Some links:

Women, Children and the G20 Agenda

Resist Toronto G20 Summit

G8/G20 Toronto Community Mobilization

Krystalline Kraus blog from June 3

There’s not much more I can say that hasn’t been said. So instead I will link to the best commentary, history, context and resources that I’ve read online.

From the Angry Black Woman Why is American tv coverage of the Haitian disaster driving me to drink?

From Jay Smooth On Haiti

From Ted Rall Haitian Earthquake: Made in the USA: Why the Blood is on Our Hands

For Facebookers: from Manuel Rozental Haiti: Aid and Strategic Resistance

Well, this was a lovely story to greet me in my Facebook newsfeed this morning. Not.

NEW ORLEANS – A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

I mean, not only is he a supreme racist doofus, he’s hit at least 6 squares on Stupid White Folks Bingo. Now that’s just not fair!

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The story:

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation’s pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling. 

Police arrived at Gates’s Ware Street home near Harvard Square at 12:44 p.m. to question him. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, had trouble unlocking his door after it became jammed.

He was booked for disorderly conduct after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,” according to a police report. Gates accused the investigating officer of being a racist and told him he had “no idea who he was messing with,” the report said.

…

The arrest of such a prominent scholar under what some described as dubious circumstances shook some members of the black Harvard community.

“He and I both raised the question of if he had been a white professor, whether this kind of thing would have happened to him, that they arrested him without any corroborating evidence,” said S. Allen Counter, a Harvard Medical School professor who spoke with Gates about the incident Friday. “I am deeply concerned about the way he was treated, and called him to express my deepest sadness and sympathy.”

Gates told the officer that he was being targeted because “I’m a black man in America.”  

Link to the original news story.

Link to Gates’ statement.

Link to the police report 

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