Photo
April 19, 2012
freececemcdonald: !!!LAST CALL IN DAY BEFORE TRIAL: CALL IT IN FOR CECE!!! On April 17th, call, email, and fax Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and demand he drop the charges against CeCe. This time, we are extending the call-in to include Assistant Attorney Marlene Senechal, head of adult prosecution. !!NEW!! Please CC mpls4cece@gmail.com on all your e-mails. Also please send us an e-mail with the time of your calls & faxes. LET’S LET FREEMAN AND SENECHAL KNOW THAT WE WONT STAND FOR THE RACIST, TRANSPHOBIC PROSECUTION OF CECE! While Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is being prosecuted for murder after being violently attacked for her race and gender, Freeman’s office recently declined to prosecute the killer of Darrell Evanovich, a black man who was shot dead by a white man after an alleged robbery. While no person should be thrown to the mercy of the soulless, so-called “justice” system, the fact that CeCe is on trial after being assaulted, while a white man who killed someone after chasing them down is touted as a “good Samaritan,” highlights the racist and transphobic nature of the prosecution of CeCe. Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Marlene Senechal have the power to drop the charges against CeCe. So far, though, he has implicitly sided with CeCe’s white supremacist attackers by failing to acknowledge the racist, transphobic assault that she survived as a mitigating factor in the unintentional death of Dean Schmitz. When: Tuesday, April 17th, ALL DAY Where:From home, work, wherever you find yourself! What: Call Michael Freeman at 612-348-5540, fax at 612-348-2042, and email at citizeninfo@co.hennepin.mn.us Call Marlene Senechal at 612-348-5561, fax at 612-348-3061, and email at citizeninfo@co.hennepin.mn.us !!NEW!! Please CC mpls4cece@gmail.com on all your e-mails. Also please send us an e-mail with the time of your calls & faxes. Remember to remain polite but assertive. Some key points to mention in your calls, emails, and faxes are: Identify yourself as a supporter, friend, family member, or community member calling about Ms. Chrishaun McDonald’s case. Tell the County Attorney’s Office why you’re concerned: Ms. McDonald was the target of a hate crime, but she was singled out for aggressive prosecution after the attack. County Attorney Freeman has declined to press charges in cases like this at least three times already this year. Remind him that he has the power to drop the charges against Ms. McDonald. Tell Freeman and Senechal not to side with Ms. McDonald’s white supremacist attackers: drop the charges against Ms. McDonald. Tell Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Assistant Attorney Marlene Senechal to take a stand against hate, racism, and transphobia. Tell Freeman and Senechal to DROP THE CHARGES against Chrishaun McDonald!

freececemcdonald:

!!!LAST CALL IN DAY BEFORE TRIAL: CALL IT IN FOR CECE!!!

On April 17th, call, email, and fax Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and demand he drop the charges against CeCe. This time, we are extending the call-in to include Assistant Attorney Marlene Senechal, head of adult prosecution.

!!NEW!! Please CC mpls4cece@gmail.com on all your e-mails. Also please send us an e-mail with the time of your calls & faxes.

LET’S LET FREEMAN AND SENECHAL KNOW THAT WE WONT STAND FOR THE RACIST, TRANSPHOBIC PROSECUTION OF CECE!

While Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is being prosecuted for murder after being violently attacked for her race and gender, Freeman’s office recently declined to prosecute the killer of Darrell Evanovich, a black man who was shot dead by a white man after an alleged robbery. While no person should be thrown to the mercy of the soulless, so-called “justice” system, the fact that CeCe is on trial after being assaulted, while a white man who killed someone after chasing them down is touted as a “good Samaritan,” highlights the racist and transphobic nature of the prosecution of CeCe. Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Marlene Senechal have the power to drop the charges against CeCe. So far, though, he has implicitly sided with CeCe’s white supremacist attackers by failing to acknowledge the racist, transphobic assault that she survived as a mitigating factor in the unintentional death of Dean Schmitz.

When: Tuesday, April 17th, ALL DAY

Where:From home, work, wherever you find yourself!

What: Call Michael Freeman at 612-348-5540, fax at 612-348-2042, and email at citizeninfo@co.hennepin.mn.us

Call Marlene Senechal at 612-348-5561, fax at 612-348-3061, and email at citizeninfo@co.hennepin.mn.us

!!NEW!! Please CC mpls4cece@gmail.com on all your e-mails. Also please send us an e-mail with the time of your calls & faxes.

Remember to remain polite but assertive. Some key points to mention in your calls, emails, and faxes are:

  • Identify yourself as a supporter, friend, family member, or community member calling about Ms. Chrishaun McDonald’s case.
  • Tell the County Attorney’s Office why you’re concerned: Ms. McDonald was the target of a hate crime, but she was singled out for aggressive prosecution after the attack.
  • County Attorney Freeman has declined to press charges in cases like this at least three times already this year. Remind him that he has the power to drop the charges against Ms. McDonald.
  • Tell Freeman and Senechal not to side with Ms. McDonald’s white supremacist attackers: drop the charges against Ms. McDonald.

Tell Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Assistant Attorney Marlene Senechal to take a stand against hate, racism, and transphobia. Tell Freeman and Senechal to DROP THE CHARGES against Chrishaun McDonald!

(via funkyfest)

Photoset
March 25, 2012

face-down-asgard-up:

thepoliticalnotebook:

Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old Iraqi woman living in Southern California, was taken off life support today, succumbing to injuries sustained in a brutal tire iron beating on Wednesday. Shaima was found in her living room, and according to her daughter Fatima and the police investigating, a note was found near her saying “Go back to your country, you terrorist.”

Shaima was a mother of five who has been in the US with her family since the mid-1990s. She was described by her friend Sura Alzaidy as “respectful modest muhajiba.” Her daughter tearfully addressed her mother’s attackers during a media interview, saying “You took my mother away from me. You took my best friend away from me. Why? Why did you do it?”

[Daily Mail; AFP]

[H/T: thatsassyarab]

RIP Shaima.

When are people going to wake up and see how racism and stereotypes are not just mean things? These attitudes kill people.

(via sylviasybil)

Quote
March 05, 2012
“Please torture me in the old way … Here they destroy people mentally and physically without leaving marks.”

—

Letters From Guantanamo.

Shaker Aamer has been detained in Guantanamo for the past ten years without committing a single offence. “Fears are growing for the welfare of Mr Aamer, from south London, who is now 45 and has a wife and four children. He has never met his youngest son. His lawyers are particularly concerned by the deterioration of his mental and physical state, which Mr Aamer describes vividly in his letters. He has lost 40 per cent of his body weight and is suffering from health problems, aggravated by long periods in solitary confinement.” In one of his letters, Shaker writes to his loved one:

‎You are the soul of my life. You are the best of my heart. You are the light of my eyes. You are the oxygen in my lungs, you are the sun on my back, the sweetest taste of my mouth you are everything you are everything I need to live, to love, to be… Do you know how much you are important for my life. If you break I will break, if you become weak I will become weak and if you go I will go. You are my soul twin. I need you to be strong.

Ten agonizing, brutal years without justice conveniently labelled as “interrogation” and “safety measures” by the government of USA. I’m speechless.

(via mehreenkasana)

(via ethiopienne)

Link
January 18, 2012
decolonize your mind: “Bisexual” is not oppressive, can we talk about biphobia and straight privilege? and other thoughts on bisexuality »

mikroblogolas:

This topic has been discussed to death, and yet it continually comes up in tumblr discussion. So let me establish once and for all (I swear, I will never discuss this again) that “bisexual” is not an oppressive identity.

Bisexual is not binarist.

The argument that it is binarist posits that (1)…

 I agree with the post but prefer “monosexism” instead of “biphobia” because of the ableist implication of “-phobia”. (The same goes for homophobia -> heterosexism and transphobia -> cissexism.)

Text
January 16, 2012

Call for bullshit

… you know, submissions. I still have a few incidents to post, but our future together isn’t bright. I need input!

That’s why I want to expand the topic a little bit: sexist attitudes towards women in male-dominated professions. That means

a) you don’t have to be a woman to tell me where you encountered sexist attitudes towards women in a certain profession.

b) the profession has to be heavily male-dominated but not necessarily computer science.

I will create a Twitter account to facilitate spreading the word soon.

Text
January 07, 2012

Sorry, I didn’t hear you over the sound of my biases

[…]

Me: “Computer science.”

Men who study computer science: “So, media computer science/computer visualistics?”

Me: “No, computer science.”

Men who study computer science: “So, you are becoming a teacher?”

Me: “No, what I said: computer science.”

Seriously, is it so hard to believe that women aren’t always going for “nurturing” jobs that you have to ask several times?

Text
January 04, 2012

Magic man knows your field

[…]

She: “Computer science.”

Man in his 20s: “Har har, I would have thought you are a business student or something.”

Why do people always have to assume something based on looks? And more important: why do they feel the need to tell other people about it? Do they do this with men, too? “Oh, that’s interesting. I would have thought you are a sportsman. You know how they are: muscular and kind of dumb.”