More Thoughts On The Non-Racialism And Post-Race Postures

Of late, I have been thinking/writing here about racialization and the positioning of race/ism in the post-postapartheid, or rather the post-transitional, era.

My purpose is an attempt at theorizing what the processes of racialization look like for the further purpose of understanding how race, inside of its multiple meanings, transitions in the so called political field of non-racialism.

In the US the election of Obama is said by many to usher the so called post-racial era.

Non-racialism and post-racial are both grounded by a similar set of socio-political assumptions.

Both, for example, assume that race can be legally reduced to narrow, even eliminate, the centrality of race in post-settler societies like South Africa and the United States.

In so doing, the assumption is carried further to reorient race, not eliminate race, to appear as a largely benign matter of socio-cultural association.

What hardly disappears though is the centrality of race as an ongoing structural reality even as racializations take on varied meaning(s).

In short, race is a fluid a concept even as it remains fixed as an imagined reality.

Nothing about race is organic, or real. And for this reason there is more than a little irony in manifesting a non-racial/post-racial moment in human history.

Still, post-settler societies, in particular, seem fixated to prove that a constructed tool of oppression, and vehicle of privilege, can be decontextualized or deconstructed to be universally progressive.

In thinking about this contested terrain I was struck by Professor Victor M. Rodriguez Domínguez's theorization of the "Imagined Latino Community" and its implications Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a self-defined Latina, to the US Supreme Court.

Domínguez writes in his article Judge Sonia Sotomayor: Racialization, Ideology and the “Imagined Latino Community” that:

The media that focuses on the Latino communities in the United States has contributed to a pervasive misperception that exists about who Mexicans, Puerto Rican, Cubans, Salvadorians and other groups of Latin American descent are in the larger context of United States society. While the Anglo media has always perpetuated stereotypes about “latinos,” the “latino” media, in order to expand its markets beyond the ethnic niches of the various Latin-American origin groups, has also contributed to the idea that all Latin-American origin groups are alike. While there are many similarities among these groups there are also significant differences that are revealed in the discourse about the selection of a second generation Puerto Rican to be the first “latina” in the Supreme Court.

It is ironic that this process of racialization (erasure of the cultural and historical differences between ethnic groups) that has created a “Latino” pseudo-racial group is occurring at a time when a color-blind ideology is dominant in political, legal and pedagogical discourse in the United States. Although race is still the essential pivot around which American society is constructed and its hierarchies developed, the courts, politicians and the educational system are negating the role of race and racism in the inequalities that persist in our society. This ideology is so prevalent that it has become common sense and unexamined and is dominating our most important institutions. In the educational system, for example, Janet Schoefield, in study done in a school in 2001, revealed that white students did not know Martin Luther King was an African American. The courts have narrowed the use of race in redressing racial inequalities and politicians do not dare utter the word racism in the public sphere ...

The recent election of President Barack Obama has led many to talk about a “post-racial” United States. Yet, the same inequalities exist, the same hate crimes exist and children of the various Latin American heritages continue attending substandard and underfinanced schools. Recently, evidence suggests we may be at the dawn of a new “post-racial” “Latino” politics emerging across the nation. Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa has increasingly distanced himself from appearing too ethnic, ...

This passage points to the layered complexity and persistence of race as it appears inside of Obama's "post-race" nonsense and it is similarly relevant for post-postapartheid South Africa.

The critique is obviously not complete. What is needed now (to begin) is to take stock of and to interrogate the structural forces that reposition/replicate race and its destructive commonsense.

And so it goes ... still.

Onward!

"Must Brown People Be Martyred For Americans To Be Motivated?"

"Why must we see an Iranian woman die on a city street in order to understand the gravity of the country's political upheaval? Why must we see brown bodies bloated and floating to give a damn about the tsunami in Myanmar or the hurricane in New Orleans? Why did we have to see Oscar Grant killed in cold blood by police on a BART platform to talk about racism and the justice system? Why did it take the mangled body of 14-year-old Emmitt Till to give America an inkling of the tyranny and danger that black folks faced in the South every day?

I think Americans are fetishizing video of Neda Soltani's death in a way they would not if she were a young, blonde, American college student shot down on an American street. We do not need to see the lifeless bodies of those women in order to care for them. But people like Neda owe access to their deaths so Americans can access their own humanity.

Isn't there something wrong with this?"

Read the rest of this thought provoking post at "What Tami Said".

SIDENOTE: I came across the post above after reading a post by Fatemah at Muslimah Media Watch entitled "There Will be Blood: Neda Agha Soltan’s Post-Mortem Image in the Media".

Fatemah rightly questions the manner that Neda Soltan's dying image is being used in the Western media. She writes:

"Neda is represented as a corpse just as often as she is represented the way any murdered American woman would be: alive and smiling, usually in a picture given to the media by her family or friends ...

Aside from the talk that she is a martyr for Iran’s opposition movement, many in the West are using her death to educate themselves about Iran’s current crisis, viewing Iran through a lens of violence and cruelty, which many add to their current knowledge of the country as repressive, backward, and unsafe for Americans. Neda’s death may help Iranians band closer together and become stronger in their fight for a government that treats them with respect, but here in the West, her lifeless body is little more than another reminder of the instability and danger of 'over there'.

What difference has her death made here in the West?"

What speaks loudly to me in both posts above is that Nadia Soltan is made to disappear in acts of media erasure that sell her death/murder to the prejudicial whims of largely ignorant Americans, in particular.

By obscuring/erasing Ms. Soltan her complexity, and the politics around her, is framed and made accessible for a prejudicial mindset that is contained by a long history of imperial reductionism.

Nadia Soltan was an innocent no doubt. But so are the 40 plus Pakistani innocent civilians the US massacred in northwest Pakistan two days ago.

Who speaks for these 'faceless' people? Where is the outcry in the US media and its citizenry?

Mathew Cassell in an article in The Electronic Intifada entitled "The Western Media and Iran" puts it aptly when he writes:

"The US media often celebrate themselves as the "freest and fairest" in the world, completely independent of a state unlike, for example, the media in Iran. Yet, an astute observer will notice that the US media generally choose stories and cover them in a way that play directly into the US's global agenda.

Who decides whether or not a particular issue is "newsworthy?" One would think that this is the role of the media, to cover issues like conflict or rights abuses as they happen around the world. Although, it seems this isn't the case. Most Western media appear to follow their government's lead when focusing on different issues and then cover them in a way fitting with the government's position, hence the complete domination of events in Iran in nearly every single Western media outlet and the overwhelmingly positive portrayal of the protestors and the opposition as just. The current case of Iran makes it clear that it is governments who are directing the media's coverage, instead of the actual news organizations themselves."

Now what say you?

Onward!

Top Image Credit
Bottom Image Credit

Roxanne Hillier Loses Her Appeal In the UAE (SEE JULY 23 UPDATE BELOW: ROXANNE FREED!!)

I just read an update on a Facebook support page for Roxanne Hillier that says her appeal against a three month sentence for "sex out of wedlock" was turned down.

The man she was accused of having sex with, her Emeriti employer, was however released. I do not know why he was released but the fact that Roxanne is still in jail and he is not raises serious questions about the bona fides in this case.

As such, there is even a greater need for the South African government to step-up and intervene on Roxanne's behalf. What more is needed to prod our government into action?

The appeals court's decision makes me wonder about the politics at play in this case.

I think it probably reasonable to assume that the UAE does not want to 'lose face' in this case and so they would rather keep Roxanne imprisoned.

The South African authorities in the UAE are most likely just treading water and hoping the case would just disappear from view. Afterall, South Africa would not want to offend the UAE and, thereby, threaten any economic and diplomatic interests.

I expect that Roxanne's case will not be the last of its kind in the UAE. For some reason there is an obvious 'need' to showcase vigilance over what is defined and legislated as immoral and illegal relationships between unmarried men and women.

There is nothing Islamic about this kind of meddling and totalitarian abuse, particularly, as it relates to Roxanne's rights as a non-Muslim.

My reading of the Sharia (Islamic law) is clear on the fact that Islam does not seek to legislate the sexuality of non-Muslims. In this context, and aside from Roxanne's plea of not guilty, the case should be set aside as a mistrail because the Sharia does not apply to non-Muslims even where they live and work in an Islamic principality or state.

However, this case is not about the Sharia. This case is about the UAE and its ambitions to embrace modernity and balance the consequences against historical and soco-cultural hang-ups that belong in a time long long ago.

The right, moral, and just thing to do would be to declare a mistrail and set aside Roxanne's conviction.

As it stands now, it is abundantly clear that she is being persecuted for reasons that have very little standing in the merits of the case that has been constructed around her or the Sharia that the UAE should seek to respect and uphold.

If you need to catch-up on Roxanne's case see my previous post here. Be sure to read the comments section for contributions from Roxanne's father, Freddie Hillier.

Onward!

UPDATE: June 22, 2009. 8:01pm (SA time)

Freddie Hillier left a comment here and I want to highlight a part of what he wrote:

"I would like to point out the strange fact, that her boss was acquitted on the charge of having sex with her, but she was convicted on both charges. In other words he did not have sex with her, but she had sex with him! I fail to understand that, let alone how one can call that justice. ..."

Try wrapping your head around this!

If anyone is still unconvinced that Roxanne is being unfairly persecuted then surely the revelation above is more than enough to prove her innocence and more.

How can this young woman be guilty of having sex with a man the same court has decided did not have sex with her? Where is the sense in this contrived justice?

Nowhere is the answer!

If you are reading here and are incensed by Roxanne's situation then forward this post and visit her Facebook page so that more and more folks can know what the UAE is doing.

UPDATE: June 23, 2009, 10:31pm (SA time)

SIGN ONLINE PETITION TO FREE ROXANNE HILLIER FROM PRISON IN THE UAE

UPDATE: July 23, 2009, 9:10pm (SA time) I just received an email from Freddie Hillier and he informed me that Roxanne has been freed. The authorities are also not following through on their deportation order but Roxanne is most likely leaving the UAE in the next couple of days.

I do not know too much more but it is wonderful news indeed!

UPDATE: August 6, 2009, 12.05pm (SA Time) Freddie Hiller assures me that Roxanne is doing well alongside her mom, Ina, and extended family in South Africa. Roxanne will be doing an interview with Carte Blance on MNET this coming Sunday (August 9, at 7pm).

I think that one can view Carte Blance programs online too.

Onward!

Happy Birthday Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 14 birthdays under detention and house arrest. Starting today, protests are being staged all across the world to mark her 64th birthday.

She will spend her birthday in solitary confinement at Insein Prison in Myanmar (Burma). Her so called trial will resume on June 26.

Pictured below are Filipino supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi who staged a protest outside the Myanmar embassy in Manila today.

Onward!

Picture Credit

"Quarter Of Men In South Africa Admit Rape, Survey Finds"

by David Smith in Johannesburg
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 17 June 2009 19.24 BST

One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence.

Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.

South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.

The study into rape and HIV, by the country's Medical Research Council (MRC), asked men to tap their answers into a Palm Pilot device to guarantee anonymity. The method appears to have produced some unusually frank responses.

Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried out the research, said: "We have a very, very high prevalence of rape in South Africa. I think it is down to ideas about masculinity based on gender hierarchy and the sexual entitlement of men. It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."

Read the rest of the article here.

SIDENOTE: It is a shocking statistic but hardly surprising. South Africa is a very violent country and rape is all about violence.

I expect though that there will be questions about the assertion that the statistic is "rooted in an African ideal of manhood." Can it be so straightforward?

What say you?

Onward!

Buddha On Truth, Peace, and Joy

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."

"Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without."

"We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them."

Onward!

Picture Credit

"Australian Aboriginal Prisoner 'Cooked To Death' In Van"

Toni O'Loughlin in Sydney
guardian.co.uk
Sunday 14 June 2009 13.50 BST

"A coroner has found that an Aboriginal man was "cooked to death" after he spent four hours in the back of a security van in searing heat with no air conditioning as it drove across the goldfields of south-west Australia.

The 46-year-old Aboriginal elder suffered third degree burns after collapsing in the heat and falling to the floor of the van while it travelled 250 miles from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in 47C heat.

Ward, whose first name cannot be used because of an Aboriginal cultural prohibition that forbids relatives from naming their dead, had been arrested a day earlier in January 2008 for drink driving.

He was given 600ml (one pint) of water before boarding the van but the coroner found he died before he could finish drinking it.

His body temperature was so high that when he arrived unconscious at Kalgoorlie hospital, medical staff could not cool his body down, despite giving him an ice bath. He also had a cut on his head from falling in the van and a third-degree burn to his stomach from lying on the vehicle's hot metal floor."

Read the rest of the article here.

SIDENOTE: I cannot believe that these fools left Mr. Ward in 47c heat for 4 hours. How absolutely inhumane. They most likely just overlooked his humanity.

May the Great Spirit rest his soul and bring relief to his loved ones.

Onward!
Ridwan

YFM 99.2 Wants To Hire A Hip "White Boy"

In South Africa the issues of race, racialization, and racism are mostly debated in terms that are framed by the transition from apartheid and its official narrative.

This framing has become the Gramscian-like commonsense that is used to contextualize race and racism in the postapartheid moment.

What is disturbing is the mainstream emphasis in both the public and private spheres to keep intact the faulty assumptions of what constitutes a race, or rather its racial make-up (racialization).

Race, for the most part, is assumed to be biological in its function and presentation (phenotype) and this biological essentialism is replicated in terms that relate to culture and even religion.

Race as biology is the easy terrain but the latter is somewhat complicated.

What I mean to say is that it is quite easy to racialize someone/group into categories that privilege phenotypical traits like skin colour or hair texture.

What is more difficult is the process of defining race culturally. What makes culture white, Indian, coloured, black, or African, for example?

In popular culture discourse there is the often misguided notion that music, among other art forms, can be categorized by race. Such categorization is often cited in relationship to who listens to what and what is produced by whom.

It is a slippery slope of miscalculations and assumptions that illustrate how race is essentialized and packaged for consumption in race-centred societies.

The intersections to which I allude here came to the fore for me when I read about a local radio station that is self-defined as black and young. It seems that the brains trust behind YFM 99.2 has decided that its brand of hip young black music/culture can do with hiring a “young white boy” as a permanent presenter.

YFM claims that that this new “white boy” will be an Affirmative Action (AA) hire and, thereby, illustrate the station’s commitment to AA.

Of course YFM is full of marketing sh*t to put it mildly. They claim that the new “white boy”, and they prefer a male over a female hire, must be hip to “black culture and know some black language”.

The contrived and racist assertion in this bullsh*t is that ‘everyday’ “white-boys” (and all white women) need not apply.

The YFM episode and the Ignition one I discuss below beckon an entry point for a wider and more nuanced interrogation of race and racism in the postapartheid moment.

There is a need to appreciate, and theorize, a fuller understanding of how public and private entities market racialization(s) and race for capitalist consumption.

YFM’s advert is not just a joke because it advances the twaddle that a race quota is progressive, even hip.

Behind YFM’s racist audacity is a disturbing commonsense that confines postapartheid race relations to flippant cosmetic racial engineering that seeks to meet the demands of the market (they say that some whites listen to their station making a white hire a good business decision too).

Having grown up in the era of official apartheid I am struck at how similar this sounds to the kinds of advertisements that characterized the employment smalls of old. Who can forget adverts that sought to employ “whites only” or “Europeans” or “Natives”?

Damn. How far have we progressed hey?

I am listening ;)

Onward!

Racializing Cars

A few months ago I was watching a car show entitled Ignition on Summit TV (channel 412) when I heard the show's main presenter, Marius Roberts, comment that the 2009 Honda Civic under review was somewhat gaudy and loud.

Morgan Naidu, a regular car journalist on the show who happens to be of Indian ancestry, disagreed with Roberts’ opinion saying that he quite liked the look of the car.

Roberts immediately replied by saying that that he could not trust Naidu’s opinion because he was an Indian.

Naidu did not take issue with the comment but instead laughed and the moment passed quickly.

The implication of Roberts’s comment disturbed my consciousness because of its racist implications. At the most basic level he reduced all Indians to a stereotype and then applied that image to racialize Naidu’s opinion.

Naidu’s opinion as a respected car journalist was made secondary to the stereotype that characterizes Indians as folk who love loud and gaudy colours and textures.

I decided to write to the show and lodge a complaint. I pointed out that it was racist to describe and comment on cars in a manner that relate to racist stereotypes.

My critique was mostly lost on all the parties concerned, including Morgan Naidu.

The show’s producer and regular reviewer, Lindsay Vine, responded to me by saying that I did not understand the friendly banter between the hosts and that there was no intention to offend viewers.

She missed the point, and grossly so.

Vine, a young white woman, went on to say that Naidu was not offended by Roberts’ comment and the whole issue should be seen as “satire”.

Huh?

I am still not laughing.

Roberts apologised for his comment by saying that he did not mean to offend anyone but he did not deal directly with my critique. Naidu added a comment that called for being cautious about viewers who may not understand the “dynamics” of the show.

I let the issue go because frankly we were going nowhere.

I did, however, point out in a closing email that Naidu cannot speak for all Indians in the same way that Roberts cannot racialize a car to fit a stereotype no matter how funny he may think his view may be.

I said all of this knowing that they were probably just happy to see the end of my communication. I mentioned the episode to several friends and colleagues and most of them just shrugged their shoulders.

That is the way things roll for the most part was the general consensus. “There really is little reason to get worked up about these things because you will go mad”, a good friend cautioned me.

I disagree with that sentiment and thinking. There is a need to confront in the spirit of struggle against racist excess and racism, sexism, classism, and ageism, of course.

Onward!

Some Thoughts on Postapartheid Racialization(s)

For all the talk about creating a non-racial postapartheid society there is actually very little to suggest that South Africa is anything but a thoroughly racialized nation-state.

In fact, if the political move from white rule sought to invert its racialization and race-sensibilities then our liberation must be measured to be far from complete.

But even as I write these thoughts it must be said that racialization, the process of attributing racial characteristics to groups of people, is not just undone by political goodwill or official talk about creating a non-racial society.

What I am thinking tonight is brought on by the inescapable angst of living inside the vexing contradictions of race in the postapartheid moment.

These contradictions are made worse by the attachment of racialized identity supplements which in effect fortify the divisions between races.

Take for example the official position that embraces the racialized categories of coloured, Indian, and white as distinct and legally separate from the racialized construct of African.

To be a legally recognized African in South Africa means you cannot be Indian, coloured, Chinese, or white. An African in the new-yet-old thinking is someone drawn from the historically pejorative Bantu construct.

The new part is that Africans, Indians, coloureds, and now some Chinese too, can be considered black in a hierarchy of racial value that favours Africans when Affirmative Action is considered, for example.

The old part for me is that my South African, and African, identity is still a matter that is contained and constrained by my racialization.

Onward!

Free Roxanne Hillier! (See Update)

Roxanne Hillier (22) and her family are "living through hell" according to her distraught father, Freddie Hillier.

You may remember that Roxanne is the young woman who was accused of having sex with her Emirati boss and then sentenced to a three month jail term even after medical tests showed that there was no sexual contact.

Roxanne was working as a dive instructor in Sharjah which is an emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). News reports describe that she was sleeping alone in a room that was upstairs from the dive shop when police bashed down her locked door and placed her under arrest.

She was accused of being alone in a room with her boss and with having sex with him.

In the confusion that ensued Roxanne mistakingly signed a confession written in Arabic believing that her signature would end her ordeal.

She was wrong.

When she realized her mistake she retracted her confession but it was too late.

She was found guilty and sentenced anyway. Her boss was also found guilty and given a six month sentence.

Roxanne is a South African citizen and you would think that our government would be looking to secure her immediate release.

There is, afterall, more than enough reason to believe that she is being victimized unfairly.

Roxanne's case will be appealed this Sunday (June 14). I really hope that some sense prevails and the respective authorities act in the interests of justice and rescind the judgement, or at the very least, allow her to leave the UAE.

It would be very easy to criticize the draconian laws that regulate relationships between men and women in the UAE but that is not even the central issue here.

What is of paramount importance is the fact that there is no proof that Roxanne broke the law, even by the invasive standards imposed by the Sharjah authorities.

Let's hope that their appeals process recognizes what her hasty trial did not.

Onward!

Picture and story credit.

UPDATE (Sunday June 14, 2009)

Roxanne Hillier's father, Freddie, left a message here this morning to let readers know that Roxanne's case has been "set out".

Freddie wrote:

"Roxanne's case has been once again set out out until the 21 June for judgment. Bail denied again."

I am disappointed to read about this delay as I am sure many of you are.

So Roxanne will have to wait for another week in harrowing uncertainty. The same is true for her loved ones.

At the very least there is one bright spot for Roxanne and that is the presence of her mother, Ina, in the UAE. The authorities are allowing Ina to visit Roxanne once a day over the previous bi-weekly arrangement.

The South African consul in the UAE has also visited Roxanne and I hope that this indicates that the UAE is being pressured to release her.

You can show your support for Roxanne by visiting a Facebook page dedicated to her plight. Her mother prints out support messages and Roxanne gets to read them.

So get to writing and show your support for Roxanne and human rights!

Onward!

Where The F*ck is The Muslim World?

I am a Muslim and live in South Africa where my ancestors have been for more than 400 years. Am I in or out of the "Muslim world"?

The notion that there is a "Muslim world" is a deeply racist idea steeped in the colonial myth that westernization and its ideological project, whiteness, 'civilized the world'.

You would think that Al Jazeera would be the one international news broadcaster who would question the assumptions behind the term.

Wrong!

Al Jazeera has joined CNN, the BBC, and of course our own SABC, in adopting the notion that there is a "Muslim world".

Let's be clear. There are Muslims everywhere. Even in Obama's immediate family. There are white, black, and brown Muslims in the US, Europe, China, Australia, South Africa, and elsewhere.

Not all Muslims are Arabs and not all Arabs are Muslims. Also, the so called Middle East is not in the 'middle' of anywhere and it is also not the "Muslim world".

The vast majority of Muslims live outside of the Middle East. The country with the largest number of Muslims is Indonesia while Islam is the fastest growing religion in Africa.

There are 1 billion Muslims in this one world we live in. That means, that one out of every six people in our world is a Muslim.

But that is not to say that all Muslims are absolutely the same. Muslims are as varied and complex as any other religious group.

This means that there is no Muslim mindset or Islamic formula to decipher a universal Muslim.

To construct a "Muslim world" is an extension of the project of Orientalism as Edward Said argued.

I am tired of being defined and categorized for the purpose of showing me my place.

That speech Obama gave today in Cairo was different in the tone he adopted but it was the same in its imperial assumptions.

Obama should stop his machine from killing innocents in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. And, he should distance himself from that despicable Egyptian dictator, Hosni Mubarak

When he starts to do these things, in the name of universal humanity no less, then maybe I, one cranky man who just happens to be Muslim, will listen to his trifling Uncle Tom ass.

Onward!

"SA Woman Jailed In UAE"

News24
2009-06-01 22:35

Johannesburg - A South African woman was jailed for three months in the United Arab Emirates on Monday after being convicted on a sex charge, East Coast Radio Newswatch reported.

Roxanne Hillier, 22, had been living and working in a dive centre in Khorfakkan in the Emirate of Sharjah since last November.

Police raided the centre about two weeks ago, arresting Roxanne and her boss on sex-related charges.

On Monday (today), she was found guilty of being alone in the same room with a man, and of sex out of wedlock.

Tests show no signs of sex

That is despite medical tests which showed no sign of sex, and despite not even being in the same room as her boss at the time of their arrest.

Roxanne's father Freddy told Newswatch Hillier was denied bail throughout.

"(In court) she was asked three questions: 'Did after you have sex with the co-accused?'
She answered 'no'. 'Were you in a room alone with him?' She answered 'no'. 'Are you married?' She answered 'no'," Hillier said.

"Then the lawyer had his bit to say, saying that they had no factual or medical evidence at all. That was the end of the court case.

"Today they basically came in and they have been found guilty. She has been sentenced to three months imprisonment with deportation."

Hillier said his daughter would appeal against the conviction.

Roxanne's boss, a local citizen, received a six-month sentence. - SAPA

SIDENOTE: Someone please remind me what year and century it is!

Article Credit