Tag Archives: KKK

Stuff you likely won’t hear about at the Ypsi Historical Society, Volume I: The presence of the KKK in the 1920s

By Mark | June 16, 2014

On occasion, I find that it’s easier to steal content than to write it myself. And, just now, I was given a terrific opportunity to do just that when my friend, the local historian Matt Siegfried, posted the following two newspaper scans to the South Adams Street page he maintains on Facebook. From the November […]

Posted in Civil Liberties, History, Mark's Life, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged anti-immigration, cross burning, Great Migration, immigration, lynching, Matthew Siegfried, race, racism, Ypsi immigration interview, Ypsilanti Daily Press | 29 Comments

Affirmative Action is dead in the United States… Now what?

By Mark | April 23, 2014

The U.S. Supreme Court, as I’m sure you all know by now, upheld Michigan’s ban on affirmative action yesterday in a 6-2 decision, with Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting. (Elena Kagan, recused herself, presumably due to the fact that she was involved in the case prior to joining the Supreme Court, during […]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Civil Liberties, Detroit, Michigan | Also tagged achievement gap, affirmative action, Arizona, Bill Schuette, California, Civil Right Act, college, college admissions, conservative legislation, dissent, diversity, Elena Kagan, Florida, higher education, Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Proposition 2, racism, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Schuette v. BAMN, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court, Ted Spencer, the conservative agenda, the free market will fix everything, University of Michigan, Ward Connerly, Wisconsin | 65 Comments

Ypsi/Arbor Exit Interview: Vikram Bastian

By Mark | March 20, 2013

Next Thursday, assuming I can keep the panic attacks at bay, I’ll be conducting live exit interviews in front of a raucous, beer-swilling crowd at Conor O’Neills, as part of Concentrate Media’s moderately-distinguished speaker series. (It’s free, and open to the public, but, if you’d like to attend, you need to register in advance.) Here, […]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Special Projects, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Adrienne Berry, alcoholism, American exceptionalism, Ann Arbor Free School, Ann Arbor Public Library, Anthony Meza Wilson, big banks, binge drinking, Bitchpork, brown people, Canadian shame, Canadians, Casa Jezebel, conservative parents, cooperatives, counterculture, credit unions, Davy Rothbart, Degrassi Jr High, Degrassi Junior High, depression, dumpster diving, edifice complex, Eric Stephenson, Eric Sturgis, Erin Brockavitch, Evan Bicker Williams, exit interviews, Far House, Forest Juziuk, Freaks, Fred Thomas, free school, geeks, haircuts that destroyed families, hedonism, Hotel Midwest, house shows, houses with names, hubris, Ian Fulcher, illegal alien, India, Jambo, Jambo Man, Jef Porkins, John Roos, John Rowland, Joseph Bollinger, Katherine Scott, Kayj, Kiran Nigam, Logan Schaedig, Manufacturing Consent, Michael Firn, Michelle Winkfield, Mississauga, MLK, moderates, music scenes, Noam Chomsky, Oakland, Ontario, Our New Library, Patrick Elkins, Pitchfork, Protect Our Library, punks, race, Raphael Brim, sadism, San Francisco, Sasha Kimel, Shelly Salant, Socialism, Steffanie Stauffer, Sumangala Kailasapathy, The Found House, Thom Elliott, undocumented resident, undocumented worker, University of Michigan, urban planning, Vikram Bastian, Water Street, web development, Ypsi/Arbor Exit Interviews | 48 Comments

Boots Riley of The Coup… on Communism, Corporatism, hip-hop, and the need to beat down scabs

By Mark | November 28, 2012

Last night, I had the occasion to speak with world-renowned hip-hop provocateur Boots Riley on a wide range of subjects spanning from his childhood in Detroit, spent in a household of Communist organizers, to his current work, organizing people in his neighborhood as a member Occupy Oakland. And, of course, we touched on his equally […]

Posted in Art and Culture, Civil Liberties, Corporate Crime, Detroit, Economics, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged 21 Grams, 9/11, advertising, Alex Rivera, American Splendor, anti-capitalist, at-risk youth, Barbara Ransby, Bill Maher, Boots Riley, California, Capitalism, civil rights, class, College of Ethnic Studies, Communism, Congress of Racial Equality, CORE, Danny Goldberg, dark comedy, fast food workers union, Five Million Ways to Kill a CEO, foreclosure defense, fundraisers, Greensboro, guillotine building workshop, Happiness, hip hop, ILWU, independent film, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, interviews, Japanther, Jeff Clark, K-Mart, Kev Choice, Ku Klux Klan, La Peña Cultural Center, labor history, labor movement, Led Zeppelin, Levi's, longshoremen, lunch counter sit-ins, Magic Clap, Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night, militancy, NAACP, Nirvana, North Carolina, Oakland, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Sandy, Ohio Players, Oscar Grant, Ozone House, picket lines, police brutality, political hip hop, political organizing, Politically Incorrect, Port of Oakland, Progressive Labor Party, Prop 21, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, rap, revolution, rhetoric of violent revolution, San Francisco, San Francisco State, San Francisco State strike, scabs, SDS, sit-down strikes, Sleep Dealer, social justice, Sorry to Bother You, speaking truth to power, Street Sweeper Social Club, Students for a Democratic Society, sympathy strikes, Taft–Hartley Act, Ted Hope, The Coup, The Guillotine, The Ice Storm, threat of violence, unions, United Steelworkers, USW, Walmart, Walter Riley, Washtenaw Eviction and Foreclosure Defense, we need a revolution, WEFD, Woodruff's, work stoppage, World Trade Center | 32 Comments

The Southerm Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok puts Michigan hate groups in context

By Mark | October 13, 2012

This evening, I had the occasion to speak briefly with Southern Poverty Law Center Senior Fellow Mark Potok. I’d reached out to Potok, who serves as editor-in-chief of the Center’s quarterly journal, the Intelligence Report, and its blog, entitled Hatewatch, as I hoped that he might be able to shed a little light on William […]