Category Archives: Read Me!

Reading is fundamental.

Splitting The Coalition: The Game Plan

It’s a NOM bombshell: splitting the “blacks and gays” was the plan all along.

I got some push back last week when I laid out the case that African-Americans were unfairly being singled out for being anti-gay bigots and for being responsible for passing Prop 8.  Turns out that the notion of trying to split African-Americans and black pastors and chuch-goers especially from the LBGT community is literally in playbook for the actual bigots at NOM.

Late yesterday, the Human Rights Campaign, a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights group, obtained “internal NOM documents” that were part of an ongoing investigation by the State of Maine into financial activities by the organization. NOM apparently fought hard to keep those documents sealed, and in reading portions of one of the documents (a 34-page document entitled “The National Strategy for Winning the Marriage Battle”) we understand why. Not only has this organization used ham-fisted approaches to attack the LGBT community, but there’s textual evidence that they aren’t afraid to use a ham-fisted approach to court black and Latino communities.

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For You, Who Used to Be – for Trayvon Martin

Internet friend and fellow Ta-Nehisi Coates commenter Sergi (also known as HappySurge and @SadBastardBar) left the following poem in our open thread yesterday, in memory of Trayvon Martin and all the other boys who have been killed, and will be killed, in the same way, killed for being young, male, and black. If you can participate in today’s Million Hoodies for Trayvon campaign, particularly if you’re in NYC and can go to Union Square at 6 pm, please do so.

As I’ve said elsewhere, Trayvon was first his family’s and his community’s boy. But he was an American. He was my boy, too.

May his memory be for a blessing.

*********

For You, Who Used to Be

When you were born,
there was a bullet waiting
in a bigot’s gun.
The first time your mother held you,
the first time you saw your parents argue,
the first girl that bothered you
on the playground
before you knew what you two were supposed to do
with each other;
that bullet was always waiting,
like a guardian angel,
to kiss you when you fell
to covet grace before you and violence most of all.

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Rules for Radicals, Chapter Four: The Education of an Organizer — Angry Black Book Chat

Hello, Alinskyites!

After an unscheduled week off precipitated by some site maintenance, we’re pleased to continue our journey through Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.

You can review the game plan and our chats about the Prologue through Chapter Three at this link.

And without further ado, let’s dive into Chapter Four: The Education of an Organizer.

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Rules for Radicals, Chapter Three: A Word About Words — Angry Black Book Chat

Welcome back, Angry Black Book Chatters!

I hope you enjoyed having last weekend off as much as I did. And a special shout-out to the members of #TFY who met up last Saturday night for churrascaria in Long Beach, where we completed our plans for world domination while eating endless supplies of grilled meats.

Full of meat, plans for world domination complete, #TFY basks in the afterglow. (From L to R) @dvnix, @angryblacklady, @tanjint, @trixied13and @thescottfinley

But the work waits, and it’s time to continue our radicalization with Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. You know the drill: a chapter a week, I post a summary, you weigh in with comments about what you took away from the chapter, or how it applies to current events.

We started with the Prologue, then Chapter One: The Purpose and Chapter Two: Of Means and Ends. All caught up? Great. Radicals, activate!  Continue reading

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A Personhood Law Taken to the Logical and Grotesque Conclusion: A Short Story

This past week month year in ABLC land has been filled with uteri and vaginae-related news, mainly about the GOP’s War on Women™, to be precise.  On the front page alone, as I type this, we have a post by ABL, sending out a uterus-shaped symbol to all the Uterati so we can gather all the anti-women bills that are being considered/passed across the country in one place, a guest-post by @ThundarKitteh on all the anti-women dumbfuckery going on in her state of Indiana, a guest-post by @deaniemills on the outrageous state-sanctioned rape bill that has passed in her state of Texas, and another post by ABL on the postponement of the “Personhood” Bill in Virginia, due to the national outcry that has risen over it.  My own last post was on the flak the Girl Scouts have been receiving because of a perceived connection with the newest manufactured bogeyman of the right, Planned Parenthood.  Right beneath my last post is an excellent post by roadkillrefugee on the real reason Glenn Beck nailed himself to the Catholic Church cross over the whole birth control nontraversy.

By the way, I haven’t bought GS cookies in years.  Tonight, I changed that by buying 5 boxes of my personal favorite, Lesbian Cunnilingalongs (h/t @socratic on teh Twitter Machine.  Actual name, Tagalongs.  So. Damn. Delicious.  Peanut butter and chocolate go together like me and Margaret Cho*.  They make me want to listen do, err, listen to Melissa Ferrick all night long.) at a nearby supermarket just so I could support my local Lil Uterati (h/t, my angry black overlady).
(Click for All Things Vaginal)

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Rules for Radicals, Chapter Two: Of Means and Ends — Angry Black Book Chat

Warning: Hands Will Get Dirty. Proceed At Your Own Risk.

Welcome back, Angry Black Book Chatters! We’ve maintained a good conversation about Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, first with the Prologue, then with Chapter One: The Purpose.

Today we’ll tackle Chapter Two: Of Means and Ends, in which Alinsky begins to lay out concrete rules for the pragmatic radical.

A bit of housekeeping: we’ll be taking next weekend off and resuming the series with Chapter Three the following week, as yours truly will be reporting to the mother ship for a weekend of re-programming by our Angry Black Overlord in the City of Angels. This break should give those of you who have intended to participate, but fallen behind on your reading, an opportunity to catch up.

And now to the rules!  Continue reading

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Rules for Radicals, Chapter One: The Purpose — Angry Black Book Chat

The Work Begins

Hello, Angry Black Book Chatters! After last week’s stimulating conversation around the Prologue to Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, it’s clear there’s a real hunger to dig into the text.

Without further ado, here’s an overview of the first chapter, The Purpose.  Continue reading

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Rules for Radicals, the Prologue — Angry Black Book Chat

Commence Radicalization!

The Angry Black Lady Chronicles welcomes you to the first installment of our book chat. We will be reading and discussing Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, a chapter per week.

Background and links on the life and work of Saul Alinsky can be found here. Rules for Radicals can be purchased or downloaded here, found at your friendly local bookseller, or viewed as a .pdf at this link.

Without further ado, let’s begin with the Prologue.  Continue reading

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Who's Afraid of Saul Alinsky? The Man, His Work, and His Influence

Be afraid! Alinsky’s gonna getcha if you don’t watch out!

Actual screenshot of Glenn Beck's chalkboard (see lower right)

The American political right has done its best for decades to turn the name “Saul Alinsky” into a potent unifying symbol of evil leftie radical theory and practice, and oh did you know he was one of them Jews? And to be clear, he was and remains a great influence on some of the best-known political organizers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

But before he was a code-word and a dog-whistle, he was a man who did a great many things, and wrote about them with style, clarity and wit.

We here at Angry Black Lady Chronicles are conducting a book chat on Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. (Links to purchase or download the book are included at that post, and a reader provided a link to a .pdf of the text.) Reminder: we will begin this weekend with the preface as the topic of our first discussion.

So before we begin, I want to give our readers an overview of his life and work, and links where you can learn more about him and the movements for change he led and/or inspired.  Continue reading

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