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So Barack barraged the nation with a $680 billion defense act, bundled so tightly some are complaining about the inclusion of significantly comprehensive anti-bias legislation—since the measure wasn’t brought up as a stand-alone bill, it was hard to veto. What it means for the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act—a piece of legislation which marks the first time federal law specifically addresses protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, as well as those targeted for bias due to faith, disability, gender, race, or nationality—to be included as part of a massive defense act, is still up for speculation.
What we do know is that the combination of the two names in the title of the bill is causing an immediate divide—as anyone with a bit of historical political savvy might have expected—within certain communities of color. Shouts out to Eisa Ulen for her thoughtfully written article on this topic, in The Grio.
That fundamentalist Christians are storming over their perception of a loss of rights, due to the passage of this legislation, is beginning to stain the nation.
Similarly, our own debates are easily tracked, disclosed, monitored.
I’m reaching out for a ceasefire on that bickering, for a minute. Yes, seriously.
Here’s why: divide and conquer is how they do, and we know that all too well.
Bear with me . . .
We do well, as a nation, to honor the memory of James Byrd, Jr., with the passage of this new federal protection act. There are few names that stand out for many of us as quickly recognizable, with such chilling emotional impact.
The lived reality of bias crimes continues to reveal an overwhelming anti-Black prejudice: 69.3% of all bias crimes committed in 2007, the most recent data available from
