Asian Fans Racially Abused in Euro 2012 Stadium
The Euro 2012 football (known to Americans as soccor) tournament hosted by Poland and Ukraine was an opportunity to tackle social challenges like racism and improve the countries’ images, said Uefa, European football’s governing body. But when BBC Panorama spent a month filming at matches in both the joint host nations, it witnessed Nazi salutes from the terraces, black players being taunted with monkey chants, rampant anti-Semitism and a vicious assault on a group of Asian students.
According to BBC news, at a recent match in Ukraine, scuffles broke out between rival fans and police arrived to calm things down. But they escalated again as fans began to attack a small group of their own supporters. They were Indian students studying in Ukraine.
In the stadium’s medical room afterwards, one of the injured students said: “We were supporting the home team. It’s horrifying.”
“Increasingly the positive thing about English football are the number of black and Asian fans that have been travelling and supporting England,” said Nick Lowles from the UK-based anti-racist monitoring group Hope Not Hate who was also in Poland monitoring incidents of racism. “I am concerned that they will be targeted by racists and fascists and anti-Semites in Poland and in Ukraine.”
A 90-Year-Old Flies B-17 Bomber For the First Time Since World War II
The Seattle Times covered the story of 90-year-old Al Soo, a World War II veteran who recently had an opportunity to fly in a restored Boeing B-17 bomber. Veterans were invited to ride the plane before it became open to commercial rides over the Memorial Day weekend. The last time Soo flew in a Boeing B-17 bomber, the Germans shot it down. He was unconscious, but the parachute he’d learned to tether to his ankle just that morning somehow opened and set him down in a German field. Out of a crew of nine, Soo and four others survived to become prisoners of war. Metal flaks lodged in his legs still causes his wounds to bleed. So it surprised his daughter, Cynthia Lew, of Bellevue, that he was thrilled to be invited to fly in a B-17 again. “He’s never been a very emotionally expressive man,” said Cynthia, 54. “But when I told him about this, he just lit up.” On Soo’s 90th birthday, his daughter and her family took him to the Museum of Flight in Seattle for his first B-17 flight since that terrible November day in 1944.
Once inside the turret, Soo remarked, “I don’t remember everything being so narrow and steep.” He sat between two machine guns while taking in panoramic views of downtown Seattle, Puget Sound and Lake Washington.
Non-White Babies Outnumber White For the First Time?
In a one-word punch line, a new editorial cartoon by syndicated cartoonist Matt Bors, which points out that American Indians were the first inhabitants of present-day America and mocks recent statistics, has gone viral. Indian Country Today Media Network discusses the cartoon which hits on the latest news reports that non-white births now outnumber white births.
“It’s by far my most popular cartoon of the year so far,” Bors told Indian Country Today Media Network. “I posted it today on my own website and got over 3,000 Facebook shares.” After new Census data was released recently, Bors wanted to capture people’s reactions—”whether racists are freaking out about whites being the majority minority,” Bors said. “The idea popped into my head that this being the first time non-white births outnumbered white births is not technically true.”
While Bors quickly developed the concept for his cartoon, creating it proved more challenging. “It was probably one of the hardest cartoons to figure out how to approach visually,” Bors said. ” I wanted it to clearly say ‘Native America’ but not be stereotypical.”
Bors has previously tackled mainstream issues from an American Indian perspective. In 2007, he portrayed pilgrims as filthy immigrants that have “anchor babies,” and in 2010, he explained why Americans have no legitimate argument against Park51, the “Ground Zero mosque,” comparing it to churches on original Indian lands.
Student Placed in Jail For Tardiness and Truancy at School
The 17-year-old Willis High School (in Houston, Texas) honor student whose 24-hour stay in jail for excessive truancy drew national attention, had the charges rescinded May 30. Precinct Justice of the Peace Lanny Moriarty, at the Montgomery County District Attorney’s request, signed an order that vacates the contempt of court conviction that sent Diane Tran to jail.
Willis ISD spokesperson Erin Kleinecke said mandatory attendance laws require schools to report any child who has repeated absences and penalties issued are at the court’s discretion.
Tran’s attorney, Brian Wice, said Tran was under an incredible amount of pressure from working two jobs and was unable to attend classes. To support herself, Tran helps cater wedding events on weekends and works at a dry cleaners daily after school until it closes at night. Some of the money she earns is also being used to assist a younger sister living with another Houston relative and her brother who is attending Texas A&M University. When Tran’s jobs are done, she must also complete hours of homework for the heavy course-load she’s taking.
According to KHOU News, the action to rescind the charges was taken, in part, after Moriarty looked at the extenuating circumstances that had resulted in Tran missing school and because her court summons had failed to notify her of her right to an attorney or to have one appointed for her, officials said. Moriarty had counseled Tran the first time she was summoned to his court for excessive truancy April 25. But on May 23 Tran was brought back for failing to attend classes again. During her court appearance, however, Tran never revealed any personal struggles to the court.
Her case created a national uproar after media reports suggested Tran had legitimate reasons for being too exhausted to attend classes. In an interview with a Houston news station, Tran cried about her parents divorcing and leaving her to fend for herself and her two siblings.
