You know you live in America when the victim of a virtual hate crime gets the punishment….and the perpetrator gets off scot free.

Apparently, the racist and misogynist antics of Phoenix right-wing shock jock Jon Justice isn’t enough to get him fired from his job at “The Truth”….but the actions of his targeted victim, Latina public defender Isabel Garcia, might be enough to cost her hers.

The update from ProfBW over at WOC PhD:

While Jon Justice continues to enjoy full privileges as a radio host after posting mock sexual assault videos in which he made racist comments about Latinas and immigrants while assaulting a piñata with public defender Isabel Garcia’s face pasted to it (see my original post for more), his efforts to have Garcia dismissed from her job as a public defender in Arizona have gone forward. Garcia is currently under investigation by the AZ state bar for participating in a protest against a book signing for a book that supports active discrimination against immigrants and subversion of their rights. “Justice” and others, have misrepresented the events to say that Garcia’s “toting of a severed piñata head of a police officer” constitutes violation of the bar’s code of conduct. Garcia was actually picking up the head after protesters split the piñata open in traditional form. She and others actively protested the incitement of anti-immigrant sentiment and abuse of immigrants and the Latin@ community in AZ which they felt were being exacerbated by the event and the author. Should the review board decide that Garcia is guilty of violating codes of conduct, she could lose her license to practice law in the state of Arizona and would also lose her job as a public defender.

The “police officer”, as I previously stated, happened to be Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arapio, who was in town pushing his latest anti-immigration book.

The message that a decision against Garcia sends, while Jon Justice continues to be on the air, is ultimately detrimental to everyone. What it says about the rights of brown people in Arizona and brown women in particular is clear: racism and sexism are not only irrelevant in Arizona they are supported by the state. No one benefits from living in a state where this is how outsiders and insiders alike view the legal apparatus. John Justice can simulate sexual assault on two separate occasions while making derogatory comments about Latinas, immigrants, and Chican@ culture, post them on his workplace website, and defend his actions through his workplace - radio show and workplace owned blog without consequence. Garcia loses her license and her job for participating in a protest and picking up the remains of a piñata.

The conflict has already encouraged hate groups to target woc bloggers defending Garcia as well as to circulate her picture on their sites. (you can do a google image search for evidence as I am not linking to them.) This targeting makes it clear that John’s [sic] behavior encouraged listeners to lash out against both Garcia herself and women of color in general and that is part of the social definition of hate speech.

ProfBW give out some addresses where you can send some real messages in Ms. Garcia’s behalf…I’ll just link you to her for the details.

Update 7-28-08: ManEegee over at Latino Politico has a full list of blog reaction and protest on Jon Justice here.

Update #2: Ahhh, lookee here….seems that Jon Just-an-ASS isn’t quite as good at taking shit as he is as giving it out…and he’s getting plenty of it….hot, fresh, and consistent. From the Feathered Bastard blog at the Phoenix New Times site today:

In fact, in a recent blog post, Justice sounds like a whiny little bitch served with his own medicine.

“Welcome to the hypocrisy as Isabels Garcias [sic] group DERECHOS HUMANOS has launched a campaign against me!” he kvetches. “Do I work for the government? Does the taxpayer pay my salary? What what [sic] about my 1st Amendment rights? No one ever said that Isabel and Derechos never had the “right” to protest. It was and is still about a lawyer and public servant acting inappropriate per the AZ State Bar Rules and Pima County Policy.”

What a pant-load! Garcia didn’t threaten Arpaio with violence, which is what Just-An-Ass is referring to when he mentions Pima County policy. All she did was pick up a frickin’ pinata head. Even the piñata-beating itself is protected, symbolic speech. You may not like it, but that’s what the First Amendment’s there for, to protect the speech you don’t like.

I don’t really think Justice should be driven off the air, any more than Garcia should be fired from her position. But Justice drew first blood, and Derechos Humanos is counterattacking in defense of their gal Garcia. Justice brought this on himself. And if he can’t cowboy-up and take it, he should consider a new career as an Avon Lady.

Just like a right-wingnut bully, ehhh?? Attempt to shift the blame to the victim. I’m surprised that Just-an-ASS didn’t go to the “She’s a hot mamacita slut who got what she deserved” card.

So now, he’s trying to get Mrs. Garcia fired from her Public Defender’s job for “inappropriate behavior” (i.e., leading the protest against Sheriff Joe)?? Gee..and Arapio’s running around at taxpayer expense (unlike Just-an-ASS, last time I recall, Arapio is still Sheriff of Maricopa County and thusly a PUBLIC official) is appropriate??

As appropriate, even, as faking a drowning of a dog on air?? Which, BTW, was the stunt that got Just-an-ASS booted from his old radio gig in Michigan. I guess that the brain cells weren’t clicking then, either.

What a man. Really. May he burn in 500 pits of Hell.

Update #3: Oh, good Goddess Almighthy……just when you think it couldn’t get any better; I just caught the second video that Jon Just-an-ASS made regarding Isabel Garcia. WOW…this dewd is sicker and more racist than I ever imagined. Just try and get through this shit without either laughing yourself silly…or throwing up.

Make that 1,000 pits of fire in Hell for you, you racist dumbass.

Update #4:Oh, now he’s really gone and done it….he even got Blackamazon to come out of retirement to whack his sorry ass……way to go, bastard. Betwen the Latin@ Posse and BA’s machete, I’d strongly consider taking a permanant vacation…in Chile.

Oh…and even freakin’ Trinity over at The Strangest Alrhemy is bashing Just-an-ASS…with a transcript (pdf file, requires Adobe Reader to view) of Video #2 above. You not very bright, Jonny boy.

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Original Post:

I’m sure that you’ve seen this video going around the blogosphere:

The man featured in this video is a right-wing radio shock jock wannabe named “Jon Justice”, working out a station in Tuscon, Arizona.

The woman that he is slandering in pinata effigy is a Latin@ activist and public defender named Isabel Garcia, whose main offense in “Justice”’s mind is that she dares to see her people as a bit more than just human pinatas for tighty Whitey Righties like “Justice” to use and throw away as “illegal aliens”.

And what prompted this little lovefest?? Well, Mrs. Garcia led a protest against a book signing by Maricopa County (where the greater Pheonix metro area is centered) Sheriff Joe Arapio, the famed “Tough Justice” advocate known for his slightly unorthodox means of humiliating those unlucky enough to violate his laws. Arapio was pushing his latest book attempting to slander “illegal aliens” (read that to mean, Latin@s not “smart” enough to know their place and stay there, or rich enough to vote for Republicans like Arapio and glorify him on FOX News Channel) for creating all sorts of evil and sin on decent, law-abiding (White) America. The protest happened to include a pinata party featuring a likeness of Arapio (including the trademark pink undies that he regularly imposes on his inmates).

Of course, you can say that having young kids beat down a pinata image of an authority figure like Arapio is a bit suggestive. On the other hand, creating a similar pinata image of an older woman of color with all the usual “Mexican” stereotypes; making all sorts of snark about wanting to “take her home with me”, and then using the image to mock the real person’s heritage, language, and gender….I would guess that that would be considered to be a bit beyond suggestive. ‘ya think??

Uh-huh. Try excessively stupid. Fundamentally racist. Physically threatening. And without a freakin’ clue, either.

Dewd…you do know that those people are THE MAJORITY over there, right?? And that if you persist in pissing them off enough, they can unify themselves and wipe your sorry ass off the face of the earth?? And reclaim the land that YOUR ancestors actually STOLE from them?? (Yes, Mr. Justice, that land you assume to be your own was actually stolen from them, not the other way around.)

But then again, given the state of political education in the age of Limbaugh, Boortz, the Savage Weiner, and Tancredo, it hardly surprises me about how privileged right-wingnuts like “Justice” get free airplay.

This fool needs a serious neurological workup….and a swift ass-kicking to boot.

My fellow and sister Headbussas Nezua and Brownfemipower have so much more on this developing story; see also Belledame. Info on the good deeds of Mrs. Garcia can be found here; she deserves the support of all decent progressive people.

I usually don’t bring my personal life into this blog, for the obvious reasons….but now I am so desperate for help that I’m throwing myself out here for any assistance you can give. It will also explain why I have been absent from the Internet this past few weeks.

My problem is basically financial in nature….Ever since my parents passed away, I have been living with my sister and her family (no names to protect the innocent), paying them rent and sharing part of the utilities and food budget. My job makes about $1,200 a month in salary after taxes and deductions (and that includes a wage garnishment from the Federal government due to a past defaulted student loan from way back)…so, while it’s been a bit tight, it has been managable.

At least, until around three months ago.

Then, I was hit with a series of setbacks that caught me off guard: A $500 deductable for an ambulance ride to the hospital when I got sick with a bacterial infection and the flu; then I missed some time at work which severed my take-home pay for a bit.

Because my credit was basically shot to hell due to my defaulted loan and some bad credit cards from an earlier period, I could not get a traditional loan to temporarily fill in the gap.  The only alternative was to use temporary payday cash advance loans, which were readily available.

Problem is, though…..as I got further and further behind and all the financial liabilities continued to build up, I ended up taking on more payday loans to attempt to stay above water….and now it is biting my behind BIG TIME.

As a result, in the past month, they have been taking their money directly from my paycheck as a means of collecting their past due bills…..and thusly, I end up with NO money left over to even pay my basic bills, or rent.  It has happened to me the previous two paychecks….if it wasn’t for the stimulus check coming in last week, I wouldn’t have been able to pay even the rent or some of my bills.

It’s gotten so bad that I am even contemplating filing for bankruptcy to at least stop them from raiding my paycheck….or at the very least, attempting to find any company willing to offer some kind of debt consolidation loan that would allow me to pay these people and get back on track.

I am NOT trying to pass blame on anyone here, since I got into this mess all by myself by mistakenly taking on more than I could handle….but remember that everything I did was done to pay my bills and keep myself under a roof.

Here’s where you can help me, if you can: Is there any means where I can find a personal bankruptcy lawyer willing to take on my case? Or does bankruptcy even apply to situations like mine where there is no business or credit liability?? In lieu of that, are there any programs out there that I can use to help me get rid or or reduce this debt so that I can get my hard-earned paycheck back?? Would credit counseling be an option here??

And as tempting it would be to openly solicit financial help and place a PayPal button here, I’m usually not that kind of person to do that….though, if you would offer such assistance on your own, I won’t object.

I could really, really, really use some help here…whatever means it comes by.  It’s that bad.

Meanwhile…..I may be a lot more scarce here until this passes; because I am reduced to one-hour access via the public library (with all the filters and censorship within); I will do my best to post as much as possible when I can.

So now, Blackamazon has decided to shut it down as well.

Yet another voice of passion and reason…gone.

You’d think that some people would have learned their lesson when Brownfemipower left the stage….but no.

When the hell will some feminists get the point that you can’t call yourself a “feminist” claiming to represent all women, while ignoring and devaluing the valid criticisms of half the women’s population???

I may have had plenty of disagreements with BfP and BA, but they represent, in my view, the absolute BEST of progressive activism; they were willing to stare the enemy right in their faces and call them out on their nonsense.  And they were equally strong on holding their friends and allies accountable as well.

And yet, they ask for and get no special compensation, no A-list blog, no royalty fee from major newspapers…just the chance to see their issues heard and discussed with respect.

But, sad to say, it will be the Amanda Marcottes, the Sam Bergs, the Gloria Steinems — the supposed “superstars” of the liberal feminist Blogtopia — who will get all the publicity, all the glory, all the press copy.

This is what you call “silencing”, folks.

It’s not just the GenderBorg smacking down Ren Ev and threatening to “out” her if she doesn’t shut up about them.

It’s not just the right wing protesting a mouthy feminist getting a column for a Presidential candidate’s website.

And  it sure as all hell isn’t about moaning about a freakin’ book cover of a White woman’s torso, or Photoshopping a woman with a burqa.

It’s simply about shutting your eyes, your ears, and your heart from what WoC are saying, experiencing, and writing about..because they don’t make the A-list of liberal feminist (or radical feminst, or whatever elitist feminist) Blogtopia.

And it’s one of the main reasons I call myself a Libertarian Leftist rather than a liberal.

Because in my view, liberals who attempt to play themselves as the sole vanguard against The Right while adapting the same hierarchial rules to govern those who they claim to represent are as much the problem as the actual right-wingers themselves.

And if feminists can’t handle the criticique of folks like BfP and BA (and Ren Ev, and Nina Hartley, and Jill Brenneman, and other outlaw feminists who really do attempt to represent the non-privileged majority of womankind), then how in the hell can they expect to face off against the full force of the Right??

I may be a man, but I consider myself a supporter of feminism as a movement for women’s equality and justice. But a feminism that only reflects the privileged White few and projects their myopias and fantasies on the rest of humanity is as bad, in my opinion, as the Religious Right, or any MRA creep.

When we as progressives and radicals forget where we came from, and deviate one bit from the basic principle that ALL people are human and entitled to basic fundamental rights and responsibilities and resources to help them live their own lives; then we might as well give ourselves away to the reactionaries.

If a freakin’ right-leaning Libertarian can get that, why can’t you, Seal Press??  Amanda?? Hugo?? Bueller??  Bueller??

Update: Amanda has now fully apologized, and Seal Press has announced that they will recall the book and remove the offending images. Probably a day late and a dollar short, though, for most WoC bloggers, who are openly questioning their faith in the overall feminist project.  The damage may have already been done.

Original Post:

Way to go again, Amanda Marcotte.

It’s not anyone who can continuously get herself in to heaps of trouble pissing off people pretending to be so hip and liberal, while masking a much more devious side.

Maybe it wasn’t your idea to include these totally unacceptable images as title covers for your latest book; and maybe it’s just your publishers at Seal Press being either such tin-eared assholes or deliberately mocking those Women of Color bloggers who have been on their asses for so long about their dissing of WoC beliefs and authors.

But the fact remains the same: It’s your freakin’ book; and until you change those images and issue a full apology and retraction (and I highly recommend that for their own good, Seal Press do the same and withdraw the book until they come up with some less racist images), you will be the one to carry the responsibility and the blame.

Perhaps, you might seek some comfort from the inevitable firestorm from your newly found friends at the GenderBorg Collective….they seem to have taken a liking of you recently. Take for instance, this brief blast by Heart(less) on the folks of “Alas, a Blog” criticizing that particular choice of imagery (reposted here):

On the day that Ampersand, of Alas a Blog, gets taken to task for — every single blessed day – benefitting from the sale of blatantly racist, misogynist pornography on his website, advertised not just by way of text but with pornographic imagery, photographs, maybe on that day I’ll take all of this outrage against Amanda, by people who suck up to Ampersand (and others who share Amp’s views) every single day, posting or commenting to his blog like they have some shred of sense, decency, or concern for female persons, seriously.

…On the day that Maia recognizes the seriousness of the presence of misogynist, racist pornographic images and text on Alas – where she regularly blogs – I’ll take her concerns about Seal Press and Amanda’s book seriously. When any of the crowd currently excoriating Amanda Marcotte begins to take racist, misogynist male pornographers and their apologists to task, I’ll view them as possibly having some shred of credibility, a leg to stand on, in criticizing Amanda Marcotte.

(The background on all the “Alas, a Porn Portal” controversy can be found here and here.)

Never mind the merits of the arguments or the subject matter….to Heart(less) and the Collective it will all come back to porn and its evol male essence.

Oh…and why select a heroine with such a “patriarchial” body type. ehhhh?? I thought that big boobs were anathema to your “hip, liberal”, naturally small-breasted self.

Goodness.

[I'll just leave it to the many responses by WoC to this controversy; here and here would be a good start-up for background.)

Well….it’s early Sunday morning, and Brownfemipower’s blog is now officially passed (Goddess’ speed and much love, mujer)….but I do bring good news.

I had seen that mosts of the posts throughout the blogosphere is referencing my reposting of the excerpts of BfP’s final essay documenting her reaction to Amanda/”X” and her perfidity (is that the correct word???). I was so sorry that I could not have captured a screen shot of either the entire blog entry there or the previous one where she gives the context of her WAM! speech.

However….what I can’t do, Google can, through their Cache feature….and I just so happened to find the cached version of BfP’s final post in its entirity. Just click on the following link to read it:

Brownfemipower (La Chola/Women of Color Blog): Intellectual Integrity (via Google Cache)

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a cache of the blog post with BfP’s original speech; that must have not been cached in time.

Also; here’s a mass linkage to the many comments now running on the entire controversy; both pro and con:

Xicano Power
Natalia Antonova
Belledame
Ren Ev
Daisy’s Dead Air
Kevin Andre Elliot
Plain(s)feminist
High on Rebellion
Sudy (here, here, and here)
Blackamazon
Sylvia/M (here and ESPECIALLY HERE)
Feministe (which also includes a long comments thread where Amanda attempts to defend herself, and brings some of her allies)

In fairness, I should include as well:
Hugo Schwyzer (who strongly defends Amanda)

Also, the usual drive-by shots at feminism and “victimization” from Soulhuntre. (Quick memo: Butt out of what you know not a damn thing about, fool.)

Any other blogs heavy on the current issue that you find, just let me know.