Recently by Samhita

Last week, Lovelle Mixon allegedly shot 5 cops, killing 4 of them. This fact is tragic. It is not only tragic because 4 public servants who have families were killed, but also because the retaliation in the black community in Oakland by police will be severe. If you know what I know, angry cops are capable of anything.

I suppose you are thinking what many Americans are thinking. How could he do this? He deserves to die. Armed dangerous gunmen deserve to die. Why are black youth so violent? But I want to push your thinking on this situation.

As Kevin Weston points out in a really controversial piece at New American Media,

If there were a scoreboard that displayed the number of police killed by black people versus the number of black people killed by police - it would look like the scoreboard of the Lakers playing a junior high school team. So when an aberration like Mixon appears - a once in a generation kind of event -- the implications are cosmic.

When police officers are found to have murdered young black men, they are almost always let off the hook, they do not face life in prison and they are not then hunted and killed. This is not to suggest that the murder of cops is justified, but to ask that we look at it within the context of police brutality and the damage it has wreaked on the black community.

The power that resides in the laps of armed police officers is terrifying. Imagine living in these conditions, in the kind of world where you can be gunned down just for being young, black, male and walking down the street. This story is almost impossible to understand given dominant narratives around race, class, gender and black masculinity. It is considered OK to kill young black men, often violently. We may be outraged, but not nearly as outraged as when cops are killed.

I do not deny that Mixon was armed, dangerous, a career criminal and potentially linked to the rape of a young woman. Lovelle Mixon's actions are deplorable. But if we look at them within the context of police brutality, they sadly start make sense. Lovelle Mixon was trying to get out of going back to jail and this compounded with not finding work led him to desperate actions. Earl Ofari Hutchinson reports,

A general consensus is that it was a deadly mix of panic, rage, and frustration that caused Lovelle Mixon to snap. His shocking murderous rampage left four Oakland police officers dead and a city and police agencies searching its soul about what went so terribly wrong. Though Mixon's killing spree is a horrible aberration, his plight as anunemployed ex-felon isn't. There are tens of thousands like him on America's streets.

In 2007, the National Institute of Justice found that 60 percent of ex-felon offenders remain unemployed a year after their release. Other studies have shown that upwards of 30 percent of felon releases live in homeless shelters because of their inability to find housing. And those are the lucky ones. Many camp out on the streets.

A significant number of them suffer from drug, alcohol and mental health challenges, and lack education or any marketable skills. More than 70 percent of all U.S. prisoners are literate at only the two lowest grade levels. Nearly 60 percent of violent felons are repeat offenders. They are a menace to themselves and, as the nation saw with Mixon, to others. In some cases, they can be set off by any real or perceived slight, insult, or simply lash out from bitter rage. Mixon was one and he made four Oakland police officers victims and left a terrible trail of grieving and distraught families and a shell-shocked city and police department.

I don't support young people in Oakland suggesting that this is somehow fair revenge for Oscar Grant, but I think it is apparent that Oakland is fed up with watching our young men die at the hands of our public servants. While the conversation in mainstream media is really focused on Lovelle Mixon's history of crime, violence and imprisonment, let's try and change the dialog and have a honest conversation about police brutality, the production, harassment, imprisonment and murder of "angry black men" everywhere, and ways we can work collectively to bring peaceful solutions to our communities. And I ask the youth of Oakland to hang back, look at the bigger picture and think honestly about what will help your community the most in this volatile situation.

In light of Bill O'Reilly's upcoming speaking gig with the Alexa Foundation, an organization that supports the rights of victims of sexual violence, Amanda Terkel at Think Progress exposed O'Reilly's victim-blaming past. In the past O'Relly asserted that the rape and murder of a woman was partially her own fault based on what she was wearing. Strange that Bill O would be speaking at Alexa.

This odd match becomes more apparent because due to the frustration by the O'Reilly camp, Terkel was stalked and harassed by the producers of Fox News. In her own words, Terkel writes,

This weekend, while on vacation, I was ambushed by O'Reilly's top hit man, producer Jesse Watters, who accosted me on the street and told me that because I highlighted O'Reilly's comments, I was causing "pain and suffering" to rape victims and their families. He of course offered no proof to back up this claim, instead choosing to shout questions at me.

I expect O'Reilly to air this "interview" at some point this week, possibly as early as tonight. I have no expectation that he will show the entire altercation or give the entire story about what happened, so here is the full account, offering a glimpse inside the O'Reilly harrassment machine:

You can read the play by play stalking on her post. Terkel concludes that the point remains that O'Reilly needs to apologize that it is in any way relevant what woman was wearing or drinking when she is raped and killed. Suffice it to say, O'Relly and his team owe Terkel an apology for stalking and harassing her.

Feministe, Raw Story and Daniel at the Feministing Community have more. You can also join the Facebook group in support of Terkel here.

Jesse Watter's the producer who followed Terkel can be emailed here.

Also, last night in full O'Reilly style, he called Terkel a 'villian' for standing up for rape victims.

It is clear that we have been in Austin for 6 days, I have lost my voice and we may have lost our minds. But please enjoy our take on being feminists at SXSW.

Check out our other posts on SXSW music and SXSW Interactive if you haven't already.

Full transcript after the jump.

So we are in the music portion of SXSW and Ann and I are having a blast. The city has gone wild and there is so much live music it is a little overwhelming. I am discovering tons of music and checking out things that I already love.

Of all the bands we saw yesterday and last night, I think Ann and I were most excited and taken aback by female MC Rye Rye. She is 17, from Baltimore, has a female DJ (who is basically the rebirth of Spindarella) and two back-up dancers who come out and dance during the chorus of her tracks. It is an amazing show.

Young, independent, confident women of color tearing it up. That is something I can get behind.

Other music I am checking out includes, King Kahn and the Shrines, Toki Wright, Janelle Monae, Jean Grae, Kid Cudi and an encore show from Rye Rye. I am so not ready.

Having an Iphone has made these last few days in Austin a lot easier. Between the GPS and the scheduling function that SXSW has set up, I haven't been lost (unless I don't have service.) I understand I am very, very lucky to have an Iphone. I saved up for it and didn't splurge on other things, along with having a phone with an antenna (!) until a few months ago. Needless to say, similar to Nezua, I really love my Iphone.

If you are a nerd, like me, you have heard that the Iphone has released a new version of their Iphone software. It is going to add a whole new list of features that the current software fails to have. I am really excited about these new features. But as much as I love my Iphone, I have never thought seriously about having sex with my Iphone. I am going to be totally honest with you. Sometimes I want to make-out with my Iphone-it is just simply a divine piece of technology-but I haven't personally thought about using it as a vibrator or as device to have phone sex with someone.

These authors disagree. Both, My Sexy Professor and Gizmodo are discussing different ways you can have sex with your Iphone. Last year at SXSW I wrote about a panel that discussed the ways that humans interact with technology to have sex. I think this brings up really interesting questions about the role of technology in our sex lives. Generally, discussions of the role of technology (and by this I mean in the geek world, not dildonics) is generally skewed towards male sexuality (teledildonics, pornography, etc) but does the Iphone allow for a new more female centric form of sex via technology that the geek world has ignored until now?

I think it can be said that the Feministing/Pandagon Happy Hour was the best party at SXSW Interactive. We schmoozed, boozed, talked feminism and technology and more importantly got DOWN with some karaoke. Here are some pics from the party and sorry for the slow posting, our internet access has been spotty. Thanks for everyone that came out and note the picture of Amanda Marcotte singing "Lola" and Cecily singing "Heartbreaker" after the jump.

Sitting in the panel right after ours at SXSW, "Can Social Media End Racism" and all of the panelists have agreed that social media cannot end racism, but is in fact a powerful tool to support in our overall goal to end racism. The panel is full of heavy hitters including, Kety Esquivel, Latoya Peterson from Racialicious, Jay Smooth from Illdoctrine and Phil Yu from Angry Asian Man. Latoya breaks it down that social media can help end racism by 1) spreading knowledge, 2) creating refuge, 3) mobilizing communities.

The audience seems deeply engaged with the content matter which is critical for SXSW. I am really happy this panel is following ours creating a deep and complex narrative around different ways that we as cultural and political workers and thought producers counteract narratives of race and gender.

Check the live twitter stream here.

I am finishing up the last of my packing to head to the airport to go to Austin, TX for the Annual SXSW Conference with Ann. We are going to rock it in Feministing style and don't worry, we will rep all of you that can't be there. If you are there, hit us up to say hello. You can follow me and Ann on twitter to get live updates of panels and web-star celeb sightings (haha.).

Finally, don't forget about our panel on Sunday morning, "That's Not My Name: Beating down Online Misogyny," the Feministing/Pandagon happy hour on Monday (that you don't need a badge to get into!) and please check back for liveblogging. I always find myself very inspired at SXSW, so I am excited to see what I will learn this year.

I can't wait. *squeal*

In case you missed this Sunday's blog talk radio hosted by Tami from What Tami Said, I just wanted to put up the archive and give a big-ups to my fellow showmates Latoya Peterson from Racialicious and Jill from Write Like She Talks, with call in questions from superstars such as Renee from Womanist Musings and Monica from Transgriot.

It was great to hear everyone's perspectives on how they got started blogging, what negotiations and sacrifices we make to blog, self-care and blogging, where we hope blogging can lead us and tips of the trade for newcomers to this thing we call blahg.

This study is really interesting (link it to a PDF), if by interesting you mean deeply tragic and horridly upsetting. According to the Times UK, 1 in 7 people find it is sometimes justified to hit women.

One in seven people believe it is acceptable in some circumstances for a man to hit his wife or girlfriend if she is dressed in "sexy or revealing clothes in public", according to the findings of a survey released today.

A similar number believed that it was all right for a man to slap his wife or girlfriend if she is "nagging or constantly moaning at him".

The findings of the poll, conducted for the Home Office, also disclosed about a quarter of people believe that wearing sexy or revealing clothing should lead to a woman being held partly responsible for being raped or sexually assaulted.

If that is not upsetting enough, Jess at the F-Word breaks the studies down even further. and concludes,

These figures appear to actually show the situation is worse than we thought from that pivotal 2005 poll by Amnesty. For example, Amnesty found about 1/3 of people think women who've been flirting are responsible if they get raped, whereas the Home Office poll puts the figure at a shocking 43%. About 50% believe that women in prostitution bear some or all of the responsibility if they're raped.

The article also suggested that older populations (over 65) and what they call "lower social groups" had a higher percentage of supporting that violence against women is sometimes justified. I actually have no idea what they mean by "lower social groups," and find that language really problematic, especially if they are talking about working class communities and communities of color. I looked through the study and found no delineation by age or background.

Despite those perhaps journalistic assumptions made, this data is appalling.

Thanks to Meg for the link and community post.