Global Blogging Day of Action for Troy Davis

SJP, at Sojourner’s Place is taking the lead on this and asking bloggers to write about the Troy Davis case in conjunction with Amnesty International’s Global Day of Action for Troy Davis on May 19. Here’s the case, in a nutshell from Amnesty International:

Troy Davis was convicted of murdering a Georgia police officer in 1991. Nearly two decades later, Davis remains on death row – even though the case against him has fallen apart. Davis’ conviction was not based on any physical evidence, and the murder weapon was never found. Since his trial, seven of the nine eyewitnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony, and one of the remaining witnesses has been implicated by nine others as the actual murderer.

Troy Davis’ stay of execution will expire May 15. I encourage folks, along with SJP, to take part in this event by blogging about Troy Davis and his case on May 19 in solidarity with the Global Day of Action.

Troy Davis’ stay of execution is set to expire on May 15. On May 19, groups and individuals all around the world will be organizing demonstrations, vigils, teach-ins or other public events to show the state of Georgia that the execution of Troy Davis would be an unacceptable travesty of justice. We need you to be as visible and as loud as possible!

For more information (courtesy SJP):

Fact sheet on Davis’ case

Innocence on Georgia’s Death Row

Where is the justice for me?

Listen to Troy tell his story

Join the discussion

Hear from Troy’s sister

Troy Davis’ website

The Carnival of Allies

The Angry Black Woman, after dealing with a deluge of white supremacists for writing this post, has come up with a great carnival idea, the Carnival of Allies.

This got me thinking about those white folks who exist in that liminal space where they are against racism but don’t understand how it works and get defensive, hurt, and freaked out when folks point out how they benefit from it without trying. We saw a lot of that on the Thank You thread before the others showed up. I am wondering how you turn that kind of person into an ally. I’m wondering if maybe I cannot simply because, when they read my words, they are so filled with defensiveness and perhaps guilt, nothing I say can get through. If they can’t listen to me, can they maybe listen to other White people?

And that got me wondering if this was true for any kind of ally. Is it easier to understand oppression, to move past guilt and on to useful dialogue, etc., if the person explaining these things to you in-depth is a person like yourself? White or male or straight or Christian or whatever? I don’t know. But as this is the Internet, it should be easy to figure out.

I call a Carnival. The Carnival of Allies. Where self-identified allies write to other people like themselves about why this or that oppression and prejudice is wrong. Why they are allies. Why the usual excuses are not good enough. I figure allies probably know full well all the many and various arguments people throw up to make prejudice and oppression okay. Things that someone on the other side of the fence may not hear. Address those things and more besides.

And when I say allies, I’m talking about any and every type. PoC can be (and should be) allies to other PoC, or to LGBTQ people if they are straight, or any number of other combinations. If you feel like you’re an ally and have something to say about that, you should submit to this carnival.

Now for the nitty — this is how it’ll work. I’m not sure if this carnival will happen more than once, so I’ll keep it local for now. Submit links (with short descriptions) via this contact form (see the post for the form) by May 5th. I’ll run the Carnival itself on the 2nd or 3rd week of May. Instead of doing it all in one post, I will make a week out of it. Every day for 5 days there will be links and discussions about allies, ally work, etc.

Spread the word!

I look forward to reading the posts that this call inspires.