Friends of Justice Works for All of Us

Some of you may know Alan Bean. He is a Baptist preacher (of European descent) living in Texas, and PhD graduate of Southern Baptist Seminary in theological ethics. As I recall from conversing with him, he studied with some folks like Glen Stassen who have influenced many of us. But he has built a reputation as a hard-nosed fighter for racial justice. I posted the following piece on my blog today, and thought it might be right for our readers here, too.

My friend Alan Bean, the founder of Friends of Justice, has played a central role in a number of major cases of racial injustice in recent years: the falsified drug busts in Tulia, Texas; the out-of-proportion charges in Jena, Louisiana; and more.

His most recent work is being done on a case from Winona, Mississippi. A man named Curtis Flowers has been tried five times for the same crime, but the District Attorney can't get his conviction. So, against all odds, he is going to put Curtis Flowers on trial again. In the meantime, Flowers has spent thirteen years in prison for a crime for which he has not been convicted.

Bean has traced the meandering, strange, and disturbing details of this case for months now. As happened with the Jena case, Bean kept doing his hard work, studying history, meeting with people, writing, speaking, and negotiating, until finally a major media company took notice. With Jena, it was the Chicago Tribune, and then the BBC. This time, the BBC bit first.

Thanks to Alan Bean, a shady case of racial injustice that was allowed to fester for over a decade will now be brought into the light of day. You can listen to the BBC story and read a shortened version online. But for the best coverage, with a wide range of research, you will have to read Bean's blog.

Bean's work is often featured on the Sojourners blog, "God's Politics." Check out Friends of Justice, and let's all learn from Bean. I'm hoping to see his good research and writing find its way into book form sometime soon.

Beating Back Bigotry in Five Minutes Per Day

Tired of listening to anti-immigrant bigotry on the airwaves or reading it in the op-ed pages? Want to do something about it? Then consider participating in Eric Ward's Seven Days to Beat Anti-Immigrant Bigotry. By participating, Ward promises that "you can take a bite out of bigotry in less than five minutes a day!" That's right, by just taking five minutes out of your busy schedule each day for the next seven days, you can help to stop anti-immigrant bigotry cold in it's tracks. Check it out!

Racism and healthcare reform

As someone who lives in the South and who is currently working for healthcare reform, I've been interacting with some people who are deeply suspicious of the President's push for healthcare reform and who believe the myths about it. Most people I've talked to DO support healthcare reform, (of course we're talking to mostly registered Democrats) but they haven't yet been as publically vocal as the right-wing.
Last year during the election, we talked to so many white 'Democrats' in Louisiana who said they would not vote for Obama for reasons that seemed to be related to race in some way. I guess I just thought that once Obama was elected, white Southerners would have to deal with that fact and would be stretched by it once they realized the world hadn't ended because we elected a black man as president. But right now there is this very vocal minority that is behaving as if Obama is singlehandedly destroying the country. This post at Daily Kos has a really good analysis of the racism underlying the teaparty, birther, and anti-healthcare movements.
I don't know how we begin to try to counter this conservative backlash, but I believe that understanding the racial logic behind it is crucial. It goes to show that the struggle against racism in this country is ongoing. In light of this backlash, we need to recommit to work for healthcare reform, because this fight is about peoples' lives.