Racism in America - Page 3 
Learn more about racism in America, the events, the laws, the violence and how racism helped shape America.
Racism in the United States has been widespread since the colonial era. Legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights were given to white Americans but denied to all other races. The KKK, white mobs and other white supremacist groups have killed more Americans than terrorist have. The KKK may have given up their sheets for suites and changed their name to the alt-right or other names to hide who they are, but at their core, they are white people who hate black people, people whose skin is not white and Jews. White Racist Have Been Killing and Terrorizing Black People for Over 150 Years; if black lives mattered in America, the KKK and other white supremacist groups would be branded as the domestic terrorist groups they are and government resources would be devoted to combating them. #WhiteSupremacist, #WhiteNationalist, #RightWingExtremists, #KKK,#Racism, #Hate
We have tried hard to get a photo of a typical sundown town sign, but so far without success. A graduate of the U of TN had a roommate from a sundown town who was proud of a photo of her taken next to her town’s sundown town sign, when it was still up. But Loewen couldn’t persuade the former roommate, no longer on good terms with her roommate, to ask her for a copy. A man in Manning, IA, has a grandmother who had taken a photo of Manning’s SDT sign. He was going to send an image of it, but we were too late; the grandmother, going senile, had thrown out all her photos, disappointing her family of course, and also us. The sign itself in Pekin, IL, is said to be extant, but in the custody of the KKK; we don’t think they will release it to us. And so it goes. But if you have a sign or photo thereof, please let us know, soonest! Thank you.
Bud KennedyIt’s time to talk about what some folks would rather forget. The sign’s language was blunt. There was never any question about its message, or its target. The first word was a racist slur. Then: “Don’t Let the Sun Set on Your Head in This Town.” Originally, the “sundown sign” went up at the train station. Then, it was moved to the middle of the main street. It happened more than a century ago. In Texas. De Leon, Texas. It wasn’t the only sign like that in Texas. I’ve met people who claimed they personally saw signs in Bowie, Glen Rose and Grand Saline. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not picking on Texas or even the South. In a Web search, I found similar racist signs mentioned in towns in California, Washington, Nebraska and Indiana. One town in British Columbia even had a sign warning Chinese to stay out. But we know for sure that De Leon, 95 miles southwest of Fort Worth, had one of those signs for years.
The Fox News host absurdly demanded to see the LSAT scores of the Supreme Court nominee.By Josephine HarveyTucker Carlson on Thursday continued his outrage over President Joe Biden’s commitment to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court, this time questioning the qualifications of his nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and insulting her name. “So is Kentanji Brown Jackson ― a name that even Joe Biden has trouble pronouncing ― one of the top legal minds in the entire country?” the Fox News host said, mispronouncing Ketanji. “We certainly hope so. It’s Biden’s right. Appointing her is one of his gravest constitutional duties.” “So it might be time for Joe Biden to let us know what Kentaji Brown Jackson’s LSAT score was,” he said, mispronouncing her name again. “Wonder how she did on the LSATs? Why won’t he tell us that? That would settle the question conclusively as to whether she is a once-in-a-generational legal talent, the next Learned Hand.” As many legal experts pointed out, the LSAT, the law school admission test, has little to no relevance as a measure of proficiency in the legal field. Carlson was furious about the president’s pledge to nominate a Black woman to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, a move that will bring much-needed diversity to the court. Biden said in January that his pick would be “of extraordinary qualifications, character and integrity,” and that the inclusion of a Black woman on the Supreme Court was “long overdue.”
Is Fox News and Tucker Carlson grooming white supremacist, domestic terrorist and insurrectionist?Tommy ChristopherThe New York Times dropped a massive three-part investigative report into Tucker Carlson that declares his Fox News program “the most racist show in the history of cable news.” The deep-dive story by reporter Nick Confessore was published Saturday morning, and details — in the headline’s words — “How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear to Conquer Cable.” In one section, Confessore — a Times reporter and MSNBC contributor — describes a meeting with Rupert Murdoch after Carlson weathered controversy over his remark that undocumented immigrants are making America “poorer and dirtier and more divided.” Mr. Murdoch, Confessore reports, did not exactly discourage Carlson, and the show’s similar themes and ratings flourished thereafter:
By Ray Sanchez and Omar Jimenez, CNN(CNN) A state investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department launched after the Memorial Day 2020 killing of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer revealed a pattern of "discriminatory, race-based policing" by officers going back a decade, according to a report released Wednesday. State Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero, whose agency's probe determined the city of Minneapolis and its police engaged in a "pattern or practice of race discrimination," lambasted the organizational culture of a department marred by "flawed training which emphasized a paramilitary approach to policing," a lack of accountability and the failure of police leaders to address racial disparities.
rcohen@insider.com (Rebecca Cohen)Minneapolis Police Department trainers used racially biased tropes to impersonate Black people during training scenarios, a new report from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found. "Observations from MPD's recent Academy training sessions in 2021 provided additional evidence of MPD's deficient training," the agency said in the report. "Some trainers relied on racist tropes to impersonate Black community members as part of scenario-based training and other trainers used racist or sexist tropes." The report, released on Wednesday, also said that the agency's investigation found training in the MPD furthered race-based policing and encouraged rookie officers to use these practices in the field.
Shaila DewanThe Minneapolis Police Department routinely engages in several forms of racially discriminatory policing, fails to hold officers accountable for misconduct and has used fake social media accounts to target Black people and organizations, according to a damning investigation released on Wednesday by the state’s Department of Human Rights. The department has a “culture that is averse to oversight and accountability,” and city and department leaders have failed to act with “the necessary urgency, coordination and intentionality required” to correct its extensive problems, the investigation concluded. The Minneapolis police have been under intense scrutiny since cellphone cameras captured the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a police officer during an arrest on May 25, 2020. The state’s human rights investigation began about a week later. The department is also under a similar investigation by the federal Justice Department.
We recently wrote up the unwritten rules people of color follow that most white people don't have to worry about. Well, there were so many submissions from our Black readers that we decided to do a whole post specifically on the Black community. So here are 21 unwritten rules that Black people follow every day:1."No matter how angry you get, you try and remain calm. If you raise your voice even a little — regardless of what you say or how you say it — you are instantly labeled an 'angry Black woman' and judged wrongly, even when you’re right."
By Lamar J. HopkinsThe 53-year-old man, who was working as a supervisory corrections official reportedly facilitated an attack on Black inmates in the jail. The high-ranking corrections official reportedly used excessive force and placed Black detainees in harm’s way by moving them into the same cell row as white supremacist inmates. He then ordered the lower-ranking officers to unlock the cells of the Black inmates and the white supremacists at the same time the next morning. They followed the defendant’s orders and the Black inmates were attacked by the white supremacist inmates. Prosecutors said that both Black inmates were injured.
Alexandra JaneIn August of 2020 as the world cried out for justice for George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police, the quiet town of Tiburon, California was mismanaging its own officer encounters with the public. Married couple Yema Khalif and Hawi Awash were approached by an officer late one night as they restocked their Main St. sportswear store. Yema, the menswear boutique that bears the same name as one its owners, was the town’s only Black owned business, which was apparently all that was needed to draw attention from racist cops. Officer Isaac Madfes came into the store after closing around 1am on the night of August 21st. Madfes proceeded to ask what they were doing in the shop so late, interrogating the owners as they remained calm. The full incident was captured on Madfes’ body cam.
A Black student’s interview with a local news channel was interrupted by shouts of “white power” this week.Brooke Leigh HowardBlack fraternities and sororities at Arkansas State University were targeted in racist attacks online this week—but students say the posts are just part of a much larger problem on campus. “On behalf of the entire Arkansas State University community, I condemn the recent statements of anonymous individuals,” Chancellor Kelly Damphousse wrote in a statement released Thursday. “The language and labels used by persons posting about the weekly [National Pan-Hellenic Council] events on campus is simply unacceptable and disgraceful. …The type of statements made recently related to Black students and members of NPHC organizations are shameful and unwelcome at Arkansas State University.”
"Diaz faced frequent racial abuse" and Tesla "did little or nothing to respond."Jon BrodkinOn Wednesday, a federal judge rejected Tesla's claim that it is not liable for "disturbing" racist abuse suffered by an ex-factory worker. US District Judge William Orrick rejected what he called Tesla's "watered-down revisionism" that cast plaintiff Owen Diaz's suffering as "mild and short-lived." The judge slashed Diaz's financial award, however. While the jury awarded Diaz $6.9 million in compensatory damages and $130 million in punitive damages, Orrick set the amounts at $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $13.5 million in punitive damages instead. He wrote that the new compensatory amount of $1.5 million is "the highest award supported by the evidence" and that the punitive damages can be nine times that amount based on US law.
BY SAMANTHA BERLINFootage of a protest in Rapid City, South Dakota, after a woman banned Native American guests from her hotel is quickly going viral on TikTok. A member of the Oglala Lakota named Eleanor Ferguson, or @lilnativething, posted footage of one protest to TikTok on Thursday where it received 1.4 million views and nearly 12,000 comments, many calling out the ban as a major human rights violation as well as racially discriminatory. "Last week a hotel decided to ban Native Americans in Rapid City, South Dakota," the on-screen text read over video of hundreds of protesters in the streets.
Rachel OldingA federal judge permanently blocked Florida’s new voter suppression laws from going into effect on Thursday, issuing a blistering ruling that said the bill unfairly and unconstitutionally violated minorities’ voting rights. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker blocked three major components of the sweeping bill from going into effect because they suppressed Black voters:
By Seung Min Kim and Marianna SotomayorAs Ketanji Brown Jackson this week sat through several days of hearings in her bid to join the Supreme Court, Democrats proudly took turns reflecting on the historic example she sets and the need for the judiciary — much like other institutions — to better reflect the diverse public it serves. At the same time, some Republicans repeatedly suggested that the first Black female high court nominee was soft on crime and questioned whether critical race theory — an academic framework centered on the idea that racism is systemic — influenced her thinking as a judge. The disparate treatment underscored the extent to which race hovered over the four grueling days of Jackson’s confirmation hearings this week, serving as both a source of ebullience for the judge’s supporters and an avenue for contentious questions that sometimes carried racial undertones.
The first Black woman nominated to the court will likely be confirmed soon.By Rick Klein, Averi Harper, and Alisa WiersemaWhat started with a GOP promise of turning the temperature down is becoming a broader effort to dial it up -- and to light new fires in familiar places. With a second full day of questions coming Wednesday at Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Republican senators have so far played to long-running culture wars in sometimes obscure but nonetheless intentional ways. Searing attacks from GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have centered on her sentencing of child porn offenders and drug kingpins to her defense of terrorist suspects and her knowledge of and familiarity with critical race theory. "Do you agree with this book that is being taught to kids, that babies are racist?" Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked Jackson in one of the most strange and tense exchanges of a long day Tuesday.
Analysis by Brandon Tensley, CNNWashington (CNN) If confirmed, Ketanji Brown Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. However, many Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are wasting no time embracing the kind of bad-faith scrutiny often reserved for women and Black nominees -- beneficiaries of affirmative action, in one GOP senator's parlance. Some Republicans, lacking a coherent strategy, are pressing Jackson for her views on The 1619 Project and the children's book "Antiracist Baby" (because "critical race theory"), though neither has anything to do with the job she's being considered for. Others are trying with great effort to cast the nominee as weak on crime by distorting her past work defending Guantanamo Bay detainees and her sentencing in child pornography cases. This wafer-thin opposition is revealing.
By David Ovalle and Charles RabinLocal governments in Florida rarely declare states of emergencies. Miami Beach, using the standard of “clear and present danger of a riot or other general public disorder,” has previously employed such declarations for hurricanes, a global pandemic and the catastrophic collapse of a condo tower in neighboring Surfside. So the decision to elevate spring break crowd control into a community emergency has earned quick backlash from critics who charged that city leaders are overreacting, again, to large — mostly Black — crowds that have mostly been peaceful so far during this year’s gathering.
From casting doubt over her credentials to insinuating she's a radical who “does not believe in the rule of law,” the right is sketching out their attacks on Biden's Supreme Court nominee, with an eye toward the midterms.By Eric LutzIn all likelihood, nothing Republicans or their allies in the right-wing media say about Ketanji Brown Jackson will keep her from becoming the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s high court. Despite the Democrats’ difficulty getting other key agenda items through, they are almost certain to stick together to confirm Joe Biden’s Supreme Court pick — and may even do so with a few GOP votes. But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from beginning a bad faith campaign against the nominee: They may not ultimately prevent her confirmation, but they could work to undermine her legitimacy — and to use her proceedings as a proxy battle against Biden and the Democrats ahead of this year’s midterms. Many in the GOP have made a point to emphasize the qualifications of the Harvard-educated, ten-year veteran of the bench. “She’s a very smart, very accomplished attorney,” Senator Josh Hawley told the Washington Post. “I imagine she’ll be able to defend her litigation.” But the attacks some in the party have previewed in recent days have nevertheless amounted to little more than political smears:
Joshua ZitserFormer President Donald Trump called on his supporters to "lay down their very lives" to fight against Critical Race Theory at a rally in Florence, South Carolina, on Saturday night. During a speech that lasted a little under an hour, Trump told a crowd that eliminating Critical Race Theory from schools is a "matter of national survival." Critical Race Theory is an academic practice that explores how America's history of racism and discrimination continues to impact the country today. more...
By Meredith BlakeStaff Writer“Real Housewives” reunions are a reality TV ritual: Cast members put on gaudy evening wear, gather for hours on an elaborately decorated set and submit to probing questions from Bravo ringmaster Andy Cohen. Petty sniping, hypocritical finger-pointing and melodramatic storm-offs are all standard — even expected. Productive conversations about racial justice and white privilege, less so. more...
Thousands of African immigrants joining throngs of Ukrainians trying to flee the country say they face red tape and discrimination.By Char Adams, Zinhle Essamuah, Shamar Walters and Rima Abdelkader Alexander Somto Orah, 25, was among thousands of people crowding a Kyiv train station Friday, hoping to flee Ukraine amid the Russian invasion. He said he and his friends hoped to get to safety at the Polish border quickly but that officials wouldn’t allow the group of Africans to board trains out of the region. “I was like, ‘You are picking only white people!’” Orah said. He said he and his friends briefly made it onto a second train headed to Poland but were quickly kicked off, with officials telling them “Ukrainians only.” more...
Grace Hauck USA TODAYHundreds of refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Yemen were stranded at the border of Belarus and Poland late last year, starving and freezing in the cold forest as Polish guards and barbed wire fencing blocked them from entering the European Union. At least eight people died, and hundreds more, including young children, were later moved to a nearby warehouse. more...
By Eva McKend, Melanie Zanona and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNNCNN — Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming called out two members of her conference who spoke at an event organized by White nationalist Nick Fuentes. “As Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep Paul Gosar speak at this white supremacist, anti-Semitic, pro-Putin event, silence by Republican Party leaders is deafening and enabling,” Cheney tweeted Saturday. “All Americans should renounce this garbage and reject the Putin wing of the GOP now,” she added. more...
Analysis by Brandon Tensley, CNNPolice officers’ aggressive handling of a Black teenager in New Jersey wasn’t anomalous – it was part of an age-old pattern of treating Black men and boys as threats to be subdued. In a video that went viral last week, two Bridgewater Township officers break up a fight at a mall between two boys: one White, the other Black. While the White teenager is pushed onto a nearby couch, the Black teenager is pinned to the ground and then handcuffed. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who’s representing the family of the Black teenager, said in a recent statement that the incident pulled into focus “the kind of racial bias that we need to root out of our system of policing.” more...
In 10 years since shooting of teenager, the laws, purported to protect the public, have done the opposite, writes Andrew BuncombeHundreds of Americans, a disproportionately high number of them Black people, are being shot and killed as a result of controversial “stand your ground” laws that have swept across the nation since the killing of Trayvon Martin, activists say. A decade after the unarmed Black teenager, walking home from a store, was shot and killed by a neighbourhood watch coordinator who claimed he was acting in self-defence, in a moment that shook the nation, activists say an additional 150 people each month have been killed in gun homicides as a result of laws now in effect in 38 states. The total death toll, according to those estimates, amounts to 18,000 people over the past decade. more...
Maia VinesNew York-based cosmetics company Estee Lauder suspended John Demsey, an executive group president, due to a recent Instagram post that included a racial slur, according to The Wall Street Journal. The social media post, which has since been removed from Demsey’s personal account, displayed a spoof book cover of the TV show “Sesame Street,” and contained the N-word and jokes about Covid-19, said the Journal. “The content posted does not represent the values of The Estée Lauder Companies,” the company said in an internal memo obtained by the Journal. more...
Cheryl TehA video of police officers breaking up a fight at a New Jersey mall has sparked anger over accusations that law enforcement treated the two teenagers involved in the scuffle — one Black and one white — differently. In a video documenting the fight at the Bridgewater Commons mall in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, the teens can be seen getting into a verbal argument. "Get your hand out of my face," the Black teen said. They then begin shoving each other, and a physical fight breaks out. The Black teen is thrown on the floor by the white teen during the fight. Two police officers — one male and one female — arrive. The female officer pushes the white teen onto a nearby couch and motions for him to stay there. At the same time, the male officer tackles the Black teen to the floor, sitting on him and handcuffing him, while the female officer quickly kneels on his back to keep him down on the ground. "It's cause he's Black. Racially motivated," someone can be heard saying in the video's background. more...
Deepa ShivaramCalifornia's Department of Fair Employment and Housing is suing Elon Musk's company Tesla over racism and harassment toward Black employees at Tesla's plant in Fremont, Calif., according to a lawsuit filed by the state this week. The company has called the lawsuit "unfair." The lawsuit follows three years of investigation into Tesla and alleges that Black and African American employees at the company's Fremont plant are "segregated to the lowest levels." The lawsuit describes multiple instances of racist language and drawings toward Black employees, penalizing Black employees more harshly than white employees and denying Black employees career advancement opportunities and equal pay for work similar to that of other employees. more...
By Gustaf KilanderJoe Rogan claimed Black people have “a different brain” in a resurfaced video that came to light as the podcaster was forced to apologize for using the N-word in his past shows. “Powerful combination genetic wise,” Mr Rogan told a guest who said he had a Black father and a white mother. “Right? You get the body of the Black man and then you get the mind of the white man altogether in some strange combination.” “That doesn’t, by the way, mean that Black people don’t have brains, it’s a different brain,” Mr Rogan can be heard saying in the old clip. more...
By Chandelis Duster, CNN(CNN) Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called President Joe Biden's commitment to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court "offensive" and said that by doing so the President is telling other Americans "you are ineligible." "The fact that he's willing to make a promise at the outset, that it must be a Black woman, I gotta say that's offensive. You know, you know Black women are what, 6% of the US population? He's saying to 94% of Americans, 'I don't give a damn about you, you are ineligible'," Cruz said on an episode of his podcast "Verdict with Ted Cruz" that was released on Sunday. In 2019, Black women represented 7% of the US population, according to the US Census Bureau. The Republican continued, "And he's also saying -- it's actually an insult to Black women. If he came and said, 'I'm gonna put the best jurist on the court and he looked at a number of people and he ended up nominating a Black woman, he could credibly say, 'OK I'm nominating the person who's most qualified.' He's not even pretending to say that he he's saying, 'If you're a White guy, tough luck. If you're a White woman, tough luck. You don't qualify.'" more...
The charge, while provocative, offers a framework to reckon with systemic racial injustice — past and present.Opinion by ALEX HINTONSeventy years ago this month, on Dec. 17, 1951, the United Nations received a bold petition, delivered in two cities at once: Activist William Patterson presented the document to the U.N. assembly in Paris, while his comrade Paul Robeson, the famous actor and singer, did the same at the U.N. offices in New York. W.E.B. Du Bois, a leading Black intellectual, was among the petition’s signatories. The group was accusing the United States of genocide — specifically, genocide against Black people. The word “genocide” was only seven years old. It had been coined during World War II in a book about Nazi atrocities, and adopted by the United Nations in 1948, though no nation had yet been formally convicted of perpetrating a genocide. The 240-page petition, “We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People,” was meant to be sensational. America had been instrumental in prosecuting the Nazis at Nuremberg, and now its own citizens were turning the lens back on the U.S. in the most horrifying, accusatory terms. more...
By James Oliphant and Nathan LayneGRIFFIN, Georgia, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Protesters filled the meeting room of the Spalding County Board of Elections in October, upset that the board had disallowed early voting on Sundays for the Nov. 2 municipal election. A year ago, Sunday voting had been instrumental in boosting turnout of Black voters. But this was an entirely different five-member board than had overseen the last election. The Democratic majority of three Black women was gone. So was the Black elections supervisor. Now a faction of three white Republicans controlled the board – thanks to a bill passed by the Republican-led Georgia legislature earlier this year. The Spalding board’s new chairman has endorsed former president Donald Trump’s false stolen-election claims on social media. more...
Not a single House Republican voted for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.By John Nichols“Old battles have become new again,” said US Representative Terri Sewell, of Alabama, as she introduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act for Tuesday’s essential vote in the House. And even as the old battles are being fought anew, the old battle lines have changed as well. The Republican Party, which was once a more energetic and consistent supporter of civil rights in general and voting rights in particular than the Democrat Party, has united in grotesquely self-serving and destructive opposition to principles it historically championed. When the House approved the voting rights measure named for civil rights icon John Lewis, every one of the 219 “yes” votes was cast by a Democrat. All 212 “no” votes came from Republicans. Like their colleagues in the Senate, House Republicans sought to block the restoration and extension of vital sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which were weakened by rulings from a US Supreme Court dominated by right-wing judicial activists. The recalcitrance of House Republicans was all the more jarring because the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is so clearly needed—along with the proposed For the People Act—to counter a new wave of voter suppression. more...
Kevin Gough has been condemned for trying to have Black pastors thrown out of the courtroom, complaining that the jury didn't contain enough "Bubbas or Joe six-packs" and for equating Black faith leaders with klansmen.By Janelle GriffithBefore the murder trial began for the three white men accused in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, who was Black, race was expected to be a major theme in the case. Jurors were asked if they supported Black Lives Matter, if they had participated in any racial justice demonstrations and if they considered the Confederate flag to be racist. All but one Black person was struck from the jury. Eleven of the 12 jurors selected are white. The topic of race, however, was hardly broached during testimony before the prosecution and defense rested their cases last week. But allegations of racism have persisted, directed not at the men accused in Arbery's killing, but at the attorney representing one of them. more...
Republicans will try to gerrymander their way to power across the South (again) — are Democrats ready to fight?By Igor DeryshRepublican control over redistricting in key Southern states, along with Supreme Court decisions that gutted protections for voters of color, could result in historically unfair congressional maps after the next round of gerrymandering, according to a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. The redistricting that followed the 2010 census resulted in "some of the most gerrymandered and racially discriminatory maps" in history but the next cycle of redistricting could be even more fraught with abuse in Southern states, according to the report. Florida, Texas and North Carolina, all of which are expected to gain House seats following the 2020 census, as well as Georgia, pose the highest risk of producing maps that are racially discriminatory and favor Republicans. more...
By Matthew Stanmyre | NJ Advance Media for NJ.comHours after Edward Durr seemingly solidified his stunning election victory over state Senate President Steve Sweeney, xenophobic and anti-Muslim social media messages have surfaced that were posted from his accounts. The posts came to light shortly after the Associated Press projected Durr’s victory over Sweeney on Thursday morning in the 3rd legislative district, putting him on the verge of one of the biggest upsets in New Jersey political history. With 100% of precincts reporting, Durr led Sweeney 32,742 votes to 30,444 — 51.8% to 48.2%. more...
Duane Rankin | Arizona RepublicPhoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver allegedly called Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green the N-word in 2016 after Suns lost to Golden State, ESPN's Baxter Holmes is reporting in a story that provides allegations of racism and misogyny.This incident allegedly occurred during two-time All-Star Devin Booker's second NBA season with the Suns, then-head coach Earl Watson said, according to the ESPN report, which was released Thurday and details multiple allegations of racist and sexist remarks by Sarver, creating a hostile work environment within the organization. more...
Kieran Press-ReynoldsFormer Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leader David Duke said Tucker Carlson has "finally" started promoting the "great replacement" conspiracy theory, which is associated with white supremacy. The "great replacement" theory alleges that white people are being systematically and intentionally replaced by people of other races through mass immigration, according to Media Matters for America, a left-leaning non-profit organization that tracks right-wing media. more...
In his dealings with those in his immediate orbit, the former Raiders head coach long ago showed us where he thinks a Black man’s place in football should beAndrew LawrenceAfter an eight years-long email trail of his racist, homophobic and misogynistic exchanges were unearthed as part of an investigation into the Washington Football Team’s fratty workplace culture – it’s worth revisiting how the coach came to power in the Raiders organization for the second time in his gilded career.Six years before Gruden was lured out of ESPN’s Monday Night Football booth with a 10-year, $100m carrot, the Raiders were circling the drain; in 2014, they’d win a paltry three games on the way to tying for the NFL’s third-worst record. But over the next few seasons the team slowly rebuilt itself into a contender, winning 12 games to reach the 2016 playoffs. And there was no doubt that resurgence was a credit to the shrewd work of general manager Reggie McKenzie, the former Raiders linebacker and the first person to run football operations other than owner Al Davis. more...
Judge Donna Scott Davenport oversees a juvenile justice system in Rutherford County, Tennessee, with a staggering history of jailing children. She said kids must face consequences, which rarely seem to apply to her or the other adults in charge.by Meribah Knight, Nashville Public Radio, and Ken Armstrong, ProPublicaChapter 1: “What in the World?”Friday, April 15, 2016: Hobgood Elementary School, Murfreesboro, TennesseeThree police officers were crowded into the assistant principal’s office at Hobgood Elementary School, and Tammy Garrett, the school’s principal, had no idea what to do. One officer, wearing a tactical vest, was telling her: Go get the kids. A second officer was telling her: Don’t go get the kids. The third officer wasn’t saying anything.Garrett knew the police had been sent to arrest some children, although exactly which children, it would turn out, was unclear to everyone, even to these officers. The names police had given the principal included four girls, now sitting in classrooms throughout the school. All four girls were Black. There was a sixth grader, two fourth graders and a third grader. The youngest was 8. On this sunny Friday afternoon in spring, she wore her hair in pigtails. more...
Josephine HarveyDonald Trump embraced familiar fearmongering rhetoric about migrants on Fox News on Thursday, warning against accepting Haitian asylum-seekers because “many of those people will probably have AIDS.” The former president made the comments during a discussion about immigration with host Sean Hannity, who said he was all for “legal immigration,” but asked if it was wrong to require a “security check to make sure you don’t have radical associations,” a COVID-19 test and proof that you “won’t be a financial burden on the American people.” Trump said he supported those measures and brought up “one other thing that nobody talks about.” more...
CNNCNN's Laura Coates and Dr. Cedric Dark discuss Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's false claim during a recent interview on Fox News that Black people were to blame for the recent wave of coronavirus cases. video...
‘Racist and flat out wrong’: Texas Republican blames Black Americans for Covid surge
Dan Patrick refuses to apologise for false claim while Texas experiences highest hospitalisation rates since January
Martin Pengelly
Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas, has refused to apologise for blaming rising Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths on unvaccinated African Americans, comments one Black Houston official called “racist and flat out wrong”. Doubling down on his remarks to Fox News, Patrick blamed “Democrat social media trolls” and said “Democrats continue to play politics with people’s lives”. Sylvester Turner, the Democratic mayor of Houston, who is African American, said Patrick’s comments were “offensive and should not be ignored”. more...
Bob BrighamTexas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick attacked Black Texans to deflect from criticism of GOP attacks on public health measures. "Well, Laura," Patrick said to Fox News personality Laura Ingraham, "The COVID is spreading, particularly — most of the numbers are with the unvaccinated." more...
Newt Gingrich, Stephen Miller, Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene, among others, all keep alluding to the same vicious, violent idea.Wajahat AliThe hoods are off, and Republicans are embracing the white supremacist “replacement theory.” If you’re dismissing this as fear-mongering or click-bait, you probably missed Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House and renowned adulterer, espousing replacement theory rhetoric on Fox News earlier this week while talking to host Maria Baritromo, who always has time to offer a platform to dangerous conspiracy peddling. Speaking about Mexican immigrants coming to America during the pandemic, Gingrich said the “radical left” wants to “get rid of the rest of us” and would “love to drown traditional, classic Americans with as many people as they can who know nothing of American history, nothing of American tradition, nothing of the rule of law.” more...
Analysis by John Blake, CNN(CNN) If you're trying to figure out why so many conservatives despise critical race theory, here's some historical context you should remember: White conservatives oppose critical race theory -- only when it's applied to Black people. But many have no problem adopting some of CRT's language and core insights when complaining that contemporary America discriminates against White people. This is the audacious double standard that's often overlooked in the current debate over critical race theory. Many White conservatives roll their eyes when Black people claim that systemic racism exists, that racism is baked into the nation's policies and legal system, and that it can't be reduced to individual prejudice -- all key CRT concepts. more...
By Jason JohnsonAcross the country, Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are fighting against critical race theory, even if they don’t know what it is. Professor Ibram X. Kendi joined us on Friday’s episode of A Word to explain critical race theory, so even racists can understand. He’s the author of How to Be an Antiracist and the director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. He’s also the host of a new podcast, Be Antiracist With Ibram X. Kendi. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. more...
“They could say whatever they wanted so long as there was no imminent threat of harm,” Evy Poumpouras said of the racism leveled at the former first lady.By Lee MoranA former Secret Service agent has detailed the racist abuse that was leveled at Michelle Obama during her time as first lady, and her frustration and inability as an assigned protector to do anything about it. “I could do nothing,” Evy Poumpouras told Insider in an article published Wednesday. “There’s freedom of speech in the United States, and even if I personally feel that speech is wrong, the law doesn’t give me the power to take that person’s speech away.” “When it came to speech, they could call them names,” Poumpouras recalled. “They could say whatever they wanted so long as there was no imminent threat of harm.” more...
Dave DaviesDo Black people have full Second Amendment rights? That's the question historian Carol Anderson set out to answer after Minnesota police killed Philando Castile, a Black man with a license to carry a gun, during a 2016 traffic stop. "Here was a Black man who was pulled over by the police, and the police officer asked to see his identification. Philando Castile, using the NRA guidelines, alerts to the officer that he has a licensed weapon with him," she says. "[And] the police officer began shooting." In the 1990s, after the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, the National Rifle Association condemned federal authorities as "jackbooted government thugs." But Anderson says the organization "went virtually silent" when it came to Castile's case, issuing a tepid statement that did not mention Castile by name. more...
Carol AndersonA series of slave revolts terrified white residents and helped fuel the rationale for gun ownership. Bodies are piling up all over the second amendment as two of America’s pandemics converge. The “plague of gun violence” and the inability to mount an effective response, even in the wake of multiple mass shootings, is, unfortunately, rooted in the other pandemic gripping the United States: anti-Blackness and the sense that African Americans are a dangerous threat that can only be neutralized or stopped by a well-armed white citizenry. For too long, the second amendment has been portrayed with a founding fathers aura swaddled in the stars and stripes. But “a well-regulated militia” wasn’t, as the story goes, about how valiant and effective the militias were in repelling the British. George Washington was disgusted with their lack of fighting ability and the way the men would just cut and run from battling against a professional army. Nor was the militia reliable as a force to uphold the law. In Shays’ Rebellion, bands of armed white men, who were in the state’s militia, attacked the Massachusetts government because of foreclosures and debt seizures, demonstrating, again, how unreliable the militia were. Boston merchants had to hire mercenaries to put down the rebellion. more...
MARQUISE FRANCIS | Yahoo NewsOne hundred years ago, on May 31, 1921, an angry white mob beat and murdered at least 300 Black residents in a Tulsa, Okla., neighborhood known as “Black Wall Street.” The incident became known as the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst acts of racial violence in U.S. history. But two years prior to the carnage in Tulsa, another violent wave of hate, which came to be known as the “Red Summer” of 1919, took hold in the country. Just a year after the end of World War I, the U.S. was coming out of a third wave of the Spanish flu epidemic. Many white Americans had returned home from Europe to find more than 500,000 Black Americans had migrated from the South to northern cities and had taken many factory, warehouse and low-level government jobs. Racial tensions flared as whites began to blame Black migrants for spreading the flu and began to seize on rumors, amplified by local newspapers, that Black men were assaulting white women. more...
By Leonard Pitts Jr.It’s not just Tulsa. From the 2019 premiere of HBO’s “Watchmen,” which introduced many Americans to a racial atrocity they’d never heard of, to all the recent media attention — CNN, the New York Times, NPR — marking this week’s centennial, the Tulsa Race Massacre of May 31 to June 1, 1921, has lately been inescapable. As well it should be. It stands out for multiple reasons. There is the sheer size of it: at least 35 square blocks leveled by white mobs. There is the death toll of it: an estimated 300 African Americans — the exact number will never be known — killed. And there is the cussed gall of it. Barred from white community and society, Black people created a thriving community and society of their own, a “Black Wall Street” — only to have white people burn it to the ground. more...
Barbara SpruntLast month, Republican lawmakers decried critical race theory, an academic approach that examines how race and racism function in American institutions. "Folks, we're in a cultural warfare today," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said at a news conference alongside six other members of the all-Republican House Freedom Caucus. "Critical race theory asserts that people with white skin are inherently racist, not because of their actions, words or what they actually believe in their heart — but by virtue of the color of their skin." more...
The GuardianOn the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, artist Bayeté Ross Smith uses archival photos to create immersive 360 scenes of these events. He finds that the underlying political and economic injustices were not only never addressed, but repeated time and again over the past century. video...
Joe HernandezA New York City art gallery featuring tributes to those who were killed in the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 was vandalized with white paint in what owners have described as hate speech. The Black Wall Street Gallery in SoHo said in an Instagram post that either late Sunday or early Monday morning, someone smeared white paint on the gallery's glass facade, covering up its name. NYPD spokesperson Detective Denise Moroney said in a statement that no arrests have been made in the ongoing investigation and that the Hate Crimes Task Force was notified. The gallery said police initially did not appear to believe the vandalism constituted hate speech. more...
Viola Fletcher was 7 years old when white armed mobs descended on Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing Black people and destroying an economic mecca.By Deon J. HamptonSeven-year-old Viola Fletcher was awakened by her parents 100 years ago today and told they had to leave home. Angry, gun-toting white mobs had set out under the cover of nightfall in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to kill Black people and destroy Black America’s economic mecca. Now 107, Fletcher recalls the night that forever changed Tulsa. “People running and screaming. And noise from the air like an airplane. And — just so many things was disturbing, you know. And fires burning, and smelling smoke,” Fletcher told NBC News. “And then we could hear someone going through the neighborhood ... that everybody should leave town, that they were killing all the Black people. So, you know, that was frightening.” more...
By Channon Hodge, Breeanna Hare, Tami Luhby, Elias Goodstein, Priya Krishnakumar, Nadia Lancy, Toby Lyles, Amy Roberts and Clint Alwahab, CNNAs the Civil War neared its end, Union General William Sherman had been convinced that newly emancipated slaves needed their own land to secure their freedom. He issued Special Field Order No. 15, setting aside 400,000 coastal acres of land for Black families and stating that, “…no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside.” A provision was added later for mules. In three months, the potential of Sherman’s order vanished with a single shot. That April, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, and in the fall President Andrew Johnson reversed Sherman’s order, allowing Confederate planters to regain the land. It demonstrated a ruthless appropriation that would be repeated for decades to come. Still, Black Americans created pockets of wealth during the Reconstruction years and into the early 20th century. Yet where Black Americans created a refuge, White Americans pushed back through political maneuvering and violence. This year marks the centennial of one such event: the heinous attack on the Black enclave of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. more...
By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr.LOS ANGELES (AP) — Several documentary filmmakers — some backed by NBA superstars — are shedding light on the historically ignored Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the most horrific tragedies in American history. LeBron James and Russell Westbrook are among those releasing documentaries based on the racially motivated massacre. The projects come during the 100th anniversary of the massacre in Greenwood, a Black-owned business district and residential neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Each documentary uniquely takes a deep dive into how the thriving Greenwood community — dubbed Black Wall Street because of the number of Black-owned businesses — was decimated in a two-day attack by a white mob. In the aftermath, at least 300 Black people were killed. More than a thousand homes were burned and others looted, leaving roughly 10,000 residents displaced and homeless and the Black business district destroyed. more...
By Tori B. PowellNearly 100 years after the Tulsa Race Massacre, a team of scholars is working to uncover the unmarked graves of victims with hopes of identifying some of their bodies. "We knew its history had been suppressed," Phoebe Stubblefield, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Florida, said in an interview with CBSN. The first challenge, then, was finding where the dead are buried. Between May 31 and June 1, 1921, a White mob looted and destroyed a section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, called Greenwood, where many Black families lived at the time. It was known to some as "the Black Wall Street." The mob was fueled by claims that a Black teenager attacked a White woman. more...
Debbie Elliott, Marisa PeñalozaIt's been 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre — one of the worst episodes of racial violence in U.S. history. An armed white mob attacked Greenwood, a prosperous Black community in Tulsa, Okla., killing as many as 300 people. What was known as Black Wall Street was burned to the ground. "Mother, I see men with guns," said Florence Mary Parrish, a small child looking out the window on the evening of May 31, 1921, when the siege began. "And my great-grandmother was shushing her, saying, 'I'm reading now, don't bother me,' " says Anneliese M. Bruner, a descendant of the Parrish family. But the child became more insistent. more...
By Zak HudakWashington — The last known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre are calling on Congress to consider paying reparations for the continued damage done to their Oklahoma community. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties on Wednesday heard testimony from three centenarians about a violent mob's riot 100 years ago through the thriving Tulsa neighborhood of Greenwood, known at the time as "Black Wall Street." "I still see Black men being shot, black bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire. I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams," said Viola Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the event. "I have lived through the massacre every day." more...
President Biden has promised to address inequities in health care, criminal justice, housing, voting, pay and more.Deborah Barfield Berry and Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, USA TODAYWASHINGTON _ Joe Biden stood in the White House and told Americans racism is exhausting, wearing on people of color and leaving many living in fear. He described the trauma many of the nation’s Black and brown people experience. They worry, he said, that encounters with the police could turn deadly, that their children aren’t safe going to the grocery store, driving down the street, playing in the park or even sleeping at home. more...
By Bryan RolliA white U.S. Army drill sergeant was arrested this week after a video of him throwing a racist, drunken tantrum inside a grocery store went viral. Officials have identified the man in the video as 27-year-old John Walter Miles, whose freakout took place at a Food Lion grocery store in Sumter, South Carolina, the Sumter Item reports. Miles reportedly had a meltdown because a clerk refused to sell him alcohol, and officers said he was drunk in the incident report. more...
Opinion by Michael GersonSome in the Republican Party hope that it can eventually maintain the Trump coalition without the toxic excesses of Donald Trump’s disordered personality. Already, a variety of talented and calculating figures — Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) come to mind — are trying to model populism minus the psychopathy. They are clearly imagining a day when a working-class and fundamentalist cultural revolt can be channeled into constructive public purposes. As one Republican congressional staffer has said: “Trump has changed the party forever, but that doesn’t mean he will control the party forever.” It is a rational instinct. It also strikes me as a nearly impossible task. And Tucker Carlson illustrates why. more...
By Eilish O'SullivanA live stream of a daycare center classroom captured caregivers apparently feeding white kids before Black children in Georgia, sparking accusations of racism against the center. The classroom at the Kids ‘R’ Kids location was reportedly being live-streamed so that parents could check in on their kids to see how they were doing throughout the day. One parent of a 2-year-old boy, Adryan McCauley, noticed how white children were eating lunch while the Black children in the class were not. McCauley took a screenshot of the scene, which features all the children sitting at tables. Plates of food are only in front of the white children. “They were skipping all of the black kids it seemed like,” McCauley told CBS46. “All the white kids got their lunch, and all the black kids had to wait. From the videos and pictures that we saw today, we are just completely disturbed.” more...
Asha C. Gilbert, USA TODAYAs the coronavirus continues to disproportionately affect communities of color, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared racism a "serious public health threat." In a statement Thursday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said communities of color were severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and were facing higher case counts and deaths compared to other races. "Racism is not just the discrimination against one group based on the color of their skin or their race or ethnicity, but the structural barriers that impact racial and ethnic groups differently to influence where a person lives, where they work, where their children play, and where they worship and gather in community," Walensky said. more...
By Bob BrighamFormer Vice President Mike Pence launched his new organization, Advancing American Freedom, on Wednesday. Since then, one name has quietly been added to the advisory board that was announced at launch. Pence's advisory board now includes Mike Farris, the president and CEO of the group Alliance Defending Freedom. In 2016, Alliance Defending Freedom was declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). more...
By Tucker Higgins, CNBKevin Seefried, who was photographed carrying a Confederate flag in the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots in Washington, has been indicted by a grand jury on five counts related to obstruction, entering restricted property and disorderly conduct. Seefried's son, Hunter Seefried, was also indicted. The younger Seefried faces the same five counts as his father in addition to three charges related to destruction of government property and violence on Capitol grounds. more...
Marc Ramirez | USA TODAYA U.S. Army officer is suing two Virginia police officers after a December traffic stop in which the officers drew and pointed their weapons, pepper-sprayed him and used a slang term to suggest he would face execution as he purposefully held both hands aloft in attempts to defuse the situation. Police in Windsor, in southeast Virginia, have yet to issue any comment about the incident involving second lieutenant Caron Nazario, a Black and Latino man who was in uniform when officers ordered him to exit his Chevrolet Tahoe as he held his hands up through the driver’s side window outside a local gas station. more...