After the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot an unarmed African-American teenager, the following words of the feminist, intellectual, activist, teacher bell hooks spread like wild fire across social media.

The growing number of gated communities in our nation is but one example of the obsession with safety…. The person who is really the threat here is the home owner who has been so well socialized by the thinking of white supremacy, of capitalism, of patriarchy that he can no longer respond rationally.

White supremacy has taught him that all people of color are threats irrespective of their behavior. Capitalism has taught him that, at all costs, his property can and must be protected. Patriarchy has taught him that his masculinity has to be proved by the willingness to conquer fear through aggression; that it would be unmanly to ask questions before taking action. Mass media then brings us the news of this in a newspeak manner that sounds almost jocular and celebratory, as though no tragedy has happened, as though the sacrifice of a young life was necessary to uphold property values and white patriarchal honor…. This is what the worship of death looks like.

The words were so applicable to the murder of Trayvon Martin, that many people assumed it was written or spoken in response to the case. Actually, the quote is both timeless and prophetic, and comes from hooks’ book All About Love.

[…]

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At first it looks like a piece of abstract art. Then you start to make out human shapes. And it looks like a bunch of people wearing bathing suits and swim caps, maybe? But it’s not. This is a police X-ray imageof a trailer truck containing 94 trafficking victims from Central America, Nepal and Bengladesh. The truck, which had started its trip in Guatemala and was headed towards towards the U.S. border, but was stopped at a checkpoint outside of Tixtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas State.

According to the Mexican National Migration Institute, or INM, 78 women and 16 men 78 men and 16 women were found in the truck. […]

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If Anthony Weiner was stupid to have sextual relationships before resigning, he’s beyond stupid to have engaged in them again after being caught and resigning. But while his behavior is politically stupid, it’s not relevant to his governing.

As someone who doesn’t try to pass laws controlling people’s sex lives, Weiner didn’t violate any of the principles or policies he espouses. When, however, socially conservative Republicans are caught soliciting prostitutes or trying to have gay sex in a bathroom, they demonstrate a double standard and hypocrisy. They engage in the very behavior they want to be illegal for other people but not for themselves. This is the difference.

[…]

Read more at Policymic

The number of women who have accused San Diego Mayor (D) Bob Filner of sexual harassment is now 13. That’s 13 women who were violated by a man who told one woman who worked for him to come into work without panties; put his hand in a woman’s bra, forcibly kissed multiple women, abused his position of power and political connections, hit on women in what should have been political meetings. I’ve written about why what Filner did was very different from what Weiner did and how the media conflates the two as part of the same culture of sex scandals. But what Filner did was categorically worse than what Weiner did. He violated women who did not consent. And he engaged in unlawful behavior. Grouping the two men together trivializes sexual harassment and the importance of consent.

But it looks like Filner may be worse than we thought. Among the 13 accusers, at least 8 are female veterans and members of the National Women’s Veterans Association of America (NWVAA) in San Diego. Almost of of these women are survivors of sexual assault in the military. And some of them think Filner intentionally preyed on them.

Eldonna Fernandez was raped three times while serving in the military. She met Filner at a National Women’s Veterans Association of America “Healing and Hiring Fair.” She recalls,

“He looks at my card. He looks at me. He says, ‘Fernandez. Are you married? Do you have a husband?’ Very quick, very direct. I said, ‘No, I’m divorced.’ ‘Well, you’re beautiful, and I can’t take my eyes off you, and I want to take you to dinner.’ I was really shocked and I was like, ‘Uh, OK.’”

He then allegedly left a Fernandez a voice mail saying “Hi, it’s your newly favorite congressman, Bob Filner. You know, the one who fell in love with you at your last speech,” Her speech was about being raped.

Read more at Feministing

Insanely, some women, ironically, have praised Kate Middleton for having a boy. Sexist responses to the royal baby’s gender are especially off, since a new law would have made a female heir much more exciting and historical.

Newsweek and Daily Beast editor-in-chief (and fancy British lady) Tina Brown said on Tuesday: “As soon as William really kind of emerged into the public eye, you had this wholesome prince and his choice of Kate Middleton turns out to be absolutely impeccable. I mean, once again, she does the perfect thing.” And on Monday, CNN Royal Contributor Victoria Arbiter, also English, gushed:

“My first thought, I have to say, was this is how brilliant a royal Kate is. There are women throughout British royal family history that have panicked not being able to deliver a boy, and here we are, Kate did it first time. So it does mean, of course, the change in the next succession conversation is over for another 30 years or so, but we’re celebrating and thrilled that Kate has had a healthy, bouncing baby boy.”

(Arbiter claimed in Twitter that she was being tongue in cheek. But does she sound and look tongue and cheek here?) […]

Read more at Policymic

Reporter Helen Thomas died at home in her Washington DC apartment, surrounded by her loved ones. She was 92 and had been ill for years, according to a friend.  Covering every president from JFK to Barack Obama, Thomas was an excellent reporter, in her own right, whose no-nonsense, probing questions made George Bush uncomfortable. But on top of these achievements, Thomas was a pioneer for women journalists and was a first in many things. For instance, Thomas

• is considered the first woman to write about things not considered the “women’s beat,” which the AP defines as “the soft stories about presidents’ kids, wives, their teas and their hairdos.”
• was the first female White House bureau chief for a wire service (for UPI in 1974)
• was the first female officer at the National Press Club (also in 1974)
• was the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association
• was the first female member of the Gridiron Club, a news society.

Thomas was forced to retire from Hearst after making insensitive comments that were considered controversial about Israel. The backlash against Thomas revealed the bias and double standard in the media, when it comes to the Middle East.

Read more at Feministing

The influential Christian conservative organization Family Research Council (FRC) is hard (no pun intended) at work, trying to save us from pornography.  On Wednesday, in Washington DC, (the porn capital, incidentally) the FRC hosted a lecture, with the catchy title “Porn in the Dorm: The Impact of Pornography on College Campus Life.” Dr. Patrick F. Fagan, director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI)–“which examines the relationships among family, marriage, religion, community, and America’s social problems, as illustrated in the social science data”—delivered the talk and power point presentation. Fagan, who served as President George H.W. Bush’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Family and Community Policy for the Department of Health and Human Services, warned that “For college students, the use of pornography is especially problematic” with the potential to “destroy their education, their relationships and their future.”

And how does porn manage all this? According to Fagan’s 2009 paper, “The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage, Family, and Community,” on which he based his lecture, porn works through the mind, the, heart and the body, creating a “Distorted Perception of Reality, “ “Aggression and Abuse,” “Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Out-of-Wedlock Pregnancies,” infidelity, divorce and separation.

His grand thesis is that pornography is an anti-Christian vestige of a sick pagan world: “What we really have is a pagan sexuality, which is totally different from a Christian sexuality. Homosexuality, infidelity, euthanasia, infanticide – these were all common sexual practices of pagan Rome. Christians were for being very different, for being monogamous, faithful.” Using the precise tools of social science to which his organization is dedicated, Pagan explained in his talk that, “There’s a pagan sexuality which is a pan-sexuality which is the erotic. Abortion, homosexuality, infidelity, pornography, euthanasia, infanticide all of those things were just the common sexual practice of pagan Rome and Christians were for being very different. Monogamous, faithful, struggling, etc…you know the chastity, purity.”

Read more at Salon

Maybe one good thing that can come out of George Zimmerman’s acquittal is a new awareness about “Stand Your Ground” laws and their unequal application in our criminal justice system. One victim of this inequality — whose “Stand Your Ground” pretrial motion was denied and whose case the Zimmerman trial helped publicize — is Marissa Alexander, a 32-year-old African-American mother of three, currently serving a 20-year jail sentence for firing a warning shot, without killing or injuring anyone, to scare off her husband (she had a restraining order against him, and he at one point admitted to abusing her). It’s a stark and troubling contrast: A woman was sentenced to 20 years for firing a gun without hitting anyone, while a man who fatally shot an unarmed teenager walks free.

The Zimmerman verdict has brought Alexander’s case increased media coverage, interest on the part of politicians and activists, and several petitions. And after Alexander was sentenced to 20 years, a group of attorneys who had not represented her during her trial took over the case, pro bono. They’re now waiting for the court to hear their oral arguments or render an opinion in her case. If the court reverses her conviction, it could order a retrial. Or it could determine that the “Stand Your Ground” motion should have been granted, giving Alexander immunity and ending the case.

Read more at Salon

Following the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, many feared that protests would turn into riots. Some people stoked those fears even further. Certainly, people were angry, but many channeled their rage and grief into positive, creative, artistic expression.

One example of this can be found at the Art Works Studio School, located in Mount Rainier, Maryland. Barbara Johnson, an artist, art teacher and the founder and executive director of Arts Works Studio School, explained to me in an e-mail that as soon as the verdict was announced, she and the program coordinator started texting each other: “We were both so upset. And we knew right away that we had to do something through Art Works to support the community. I said that we needed to do something. She suggested ‘painting it out’ and I knew that it should be silent painting.”

So, on Monday evening, around 30 people, ranging in age from 20 to 60, went to Art Works to express their pain through painting and drawing.

Johnson recalls: “I greeted people Monday evening and assured them that they didn’t have to ‘know how to paint’ and that they could paint in silence in our studio or sit in discussion in our gallery. Every single person came into the studio and painted. At times different people would stop painting and walk into the gallery to cry.”

For many, the experience was cathartic: “So many people said, ‘I feel better’,” recalls Johnson.

Read more at Care2

Rachel Jeantel was the last person to ever speak to Trayvon Martin, besides, possibly, his killer George Zimmerman.

Speaking to Jeantel on his cell phone as he walked toward his father’s house, Martin told her he was being followed. She advised him to run away from the man who would ultimately kill him. Jeantel testified that she heard a bump, the sound of wet grass and Martin saying “get off of me.” Then, the phone went dead, and she would never hear Martin’s voice again.

Speaking to Jeantel on his cell phone as he walked toward his father’s house, Martin told her he was being followed. She advised him to run away from the man who would ultimately kill him. Jeantel testified that she heard a bump, the sound of wet grass and Martin saying “get off of me.” Then, the phone went dead, and she would never hear Martin’s voice again.

On top of losing her best friend, Jeantel experienced the trauma of hearing some of Trayvon’s last words. And, as if that weren’t enough, Jeantel, in exchange for her testimony, was disrespected by Zimmerman’s lawyer and mercilessly criticized and mocked on social media.

But Tuesday, Jeantel was finally validated. Tom Joyner, the host of the radio show “The Tom Joyner Morning Show,” offered Jeantel a scholarship to any historically black college or university (HBCU) she wants to attend. There are approximately 100 HBCUs in the country, including Tuskegee University, Joyner’s Alma Mater. Joyner was moved by Jeantel’s testimony and her interview with Piers Morgan, though he didn’t understand why Morgan didn’t ask her about her plans for the future. So, Joyner invited Jeantel onto his show and said:

“Here’s my offer to you, if you want to graduate from high school and go to an HBCU, even if it’s not in Florida but especially Florida, like Florida Memorial, Edward Waters, Bethune Cookman or FAMU, if you want to do that, I want to help you do that… I will help you get tutors to get you out of high school, tutors to help you pass the SAT and I will give you a full ride scholarship to any HBCU you’d like.”

Read more at Care2