MFP Voices Archives - Page 45 of 60 - Mississippi Free Press

MFP Voices

‘To Hate Is to Lack’: Of Racism and Raw Sienna

My wife recreated the “Clark doll test” of the 1940s, with my daughter as her only participant. In the test, children,in this case my 6-year-old, are asked to answer several questions about a white doll and a Black doll. For context, the creators use their test in testimony during the historic Brown v. Board of Education battle over school integration. My baby said that the Black doll looked like her, and that the same Black doll was both bad and ugly.

Sean Brown April 22, 2021

Woman reacting to the news of the Derek Chauvin trial results

MFP Voices

Why This Trial Was Different: Experts React to Guilty Verdict for Derek Chauvin

Scholars analyze the guilty verdicts handed down to former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Outside the courthouse, crowds cheered and church bells sounded—a collective release in a city scarred by police killings. Minnesota’s attorney general, whose office led the prosecution, said he would not call the verdict “justice, however” because “justice implies restoration”—but he would call it “accountability.”

Alexis Karteron, Jeannine Bell, Rashad Shabazz and Ric Simmons April 21, 2021

MFP Voices

In Mississippi, Research Shows Economic and Racial Justice Begins with Affordable Housing

Across Mississippi, more than 41 percent of all renters are cost-burdened, defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development as paying more than 30 percent of household income toward housing costs and, as a result, having “difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care.” More than one out of every five renter households in Mississippi is extremely cost-burdened, defined as paying more than 50 percent of household income toward housing costs.

Hallet DeMouy, Dr. Becky Marchiel and Dr. James M. Thomas April 20, 2021

MFP Voices

Banking Deserts Hinder Educational, Economic Growth in Black Mississippi Communities

The duplicitous nature of the relationship between policy makers and Wall Street opens the door to predatory lenders who prey on disenfranchised residents whose only access to banking is check cashing centers, payday-loan stores and ATMs. Major banking institutions like Wells Fargo and TD Bank have agreed to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution for illegal practices that targeted ADOS and other marginalized consumers.

Leo Carney April 20, 2021

A tall Confederate statue stands in a median in a highway through Brandon, Miss., the county seat of Rankin County

MFP Voices

‘Woke’ in Mississippi: Annual ‘Confederate Heritage Month’ Always a Rude Awakening

My studies of newspaper archives and primary sources, and some good learning from Dr. Manning Marable at Columbia both widened my understanding from the racism in my native South to what really happened across the country and it, well, awakened me. It also made me want to come on back home and face down, and report, demons I needed to confront as a white Mississippian.

Donna Ladd April 19, 2021

MFP Voices

Professors to Watson: Don’t Use ‘Tired, Political Dog Whistle’ to Disparage Students

Last week, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson made disparaging comments about college and university students and their capacity to exercise their constitutional right to vote. As Mississippi college professors and advocates for good government, we are disappointed by Secretary Watson’s statements and condemn them in no uncertain terms.

Robert Luckett, Nathan Shrader, Karen Aderer, Dick Conville and Michael Forster April 16, 2021

MFP Voices

Former Governor: Mr. Watson Tips Hand When He Disparages ‘Woke’ Voters and Students

Recently, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson said that the United States would suffer if more “woke” and “uninformed” college students are registered to vote under President Biden’s executive order on voting which, Watson claimed, included “automatic voter registration.” There are so many wrong things about this statement, it’s hard to know where to start, former Mississippi Gov. and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus writes.

Ray Mabus April 15, 2021

James Meredith in the March Against Fear

MFP Voices

‘The Joker Up There’: Meredith Marchers Confronted Unjust Confederate Statues in 1966

The protest against Confederate monuments as symbols of racial injustice is not new. It is also not new to Mississippi. As Karen Cox describes in her new book, “No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice,” that protest was front and center in 1966 during the now infamous Meredith March in Mississippi. Here is an excerpt from her book about protests against statues in Grenada, Greenwood and Belzoni during James Meredith’s 1966 “March Against Fear.”

Karen L. Cox April 13, 2021

MFP Voices

A Dream Deferred: The Lasting Legacy of Racist Redlining in Mississippi and the Deep South

A region marked by a history of racial violence and targeted exclusionary policies like redlining continues to see widening racial homeownership disparities. The U.S. government agency, Home Owners Loan Corporation introduced redlining in 1935, when it drew literal red lines on maps to delineate the perceived riskiness of making mortgage loans, and in fact directed lenders to “refuse to make loans in these areas [or] only on a conservative basis.”

Calandra Davis and Sara Miller April 8, 2021

Category: MFP Voices

‘To Hate Is to Lack’: Of Racism and Raw Sienna

Why This Trial Was Different: Experts React to Guilty Verdict for Derek Chauvin

Banking Deserts Hinder Educational, Economic Growth in Black Mississippi Communities

‘Woke’ in Mississippi: Annual ‘Confederate Heritage Month’ Always a Rude Awakening

Professors to Watson: Don’t Use ‘Tired, Political Dog Whistle’ to Disparage Students

Former Governor: Mr. Watson Tips Hand When He Disparages ‘Woke’ Voters and Students

‘The Joker Up There’: Meredith Marchers Confronted Unjust Confederate Statues in 1966

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