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Dispatches From the Culture Wars - All or None Edition

Orlando solidarity, I and II; MacArthur Foundation flubs; Judge judged; Populism for sale; Trump rides the subway

  • In Mourning and Solidarity, Local LGBTQ Leaders Warn Against Islamophobic Incitement - Sarah Lazare (AlterNet)
  • LGBT, NAACP and Immigration Activists Powerful Statement: You Attack One of Us, You Attack Us All - Sarah K. Burris (Raw Story)
  • MacArthur Foundation is Ducking on Chicago's Most Crucial Issues - Phillip Jackson (Crain's Chicago Business)
  • Prospective Jurors Boycott Judge Aaron Persky As 1 Million People Demand His Recall - Dominique Mosbergen (Huffington Post)
  • Charles Koch Wants to Be the Next Bernie Sanders - Eric Levitz (New York)
  • Thousands of Trump Head Stickers Embellish MTA Stick Figures on the Subway With Hilarious Results - Matt Coneybeare (Viewing NYC)

In Mourning and Solidarity, Local LGBTQ Leaders Warn Against Islamophobic Incitement

By Sarah Lazare
June 12, 2016
AlterNet

Sunday morning’s horrific mass shooting at an Orlando, Florida LGBTQ club during its Latin night is being met with mourning, outrage, heartbreak and international solidarity—as well as words of caution from impacted communities against the unleashing of further cycles of violence through anti-Muslim and xenophobic incitement.

“Homophobia, transphobia and patriarchy kills on a daily basis,” Darakshan Raja, founder of the Muslim American Women’s Policy Forum, told AlterNet. “All of us must do better to show up for LGBTQI/gender non-conforming communities and end this violence.

"Simultaneously we need to be careful of the narrative around the shooter,” Raja continued. “Islamophobia won't fight homophobia/transphobia, especially when these systems are interconnected.”

LGBT, NAACP and Immigration Activists Powerful Statement: You Attack One of Us, You Attack Us All

By Sarah K. Burris
June 12, 2016
Raw Story

Organizations supporting equality stood in solidarity on Sunday, filling the airwaves with profound statements of shock and heartache at the shooting at an LGBT nightclub Pulse in Orlando early that morning.

Chad Griffin, president of the HRC, appeared along with Mara Keisling,  Executive Director, National Center for Transgender Equality, Janet Murguía, President and CEO, National Council of La Raza (NCLR), Cornell Brooks, President, NAACP and Sharon Lettman-Hicks, Executive Director, National Black Justice Coalition to denounce the violence and demand the incident be labeled as a hate crime.
 

MacArthur Foundation is Ducking on Chicago's Most Crucial Issues

By Phillip Jackson
May 26, 2016
Crain's Chicago Business

At my organization, the Black Star Project, we looked at every grant that the city's largest foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, made to organizations in Chicago in 2015. With MacArthur's annual spending roughly $325 million worldwide, we calculated that, in 2015, it gave some $56 million to Chicago causes. Of that, only $375,000—only one-tenth of 1 percent of total giving—went to black-led organizations that primarily serve Chicago's black communities.

Despite that fact, MacArthur Foundation representatives were surprised when black people challenged a new $100 million loan program named Benefit Chicago. This initiative is designed to "loan" money to nonprofits and socially responsible businesses—money that must be repaid with interest. Some recipient nonprofits likely include those that MacArthur had previously not given to, nor considered for grant awards, including those in Chicago communities with the highest needs. But given our calculations above, all indications are that Benefit Chicago is just another MacArthur-proposed Benefit “White” Chicago initiative.

Prospective Jurors Boycott Judge Aaron Persky As 1 Million People Demand His Recall

By Dominique Mosbergen
June 10, 2016
Huffington Post

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“I can’t be here, I’m so upset,” one prospective juror reportedly told Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky on Wednesday.

“I can’t believe what you did,” said another.

These two individuals were among several prospective jurors who reportedly refused to serve under Persky in a misdemeanor stolen property case.

Persky is the judge who presided over Brock Turner’s sentencing for sexual assault.

The East Bay Times said at least 10 prospective jurors declined to serve in the unrelated case. KPIX-TV said the number was double that, and the jurors cited the judge as a hardship.
 

Charles Koch Wants to Be the Next Bernie Sanders

By Eric Levitz
June 10, 2016
New York

A libertarian billionaire — who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars advancing policies that have no constituency outside of the Ayn Rand Institute’s summer retreat — is fed up with the vitriol of the political debate in a country where, he himself acknowledges, the poor are suffering from an economy rigged by the powerful and well-connected.

In a democracy, every political interest group will give its policies a populist sheen. And the Koch brothers’ brand of market populism has a long pedigree in the United States. But it’s hard not to hear echoes of a certain Vermont senator in Charles Koch’s AP interview and his new ad campaign. And there’s reason to think this mimicry is calculated.

Thousands of Trump Head Stickers Embellish MTA Stick Figures on the Subway With Hilarious Results

By Matt Coneybeare
May 16, 2016
Viewing NYC

The unknown street artist behind Instagram account @majorbigtime has been printing tons of Donald Trump head shot stickers then placing them on top of the MTA’s red stick figure subway etiquette guy——the one that is always doing something horrible. Somehow, it’s not too difficult to imagine Trump actually doing these things.