28 3 / 2013
Paris liberation made 'whites only' [BBC News]
Many who fought Nazi Germany during World War II did so to defeat the vicious racism that left millions of Jews dead.
Yet the BBC’s Document programme has seen evidence that black colonial soldiers - who made up around two-thirds of Free French forces - were deliberately removed from the unit that led the Allied advance into the French capital.
By the time France fell in June 1940, 17,000 of its black, mainly West African colonial troops, known as the Tirailleurs Senegalais, lay dead.
Many of them were simply shot where they stood soon after surrendering to German troops who often regarded them as sub-human savages.
Their chance for revenge came in August 1944 as Allied troops prepared to retake Paris. But despite their overwhelming numbers, they were not to get it.
‘More desirable’
The leader of the Free French forces, Charles de Gaulle, made it clear that he wanted his Frenchmen to lead the liberation of Paris.
Allied High Command agreed, but only on one condition: De Gaulle’s division must not contain any black soldiers.
In January 1944 Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff, Major General Walter Bedell Smith, was to write in a memo stamped, “confidential”: “It is more desirable that the division mentioned above consist of white personnel.
“This would indicate the Second Armoured Division, which with only one fourth native personnel, is the only French division operationally available that could be made one hundred percent white.”
At the time America segregated its own troops along racial lines and did not allow black GIs to fight alongside their white comrades until the late stages of the war.
More at the link.
27 11 / 2012
Argument over loud music led to fatal shooting of teen
November 27, 2012A Brevard County man was in jail Monday, accused of shooting a teenager dead in an argument over loud music.
Michael David Dunn, 45, and his girlfriend were in Jacksonville Friday for Dunn’s son’s wedding when they stopped at a convenience store, Jacksonville sheriff’s Lt. Rob Schoonover said.
Jordan Russell Davis, 17, and several other teenagers were sitting in a sport utility vehicle in the parking lot when Dunn pulled up next to them in a car and asked them to turn down their music, Schoonover said.
Jordan and Dunn exchanged words, and Dunn pulled a gun and shot eight or nine times, striking Jordan twice, Schoonover said. Jordan was sitting in the back seat. No one else was hurt.
Dunn’s attorney Monday said her client acted responsibly and in self-defense. She did not elaborate.
Dunn’s girlfriend and the driver of Jordan’s vehicle were in Gate Food Post, 8251 Southside Blvd., when the shooting happened. Dunn and his girlfriend took off afterward, and witnesses jotted down their tag number, deputies said.
They were staying in a Jacksonville hotel when they heard a news report Saturday morning indicating someone had died in the shooting, deputies said. They then returned to Brevard.
Dunn, a gun collector, was arrested Saturday at his home in Satellite Beach on charges of murder and attempted murder. He was being held without bail.
Jordan, who was a student at Samuel W. Wolfson High School, a magnet school in Duval County, will be buried in his hometown of Marietta, Ga. He is survived by his parents and a brother. Jordan worked at Winn-Dixie, according to his Facebook page.
This is absolutely heartbreaking. Dunn will likely use Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law as defense even though he fired at least eight times into a vehicle with four unarmed teenagers.
(via swellshark)
02 6 / 2012
"The act of writing, it seems to me, makes up a shelter, allows space to what would otherwise be hidden, crossed out, mutilated. Sometimes writing can work toward a reparation, making a sheltering space for the mind. Yet it feeds off ruptures, tears in what might otherwise seem a seamless, oppressive fabric."
(Source: mehreenkasana)
01 12 / 2011
So, since Richard Ayoade has yet to meet and propose to me in person, I thought the next best thing would be to search tumblr for him.
And I come across this lovely post: “Normally I don’t go for black guys but….”, under a picture of Ayoade.
Seriously?
Uggh please keep your ugly thoughts to yourself. I don’t wanna puke while drooling over Ayoade.
There are still gaping assholes like this on the face of the planet?
26 9 / 2011
![angrymarxists:
By aggressively prosecuting the Irvine 11, the O.C. District Attorney and political establishment sent the message that Muslim students can be convicted for peacefully protesting against the representative of a criminal state, but it is fine for elected officials in Orange County, like Villa Park City Councilwoman Deborah Pauly, to openly call for the death of all Muslims with impunity. At a racist rally outside a Muslim charity fundraiser, Pauly told the crowd: “What’s going on [in the fundraiser] is pure, unadulterated evil. … I know a lot of Marines who will be very happy to help those terrorists to an early meeting in paradise.” There was no investigation into Pauly’s threats. It is safe to say that the Irvine 11 did not have the chance to receive a fair trial in such a backward, racist environment.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls2290Q2Mx1qlye28o1_400.jpg)
By aggressively prosecuting the Irvine 11, the O.C. District Attorney and political establishment sent the message that Muslim students can be convicted for peacefully protesting against the representative of a criminal state, but it is fine for elected officials in Orange County, like Villa Park City Councilwoman Deborah Pauly, to openly call for the death of all Muslims with impunity. At a racist rally outside a Muslim charity fundraiser, Pauly told the crowd: “What’s going on [in the fundraiser] is pure, unadulterated evil. … I know a lot of Marines who will be very happy to help those terrorists to an early meeting in paradise.” There was no investigation into Pauly’s threats. It is safe to say that the Irvine 11 did not have the chance to receive a fair trial in such a backward, racist environment.
(via ihavecoolsocksontoday)
