Tagged: greater good

“In partnership with a legal research startup, Harvard University is digitizing 200 years’ worth of U.S. court decisions and putting them in a searchable database.” 

If you aren’t a lawyer, you may be surprised to learn that much of the country’s legal rulings aren’t freely accessible to the public, despite the crucial role many played in the shaping and organization of American society. While the documents are part of the public domain, a byzantine patchwork of outdated government interfaces and expensive paywalls restrict access to them.

Now, as part of an ambitious multiyear project, Harvard University is liberating that information. Home to the country’s most comprehensive collection of U.S. case law, second only to the Library of Congress, Harvard is partnering with technology startup Ravel Law to digitize its legal library — more than 200 years’ worth of cases — making it fully and freely searchable.

“Driving this effort is a shared belief that the law should be free and open to all,” said Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow. “Using technology to create broad access to legal information will help create a more transparent and more just legal system.”

This is wonderful! Thx Machen for sharing this with me!

Source: Hamza Shaban. “Harvard Is Offering Its Entire Collection Of U.S. Case Law To The Internet.” Buzzfeed. November 10, 2015. http://www.buzzfeed.com/hamzashaban/harvard-is-offering-its-entire-collection-of-us-case-law-to.

Destiny’s Child — Stand Up 4 Love (Maurice Nu Soul Remix)

“Senate Republicans revealed this week that they have eliminated the phrase ‘civil rights and human rights’ from the title of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee charged with overseeing those issues. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee this month and announced the members of the six subcommittees this week. With Grassley’s announcement, the subcommittee formerly known as the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights suddenly became the Subcommittee on the Constitution. The new chairman of the newly named subcommittee is Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). His office confirmed that it made the switch.”

I wonder how many people of color sit on this committee. This is not a good thing for African Americans since racism and racial inequality is worsening by the day in the United States of America. It’s the original version of the Constitution that they worship, the one in which blacks were considered three-fifths of a person because, we weren’t….human….and had no rights — civil, social, political or any other type of right that one could think of — to which they had to respect. If they are making decisions like this, it’s clear that many in Congress don’t think racism exists and/or that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 needs to be amended and strengthened if companies like William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (formerly known as the William Morris Agency) can intentionally maintain employment practices, policies and procedures that exclude qualified African Americans from meaningful positions and/or profit immensely by using their control over Hollywood to project the myth of black inferiority onto the conscience of the world.

I guess one could also argue, why does it matter since if committee hasn’t really done anything to eradicate institutionalized racism since it was created. No matter how you look at it, this is not a good thing for African Americans and there probably won’t be another president of color for a veeerrry long time… As stated earlier this week, it’s time that we start thinking politically, form our own political party and/or get the fuck out of this country after we collect our #reparations.

Source: Dana Liebelson and Danny J. Reilly. “Senate Republicans Remove ‘Civil and Human Rights’ From Subcommittee Name.” Huffington Post. January 23, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/23/civil-rights_n_6534922.html.

“I’m the descendant of enslaved black people in this country. You could’ve been born in 1820, if you were black and looked back to your ancestors and saw nothing but slaves all the way back to 1619. Look forward another 50 or 60 years and saw nothing but slaves. There was no reason at that point in time to believe that emancipation was 40 or 50 years off. And yet folks resisted and folks fought on. So fatalism isn’t really an option. Even if you think you’re not going to necessarily win the fight today in your lifetime, in your child’s lifetime, you still have to fight. It’s kind of selfish to say that you’re only going to fight for a victory that you will live to see. As an African-American, we stand on the shoulders of people who fought despite not seeing victories in their lifetime or even in their children’s lifetime or even in their grandchildren’s lifetime. So fatalism isn’t really an option.” — Ta-Nehisi Coates

This is exactly the reason why I have fought this case in the unrelentless way that I have. This case is soooo much bigger than me! I was so disgusted after finding out that my inability to be hired and/or promoted to Agent was not an “isolated” incident and that William Morris has been engaging in a pattern and practice of excluding qualified African Americans from positions like Agent for more than a CENTURY with “malice and/or reckless indifference” to our federally protected rights. I’m not only fighting for my human & civil rights, but I’m fighting for the human rights of all people of African descent (and ultimately everyone) — so that we may no longer have to live in a society governed under an unjust, white/”Jewish” supremacist system that explicitly and/or implicitly reminds black people every day, in every aspect of our lives (e.g.  in the classroom, in the workplace, in the media, in our judicial system, etc.), that our lives don’t mean shit, that we are inferior, less than, second class citizens, three-fifths a person, that we don’t have rights that the white man is bound to respect, etc. They need to deal with their issues and they — not us — need to get rid of their backwards and racist thinking. Their entire existence is based on a lie (the myth of white racial superiority) and this oppressive culture has the AUDACITY to say that WE are the problem! Smdh. Lauryn Hill said it perfectly:  “Unlearn, and let your mind be retaught.” It’s the only way transformative change throughout our country and the world can occur!

watch awesome TED Talks speech with one of two black female Chairwomen in corporate America, Mellody Hobson: “I think it’s time for us to be comfortable, with the uncomfortable conversation about race.”

Dr. John Henrik Clarke — Christianity Before Jesus Christ

“Washington cannot cite to a stack of studies on discrimination that have nothing to do with WME and rely exclusively on them in claiming that WME has been engaged in a 100-year-old conspiracy to maintain white/Jewish dominance of the entertainment industry. To accept Washington’’s argument would be to endorse his racial and ethnic stereotyping and to permit a claimant to evade summary judgment based simply upon a generalized and inaccurate view of the entertainment industry and the talent agency workplace. Washington has admitted that WME never treated him differently because of his race; and his claim of disparate treatment fails for that reason alone.” — Michael Zweig of Loeb & Loeb LLP, November 20, 2013

If William Morris were truly innocent of Michael P. Zweig, Christian Carbone and Loeb & Loeb LLP’s criminal and unethical conduct, I think they would have a pretty strong claim for malpractice….

It’s funny to note that this statement was made in direct response to my following statement, in which they quote me in their Final Position Statement [pg. 8]:

Mr. Washington is not alleging that William Morris discriminated against him due to his race, color and/or perceived national origin. Based on the federal, state and city civil and human rights laws, the overwhelming amount of sociological and organizational research on the topic of discrimination in the workplace, and numerous articles published over the decades chronicling this issue of racism in Hollywood in magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly and others, this is fact.

I said this in paragraph 172 of my COMPLAINT that was filed with the Southern District of New York on DECEMBER 21, 2010!! I knew then — “based on the federal, state and city civil and human rights laws, the overwhelming amount of sociological and organizational research on the topic of discrimination in the workplace, and numerous articles published over the decades chronicling this issue of racism in Hollywood….” that I uncovered between June and December 2010 — that my claims of pre and post-hiring individual disparate treatment due to my “race, color and/or perceived national origin” were a “fact.” I was not making an “alleg[ation]” against William Morris any longer (e.g. trying to discuss the issue with former COO Cara Stein and HR’s Carole Katz while employed, filing complaint with EEOC, etc.) and the additional evidence I’ve uncovered over the last three years since filing my complaint (e.g. “Exhibit 31” and the “on-going” conspiracy to conceal these “nigger” e-mails) further proves this is a fact — no matter what conclusion Gregory reaches on December 23, 2013.

“If [racial] bias exists amongst those who have the power and control over the marketplace of ideas – from our news to film – the Court must consider what effect this has on the millions absorbing these subtly tainted messages and how that influences their views – consciously and unconsciously – on race.” — MIW, May 3, 2011.

My second public interest argument briefly discussed William Morris and Hollywood’s (e.g. talent agencies, film studios, television networks, and the media) “cabal-like practices” and its direct effect on shaping the thoughts, values, beliefs, behavior, etc. of millions of human beings throughout the world via powerful communicative mediums such as television and film. (¶62-69; Emergency Motion, 15-16.) In Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495 (1952), the Supreme Court expressed that film was a “significant medium for the communication of ideas.” According to “State of Media: TV Usage Trends Q2 2010” data released by Nielsen, there are an estimated 286 million persons in the U.S. viewing an average of 143 hours of television each month. (“Exhibit D”) As our nation’s education ranking continues to decline globally, television has become a large source for how Americans receive information. The research indicates that these mediums of “social conditioning” are a major source for unconscious racism and have the ability to distort our views on race as early as age four. If bias exists amongst those who have the power and control over the marketplace of ideas – from our news to film – the Court must consider what effect this has on the millions absorbing these subtly tainted messages and how that influences their views – consciously and unconsciously – on race. [pg. 9]