American Indian Neighbors React to Hmong Shooter in Minnesota
The trial of Chai Vang brought an unprecedented deluge of media and attention to our quiet little northwoods city of Hayward, Wisconsin, recently. Despite the record number of stories written about the event that led up to the shooting death of six Wisconsin hunters, what seemed to be missing was another perspective only miles from the center of attention: the Chippewa reservation eleven miles southeast of Hayward.

Not that anybody from this reservation didn't find the death of six hunters appalling, or in need of condolences for the six victims and their families, including the Vang family who have lost one of their own in the incident.
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Berkeley Celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day-Annual City Holiday Replaces Columbus Day
Bells jingled, feathers flew and chants rang out at Berkeley's 14th annual Indigenous Peoples Day celebration, which drew hundreds of supporters to Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park on Saturday.

The city-sponsored event featured dozens of vendors and dance performances from American Indian tribes across the Bay Area and the country in honor of the Oct. 12 Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples. ...Full Story

Black Voters, No Longer a Bloc, Are Up for Grabs in Mayor's Race
Craig Livingston, a Caribbean-American real estate developer and Democrat who lives in Harlem, has never voted for a Republican in his life. But on Nov. 8, he is prepared to do just that, casting his ballot in the New York City mayoral race for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg over his Democratic opponent, Fernando Ferrer.

Mr. Livingston feels that the mayor has been accountable on his chief concern, improving the public schools, while Mr. Ferrer has failed to demonstrate that he is more than a lifelong politician.

But there is no consensus among black voters in his circle.

His cousin is voting for Mr. Bloomberg. One of his friends, Hakeem Jeffries, 35, a politically active lawyer from Brooklyn, supports Mr. Ferrer. ...Full Story

Briefing Highlights Katrina's Toll on Asian American Communities in the Gulf
Language difficulties, limited information flow, and immigration consequences are among the challenges faced by the tens of thousands of Asian Americans affected by Hurricane Katrina, according to the advocates, lawmakers, and relief workers who participated in a September 29 briefing on Capitol Hill.

Louisiana was home to more 50,000 Asian Americans, many of whom lived in the areas affected by Katrina. Southern Mississippi was home to about 7,000 Asian residents. Affected communities included Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipino, Bangladeshi, and Korean Americans. Many of the Asian Americans in the areas hit by Katrina are refugees and immigrants, some undocumented.
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Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dies at 92
DETROIT (AP) - Rosa Lee Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday. She was 92.

Mrs. Parks died at her home of natural causes, said Karen Morgan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.

Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement." ...Full Story

Edward R. Roybal, Noted Latino Politician, Dies at 89
Edward R. Roybal, a pioneer in Latino politics in Los Angeles and a godfather and mentor to scores of lawmakers, died Monday of pneumonia, according to the district office of his daughter, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles). He was 89.

Roybal, who championed the rights of the underprivileged and the aged during 30 years in Congress, began his political career in 1949 on the Los Angeles City Council as the first person of Mexican descent to sit on the council since 1881; it would take another 23 years before another Mexican American took a seat on the City Council.

"The congressman was a true barrier breaker and a political legend, particularly in the Mexican American community," Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who considered Roybal a mentor, said in a statement today. "Throughout his tenure, he remained committed to Latinos, the elderly, the poor, and the physically challenged." ...Full Story

Katrina Aftermath: Red Cross Accused of Evicting Latino Victims
Editor's Note: Some rights groups are reporting discrimination and intimidation against Latinos in Red Cross shelters.

SAN FRANCISCO--For immigrants' rights worker Victoria Cintra, the discrimination faced by Latinos on the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast is "worse than you could ever imagine."

Cintra and her husband, who were displaced from their Mississippi home by Hurricane Katrina, are traveling around the region for two months in an RV, distributing flyers and advocating for immigrants' rights for the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance.

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Koizumi's Shrine Visit Angers Asians, Again
TOKYO, Oct. 17 -- China and South Korea on Monday angrily protested Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's decision to make a controversial visit to a shrine that honors Japan's military dead, including convicted World War II war criminals.

After Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, the Chinese government canceled a meeting with a visiting Japanese envoy and effectively scrubbed a trip to Beijing by Japan's foreign minister, according to the Kyodo News Service. China's ambassador to Tokyo, Wang Yi, decried Koizumi's move as a "grave provocation to the Chinese people." And the Chinese foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, summoned the Japanese ambassador to lodge a formal diplomatic protest.
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OLYMPIC PROTEST: Smith and Carlos Statue Captures Sprinters' Moment San Jose State Honors Protest of Oppression


Their journey began with unprecedented speed and came full circle in belated repose. Tommie Smith and John Carlos are home, finally and forever.

"Our legacy is here as long as the school will be here,'' Carlos said. "It doesn't get any better than that.''

In the gathering darkness Monday evening following two hours of speeches heavy on platitudes and praise, a statue of Smith and Carlos was unveiled, with some difficulty, on a patch of newly-laid sod on the campus of San Jose State University.

It came 37 years and a day after Smith and Carlos, both San Jose State students, raised black-gloved fists into the Mexico City sky at the 1968 Olympic Games and became international symbols of peaceful protest for civil rights in a violent age.

"It's 40 years late, but it's right on time,'' said Harry Edwards, the activist who had proposed a boycott of those Olympics.

On Oct. 16, 1968, Americans Smith and Carlos finished first and third, respectively, in the 200 meters at the Games, with Smith smashing the world record in 19.83 seconds.
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Phantom Constituents in the Census
A longstanding quirk in census rules counts incarcerated people as "residents" of the prisons where most are held for only a short time, instead of counting them in the towns and cities where they actually live. This practice was scarcely noticeable 30 years ago, when the prison population was insignificant. But with 1.4 million people in prison today, this padding of electoral districts' population figures shifts political power from the densely populated urban areas where most inmates live to the less populated rural districts where prisons are often built. ...

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Will Scattering of New Orleans' Blacks Mean End of Creole Culture?
As black New Orleanians put down roots elsewhere -- some temporary, some not -- many wonder: What will become of one of the nation's most complex African-American cultures?

Pre-Katrina New Orleans was a majority black city, but broad descriptions miss the subtleties in a place where French, Spanish, Indians and West Africans mixed as far back as the 18th century.

This resulted in a rich cultural heritage -- think jazz, for starters -- and a multiracial, sometimes inequitable society organized along lines of color and class. ...Full Story

Young Singers Spraed Racist Hate: Duo Considered the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist Movement
Singers Lamb and Lynx Gaede may look like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, but their songs send a message of White Nationalism that some call dangerous.  
(ABC News) Oct. 20, 2005  

Thirteen-year-old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede have one album out, another on the way, a music video, and lots of fans.

They may remind you another famous pair of singers, the Olsen Twins, and the girls say they like that. But unlike the Olsens, who built a media empire on their fun-loving, squeaky-clean image, Lamb and Lynx are cultivating a much darker personna. They are white nationalists and use their talents to preach a message of hate.

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