Why are we still spending money with Wal-mart? I know that they have better prices and you can get all of your household needs from them. It’s time to rethink that and watch who you spend your dollars with. Would you spend money with a business that uses their profits to push policies and laws that go against everything that you believe in? Of course not! Well, if your spending money with Wal-mart, that’s what you’re doing.
Let’s follow the money….
For starters, Wal-Mart gives 97% percent of their political donations to the Republican Party and their causes. Check here to read article.
Let’s continue with Wal-Marts destructive policies against women. Not sure how many of you know that 1.5 million female workers filed a class action suit against Wal-Mart for gender discrimination in the workplace, only to have their case thrown out by a 5-4 vote with the Conservative leaning Supreme Court.
Moving on…
Since the killing of Trayvon Martin, Stand your Ground laws in Florida and over two dozen states have been introduced to us. The debate has raged as whether this law was a good law or not. Most would agree that the application of this law is under serious review. I submit that this law is much too vague and allows vigilantism to flourish. If we look at the genesis of this law, you will find the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is at its core.
ALEC Founded in the early 1970s to promote right-wing policies at the state level, the American Legislative Exchange Council’s focus has shifted to favor the promotion of state legislation and regulation that benefits its corporate sponsors. A fact that should come as no surprise given its funding by right-wing foundations and corporate membership fees ranging from $5000 to $50,000. The council boasts a large clearinghouse of research, model bills, and legislative strategies to promote its agenda. Read more about ALEC, Click here
To the point, ALEC is responsible for writing and promoting legislation such as Stand your Ground, Voter ID, privatizing the prison system and other public services. Wal-Mart among others sits on ALEC’s Private Enterprise Board for ALEC.
How do we get involved…?
Colorofchange.org, an African American organization exists to strengthen Black America’s political voice. Their goal is to empower members – Black Americans and allies – to make government more responsive to the concerns of Black American s and to bring about positive political and social change for everyone. They have circulating a petition among its members and social media to stop ALEC’s corporate members from continuing to support. As of today, Coke, Pepsi, Wendy’s, Intuit, and Kraft has pulled their support from ALEC.
Wal-Mart has so far refused and has no intentions on pulling their support from ALEC and its destructive policies. Why, because they haven’t seen a change in their profits. African Americans shop at their stores by the droves. We’re spending our money with a company that does not have our best interest in mind. It’s like their laughing at us in their board rooms, thinking that the best place to hide from African Americans is in broad daylight. Let’s show them differently.
It’s time to pull our support from Wal-Mart until it recognizes that it cannot continue to do business as usual. We are paying close attention and we will not continue to spend our hard earned money so that they can turn around and use our money on policies that have an adverse affect on our families and community at large.
By Donald Blount, March 20, 2012
The Urban Politician
The recent killing of Trayvon Martin, while BEING BLACK and doing no wrong, has caught our attention and angered us all. Yet another young Black male gets killed with no justice. How could this happen? Where is the justice? Fortunately, the Justice Department has intervened in this case. However, there is a MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM going on here. While our outrage is justified, we need to look much deeper into the laws that protected George Zimmerman from being arrested, on the spot, in the first place. One of the laws that I’d like to bring particular attention to is the “Stand-Your-Ground” law.
Stand-your-ground
“Other states expressly relieve the home’s occupants of any duty to retreat or announce their intent to use deadly force before they can be legally justified in doing so to defend themselves. Clauses that state this fact are called “Stand-Your-Ground”, “Line in the Sand” or “No Duty To Retreat” clauses, and state exactly that the defender has no duty or other requirement to abandon a place in which he has a right to be, or to give up ground to an assailant. States often differentiate between altercations occurring inside a home or business and altercations in public places; there may be a duty to retreat from an assailant in public when there is no duty to retreat from one’s own property, or there may be no duty to retreat from anywhere the defender may legally be. Other restrictions may still exist; when in public, a person must be carrying the firearm in a legal manner, whetherconcealedoropenly.”
One of the most powerful lobbying groups, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has consistently been lobbying states to pass this bill. As of this date, 16 states have adopted the “Stand-Your-Ground” legislation. Those states with “Stand-Your-Ground” laws are: AL, AZ, FL, GA, IN, KY, LA, MT, NV, NH, OK, PA, TN, TX, UT, WA”. The state of Michigan is in the process of adopting it and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Republican controlled legislature in Virginia isn’t far behind.
In a striking departure, police departments across the country are against this law. They are unable to properly investigate and arrest perpetrators who claim self defense. In the 5 months after Florida passed this bill there were 10 cases in which an individual claimed self defense, 6 of the cases resulted in death and the remaining 4 were injured. Only one victim is cited for having a gun.
My fear….is now that this case has national exposure….and more people are familiar with these laws….it will be open season on all of us. The Justice Department can intervene in all these cases. It’s time to repeal these laws. It’s time to contact your state politicians and ask them to repeal it. if they are unwilling to do so, then exercise your right to vote them out of office.
While we are going about our daily lives, politicians are enacting laws that continue to violate our Civil Right to walk down the street drinking an iced tea and munching on a bag of skittles while “Being Black.” They are taking away our right to vote and rolling back women’s reproductive rights. WE can no longer take the position that there is nothing we can do about it. Changes need to be made, and it begins with you and I. We have rights, and it’s time that we hold our politicians accountable for their actions. Make it happen people!!!
In ‘Sex, Mom, and God,’ Schaeffer critiques the right-wing Christian establishment that his family helped found.
Author and filmmaker Frank Schaeffer is a vocal critic of the Christian right. The son of Francis Schaeffer, an influential religious leader who helped infuse evangelism into modern politics, Frank observed conservative Christianity from the inside and witnessed its ascent in American politics.
Open Letter to Occupy Wall Street On Police Brutality
By: Black Canseco
Dear Occupy Wall Street:
Police brutality in America did not begin with you. It’s older than you, older than your encampments and older than your sudden awareness of it.
As one of the 99% you claim to champion, I for example, have seen police brutality firsthand throughout my childhood and my adult life right on to this day. As an African American male I have seen what happens when you occupy black skin in the presence of a police officer. I’ve buried friends who were shot by police despite having broken no laws. I’ve seen police batons and fists, backs of squad cars and squad car hoods used as weapons—not because I or my fellow African Americans were protesting or making any public statements, but simply because we were breathing and existing outside our homes.
As one of the 99% you claim to champion it’s my belief that Occupy Wall Street’s best hope of addressing police brutality is to first understand that police brutality did not begin with any occupation movement nor has it ever been limited to the parks, college campuses and gatherings where you are.
For every OWS encampment there have been hundreds of unarmed Black men have been shot by police—sometimes in the back for occupying little more than their own skin. For every OWS participant that has been pepper-sprayed there have been hundreds upon hundreds of African American who have been beaten by police often within their own neighborhoods. For every OWS participant that’s been zip-tied and carted off to jail legions of African Americans and Latinos have been unfairly prosecuted and excessively sentenced by local, state and even federal courts.
But until OWS protestors were exposed to police mistreatment it was a complete and total non-issue for the Occupy Movement. There was no outrage from current OWS supporters when even the most famous of police injustices occurred. Unfortunately it has taken the faces of victims of police brutality to become Whiter, seemingly more educated, seemingly more “mainstream” for police brutality and injustice to even register as blips on OWS’s radar. (And don’t think that this obvious and observable fact has been lost on the millions of people of color who have yet to join the occupy movement.)
In the days and weeks since many of the police vs. OWS confrontations I’m not surprised by the lack of calls to “#OccupyTheCops”, “#OccupyTheCourts” or “#OccupyThePrisons” as policing issues most OWS participants must deal with in their communities or daily lives beyond their OWS protest activities.
But let’s be clear: There’s no greater injustice than being so selfishly blind as to selectively claim suffering or fight suffering only when doing so benefits your agenda while willfully ignoring that very same suffering as it festers elsewhere around you. Police injustice is not something any one or any community should be subjected to. But there's something distateful and alienating about seeing folk scream about something that we normally have to beg them to even passingly acknowledge.
To that end, I strongly encourage those in the Occupy Movement to take a long hard look at the issues of Police brutality not just as it relates to OWS, but as it continues to impact the 99% you so proudly fight for.
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