Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 808

UltraViolet’s “Board of Tourism” Billboards Address Gender Wage Discrimination in North Carolina

Ultraviolet

NORTH CAROLINA -- In a new effort to elevate issues of paycheck fairness, minimum wage increases, and paid family leave as well as expose the ongoing attacks on women's health and economic security ahead of the 2014 election, UltraViolet - a national women’s advocacy organization - is launching a new campaign targeting tourists to Raleigh and Charlotte with basic facts about how elected officials in North Carolina consistently cast votes in Congress for policies directly that hurt women and inform tourists and returning state residents where their State stands when it comes to the issues that women and their families care about.
In North Carolina, where every Republican member of the House of Representatives who cast a vote, and Sen. Richard Burr all opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, and the majority of the State’s congressional delegation refused to support the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act in 2013, UltraViolet members funded billboards set to run at airports in Charlotte and Raleigh exposing how North Carolina women and families suffer by the lack of paid maternity or sick leave, while continuing to be paid substantially less than men in the State - leaving more than 20 percent of North Carolina women in poverty.
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How American Seafood Goes Almost Everywhere Except America

PRI “The United States controls more ocean than any country on Earth," says Paul Greenberg, author of the new book, American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood, "yet more than 85 percent of our seafood is imported. That's really strange."And while Americans are busily eating imported fish and shrimp, the US commercial fishing industry exports about one-third of the nation’s seafood catch to countries overseas. “The whole system is a little out of whack,” Greenberg says.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk -- "Volunteered Slavery"

One of the most unique and provocative musicians of the 20th Century, Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1935-1977) was born August 7, 1935 in Columbus, Ohio.  This is a live performance of "Volunteered Slavery"--later the inspiration for journalist Jill Nelson's memoir Volunteer Slavery--from the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1972.

The Late Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Alexander & Arnold Rampersad on W.E.B. DU BOIS & the American Soul

American Public Media
One of the most extraordinary minds of American and global history, W.E.B. Du Bois penned the famous line that "the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line." He is a formative voice for many of the people who gave us the Civil Rights Movement. But his passionate, poetic words speak to all of us navigating the ever-unfolding, unfinished business of civil rights. We bring Du Bois' life and ideas into relief for the 21st century — featuring one of the last interviews the great Maya Angelou gave before her death.

Kindred The Family Soul -- "A Couple Friends" feat. Valerie Simpson (Official Video)

With iconic actress Ruby Dee’s recent death, many remain nostalgic for the very public love that was the marriage of Dee and her late husband Ossie Davis, a neatness that the actors troubled in at least two Spike Lee films. Though not as visible, R&B singers Valerie Simpson and the late Nick Ashford serve a similar role, and remain the most logical example for Kindred the Family Soul. It is fitting that Simpson appears on the  stellar title track, from Kindred's latest recording. The song serves as much a tribute to Ashford and Simpson’s craft, as it does their example as collaborative musicians..

Why Does Popcorn at the Movies Cost So Much?

Marketplace
“They’re basically in a monopoly selling position,” says Russell Winer, chair of the marketing department at NYU’s Stern School of Business. “Since they don’t allow you, theoretically, to bring food into theaters, they can pretty much charge what they feel the market will bear.”

Africa: The Richest Region For Young Workers And Consumers

Competitive Swimming Struggles to Stay Afloat

Marketplace | Leoneda Inge

During these hot summer days, lots of kids are taking advantage of the closest swimming pool, but only a few are diving in for the local swim team. That’s why USA Swimming has kicked off an aggressive campaign to remind kids that swimming is, in their words, “the funnest sport there is.”One of the ads in the SwimToday campaign shows a girl wearing goggles, dropping into a pool of blue water in slow motion. Then, you hear a voice saying, “Basketball... softball... cannonball... Which sounds the most fun to you?”

We Charge Genocide: From Gaza to The Bronx by Lamont Lilly

We Charge Genocide: From Gaza to The Bronx by Lamont Lilly | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
This article is dedicated to the honor and memory of the Four Little Footballers: Mohammed Bakr (11), Ahed Bakr (11), Zakariya Bakr (10) & Ismail Bakr (9).
As I have seen the barrage of Twitter and Facebook photos of dead children in the streets of Gaza, I cannot help but to relate and be empathetic.  As I have seen a host of graphic Instagram posts of charred arms and missing legs, I cannot help but to ask myself why?
Why has the slaughter of innocent men, women and children been going on for so long?Why are the innocent not receiving any justice? Why are the unarmed at war with masked mobs, assault rifles and heavy artillery?  And who exactly is responsible for these mass killings?
In several cities throughout Palestine, particularly Gaza, innocent children and their parents can be playing in front of their home or visiting loved ones in the hospital, and two minutes later, blown to pieces without any just cause or notice whatsoever.  The bullets that mutilate have no names; the bombs that dismember have no limitations.  After viewing such photographs daily over the last several weeks, I cannot help but to think of the reality of the 44 million Afro-Americans here at home.
Three Fridays ago in Staten Island, husband and grandfather, Eric Garner was viciously choked to death by the New York Police Department on live video.  As Garner was surrounded by five police officers in broad daylight, he was peacefully articulating himself in his defense.  Two minutes later he was on the sidewalk, dead, murdered without just cause or any notice whatsoever.
Such commonality reminds me of one particular and quite thought-provoking photo I saw posted on an Instagram thread.  It was a double framed shot that on one side depicted a 1930 public lynching of two Black men in Marion, Indiana.  As their lifeless bodies dangled in thin air, they were surrounded by “good white folk” smiling for the camera, enjoying their day’s kill of Strange Fruit.  The other half of the double-framed shot captured a small gathering of Israeli citizens seated comfortably on a hill.   As entertainment, they had gathered under a nighttime moonlight to watch Israeli airstrikes light up the Gaza skyline.  With beaming smiles and cheering hands, they were obviously enjoying the view of deadly bombs and destruction reigning on the backs of Palestinians from above.  I was sure to save this particular photo to my Twitter “favorites” to remember the various ways in which the two groups share a violent strand of mutual oppression.
Yes, the history of African descendants in the Western Hemisphere is quite different from the history of Palestinians in what historically is considered North Africa.  However, our experience as two distinct groups devalued by the institutions of white supremacy and imperialism are very similar.  African descendants here in the U.S. and the Palestinians of North Africa are still battling the effects of colonialism, cultural appropriation and mass displacement as we speak.  Our shared degree of state-sponsored death, racism and violent repression should be obvious.  The question is what specific mechanism is responsible for such violence and mass killing?
Internationally, it is the military industrial complex that reigns supreme—men and women in green, desert tan and blue uniforms given the authority to kill innocent people with impunity—human instruments of hate, who are often paid quite nicely for such duties.  I should know.  I served four years in the United States Army Reserves.  And I can tell you from firsthand experience, the United States is notspreading Democracy.  It’s spreading violence, at home, and abroad.  Abroad, such agents of the military industrial complex are typically referred to as Marines, the Air Force or Navy Seals.  Here at home, we call them Sheriff’s Departments, police officers and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations).
The same U.S. backed Democracy that has slaughtered over 1,200 Palestinians in the last three months, is the same Democracy that murdered Oscar Grant and Amadou Diallo in cold blood.  The same Democracy that has tortured Palestinian women through raping and severing their breasts from their torso, is the same Democracy that brutally beat 51 year old grandmother, Marlene Pinnock on the side of a California Highway just one month ago. 
The ghettos in Gaza aren’t much different from the ghettos in The Bronx.  The “Ethnic Cleansing” of Israeli Apartheid serves the same purpose as the Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws of the southern confederacy.  
The forced evacuation of Palestinians from Jerusalem, Gaza and Hebron is the same thing as gentrification in Brooklyn, Washington D.C. and Durham, NC.  When mosques and defenseless worshippers are blindsided by bombs and teargas, I cannot help but to refer back to the 1963 bombing of the 16thStreet Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.  Four little girls were killed in that bombing, just as hundreds of innocent children have been killed in Gaza.  The more you think about it, the easier it is to make the connections.
What we share is a catalogue of oppression—the constant banging of white supremacy upon our backs—the constant fear that when your children depart for school, there’s a policeman’s chance that one of them may not return.  The extermination of thousands of innocent Palestinians reeks of the same stench as Black bodies beaten and badgered by police officers and Ku Klux Klansmen, right here in the United States.
I’m not saying that Afro-Americans and Palestinians live the same daily realities.  What I amsaying is that we share the same oppression.  What I’ve come to realize, brothers and sisters, is that both groups have a common enemy.  Now, let’s organize so we can defend ourselves, at home, and abroad.
 ***

Lamont Lilly is a contributing editor with the Triangle Free Press and organizer with Workers World Party.  He has contributed to The Root, Truthout, Counter Punch and Common Dreams, among others.  He resides in Durham, NC.  Follow him on Twitter @LamontLilly.

What's In It? Behind the $400 Million Coconut Water Craze

The New York Times

"When coconut water hit the market, it was billed as a miracle drink able to fight viruses and other ailments. The drink’s marketers have since been legally forced to sharply scale back their claims."
Produced by: Aaron Byrd