Mr. Scorpio
Mr. Scorpio's Journal
Loca, The Singing Dog That Couldn't Run
On the front in the war against black people… Spying on black students in Alabama
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Huntsville City Schools paid a former FBI agent $157,000 last year to oversee security improvements, including the investigation of social media activity of public school students.
That online snooping effort, according to records provided on Thursday, led to the expulsion of just 14 students last school year. Of those students, 12 were African-American.
Madison County Commissioner Bob Harrison said the numbers suggest the system is targeting social media activities of black children. "That is effectively targeting or profiling black children in terms of behavior and behavioral issues," said Harrison.
But board member Laurie McCaulley, the only African-American member of the city school board, said expulsions are caused by serious offenses, involving weapons, drugs or sex.
"These numbers tell me that I have kids with some major issues," said McCaulley. "What I think the board is doing is trying to provide a safe environment for all children."
http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2014/11/huntsville_schools_paid_157100.html#incart_2box
Another example of things not changing much there since my grandparents fled Alabama during the Great Northern Migration
We have a media which is fearfully delusional about imaginary left-wing bias...
Yet, is largely blind to right wing bias.
The constant coverage of non-existent Obama scandals and the over use of Republican talking heads is indicative of this. Not to mention the utter inability of the media to hold the right accountable for their lack of either sanity or ability to operate in the real world.
Why is it that the media has absolutely no recollection of Republican failures and otherwise lack luster performance when they're in charge of the government's functions? Why are expectations for Democrats always set higher than Republicans, and are many times unrealistically high?
In spite of this unequal treatment and dependence on double standards, they carry on with this insistence that "both sides are equally to blame" for our problems. Any cursory examination shows that this is not the case. One side always works to benefit and few, the lie that these benefits apply to everyone (i.e., "tax cuts."
The other side works to benefit everyone, even if the richest few tend to do better under such circumstances, because our society is inherently set up to amplify any overall benefit for the richest few.
We also have a media which is addicted to presenting inherent unfairness and inequality as natural, fair and inevitable. Personal hardships are rarely depicted as systemic and systemic problems are personalized to the extent to include how they affect more than one person. Citizens are frequently shown to be isolated and powerless, as the media depicts itself as a tireless crusader to the rescue.
Information is parsed and emotionally driven, facts are conditional, relevance is nominal.
People don't vote, because they fell ultimately disconnected to the world around them and apart from their own government. Of course, the media is greatly responsible for exacerbating those feelings of isolation from the government and from each other.
The real world doesn't resemble the depictions of the media and the media tears itself from the real world as much as it can. People are "othered" at every turn and no one is ever held accountable.
I don't watch the local news anymore and I see less and less cable news. Someone, I don't feel uninformed by doing any of this. Also with local news, the most honest and accurate reporting seems to be the weather and sports segments. It's kind of hard to distort temperature and humidity levels and sports scores.
Everything else seems to be dishonest and subjective and people just keep eating it up.
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