I’m continuing a Minnesota-focused discussion of political bigotry in action, as practiced by ALEC’s Mary Kiffmeyer, her fellow Republicans and her conservative allies at Minnesota Majority, who put up a racist/steretype image to scare voters about supposed voter fraud and to support voter IDs.

Danielle McGuire, the prizewinning author and assistant professor of history at Wayne State University, has written a beautifully crafted and richly researched testimony of the hidden transcript of the Civil Rights Movement. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance—a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power makes a powerful case for re-imagining the Civil Rights Movement in the South through the lens of sexual violence. This path-breaking book spotlights incidents of sexual assault from the early 1940s to the mid 1970s. Rather than remaining secreted, these brutal attacks inspired community protests among African Americans and their white allies. These grassroots struggles of resistance to white supremacy helped initiate the wider Civil Rights Movement that emerged after World War II and which eventually forced the national government to end racial segregation and black disfranchisement. Also, these community-based networks of support provided the infrastructure for the more familiar history of civil rights activities in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, Jackson, Mississippi, Tallahassee, Florida and other southern cities.

Oh, lookiee here: The Republicans and their conservative allies are apparently planning to serve up a heaping helping of Jim-Crow-style voter intimidation and suppression in Minnesota. Minnesota Majority, a conservative group aligned with the Republican Party of Minnesota, is launching “Election Integrity Watch” to “monitor” voting and try to “prevent voter fraud.” Why do have [...]

If we all stand together, we can turn around a horrific status-quo by putting cannabis in the realm of health, not law enforcement. Persuade our community leaders to stand up and speak for humanity and humane practices. For voters unsure of the result of legalization, let’s demand an immediate cease fire in the War on Drugs, to show that all hell will not break loose.