I spent much of MLK weekend, including (heresy!) the entire third quarter of the 49er-Packers game, posting notices of a three-page section of The New York Times commentary section.
Author Michelle Alexander has just released the 10th anniversary edition of her seminal bestseller, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness.” It spent almost 250 weeks on the Times bestseller list.
“Everything has changed. And yet, nothing has,” Prof. Alexander wrote in her book excerpt entitled “INJUSTICE ON REPEAT: From mass incarceration to mass deportation, our nation remains in denial.”
As expected, she’s not kind to America’s current king, but she spares no punches for Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
You will find a link to the full article plus a no-password printable text version at NevadaLabor.com/
Read it. Forward it. Repeat it. Post it. Circulate it. It’s so very, very important. Mirrors usually are.
UNINTENTIONAL TRUTH DEPT. Nevada Business Magazine, formerly Nevada Business Journal, has been around since the 1980s. The publisher, for whom I once freelanced in other monthlies four decades ago, has become increasingly right-wing in his waning years, especially when the moon waxes full.
The latest edition of the slickly-produced publication presents perhaps an incomplete picture of Nevada business but a perfect piece of unintentional self-satire.
The only minorities appear within ads from big businesses which need to show their sympathies for diversity lest the media puffings become exhibits in court cases. The only possible minority featured in any non-ad content may be a doctor with a middle-eastern name.
Nevada business. White Guys R Us.
I PREFER MY CROW DEEPFRIED. Legendary New York Mayor (1926-32) Jimmy Walker once said “I don’t make many mistakes but when I do, it’s a whopper.”
Pass the mustard, your honor. In my Nov. 27 column, I failed to delete one word from an earlier draft. In calling former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg a freedom-loving racist, that un-edited word left open the implication that one of the other billionaires in the Democratic presidential primary was like Bloomberg.
Absolutely wrong. Bloomberg’s overtly racist “stop and frisk” policing policy led to the unnecessary arrests of thousands and thousands of black and brown people. He only recently back-tracked now that he wants to be president. So let him go support a decent candidate.
My apologies to the other two big bucks guys in the race whose names I will not re-sully by including them in this mea maxima culpa.
MEA CULPA, PART DEUX. Yes, I know, the annual MLK Highway Caravan did not travel Interstate 580/US 396 last Monday. It’s 395. Blame it on computer gremlins.
THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY. Authors live and die by New York Times bestseller lists. The nation’s newspaper sometimes screws up but it is more often a handy window on what’s happening, sometimes accidentally.
Here are the current number seven and number eight books in non-fiction: “Say Nothing” and “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.” HUH?
I’ve gotta hunch that Czar Donaldov and his minions have been sending the shut-up title to all potential impeachment witnesses as well as countless present and former aides. Which explains why he’s one position higher than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who hasn’t been at it as long.
Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Barbano is a 51-year Nevadan, executive producer of Nevada’s annual March 31 César Chávez Day celebration and editor of NevadaLabor.com. He serves as first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.
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