Leid Stories

Leid Stories - 06.24.15

The Charleston Massacre: A Political Dilemma, A Political Windfall

A week after nine people attending a prayer and bible-study service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., were massacred by a 21-year-old white-supremacist gunman, the nation finds itself in swirls of predictable discussions about “race” and “racism.”

Leid Stories looks at how, in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, those discussions have little to do with actually ending white supremacy.

Leid Stories - 06.23.15

Diversion and Distraction: Flagging Down ‘Progress’ in South Carolina

And now the nation is embroiled in a debate over whether the Confederate flag should be removed from the grounds of South Carolina’s statehouse and other governmental buildings and properties.

It’s a diversion and distraction from the matter that America for centuries has refused to address, says Leid Stories: white supremacy.

It was what informed the design of the “battle flag” in 1863 to galvanize the 13-state Confederacy’s fight “to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race,” as the flag’s designer, William T. Thompson, explained. It was the motivation for Dylann Storm Roof, the 21-year-old gunman who massacred nine people attending a prayer and bible-study meeting last Wednesday at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

Leid Stories discusses the intentional effort to avoid the reality America has known and lived for hundreds of years.

Leid Stories - 06.22.15

The Charleston Massacre: Solace, Solidarity and Lots of Sidestepping

An outpouring of concern and support for the jolted, grieving congregation of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., is helping to blunt the impact of the massacre last Wednesday of nine of its members, including its pastor, and wounding of three others at a prayer and bible-study meeting.

Dylann Storm Roof, 21, the alleged lone gunman, believes he struck a blow for white supremacy in America. (A 2,000-word “manifesto” posted on Roof’s website laments the inability of whites to keep African Americans, Jews and Latinos in check and maintain total control.) But “official” opinion—even by President Barack Obama—seems to disagree with Roof’s declaration of his motives. This was not an act of terrorism but of hate, the revisionists say, and the remedy urgently needed is gun control.

Leid Stories discusses their political sidestepping.

Leid Stories - 06.19.15

The Charleston Massacre: Playing with Our Minds and History

The massacre of nine members, including the pastor, of Emanuel African American Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., two days ago during a prayer meeting has gripped the nation and prompted a wide-ranging discussions on how and why it happened.

But media discussions and reports generally are deliberately avoiding the historical context for the mass murders and uniformly are reporting the carnage as a “hate” crime.

Leid Stories explains how and why our collective reality is being distorted.   

Leid Stories - 06.18.15

Massacre in South Carolina: A ‘Hate Crime’ or Something Else?

Rachel Dolezal and the ‘Science’ of Racial Identity

A prayer meeting Wednesday night at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the oldest AME church in the South, came to a violent end when a white gunman who was among the congregants opened fire, killing nine, including the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of the church and a member of the state Senate. Police are calling the attack a “hate crime.” But is it something else?

And now, the world of “science” chimes in on the Rachel Dolezal saga. An article published yesterday by Live Science features “experts” on ethnicity and racial identity debating whether Dolezal can “choose” an identity different from the one she was born with. Leid Stories discusses the false construct of race and identity in America as central to the science of domination and control.

Leid Stories - 06.17.15

In the Dominican Republic, Mass Deportations of Haitians Loom

Rachel Dolezal’s Racial Dilemma Is An Old American Story

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic face deportation if by the end of the day today they aren’t able to comply with complicated, widely criticized laws the government has set for their residency and citizenship in the country.

Veteran journalist Kim Ives, a prizewinning documentarian and editor of the news weekly Haïti Liberté, explains the history and impact of these race-based laws, which have rendered more than 500,000 Haitians in the Dominican Republic stateless.

The Rachel Dolezal saga continues to dominate the headlines, with new stories highlighting deep family dysfunction. But the story that started it all—her self-assigned racial identity as an African American woman—is in fact an old American story, says Leid Stories. 

Leid Stories - 06.16.15

White Like Me: Race, Power and Privilege in America

In a hard-hitting presentation, Tim Wise, an anti-racism activist and writer, talks about white privilege and how it buttresses and perpetuates racial inequality and oppression in America.

Leid Stories - 06.15.15

Hillary’s Off. And Running Against Obama?

Black Like Me: What Should Rachel Dolezal’s Story Mean to America?

A vapid yawner of a speech at the Iowa State Fairgrounds yesterday, scripted to the nth degree by her political handlers, did little to sell Hillary Clinton’s self-proclaimed superlative experience and skills in international trade. Instead, the Democratic presidential candidate took aim at her former boss and “buddy,” criticizing President Barack Obama’s handling of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and related trade issues, but not saying where she stands on the TPP. (Note to Hillary: Obama’s not running.)

Leid Stories explains what’s behind Hillary’s attack on Obama and her murkiness about her position on the TPP and similar trade agreements.   

The national brouhaha rages on about Rachel Dolezal—the Eastern Washington University professor and president of the NAACP’s local chapter in Spokane—over her claimed African American identity.

What should Dolezal’s story, and the furor it has caused, mean to America?  

Leid Stories - 06.12.15

Here We Are; We Are Here: A Reality Check on ‘Reform’ in America (Part 5)

Concluding this five-part series, Leid Stories looks at ways in which self-created social, political and economic systems immediately can be implemented and take effect.

Leid Stories - 06.11.15

Here We Are; We Are Here: A Reality Check on ‘Reform’ in America (Part 4)

In the fourth installment of this weeklong series, Leid Stories explains racism as an “applied science.”