Our weekly edition is a nationally syndicated one-hour digest of the best of our daily coverage.

Audio Stream | Podcast | Mp3 Download

This week on Uprising:

* Dean Baker: Finance Reform Bill Lacks Teeth
* Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity
* Black Agenda Report on Racial Bias in the SAT
* Poetry Lights Up Teens Across LA

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Finance Reform Bill Lacks Teeth

After spending more than a year designing a complex piece of legislation to reform Wall Street, the House of Representatives last week passed a roughly 2000 page bill creating, among other things, a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. While the Senate rejected an amendment to break up the biggest banks, it does seek to push failing banks into a orderly bankruptcy process. The bill also does not force a separation between investment banking and commercial banking, and instead relies on regulation of what’s called “proprietary trading.” While the bill is extensive, it also leaves hundreds of details for federal regulators to flesh out once passed. After freshman Republican Senator Scott Brown balked at a $19 billion tax on big banks and hedge funds to pay for the regulations, Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Barney Frank cobbled together an alternative solution, redirecting $11 billion in federal bailout funds to pay for it. The bill now heads to the Senate this week for a final vote. Meanwhile, Congress has failed to pass any new legislation that would provide significant economic aid to unemployed individuals and cash-strapped states. In June more than a million people lost their unemployment benefits because Republicans refused to approve an extension. And they are blocking efforts to provide emergency funds to states that will be forced to drastically cut services and lay-off hundreds of thousands of employees. Publicly, Republicans argue that unemployment stops recipients from taking jobs, and other forms of stimulus add too much to the federal debt. But, since Republican actions are not creating jobs or stimulating the economy, according to my guest Dean Baker, their motivation seems to be purely political. Higher unemployment is likely to turn voter anger towards Democrats, the majority party.

GUEST: Dean Baker is the co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), author of The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer, and his most recent, Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of The Bubble Economy. He also has a blog, “Beat the Press,” where he discusses the media’s coverage of economic issues.

Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity

With Republican Nikki Haley set to become South Carolina’s first non-white (and first female) governor, conservative bloggers are citing her political rise, as well as the governorship of Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal as evidence of a post-racial tide in politics. With the election in 2008 of Barack Obama, post-racialism has become a convenient context in the national dialogue. It has also accelerated the on-going retreat from race-based programs created to right historical wrongs against people of color. Those pushing for a so-called “colorblind” approach to the problems of wealth, housing, education, and healthcare inequities argue that now is the time for class-based rather than race-based solutions. But, according to long-time anti-racist writer and analyst Tim Wise, a class-based approach can actually worsen racial injustices. He argues this in his new book just published by City Lights books called Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity. In his followup to Between Barack and a Hard Place, Wise continues to challenge the idea that Obama’s election is a harbinger of racial harmony, and introduces the notion of an “illuminated individualism” as a key to fairness and inequity.

GUEST: Tim Wise, one of the nation’s most prominent writers and educators on issues of racial injustice. His earlier books include White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son and Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama

Find out more at www.timwise.org.

Black Agenda Report on Racial Bias in the SAT

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on Racial Bias in the SAT.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Poetry Lights Up Teens Across LA

For the past five years, Get Lit has served over 10,000 teens in the Los Angeles area through various programs inspiring them to utilize the power of literature to change their lives. Formed in 2005 by Diane Luby Lane, the non-profit organization has since gone on to combat teenage illiteracy while providing the LA Unified School District with an educational model for poetry and literature aimed at transforming underperforming students. Over the years, Get Lit has also entered a collaborative relationship with California Poet Laureate Carol Muske-Dukes that has allowed it to compile a curriculum as well as spark ‘The Magic Poetry Bus’ program. In addition, the youth literacy promoting group also offers in-school and after-school services such as the “Ignite” and “The Get Lit Players” projects. Award-winning poet Jimmy Santiago Baca has said of the Get Lit Players that “they are tackling the darkness of illiteracy and lighting the way for our youth.” The program is a model for how teens in school districts across the country can form a deep interest in literature, poetry, and performance, that is often linked to an improvement in overall school performance and student confidence.

GUEST: Diane Luby Lane, Executive Director of Get Lit Players, Taylor Johnson (17), and Aziza Barnes (17), part of the classic teen poetry troupe at Get Lit Players

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” — Percy Bysshe Shelley