Chinese Tenants Unite to Fight Corrupt Landlord

Xiao La Jiao blogs about the recent victory of Chinese and white tenants uniting in New York to take on a corrupt landlord in the blog of the same name:

Yesterday, residents of 55 and 61 Delancey Street met and celebrated their successes in holding their landlord accountable to their demands for safe housing, repairs, and an end to baseless evictions. With more than 500 HPD (Department of Housing Preservation and Development) violations, the tenants were living with some of the worst housing conditions in the city. Many had been served unwarranted eviction notices. Over the past few months, tenants have been participating in a rent strike and holding accountability meetings. They have also organized and participated in actions at the buildings with the support of the Chinatown Tenants Union.

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Russell Simons: Hypocrit or Real Reformer?

Ivonne Salazar blogs about Russell Simons’ recent statements on words such as “ho” and “bitch” to be “extreme curse words” that should be banned from hip-hop in the blog WIMN’s Voices Blog:

Simmons’ statement is the first attempt by hip-hop insiders to acknowledge the need to clean up the lyrics, but as author Joan Morgan puts it, the announcement “amounts to nothing.” Morgan, author of When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down, was also featured in the article and she believes the recommendations are “short-sighted at best and disingenuous at worst.” In her opinion, the announcement is an “anemic, insufficient response” that failed to address homophobia and other issues in certain strains of hip-hop culture and rap music. She said that calling for the removal of these words assumes that “all of the violence, misogyny and sexism in hip-hop are only expressed in those words.”

In Solidarity: Sanhati

Rama quotes a mission statement from the West Bengali activist organization Sanhati in the blog Cuckoo’s call:

We are voices of dissent. We oppose the murderous politics of the state government of West Bengal as well as the cheap populism of otherwise pro-liberalism parties. We stand in solidarity, in Sanhati, with all forces that oppose police terror in Bengal and the inhuman urban-industrial vision. We staunchly defend the rights of tillers over their lives and their lands.

Upcoming 37th Carnival of Feminists

The Carnival of Feminists comes out twice a month and the next one is being hosted by Katie in the blog KitKat’s Critique. She is looking for submissions by anyone of any gender on topics of feminism:

The 37th Carnival of Feminists will be here on May 2!

There is no theme yet, but check back for an announcement.