further insanity regarding the houston fire dept

in “what the fuck is happening to the houston fire dept”, i criticized bill white’s plan to skip federal involvement and go with a local “independent investigation”.  9 times out of 10, i trust bill white to do what is right for the city; however, i think he’s making a big mistake here…. and i’m not alone.  as it turns out, he had planned to appoint 2 law firms to do the investigation…. (law firms?!)...

from Law firms for HFD probe criticized:

The two law firms selected by Mayor Bill White’s administration to determine whether systemic problems of racism and sexism exist in the Houston Fire Department have drawn criticism for having ties too close to the city and senior city officials.

The choice of Thompson and Horton LLP and Lemond and Lemond LLC for a contract worth up to $190,000— which was made without input from City Council and did not go through a formal proposal process — has raised questions about transparency for a process that was meant to bring about an outside examination of the culture in the fire department.

seriously… law firms?  to investigate “systemic problems of racism and sexism”?

Michel said he intends to monitor the probe closely and that the law firms may not necessarily produce a report from their examination. Senior fire department officials would need to be involved in order for the firms’ work to be a success.

“Ultimately, this is a management tool,” he said. “People come in to assist management to help them operate better and you have to work with management in order for it to be effective. ... They have to assess what’s occurred, and you just can’t do that in a vacuum.”

it appears *to me* that bill white’s administration thinks that the problem is a minor one that can be taken care of with nothing more than a seminar or three on “how to not be a racist, sexist pig”, which while possibly helpful isn’t going to go far enough in dealing with the problem.  PLUS it gives the appearance of a “cover up”.  while i don’t believe that is the *intent*, perception is important.

Joe Ahmad, an attorney representing two female firefighters who found racist and misogynistic graffiti near their quarters at a department fire station this month, an event that prompted the calls for an outside investigation, said that if the two firms were shown to have close ties to the city, that would be “just another disappointing step.”

“When we heard that there was going to be an outside, independent investigation, we were encouraged because we thought that was precisely what was needed,” said Ahman. “I would hope that whoever is ultimately hired are truly independent.”

i completely agree.  there needs to be a *true* independent *investigation* that deals with the issues that people have faced, including but not limited to criminal prosecution.  sweeping it under the rug, or giving the appearance that this is what you’re doing, will only make people think you are covering up the problem and protecting the deranged individuals in the dept.

rick casey hit the nail on the head, once again, why consult attorneys?:

It has been only a month since I had to explain to this city’s politicians that they could not defend unethical behavior by announcing that they had received clearance from an attorney.

Attorneys are trained to determine what is illegal, which covers far less ground than what is wrong.

A restaurateur might as well respond to criticism of her hollandaise sauce by saying, “I had my lawyer taste it and he pronounced it savory.”

Now here comes Mayor Bill White to announce he wants to hire two law firms to examine the “equal employment opportunity and practices” at the Houston Fire Department in the wake of accusations of racist and sexual harassment.

That’s right: not one law firm, but two. For $190,000, the two firms, who are already tinged by controversy, are expected to “review, assess and recommend policies and practices on issues that include diversity, conflict resolution, preventive practices, compliance, communication and management practices.”

Am I missing something here? Are there law school classes on identifying the cultural dynamics of a strongly traditionalist organization and altering those that are, even innocently, corrosive?

Instead let’s hire someone who does have such training, such as a cultural anthropologist. We would get more for less money, and could hire lawyers if legal issues arose.

Laws don’t change cultures, leadership does. But leaders need information, and the crucial information here is cultural, not legal.

as of right now, the plan has been delayed:

City Council this morning delayed consideration of a contentious contract to hire two law firms to examine how the city handles allegations of workplace racism and sexism in the wake of several highly charged incidents in the Houston Fire Department in recent months.

Council members held up the contract for two weeks amid questions about the scope of the $190,000 contract, how law firms Thompson and Horton LLP and Lemond and Lemond LLC were chosen and whether their ties to the city and senior officials were too close.

hopefully, in the interim, someone will realize that a REAL INVESTIGATION needs to be done.

Blogged, Texas, Current Events, Politics, Comments (0)
Tagged as: texas,wtf,racism,news,bigotry,houston July 24, 2009 @ 01:52 pm

from reddit: an anti-interracial marriage psa parody

This parody takes an anti-gay marriage advertisement by NOM and replaces “gay” with “interracial” to make obvious the underlying prejudice. All of the original audio has been replaced. The voices are those of anonymous users of a social networking site who submitted their voice recordings to another user who mixed and edited them together.

Denying rights and freedoms to any specific group is equated with hate and racism. Work to create a world where every person is guaranteed the same rights, no matter what their race, belief, or lifestyle.

Blogged, Just for Fun, videos, Politics, Comments (0)
Tagged as: politics,videos,bigotry,lgbt April 21, 2009 @ 12:07 am

distrusting the police…

When white Americans are in trouble, they rarely hesitate to call the police. That’s because most of them trust the police. They rarely realize the significance during encounters with the police of their own protective “white” skin.

Many white folks also have trouble understanding the deep distrust of the police in other racialized communities. That’s because they fail to realize how quick many police officers are to harass non-white people, and how much less they tend to value non-white lives.

White Americans should listen, with sincerity and respect, to the reported experiences of others with the entrenched racist attitudes among the police, and the rampant abuse such attitudes inspire. They should also listen to the corrosive effects on non-white communities of the relative impunity with which police repeatedly harass, and murder, non-white people.

In the following short film, Stacey Muhammad’s “I AM SEAN BELL, black boys speak,” black Americans effectively explain their reasoned fear, distrust, and dismay regarding the police. I think that for starters, this film is perfect discussion material for all American classrooms. And any other gatherings that include white eyes and ears.

I AM SEAN BELL, black boys speak from Stacey Muhammad on Vimeo.

read further: Failing to understand when non-white people distrust the police

seen at sociological images

Blogged, Just for Fun, videos, Politics, Comments (1)
Tagged as: videos,culture,racism,bigotry,society April 17, 2009 @ 10:47 am

support for gays is largely a superficial thing

as i’ve been saying for months. 

take this, for example:

Ever since Barack Obama was obliged to distance himself from Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. (and all the right-wing hyperventilating that entailed), our President has been lacking a home church.  To fill that vacuum Obama has embraced five pastors, presumably to dispense spiritual wisdom and not, one would hope, stick their evangelical noses into politics.  Four of those pastors blindly follow fundie “values,” while the fifth might be described as only mildly progressive since he loudly disassociates himself from “left-leaning” churches.

who are these five?

Continue Reading...

Blogged, Current Events, Politics, Comments (0)
Tagged as: politics,culture,news,bigotry,obama,lgbt March 20, 2009 @ 12:48 pm

stories that made me LOL

anti-gay marriage rallies lead to christian fundies fantasizing about marrying pets and robots and, therefore, are immoral.

David Gibbs III, a lawyer who in 2005 fought to keep brain-damaged Terri Schiavo on life support, told rally participants gay marriage would “open the door to unusual marriage in North Carolina.

“Why not polygamy, or three or four spouses?” Gibbs asked. “Maybe people will want to marry their pets or robots.”

this certainly isn’t the first time.  there’s a long history of christian fundies comparing homosexuality to “man on dog” sex and other similar acts: see rick santorum, jerry falwell, mike huckabee, and others.

save a christian fundie: protest anti-gay marriage rallies!  save their souls before they slippery slope themselves all the way into hell :(

police working with the federal communications commission shut down a “pirate radio station” being run in orange county florida.  the radio station covered topics like buying drugs, where to find prostitutes, and joining gangs.

The radio station’s “Street Heat” broadcast could be heard anywhere in Orange County. Police said Senat had been cursing and using derogatory language on the air for about three months.

nevermind the drug, prostitute, and gang ads… THEY WERE FUCKING CURSING!!!!1111oneoneoneeleven bastards

“There are no sentences in this stuff that they’re putting out that didn’t have vulgar language, didn’t have some demeaning language towards women, towards people,” said Sgt. Mike Gibson.

i’m waiting with bated breath for sgt mike to arrest most of the right wing talk radio show hosts, if demeaning language is the issue… though i suspect that demeaning language “towards women, towards people” only counts if you cuss when doing it. 

for more on pirate radio, see this documentary:

Pirate Radio USA is a documentary about the underground world of illegal radio in America, where people play what they want and say what they want–unless the FCC catches them…

DJ’s Him and Her, from their live Pirate Radio USA Studio, take you on a rock -n-roll journey inside rogue radio stations across the country to see why Americans defy Federal Law to free the radio airwaves. On the way see the rise of Big Media, the growth of Citizen Media to encounter it, and witness their showdown over the truth during the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle. See the battle to free the airwaves live–and find out the real price of freedom.

Blogged, Just for Fun, humor, Current Events, Comments (2)
Tagged as: humor,news,bigotry,unintentional March 08, 2009 @ 12:21 pm