Wild Roots Media

Native American Youth to Diane Sawyer: We’re Not Poverty Porn via Colorlines

admin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:40:52 +0000

Last month ABC’s 20/20 aired a special they called “Children of the Plains,” that portrayed the Lakota Indian reservation as a place that only dealt with crime, unemployment, alcoholism, overcrowded trailers and crumbling schools.

On Monday, young Native American students from Rosebud, South Dakota released a short video that challenged the claims made by “Children of the plains.”

via Colorlines

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu Calls for Release of Mumia Abu-Jamal

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:06:18 +0000

In a video statement released to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s incarceration, the former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu urges Abu-Jamal’s immediate freedom. Mumia “has faced years of prosecutorial and police misconduct and judicial bias,” Tutu says. “Now that it is clear that Mumia should never have been on death row, justice will not be served by relegating him to prison for the rest of his life—yet another form of death sentence. Based on even a minimal following of international human rights standards, Mumia should be released.”

Mumia Abu-Jamal Speaks about His Removal from Death Row

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:02:12 +0000

Hundreds of supporters of the imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal gathered on Friday in Philadelphia to mark the 30th anniversary of his arrest for the killing of a white police officer. The event occurred just two days after Philadelphia prosecutors announced they will no longer seek the death penalty for Abu-Jamal. On Friday, Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, called into the event to make his first public remarks since the prosecutor’s decision was announced.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: “For the first time in almost 30 years, I’m not on death row physically. I’m in a new block called an AC block. The cells are somewhat identical to death row, but no one on this block is on death row, including myself. It takes some getting used to, you see. I’m still acclimating myself.”

Abu-Jamal was also asked about his reaction to having his death sentence converted to life without parole.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: “Well, I must admit to some surprise, because I was expecting a hearing. And by that, I mean a sentencing hearing. Even though many friends and supporters and even lawyers said there probably wouldn’t be one, I believed there would be one, and I continued to feel that way until I heard the news. I will be talking to my lawyers in a matter of days, and we’ll be, you know, going over precisely those kinds of questions. Because there will not be a hearing, there is some disappointment, because we thought we could make some things happen in that hearing and really give a good fight. But we’ll have to fight in other ways. I want to thank everybody who really supported us for so many years.”

Via DemocracyNow

DA Dropping Death Penalty Against Mumia Abu-Jamal

admin — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:08:05 +0000

PHILADELPHIA — Prosecutors have called off their 30-year battle to execute former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal for murdering a white police officer, putting to an end the racially charged case that became a major battleground in the fight over the death penalty.

Flanked by the police Officer Daniel Faulkner’s widow, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced his decision Wednesday, just two days short of the 30th anniversary of the killing. He said continuing to seek death penalty would open the case to “an unknowable number of years” of appeals.

NAACP: Troy Davis’ sister, Martina Davis-Correia has died

admin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 06:57:20 +0000

Martina Davis-Correia, the sister of late cause celebre death row inmate Troy Davis, has died, NAACP senior communications associate Derek Turner confirmed.

usatoday.com

Melvin Van Peebles Supports The Occupy Wall Street Movement With His 1971 Song From “Watermelon Man”

admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:56:13 +0000

via Shadow and Act

Famed director Melvin Van Peebles, who knows his share of controversy, decided to lend his support to the Occupy Wall Street Movement. His 1971 song “Love That’s America,” from his first Hollywood film Watermelon Man, has been used with various OWS promotional videos circulating on the web now. The latest one, below, is by Cypher Films.

The 99%: a community of resistance – Angela Davis

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:02:40 +0000

The Occupy activists and their supporters have brought us together as the 99%. They call upon the majority to stand up against the minority. The old minorities, in effect, are the new majority. There are major responsibilities attached to this decision to forge such an expansive community of resistance. We say no to Wall Street, to the big banks, to corporate executives making millions of dollars a year. We say no to student debt. We are learning also to say no to global capitalism and to the prison industrial complex. And even as police in Portland, Oakland and now New York, move to force activists from their encampments, we say no to evictions and to police violence.

Occupy activists are thinking deeply about how we might incorporate opposition to racism, class exploitation, homophobia, xenophobia, ableism, violence done to the environment and transphobia into the resistance of the 99%. Of course, we must be prepared to challenge military occupation and war. And if we identify with the 99%, we will also have to learn how to imagine a new world, one where peace is not simply the absence of war, but rather, a creative refashioning of global social relations.

Read entire article via the Guardian

Occupy All the Harlems, to Save Ourselves from the Dictatorship of Wall Street

admin — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:17:26 +0000

: via Black Agenda Report

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

The question for Black America is not what’s going on in the heads of young white people in Zuccotti Park, but how WE will organize in our own defense against Wall Street, which has “done more damage to Black people than anyone else” in the country. Barack Obama, “most of the traditional Black organizations, and the entire Black Misleadership Class” are all bought and paid for by finance capital. “Our job is to wake our people up, so that we don’t sleep through this moment.”

Activists Angela Davis, Omali Yeshitela, Charles Barron address the complexities of the Occupy Movement #OWS #Occupythehood

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:33:57 +0000

RE:#OccupyWallSt, TO: those of us sitting on the fence….

admin — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 20:26:46 +0000

Let’s support the Occupy Movement by considering ourselves part of it. Which we are because we are the 99%. Eliminate the us and them dynamic I’m hearing. Let’s do what we need to do as individuals or as members of an organization by considering yourself a leader in the movement, which we as Black people have always been in struggles for justice in this country. As Black people ONLY we have the experience and legacy of leadership needed to take this movement to the next level. We are the leaders of this movement. We only need to take our place.

Let us know what you are doing as individuals or organization in your communities so we can share it at Wild Roots Media.