Tasty Morning Bytes – New Jim Crow, Attacking Black Women and Interview-free Hiring

Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are today’s links:

Q&A: Michelle Alexander on “The New Jim Crow” “Our criminal justice system, though it appears on the surface to be color blind, is actually working to effectively recreate a caste-like system in America. Young folks of color are shuttled from decrepit, underfunded schools, to brand new high-tech prisons. And once they’re released from prison, having been branded a criminal or felon, they’re ushered into a parallel social universe in which they’re stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement. Like the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, the right to be free of discrimination in housing, employment, access to education and public benefits.” (The Informant)

Why I got arrested for D.C. voting rights “I am not your average protester. The last protest I attended was in 1965, demanding that President Lyndon B. Johnson take action during the civil rights struggle in Selma, Ala. But I got arrested last week because I am devastated that 600,000 residents of Washington, including me, my husband, my children and my grandchildren, continue to be denied voting representation in Congress. More important, I have seen how our lack of power in Congress negatively affects life in my beloved District, such as with the congressional override of local health-care decisions on AIDS prevention and reproductive services.” (The Washington Post)

The Rising Attacks on Black Women Since the Presence of Michelle Obama “The vilification and debasement of Black women has a long, troubled history in America that lingers with its rotten stench into our pseudo post-racial society. Michelle Obama’s presence in the White House has invoked a plan of sorts, by certain individuals and entities, to defy her image by reinforcing all things negative about Black women. Every week there is a new study focusing on how and why Black women are at the bottom of the totem pole in the land of the free. Psychology Today is the most recent culprit participating in the campaign to demean Black women.” (clutchmagonline.com)

Son of D.C. Mayor’s Former Chief of Staff Admits to Receiving Job Without Interview “In a recent closed executive session with D.C. Council members, the son of Mayor Vincent Gray’s former chief of staff admitted that he handed his resume to his mother for a job and, approximately one month later and without an interview, was offered a city position. The admission added more validity to hiring missteps which the administration said they made during transition as well as allegations of nepotism which have beset the Gray administration.” (afro.com)

Man Pleads Guilty to Invading Catholic University Student Group Home “Court documents connected to the plea reveal new details about the harrowing event. Fields, Dayvhonne Sealy, and Akeem Cayo entered 1011 Irving Street NE through an unlocked front door. Sealy and Cay wielded hand guns, while Fields toted an assault rifle…Though the raiding party quickly subdued everyone downstairs, they missed those upstairs, giving two visitors to the house a chance to hide in a closet and call 911. Though the crew eventually found them and put them with the others, the cops were on their way.” (Washington City Paper)