White Like Me

     On the last day of class we watched "White Like Me." Tim Wise is an antiracist educator and author. He tells his story about how when he was younger he went to a school where he was one of three students who was not black. His parents wanted him to know what it was like to be the minority. Wise went to college at Tulane University where he was an activist against equal rights.
     When Obama was elected president this was the turning point in black equality. This was compared to when the Prime Minister of Pakistan being a woman. It was apparent that racism was still present in American when white people were angry that Obama was elected president. Another thing that was brought up in the documentary was the criminal justice system. Most of the people in jail in America happen to be African American. He also says that there is racism against white people as well. 

Clansville USA

     In class we watched the documentary "Clansville USA." This movie really exemplified what it was like living in small towns in the south during the height of the Ku Klux Klan. Bob Jones was the most successful Grand Dragon of all time. The Klan would go around town in these elaborate costumes and terrorize the African American people of the town. Bob Jones was a legacy of the Klan. His father was also a member before him.
     It said in the movie that they claimed the bible backed up what they were doing. How could this be possible? Their most prominent figure was burring the cross and marching around the streets to terrorize people.
     This footage was some of the earliest images of the first Klan. Under Bob Jones leadership the Klan grew up to ten thousand members. Many people looked up to this man and what he stood for. IT was not uncommon in a small town in the south for most people to hate black people. This was one of the first documentaries that showed what was going on in small town southern communities. People of the North and activist everywhere could now see just what was going on.

California V Bakke

     The court case of California V. Bakke was about a man who was denied admission to the Med program of his choice because he was too old. It is a known fact that back then older people were not as accepted into medical schools. Bakke was a 3.51 Merit Scholar. It made no sense as to why he was denied into the medical school. Men with lower GPA's were also admitted.
     Bakke challenged this decision and stated that race should not be the only factor that plays into a school creating diversity. Age and other factors should also play in. Bakke claimed that this was discrimination. Bakke stated that if the goal of the institution was to create diversity and this was only helping African Americans, was it really creating diversity? This is a concept that angered African Americans. They thought that whites were trying to find more reasons to not admit African Americans. This is illustrated in the picture below.
     The court decided not to strike down the broad principle of creating diversity but they stated that race can not and will not be the only factor to achieve it. The California side stated that this was not the only school using age as a factor. It is known that all medical schools were using age as a reason not to admit a person. They also would only consider a small amount of minorities. Medical schools are hard to get into. The two moot court teams did a wonderful job at showing what both sides had to say. I would have to agree with what the side defending Bakke had to say. Their agreement was the most backed up by facts.

State Dept. contractor allegedly paid by Chinese agent to spy on Americans – yet no charges filed

Fox News

     Xiaoming Gao, a translator for the US government was under investigation by the Bureau for allegedly being paid thousands of dollars for information on US persons and US government employees by a spy for the Chinese government. She admitted that she would attend meetings with the spy at a hotel in China and provide information about her "social contacts" in America. The man she was meeting with went by the name of "Teacher Zhao." She worked for the department of Language and Services for four years
     Gao lived for a period of time with a state department employee for free. This employee designed high security embassies with top secret clearance. At first she claimed he did not discuss his job with Gao but later on she changed her story. Emails and phone numbers listed on the internet as Gao's employers have also gone unanswered since the scandal was revealed.

     "It's not clear to me, based on the court files that were unsealed, how a prosecution of this person could possibly have compromised U.S. intelligence gathering," Thomas Dupree, former deputy assistant attorney general under the George W. Bush administration, told Fox News. "If it jeopardizes or threatens to disrupt relations with another country, so be it. That you have to draw the line somewhere, and that we need to send a message that this sort of conduct and activity simply will not be tolerated."  

OAH Magazine of History

     We received two documents in class the other day which both were in reference to Dr. Martin Luther King and his comparison between American civil rights and the events of the Vietnam war. 

     Document number one which is called ""Dr King's Error" New York Times, April 7th 1967, 36." This is the article that was published in the times that explained what Dr. King had said. These writers claim that King unjustifiably compare the Vietnam War to the Civil rights movements happening in the US. They say that linking the two will cause nothing but confusion. They are both two very difficult and complex situations that should never have been compared. It has been stated that this was just for his own personal opinions. They also talk about how harsh and unjust it was to compare what the Nazi's did to our own US government and the use of their new weapons. 

     Document 2 has two parts to it. It is called ""Letters to the Editor of The Times," New York Times, April 12, 1967,46." The first letter is titled "Dr. King Backed" and is a letter written in by someone who supports what Dr. King has to say. He agrees that These two issues can be compared to each other and must be stopped. This person believes that colored people all over the world must speak out against this unequal treatments as whites. 

     The second part of document 2 is called "War Stand Rejected" and this one opposes everything King was saying. He would like to make it clear that his points are not the same as Kings and that he does not share the same opinion. He believes it is necessary to support the Vietnam war, especially with a son who is fighting in it. Simon, the submitter of this commentary believes that King does not have he ability to think clearly. 

     In my opinion this is a topic that can be very sensitive in both directions. War and equal rights are two of the most controversial topics even to this day. I do believe it was a little extreme to compare the American Government to the Nazi's 

Boko Haram kidnapping of 200 Nigerian schoolgirls, a year later

CNN News


     It is a year later since the 200 Nigerian school girls have been kidnapped by the Jihadist group in Nigeria. These girls were taken right from their own school. Although this campaign against Boko Haram is still going strong, much has not changed. There are still parts in the northeast of Nigeria where Haram still controls. He is still killing at a large number and abducting women and children. Some people in Nigeria began to believe that this was just a political stunt.
     All over Nigeria there has been protests with the campaign "Bring Our Girls Back". There were speeches and marchers that were held by protesters of the girls and people completely unrelated. This was a devastating experience for many. How could it be that school girls sitting in their classroom waiting to take an exam have been abdudcted and even a year later still have not been found. On Tuesday a hashtag on twitter began to trend that said "#BringOurGirlsBack."
     Within hours more and more people across the world knew about the situation at hand. Millions of people began to use this hashtag and there was even a picture of first lady Michelle Obama with the "Bring Back Our Girls" sign. It is amazing that an issue across the world, without the access we have had so quickly become known.
     This is one example of a way where social media can be used in a positive way. So many people have access to these types of websites and can spread awareness faster than anyone can imagine.

Michael Slager Charged With Murder of Walter Scott in South Carolina

CBS News 

     Father of four Walter Scott was brutally murdered on Saturday morning by a police officer Michael Slagger in South Charleston, South Carolina. The Victim was a black man and the officer who shot him was white. A cell phone video was taken by another person in the park that was then released after the attack. Scott was pulled over for a broken tail light. The video Shows Scott clearly running away from the officer while he was shot in the back eight times. He the walked over calmly and shot him in the back. He died on the scene.
     Slagger is now arrested and faces up to 30 years to life in prison even the death penalty. Officer Slagger claims that Scott grabbed for his taser and he then feared his life. However there is no part in the video that shows him doing so. This case is bringing up many other incidents such as the Ferguson case, Cleveland and Staten Island NY.
     Scotts attorney claimed that he ran from the officer because he owed child support. He had no violent offenses on his record as well. Other officers in Slaggers unit state that he was in no way a reflection of the unit as a whole. Lawyers for the family are looking to file a civil lawsuit against the unit.
     I don't always consider these types of cases to always be a total wrong against the cop. There have been incidents where I feel as though the cop is not always wrong. However in this case I feel as the cop was completely out of line. This man had done nothing wrong. This is just a case of a racist white man attacking a black man for no reason at all. The cellphone video proves this.

An Afghan nightmare: Forced to marry your rapist

CNN

     Afghan women Gulnaz was barley 16 when she was raped by her cousins husband, Asadullah. Because her attacker was married, Gulnaz was then jailed for adultery. She became pregnant in jail with her rapists baby. Gulnaz was then issued a pardon and released from jail. Upon her release instead of a new beginning she had to marry her attacker. Her brothers would no longer accept her back into the family after what had happened so for a life of comfort she had to marry the man who raped, ending up with a child and many more to come.
     Through out the entire interview she remained shy and would not look her husband in the eye. Gulnaz says that they are traditional people and "would rather die than have a bad name." The two later went on to have six more children.
      As an American we can all ask ourselves, "how could this be?" It is hard to understand that there are societies that where if a women gets raped by a married man, she will be jailed for adultery. Gulnaz attorney said that she had a lot of pressure on her from the government to marry her rapist and carry on with her life. She was told that her and her daughter would not be safe without them. She is now trapped in a home with the man who raped her.
     It is unbelievable to see how other countries handle situations like this. Sometimes in America rape victims aren't treated as they should be but to see a situation like this is outrageous. This woman did nothing wrong. She was raped and then jailed for it. Once she got her freedom she was still trapped. She must die with this man being his second wife.

Why Finland won't be teaching 'math' and 'history' anymore

Yahoo News

     Ever since our first day of kindergarten we have been learning conceptual things and subjects such as math, history and science. Every year of schooling the topics get piled on and the ideas get harder. This is the basis for the American schooling system. Believe it or not this is not the only way of schooling in the world.
     In Finland they never had a standardized test system. That is always something that set them apart. Now there has been a shift in the way the Finish School system would like to educate their students. They have created a system called "Phenomena" teaching. This focuses on more topics and less subjects that will be based on each individual person.
     How this works is each student will decide on an overall topic that they would like to learn about. The example in the article is "cafeteria services." The student will study some degree of math, even foreign language to talk to foreign customers. They then would take courses in communication skills and writing abilities. There would also be options for students who want to be on a more academic track. For example they could take classes on  "The European Union." This would include history lessons, economics and foreign language.
     The Finish want to change their education system to adjust to modern society. They want to prepare their students for the working world. In Finland, getting a job as a teacher is a very difficult job to obtain. All teachers must have masters degrees and are compensated far better than teachers in America. Before this change, they already have a lot of room for independence on how they would like to run their class.
     For a long period of time Finland has served as a model for other countries on how to reform their education systems. There has been models proposed in the United Kingdom and in the United States to follow in how the Finland education system is. However in the US any models based off of Finland were rejected due to the fact that it clashed with the American Public schooling system. Students in America must be required to reach a basic level of knowledge before moving on to the next and with the Finish model the students must have a wide extensive range of knowledge that teachers sometimes struggle to generate assignments that pinpoint students certain interests.
     The schooling methods success rate will be primarily based on what the teachers have to offer to the students and "Phenomena" teaching.

Plessy V Feurguson

     Today in class our moot court case was based of of the Plessy V. Feurgouson court case in 1892. The argument for Plessy was argued by Team Reagan and the argument against was proposed by Team Red White and Better than you. Homer Plessy was one eighth black, however he was so fair skinned that you could barley tell. He then went to buy a train ticket for the white train car. He was then caught by an undercover cop on the car and arrested for being a black man on  white rain car.
     Team Reagan argued that Plessy was set up. Nothing that Plessy did was illegal. He was peacefully and legally sold a train ticket. They argued that if the Rail Road company was compliant with the law they never would have sold him the train ticket. Another argument this team had was that the train cars were no "separate but equal". The conditions of the black train cars were far worse than the conditions of the white train cars.
     Team Red White and Better than You argued that each state is allowed to make rules to separate blacks and whites. Their biggest argument was that they keep blacks and whites separate because it would be dangerous to have them together. They made this a public safety issue. If blacks and whites were together there would be a bigger chance of violence. Their final argument was that the 14th Amendment does not extend to social issues. The status of the rail cars is not covered in the separate but equal clause. There is nothing stating that the conditions must be fair, just that the opportunities must be equal. Blacks and whites both had railcars, regardless of what they looked like.
     In my opinion Team Read White and Better than You did the better job at their argument because they presented stronger legal facts over just the moral argument.

Business can break slavery chains

CNN Ending mordern-day slavery

  When you think about slavey what is the first thing that comes to mind? Because when I think about it my first reaction is African Americans working on plantations before the civil war. What many people have failed to realize is that not only is slavery still an issue all over the world but in America as well. Maybe not so commonly for work related reasons but a big corrupt business in we still have today is Sex trafficking. Little do we know is that in the hotel and travel industries we are dealing every day with a huge human trafficking problem.

  On February 13th a 10 year old girl was reduced from sex trafficking by a nonprofit organization called 180 Degrees. This is just the most recently recorded account of it. The International Labour Organization estimates there to be about 21 million victims of of human trafficking, forced into labor and sex.

  Tammy Lee Stanoch is Vice President of cooperate affairs at Carlson family foundation which is a nonprofit organization. The mission of this organization is to care for the worlds street children and to protect them for abuse and exploitation. Tammy is one of the worlds leading business executives and is also a mother and has made herself an advocate for 21 million enslaved children world wide. Through her business and motherly intuition Tammy works every day to speak out against and raise awareness for human trafficking. Not many people realize how apparent of an issue this still is today all over the world.

Slavery and the Civil War

  On Monday February 23rd in class we watched a video on the reality of slavery and if it was one of the causes of the American civil war. The north and the south were clearly divided by slaveholding states and free spoiler states. Having slaves and not having slaves wasn't the only thing that separated the north from the south. The Northern states started commercializing with rivers, canals and railroads travel became easy. Not only was it easy to travel but banks began to spring u all over. Trade and transport became a huge part of every day life. Meanwhile in the south they were dominated by plantations. Wealthy plantation owners dominated the southern part of the US. 1793 was a groundbreaking time in the production rate on plantations and the need for slaves. Eli Whitney introduced the cotton gin transforming cotton from a luxury to Americans most commonly used fabric. Because of the mass production of cotton in the south there was a need for a large quantity of cheap labor.

  Slaves worked day and night with barley any food and minimal clothing. Many were beaten by their owners, sometimes for no reason at all. Children got two shirts a year and when those failed them they would go naked. Shelters were cold and wet with minimal protection from any type of weather conditions. This is mind blowing considering that the wealth of southern plantation owners rested on the backs of the slaves. Many men and women were born into slavery and died a slave.

  Fredric Douglass was a slave who believed that if slaves educated themselves there would be no stopping them. He believed in fighting for his freedom. He was able to escape to New York on the underground railroad but his fight did not stop there. He becomes an abolitionist working avidly to abolish slavery for all. 

Fredric Douglass was not the only person working avidly as an abolitionist in the north and the south. Slaves themselves were often executed for their efforts for freedom. Blacks and whites worked hand in hand in the underground railroad. Slavery had become the biggest separating factor between the north and the south. This was a huge reason that pushed for the separation of the state and the union. Some northerns worked avidly to put an end to slavery meanwhile this is what was funding the south; further putting a wedge in between the two.

State V Mann

    In the 1829 North Carolina court case, State V Mann; Elizabeth Jones owned a slave named Lydia who she then rented out to John Mann. Lydia was unhappy about the arrangement and Mann was aware of this. Lydia was attempting to escape and John Mann shot her in the back. Mann was charged 10 dollars for his crime and he then appealed this saying it was against his constitutional rights and he had done nothing wrong.
    A few points made on the side of Mann which was argued by my teach were focused on facts of the law while the opposing argument was based off of moral and religious stand points.
   We argued many important points such as during ownership the master is not liable to an indictment for a battery committed on a slave. Also, It is criminal in court to avoid any responsibilities in which the laws impose. Meaning, a judge can not impose his opinion on a matter presented in court. Technically slavery in the state of North Carolina is legal and being that slaves are considered property by law Mr. Mann was not at fault. The appeals court found that the district court made a mistake and the judge had made an unlawful decision.
    On the opposing argument I do have to admit that their moral points were very moving. Derwin argued that a human being is not property as a pen is property. They also argued that when you go into court you swear on a bible, bringing religious arguments up.

President Obama, Christians and ISIS: Wake Up, America

Fox News

    At a national prayer breakfast president Barak Obama called the terrorist group ISIS a "death cult" and compared Christians to the ISIS group. President Obama stated “unless we get on our high horse and think that this is unique to some other place -- remember that during the crusades and inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ … So, it is not unique to one group or one religion; there is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith". This vicious group of people are beheading, burning men alive, even targeting little children. Many Americans, Christians to be exact are fuming about how the President even had the audacity to compare the two groups in the same sentence, especially addressing the nation. He had compared from many many years ago, the Christian crusaders back then to the terrorist group very apparent in society today. 
    In just one month the radical islamic group killed over a thousand people. The writer of this article had pointed out that combining the number of kills made in the name of religion by Christianity, Judaism and Scientology groups have killed a total of zero people. This is quite the confusing thing to be coming from the president considering the claims his own religion to be Christian. 
    At a conference with the worlds most peaceful and prominent religious leaders and politicians President Obama vocalized his unjust opinion on ISIS and comparing that horrendous group to what happened a very long time ago in history with the Christian Crusaders. In reality, the Christian Crusades should not even be called "christian" because the majority of the people fighting in it were not of the Christian faith. This name has been surreally misused and it is mind blowing that the president of our own country would so unjustly compare these two events and the people of the Christian faith to the ISIS terror group. It is unfair to hold an event against Christians today that happened over a thousand years ago, especially by our own president. 

Malaysia Airlines website hacked by 'Cyber Caliphate'

CNN
The Malaysia airline website was recently hacked by the Islamic terrorist group, ISIS. Who ever logged on the the Malaysian airline website on Monday morning found an image of a Lizard with a top hat and the message reading "404 not found" and "Hacked by Lizard Squad -- Official Cyber Caliphate." It also said in another tab "ISIS will prevail". The hacker then set it up so that who ever visited the website would be brought to the hackers webpage. Malaysian authorities have been notified about the hack and within 22 hours the regular airline page was back up and running as it was supposed to be. The airline did however deny the fact that the ISIS hackers got to any of the customers personal information that they had on their data bases. The internal serves were not touched, intact it was the Domain Name System (DSN) that had been act, which is initially what was redirecting users to the other website. 

Reuters

Technically the website itself was not hacked rather than the users have been redirected to a new website. The Airline claims that this "temporary glitch" will no longer effect the bookings on the website and and that the users data remains secure. The quote "ISIS will prevail" was only seen for a short period of time by early on viewers. 

This recent hack makes me question who was behind the disappearance of the first Malaysian fight and why they are so interested in this airline. It can also be questioned if the Airline had a strong enough cyber security company protecting their website. Cyber hacks have recently been a very huge problem for several big companies including in the US. All around the world companies are getting their computers and main servers hacked, some stealing unthinkable amounts of money and taking secret information that could result in the downfall of that company. 

In the past year there has been several attacks on the Malaysian airline company with many threats. This hack has just been the most recent one. 

AP Phone records scandal

NY Times

CNN

The AP phone record scandal happened in May of 2013 and started a huge distrust to president Obama and the U.S Government. The associated press said that the Obama administration for two months secretly recorded their phone records. During this time the Justice department refused to release exact information of what exactly they were seizing in the particular records. The journalist of AP had everything ranging from private cell phone lines, to house phones, to work phones that were recorded without notice. The government was claiming that the reason for this investigation was due to the coverage on the Yemen-Based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner. Although AP does not question the governmental right to question the act it has become unconstitutional to say the least. Almost being harassment. The justice department was secretly collecting phone records of reporters and journalist for two month, honing in on calls from the president of the compony to every day reporters.

The justice department never officially told AP what they were probing for however it was discussed among officials that they were probing for discussion based on the Yemen threat. The justice department has violated some major constitutional rights gathering and then reporting AP news, without them even knowing. 

After President Obama had found out about the leak to the public reports say that he became "incredibly aggressive" towards leakers and strongly acted on prosecuting them. He used the argument that there are no laws in federal court that state that reporters are allowed to protect their sources. However, the Obama administration was the first to go as far as they did with search and seizure and prosecution against the leakers of the scandal. 

In a way this scandal is a violation of the fourth amendment. Although some officials claim their purpose to be based off the Yemen bomber threat AP did not know about the two months they were being recorded nor did they get a straight answer when asked what exactly they were looking for. 

Because technically they information they had found was not going to be used to prosecute AP itself they did not require a warrant. All electronic communication devices are public airwaves whatever information that is intercepted can be intercepted and used as the legal system pleases as long as the information gathered and the source is not disclosed. 

This was a very carefully thought out and strategic plan on the Justice department considering the amount of loop holes they took to stay out of trouble with the law. Although none of what they were doing seemed legal, in no way was their scheme illegal.