After 148 years, Mississippi has "officially" abolished slavery by ratifying the 13th amendment. We can assume that what took policymakers so long was the historical and present-day desire to make sure white privilege was so ingrained that formal slavery was no longer needed. Mississippi policy makers, the moneyed elite and - at the time - the vast majority of its minority white population were all in agreement on how to proceed on this important task. The historic sequence of outright terror and new systems of servitude launched against the Black population included mass killings, lynchings, rape, sharecropping, prison labor and forced flight that decreased the majority Black population of Mississippi to a minority. This all sufficed to raitfy a political economy of white dominance that was well in place through the 1950 and 60s. Even after the civil rights and black power movements killed off the last of de jure segregation in Mississippi, a new consensual de facto supremacist system still rules. This system is embraced by far too many people in Mississippi's now majority white population and by its policy makers, moneyed white leaders. It is even quietly endorsed by the Magnolia's State new Black elite.

As Lupe Fiasco said in Words I Never Said “Gaza Strip Was Gettin Bombed, Obama Didn’t Say Shit…” Well, actually he has. The White House has fully endorsed Israel’s bombing campaign against the Gaza strip. Press Secretary Jay Carney, speaking for the Obama Administration, stated “there is no justification for rockets from Gaza.” I guess stealing land, destroying homes, drone bombing campaigns and creating an updated American style reservation that amounts to the largest prison in the world would not be justifiable for those not living in it.

A 1970's news article on Aretha Franklin's heroic gesture to pay bail for then recently arrested Angela Davis has been circulating on face-book. Aretha offered to pay bail stemming from the capture of Angela Davis in New York after a massive FBI woman hunt in 1970. Ms. Davis was charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy for allegedly supplying weapons for an attempted courtroom escape led by Jonathan Jackson to free his brother and revolutionary leader George Jackson. Angela Davis already well known for her battles with then California Governor Ronald Reagan over her right to teach in California Universities after being identified as a communist sealed her image as a revolutionary icon in the Black movement. The article has caught the attention of many because of Aretha's striking and unapologetic stance in offering bail towards Mr. Davis release.