freckles make me strong.: Archive

“There are three ways that you can address undocumented immigrants who already live among you. You can round them up. You can starve them out. Or you can help them out. In other words bring them to the surface of society where it is more transparent to use privates sector, non-governmental approaches to handle the situation. In a free society as a conservative there is no way that I am going to be part of rounding up anybody. And as part of my best attempt to be a moral human being I am not going to starve anybody out. That leaves help them out and try to make the best of a bad situation. That’s what we’re doing.”—

Paul Mero, president of The Sutherland Institute, a highly-respected conservative think tank in Salt Lake City, Utah on Amnesty for illegal immigrants as a conservative idea (via azspot)

Thank you for this, Mr. Mero. Whatever the reasoning, on the conclusion we can agree.

Aug 19, 201012 notes

#immigration

“However, ladies and gentlemen, more than happiness, relief, fear or sadness, I feel a very strong emotion that I cannot ignore today. More than anything else, today I feel guilty.

I feel guilty because I don’t deserve any of this. And neither do any of you. We received an outstanding education at no charge based solely on our performance on a test we took when we were eleven year olds, or four year olds. We received superior teachers and additional resources based on our status as “gifted”, while kids who naturally needed those resources much more than us wallowed in the mire of a broken system. And now, we stand on the precipice of our lives, in control of our lives, based purely and simply on luck and circumstance. If you truly believe that the demographics of Hunter represent the distribution of intelligence in this city, then you must believe that the Upper West Side, Bayside and Flushing are intrinsically more intelligent than the South Bronx, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Washington Heights, and I refuse to accept that. It is certainly not Hunter’s fault that socioeconomic factors inhibit the educational opportunities of some children from birth, and in some ways I forgive colleges and universities that are forced to review eighteen year-olds, the end results of a broken system. But, we are talking about eleven year-olds. Four year-olds. We are deciding children’s fates before they even had a chance. We are playing God, and we are losing. Kids are losing the opportunity to go to college or obtain a career, because no one taught them long division or colors. Hunter is perpetuating a system in which children, who contain unbridled and untapped intellect and creativity, are discarded like refuse. And we have the audacity to say they deserved it, because we’re smarter than them.

As students, we throw around empty platitudes like deserve” and “earn”, most likely because it makes us feel better about ourselves. However, it simply isn’t the case. I know for a fact that I did not work as hard as I possibly could have, and I think the same is true for everyone on this stage. Nevertheless, people who work much harder than we ever could imagine will never have the opportunities that lie in front of us.

I apologize if this is not the speech you wanted to hear, but you will have the rest of your lives to celebrate your accomplishments. I apologize if I have not inspired you, or uplifted you, but we have failed to inspire and uplift an entire generation of children.”—

Justin Hudson, Senior at Hunter College High School - graduation address (via robot-heart-politics)

Thank you, Justin, for making people think about educational inequality even if their contemplation was brief.

Aug 18, 2010161 notes

#education #things that make my day

Play

Aug 17, 20101 note

#race #things that make my day

Response Dr. Laura's N-Word Rant aka "Don't NAACP me"towleroad.com

scroll down on the link below to the media matters pictures, about half way down the page and play the audio clips.

If you haven’t heard Dr. Laura’s appalling N-word rant please check it out at the link above. What follows is a guest contribution from my roommate, Clanci.

Dear Dr. Laura,

Thank you so much for clarifying to the African American public how racist we are.

For example, all this time i thought that I voted for Barack Obama because he was a democrat whose values I appreciated. Now I see that I would have voted for any black politician, party be damned, because it is a “black thing." Thank you also for letting me know what a "black thing is." I wasn’t aware.

I also wanted to thank you for letting your caller on Tuesday, Jade, who is the catalyst of this letter, and all other blacks know that they are constantly hypersensitive to all things race and should never be offended when hearing a racist comment, no matter what the situation is. In fact, you are so in tune to the issue that you knew Jade was being hypersensitive even before she finished her sentence.

Instead of letting her tell her personal story, you immediately jumped miles to quickly talk about what black people say on HBO. Well, thank goodness you cut straight to the quick! I mean, clearly all black people, including Jade, appreciate it when comedians use the n-word, so thank you for the opportunity to let us appreciate you using it also. Personally, i can’t get enough of it. As a black woman, like your caller, I often am around white people. I am not as fortunate to be as tested in this area as Jade because my friends and their acquaintances do not go out of their way to make comments about race simply because i am in the room. But now if they do, I’ll know that I should just grin and bear it or not be in their company. Or date white people, less I become the target of a racist comment. That should do the trick.

I mean, heaven forbid that they should amend their ways and just try to have a pleasant evening without dragging my blatantly obvious racial differences into the conversation. But I digress. Thank you for the advice on the subject. You know just what to do.

I was also very comforted to hear that you have a black friend who likes to play basketball. This type of authenticity makes your comments carry even more weight for me.

Dr. Laura, your words have inspired others, and so not only do I get to know how you truly feel about the subject, but I also get to read the comments of others in white America who are authorities on how black people should feel as well. And thank goodness for that. I did not know how to feel until Tim88rocks told me that you are not a racist, rappers are to blame and black people spend too much time focusing on the n-word.

Dr. Laura, you, Tim88rocks and thousands of other white people are doing the hard work of changing the minds of millions of people–black, white, or otherwise–who might have otherwise thought it would be ok to be offended for people using racial slurs and making inappropriate comments in their presence. What a burden this must be on you and Tim88rocks and countless others. Good luck with your work. I hope that it pays off.

The last thing that I wanted to thank you for was telling, not asking, but straight out insisting that your caller Jade not hang up the phone. Good for you for insisting that she stick around for you to let her know what’s what. Don’t let that grown woman decide what is best for her. If she’s going to be married to a white man who lets his friends make comments about blacks in her presence, she had better get used to being made to feel crazy and stupid by white people. A valuable lesson has been sent and received.

I cannot wait for the snarky comments to continue as black people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton attempt to defend Jade and others who may have been offended. I mean, what do they know? They’re just black men who have been active participants in the civil rights struggle for decades. They know nothing about being the recipient–or even the deliverer–of racist comments. Lets let them stick to their rhyming sermons and all that jazz.

Well, that’s all for now. I am off to replay your heartfelt apology for all of my family and friends who may have been offended by your comments. I want them to know, like I do, how changed you were by that experience. I hope that it stays with you for a very, very long time.

Your new listener,

Aug 17, 2010

#race #original