Madam Speaker

Karen Bass, yet another important first:

History was made today [May 13 2008] under the dome of the California State Capitol when Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) was sworn in as the first African-American female Speaker of the California Assembly. She is the first African-American female to hold such a high legislative post anywhere in the United States. In her speech after the swearing in ceremony Speaker Bass said she’s ready to begin tackling the many challenges facing the state. Speaker Bass will have less than 24 hours before she knows the extent of the state’s financial crisis. Governor Schwarzenegger is scheduled to release his revised budget proposal Wednesday afternoon.

Scared of an Angry Black Man

Ridiculous story here about how the U.S. Fine Arts Commission disapproves of a statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. for the MLK Memorial because his stance and facial expression make him seem "confrontational."

White people can't stand the history. Let us emasculate this warrior and revise history to morph him into a cuddly kitten.

White Women Get Lighter Sentences than Black Men

Oh, stop the presses.

If you missed the backstory,

Johnston and Miller — both former exotic dancers who went by the stage names "Charlie" and "Adrienne" — were nicknamed the "Barbie bandits" after they were videotaped wearing sunglasses and laughing as they appeared to rob a Bank of America branch in Acworth of $11,000.

I first read about this over at BlackPerspective.net:

I guess when white women cry, things go well for them.

If that would have been Shameka and Shawna instead of a couple of Becky’s, I can just imagine what the sentencing would be like.

The strippers' Barbies' sentences were just a timeout, really:

Last month, Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley sentenced 20-year-old Heather Johnston to 10 years probation after she pleaded guilty to a charge of theft by taking in the 2007 heist. The judge gave 19-year-old Ashley Miller two years in jail and eight years probation. Both women are white.

Now the NAACP is asking for an investigation as to why these other two defendants got sentences of 5 and 10 years. Well. Obviously the judge did not want to interfere with the girls' career trajectory, which we all know has a time stamp.

P.S. Who knew that naming your daughter Ashley was to seal her destiny to the pole?

More about Disproportionate Sentencing

From ColorofChange.org, a message to the Senate Judiciary Committee to support S.1711:

Misguided politicians and their "war on drugs" have created a national disaster: 1 in 9 Black men between the ages of 20 and 34 are now behind bars. It's a man-made disaster - fueled by unfair sentencing rules.

These rules treat 5 grams of crack cocaine—the kind common in poor Black communities—the same as 500 grams of powder cocaine, the kind prevalent in White and wealthier communities.

Tell the Senate Judiciary Committee to challenge unequal justice by ending unfair sentencing laws.

Go here to sign the online petition, and, if you like, you can copy and paste the below to an email message to the likeminded:

Dear Friend,

The so-called "war on drugs" has created a national disaster: 1 in 15 Black adults in America are now behind bars. It's not because they commit more crime but because of unfair sentencing rules that treat 5 grams of crack cocaine, the kind found in poor Black communities, the same as 500 grams of powder cocaine the kind found in White and wealthier communities.

These sentencing laws are destroying communities across the country and have done almost nothing to reduce the level of drug use and crime.

Senator Joe Biden is one of the original creators of these laws and is now trying to fix the problem. But some of his colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee are standing in the way. I've signed on with ColorOfChange.org to tell them to stand with Joe Biden and undo this disaster once and for all. Will you join me? It just takes a moment and you can start by clicking on the link below:

http://www.colorofchange.org/crackpowder/?id=2357-346645

Thanks.

Talk About It

In Memory of Chiquita Ford

Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant when she was reported missing in December 2002. We got news updates daily. National coverage in the newspapers and on television. I don't even watch much TV, and I can still picture her face. People went crazy with the story. Everyone knows the story. Her husband, who we all agreed was the jackass to end all jackasses, was eventually convicted of killing her. Now he is on death row in San Quentin.

Chiquita Ford was five months pregnant when she was reported missing in October 2007. That was after I got rid of the cable, so I cannot for a certainty say there was never a news report about her disappearance. I do read the newspaper, however, and I can say that there was not daily coverage, not even locally. No big People spreads with pictures of Ms. Ford and her family in happier times, no People interviews with friends and family members.

Here is Chiquita Ford. The remains of her body were found near Lexington Reservoir on March 7.
Chiquita Ford deserves to be remembered just as much as Laci Peterson. Toward that end: Ms. Ford was 33 years old. She lived in Oakland. She was the mother of two teen-age boys. She liked to watch comedy; she like to do hair; and she liked to dance. She had a family, she had friends, and there are people who loved her who miss her. There is a lot more to her story, just as much to her story as there was to Laci's, but we'll probably never know it.

The Long March of Those Who Came Before Us

. . . in the immortal words of Senator Barack Obama.

I suspect many will rely on media accounts of the speech, instead of going to the primary source. That is unfortunate. Regardless, here it is: