One professor named Sister Cynthia Frisby said that she was called the N word so many times that she lost count. Also, she was called the N word by faculty. So, the University of Missouri does have many white racists who have disrespected many black people on campus from students to faculty. We should never tolerate this. The members of the football team wanted to make a statement. They outlined clear demands. Their actions and the actions of other activists represent their call for true racial justice. Many Brothers and Sisters are doing the right thing in calling attention to this issue. When vulgar white racists disrespect black people and do other unspeakable actions, then it shows the world that white racism is demonic, evil, and abominable. Any educational location should respect black human autonomy and it should teach people on the beauty and the wonder of real black history as well. The President did resign since a boycott would cost the university to lose millions of dollars. Also, this problem is not just found in Missouri. Racism and bigotry are found nationwide and worldwide. There are many stories where black people tell of extremely racist people in the West Coast, in New York City, and in other metropolitan areas not just in a rural Southern town or in a Midwestern location like Columbia, Missouri. Therefore, we know that we have to keep on fighting. The protesters are heroic and we will stand up for black liberation wholeheartedly. The activism in Missouri came about a product of people being tired of years and decades of racism and economic exploitation. Columbia, Missouri is known for a place where racial tension is high. Recently, one person was arrested for making threats against black people. Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin stepped down and will officially leave by January 1, 2016. Black graduate student Jonathan Butler had begun a hunger strike on November 2, pledging to consume only water until Wolfe was removed. He had been joined by other students camping out on the university grounds. The city of Columbia is nearly 80 percent white and English PhD student Tim Love said that he was a victim of direct and indirect racism in the University of Missouri. Danielle Walker is a Sister and an MU student show said that black people are called the N word regularly in MU. Walker described a series of incidents over the years, including white students spraying cotton balls all over the Black Culture Center her sophomore year. The administration responded by saying that this was "littering and vandalism," not a hate crime. "That inaction, from there on all the way until now, has just been building upon itself," Walker said. The Legion of Black Collegians (LBC) has even been interrupted during its 2015 Homecoming Royalty Court was interrupted by a drunk, white man, who walked onto the stage and wouldn't leave. Eventually, he "stumbled off the stage" and said "these n_ are getting aggressive with me," according to the LBC. The Concerned Student 1950--which takes its name from the year the university accepted its first Black student wants justice too. In August, just 13 hours before graduate students’ health insurance was set to expire, the university announced it was cutting subsidies for their plans. The university backtracked and agreed to cover the students’ health insurance through fellowships. But the administration’s actions have fueled a drive by graduate students to unionize to defend their rights. Connor Lewis, co-chair of the Coalition of Graduate Workers at MU, told examiner.com that the university pays its graduate student employees less than the national average. “I personally know people who have sold blood and plasma just to get by,” Lewis said. “We want to be better compensated so we can be better educators.” The College Board report released November 4 found that undergraduate tuition at Missouri’s public, four-year colleges and universities has increased by 8 percent since 2010. Another real point is to be mentioned too. This young generation is asserting itself in many ways. We have seen the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Dream Defenders, and so many other young organizations that desire liberation for all black people in the Diaspora plus worldwide. The events in the University of Missouri were made possible by the young. In the young, resides the revolutionary spirit as decades ago young SNCC activists stood up for freedom in the South. Corporate entities feared an extended boycott, so Wolfe resigned. This is the beginning. The resignation of Wolfe is a welcomed development as his inaction to solve the serious problems of racism and verbal abuse in the campus of the University of Missouri is a serious complication. What happened in Ferguson has influenced the people in the University of Missouri to stand up for their human rights. This is the real Ferguson effect (of the events of Ferguson causing many people to be more politically conscious and standing up for racial and economic justice) not the lies spewed by reactionaries. Systematic change must happen.
The recent Republican debate yesterday showed the GOP candidates doing what they do best. They showed war mongering, imperialism, sexism, and reactionary economic philosophies. Also, Donald Trump admitted that he wants the minimum wage as it is while people are starving to death and fighting for their families via protests in Milwaukee. His stance doesn't make him a true economic populist. To say that there must be no increase of the minimum wage is just wrong. There is no benefit to a low wage U.S. economy at all. Ben Carson and Marco Rubio also believe in not increasing the minimum wage. This debate comes in the era where Paul Ryan is now the new Speaker of House. The GOP is divided between traditional reactionary and tea party extremists. The establishment is fighting against the Trump faction since they want to show a more faux face of “reasonableness” while executing an extremist agenda. While, the Trump faction is overly xenophobic, and anti-general welfare. The GOP field is not moderate from Jeb Bush to Ted Cruz. They want to roll back the social programs which existed during the eras of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson (like food stamps, Social Security, Medicare, etc.). Even Kasich said that it is ludicrous and silly to assume that we need to roll back Social Security and Medicare. Medicaid also has helped poor people including poor families. The candidates continue to say that the public need more tax cuts for the rich and for corporations when Wall Street banks have received record profits at the expense of the working class. We have the wealthiest people in America owning a massive amount of wealth in America. Ryan and Carson believe in health saving accounts. The problem is that health saving accounts by their very nature will strip public health care services and anyone without HSAs are out of luck sadly. HSA experiments also failed in our countries. Trump has been consistently inconsistent on issues. He has been on both sides on issues of abortion, the War on Drugs, tax cuts for the rich, gun issues, universal health care, etc. He once supported Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, so Trump is not stable on his policy positions. Ted Cruz hypocritically criticizes the government, but he says nothing on the more powerful, unregulated, and corrupt Wall Street cartel. Christie wants a voucher system for Medicaid and he wants to raise the age of eligibility of Medicare too.
Rand Paul talked about the military industrial complex, but his economic views are in line with the GOP establishment. Also, Rand Paul wants to stop all US foreign aid, even foreign aid used for non-military purposes which has helped people worldwide (like world food aid). I have no problem with nonmilitary foreign aid sent to nations to feed people, build up hospitals, build up schools, etc. Paul stated, “I would reinstitute the missile-defense shields President Obama abandoned in 2009 in Poland and the Czech Republic.” He griped, “The real problem is that Russia’s President is not currently fearful or threatened in any way by America’s President, despite his country’s blatant aggression.” So, Rand Paul’s comments are hardly anti-neo con. They are neo-con. He is against sections of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Civil Rights Act that people fought for and died for from Union soldiers, to civil rights activists. Marco Rubio is an eloquent spokesman for militarism, and economic austerity at home. Many of the candidates told the truth that deporting 11 million immigrants is not right, it’s morally wrong, and it’s virtually impossible (as families will be split, and you will have a virtual policed state). Carly Fiorina spoke about foreign policy issues. She wants more aggression in the Middle East and she criticized Putin. Putin is a person with a mixed legacy. He’s a Russian nationalist who has been the scapegoat unjustly for many problems in the world while Putin has to promote more democratic rights in Russia (as Russia is heavily influenced by the Russian capitalist oligarchs. Likewise, the West has used imperialism and support reactionary regimes in Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, etc.). It is clear to point out that Russia is not ISIS. Russia hasn’t been in Syria and in Iraq beheading innocent people, enslaving others, and conquering lands illegally. So, while Russia is not perfect, Russia is not the worse nation on Earth either. Kasich talked about Hillary and he is right to say that it is wrong for people to deport all undocumented immigrants. Immigrants are not our enemies. Poverty, discrimination, xenophobia, sexism, racism, etc. are our enemies. The actions of the 1 percent are wrong. The debate confirmed my views about the Republican race completely.
I don’t view the issue of immigration as black and white. As Sister PrimmestPlum has mentioned, I'm in the middle on this issue. Not all immigrants are Latinos and not all immigrants want to intentionally ruin the social fabric of the black community. There are black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, etc. Are these immigrants our Brothers and our Sisters? The answer is yes. Are they deserving of human rights just like anyone else? Yes. ANy immigrant and any migrant should have their human rights protected regardless of their immigration status. Therefore, respecting the sojourner is an important point to maintain. I do recall something. Centuries ago, there were no complex immigration laws in the Americas. European thieves and terrorists including slave owners migrated illegally into the lands of the Americas and started their conquest against the indigenous of the Americas. Yet, society doesn't call these people (or Europeans) names like "anchor babies" and "aliens." Their European descendants formed the American nation based on arbitrary borders, exploited workers, slavery, and a huge amount of genocide. The borders of America evolved based on wars, broken treaties, and other means. Also, during the 20th century, America was involved in terrorizing Black and Brown people in the Caribbean, Mexico, Latin America, and South America. That Western imperialism and capitalist exploitation exacerbated the immigration issues. In other words, people left the economic South and came into the economic North for survival and opportunity as a product of U.S./Western corrupt policies (not because they collectively wanted to rape people or murder people). The U.S. violated international law in the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, the coup of Guatemala, the torture during the war on terror, etc. So, America can't lecture a soul on law and order (or on borders as the US is known for crossing borders illegally via unjust wars, thefts, and other imperial policies. Let's keep it 100). America expanded via wars, etc. after the Mexican American war too. Even the U.S. invaded Mexico illegally back in the early 20th century. Undocumented human beings do have an effect in the black community. No one can deny that. This effect is caused by the capitalist class exploitation. If there were fair trade deals, a progressive foreign policy in the Americas, and living wages, illegal immigration would radically decline.
So, I do believe in the establishment of living wages, policies of enforcement against job discrimination (which will protect black workers), and the institution of other comprehensive immigration solutions. Also, undocumented workers who are involved in especially seriously felonious crimes (like rape, murder, human trafficking, etc.) should have due process and be deported. I don't be believe in deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants at all. I reject mass deportations and I believe in a pathway of citizenship for immigrants. Immediately deporting all undocumented workers will be impossible unless you have a police state pretty much. Even if we deport every undocumented worker right now, racism, economic exploitation, and discrimination won’t be eliminated, so it’s bigger than just about immigration (though, it's an important issue). It is about the oligarchy or the one percent using the policies of low wages, police brutality, racial profiling, redlining, gentrification, and human exploitation to drive wedges among communities (including growing profits for the big banks) while trying to make people ignore the elephant in the room. That elephant is how capitalist exploitation including other bad economic policies (including policies that violate civil liberties) have harmed the lives of both immigrants and other citizens alike. When we see that, then we will see the man behind the curtain. That person is not an immigrant and it is not us. It’s the person with the suit and tie (from the 1 percent) orchestrating detrimental policies that harm us all. Therefore, there should be investments in combating poverty, the rising of the minimum wage, collective pooling of power in the black community, punishing corporations who exploit or mistreat workers, etc. The working class black person should never be treated as expendable or treated less than an immigrant. Likewise, the immigrants should not be treated as less than human beings either. Xenophobia has no place in any place on Earth. Black human rights and immigrants rights (as many black people are immigrants) are here to stay. Also, we need to make a serious effort to fight poverty in the black community and society must give black people the opportunity to get jobs.
By Timothy
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