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Racism in America - Page 5  Racism prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.

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
On Election Day a 100 years ago, a white mob killed as many as 60 people after a Black man went to the polls to vote.

On Election Day a century ago, a white mob swept through a tiny Florida citrus town after a Black man showed up at the polls to vote. Over two days of terror, the mob set fire to homes and drove Black residents from their community. It was one of the bloodiest days in American political history, with the number of deaths remaining in question - some estimates as high as 60. That dark episode, until recently largely forgotten, came to be known as the 1920 Ocoee Election Day Riots. Others remember it as a massacre, one of the many acts of racial violence perpetrated against Black citizens over the decades. As the centennial approaches, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has before him a bill that would require schools to do more to highlight the day in their history classes. If signed by the governor, it would order state officials to identify parks, buildings and other facilities that could be renamed in honour of those who died because of the racial hatred that welled up on that day in the tiny community west of Orlando.
Ocoee Massacre

The Ocoee massacre was a white mob attack on African-American residents in northern Ocoee, Florida, which occurred on November 2, 1920, the day of the U.S. presidential election. The town is in Orange County near Orlando. As many as 60 or 70 African Americans may have been killed during the riot, and most African-American-owned buildings and residences in northern Ocoee were burned to the ground. Other African Americans living in southern Ocoee were later killed or driven out on threat of more violence. Ocoee essentially became an all-white town. The riot has been described as the "single bloodiest day in modern American political history". The attack started after efforts to suppress black voting. In Ocoee and across the state, various black organizations had been conducting voter registration drives for a year. Blacks had essentially been disfranchised in Florida since the turn of the 19th century. Mose Norman, a prosperous African-American farmer, tried to vote but was turned away twice on Election Day. Norman was among those working on the voter drive. A white mob surrounded the home of Julius "July" Perry, where Norman was thought to have taken refuge. After Perry drove away the white mob with gunshots, killing two men and wounding one who tried to break into his house, the mob called for reinforcements from Orlando and Orange County. The whites laid waste to the African-American community in northern Ocoee and eventually killed Perry. They took his body to Orlando and hanged it from a lightpost to intimidate other blacks. Norman escaped, never to be found. Hundreds of other African Americans fled the town, leaving behind their homes and possessions.
A guide to the city’s fraught past as Trump holds a rally there the day after Juneteenth
By DeNeen L. Brown

The city where President Trump will hold his first political rally in months sits on the banks of the muddy Arkansas River on land where the Cherokee, Creek and Osage nations once reigned. Tulsa has a fraught racial history that begins with the Trail of Tears in the 19th century and ends with the city’s plan to dig for possible mass graves from a 1921 race massacre. Trump’s appearance on the day after Juneteenth — when black America celebrates the end of slavery — is a reminder of that pain. Here’s a timeline of Tulsa’s past:

1830 — The Indian Removal Act is signed by President Andrew Jackson, pushing 60,000 Native Americans, including the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw, off their lands in the southeast United States. The Native Americans are forced by federal troops to walk hundreds of miles to what is now Oklahoma. Historians say more than 15,000 died of exposure, starvation and exhaustion on what is known as the Trail of Tears.
By Annalisa Merelli

Overnight on May 31 and June 1, 1921, in a period of just about 12 hours, the single largest incident of racial violence in American history occurred in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. “More than a thousand African American homes and businesses were looted and burned to the ground; you had a thriving community occupying more than 35 square blocks in Tulsa that was totally destroyed,” Scott Ellsworth, the author of Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, told Quartz. “It looked like Hiroshima or Nagasaki afterwards.” In a recently discovered account of the massacre, Buck Colbert Franklin, then a lawyer in Greenwood, paints a harrowing picture. “I could see planes circling in mid-air. They grew in number and hummed, darted and dipped low. I could hear something like hail falling upon the top of my office building,” he wrote. “Down East Archer, I saw the old Mid-Way hotel on fire, burning from its top, and then another and another and another building began to burn from their top.” The destruction of Greenwood began as an attempted lynching of a Black teenager and turned into full-blown destruction perpetrated by a white mob. As many as 300 people were killed, more than 10,000 remained homeless, and according to the Tulsa Race Riot Report of 2001, an estimated $1,470,711 was incurred in damage—equal to about $20 million today.
By Abby Phillip and Kate Sullivan, CNN

Tulsa, Oklahoma (CNN) The beating heart of Tulsa, Oklahoma's Greenwood District is Vernon A.M.E. Church. Vernon sits atop the only structure still standing after the 1921 race massacre left the once-prosperous black district burned to the ground and hundreds if not thousands of its residents homeless or dead. The weight of that legacy weighs heavily on Vernon A.M.E. always -- but especially in recent weeks, as the city marked 99 years since the massacre, an anniversary that came at a time of protests and upheaval nationwide over the killing of George Floyd in police custody. As the city prepared to mark the anniversary of the massacre at the end of May, protesters in Tulsa took to the streets against racism and police brutality. Some businesses were damaged and fires were set. And now, the community is bracing itself again, as President Donald Trump is expected to bring thousands of his supporters to the city for the first campaign rally since March.
Civil War 2.0? The “Boogaloo” Movement Is A Wake-Up Call For America
By Seth Cohen

On Tuesday, Air Force Staff Sergeant Steven Carrillo, already in custody for the alleged ambush, murder and attempted murder of sheriff’s deputies in Santa Cruz, was charged with murdering a federal security officer outside the U.S. courthouse in Oakland during a protest last month. Yet as troubling as the alleged killings themselves are, it is the affiliation of the suspect to the boogaloo movement, a collection of right-wing anti-government activists, that is even more worrisome. In Tuesday’s announcement, federal prosecutors charged Carrillo with the murder of Federal Protective Service officer David Patrick Underwood as well as other federal charges. Underwood was killed and his partner was wounded on the night of May 29 while they guarded a federal building in Oakland during a nearby protest over the death of George Floyd. When announcing the charges on Tuesday, which could be punishable by death, federal authorities alleged that Carrillo developed the plan to ambush the murdered officer during an online chat among right-wing extremist activists. On Tuesday, Air Force Staff Sergeant Steven Carrillo, already in custody for the alleged ambush, murder and attempted murder of sheriff’s deputies in Santa Cruz, was charged with murdering a federal security officer outside the U.S. courthouse in Oakland during a protest last month. Yet as troubling as the alleged killings themselves are, it is the affiliation of the suspect to the boogaloo movement, a collection of right-wing anti-government activists, that is even more worrisome. In Tuesday’s announcement, federal prosecutors charged Carrillo with the murder of Federal Protective Service officer David Patrick Underwood as well as other federal charges. Underwood was killed and his partner was wounded on the night of May 29 while they guarded a federal building in Oakland during a nearby protest over the death of George Floyd. When announcing the charges on Tuesday, which could be punishable by death, federal authorities alleged that Carrillo developed the plan to ambush the murdered officer during an online chat among right-wing extremist activists.
By Mehdi Hasan

Donald Trump is right. The anti-racism protests that have convulsed cities across the United States are also being used as cover, to quote the president, for “acts of domestic terror.” In late May, for example, three Nevada men were “arrested on terrorism-related charges in what authorities say was a conspiracy to spark violence during recent protests in Las Vegas,” reported the Associated Press. Federal prosecutors say the men had molotov cocktails in glass bottles and were headed downtown, according to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by AP. “People have a right to peacefully protest,” said Nicholas Trutanich, the U.S. attorney in Nevada. “These men are agitators and instigators. Their point was to hijack the protests into violence.” But here’s the thing: None of these three men were members of antifa, the left-wing, anti-fascist protest movement that has been blamed both by the president and his attorney-general Bill Barr for recent violence. They were all self-identified members of the so-called boogaloo movement, aka “boogaloo bois” aka “boojahideen” — perhaps the most dangerous group that, until the past week or so, most Americans had never heard of.
Three self-identified boogaloo boys were arrested in Nevada for conspiracy to instigate violence at a George Floyd protest
By EJ Dickson

Three men with military backgrounds have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to instigate violence at the Las Vegas protests against the death of George Floyd. According to authorities, Andrew Lynam Jr., 23, Stephen Parshall, 35, and William Loomis, 40, all met at an anti-lockdown protest in April and self-identified as “boogaloo” boys, a term used to describe those calling for a violent civil conflict. They were arrested on Saturday on their way to a protest in downtown Las Vegas, after filling gas cans and making Molotov cocktails in glass bottles. They face federal charges of conspiracy to damage and destroy by fire and explosives, and possession of unregistered firearms. They are currently each being held on $1 million bond, according to the Star Tribune. They have not yet entered a plea. Their intention was “to hopefully create civil unrest and rioting throughout Las Vegas,” a complaint filed in Las Vegas District Court on Wednesday said. (Rolling Stone reached out to the three men on Facebook for comment, and have yet to hear back.)
By Jeong-Ho Lee, Nick Wadhams and Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg

A large “Black Lives Matter” banner draped on the front of the U.S. embassy in Seoul was removed on Monday after it was brought to the attention of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, according to people familiar with the matter. Pompeo and Trump were both displeased about the banner, the people said. A large, multicolored Pride”banner recognizing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people was also removed on Monday. They were replaced with a banner commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Korean War. The embassy unfurled the “Black Lives Matter” banner on its mission building on Saturday to support worldwide anti-racism protests that have followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last month. - Trump America’s racist president
By Linette Lopez

When President Donald Trump tells us he does not want to change the names of US military bases named after Confederate military leaders, or that he wants Confederate monuments left alone, he's telling you who owns this country — white Americans. And when he does so while the country is still reeling from his attempt to unleash the US military on anti-racist protesters, he's forcing us to reckon with the inextricable link between American racism and American fascism. No, the Civil War was not fought over tariffs, and it isn't correct to say it started over states rights either. The Confederates were fascists who used racism as the ideology that organized their authoritarian society. Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis and the entire Confederacy were fighting to preserve a social structure that left Black Americans out of citizenry and firmly established white property holding men on top. They believed the country belonged to these white, landowning men, and that they were the only ones entitled to govern or profit from it. They also believed that those men should preserve it with violence if necessary. To build this slavocracy they became traitors to our homeland. As one southern planter so perversely put it on the eve of secession, "give us slavery or give us death." In 1857 the Athens Southern Watchmen, a prominent pro-secession political journal, laid it out more eloquently. It repudiated the egalitarianism of Thomas Jefferson saying that he had lead our country astray with his talk of "vulgar democracy." It mused that it was absurd to think the "pauper and the landholder are alike competent to manage the affairs of a country." This is why, in the election of 1860, non-property holding men in South Carolina were disenfranchised, and only the planter aristocrats in the Electoral College cast their votes.
Newspaper found in base of marble structure is from 1936, long after the civil war for which Confederate leader is known
By Martin Pengelly in New York

Officials supervising the removal of a statue of Jefferson Davis from the Kentucky state capitol on Saturday found items left in its base. Those who put up the marble statue of the Confederate president left a Glenmore Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey bottle and a newspaper – dated 20 October 1936. Davis was born in Fairview, Kentucky in 1808 and became a soldier, a senator from Mississippi and US secretary of war. From 1861 to 1865 he led the Confederacy through the American civil war. “African slavery, as it exists in the United States, is a moral, a social and a political blessing,” he said. The Confederacy lost the war and slavery was abolished under the 13th amendment, ratified in December 1865. Davis was charged with treason but never tried, having his citizenship stripped instead. He died in New Orleans in 1889. Though Kentucky remained in the Union during the war, and indeed was the home state of Abraham Lincoln, the presence in its capitol of a statue of a Confederate leader is not particularly unusual. Nor should it seem particularly surprising that the bottle and newspaper found under the Davis statue were from the 1930s. Southern states erected many of the monuments to Confederate leaders and soldiers that are now the focus of national protests long after the civil war, at the height of the Jim Crow system of racial segregation and repression and later during years of civil rights protest and reform.

More than 200 white people wielding baseball bats and ax handles chased African Americans through the streets of downtown Jacksonville, trying to beat them into submission. It was August 27, 1960, a day that became known as “Ax Handle Saturday.” The violent attack was in response to peaceful lunch counter demonstrations organized by the Jacksonville Youth Council of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The attack began with white people spitting on the protestors and yelling racial slurs at them. When the young demonstrators held their resolve, they were beaten with wooden handles that had not yet had metal ax heads attached. While the violence was first aimed at the lunch counter demonstrators, it quickly escalated to include any African American in sight of the white mob. Police stood idly by watching the beatings until members of a black street gang called “The Boomerangs” attempted to protect those being attacked. At that point police night sticks joined the baseball bats and ax handles. Bloodied and battered victims of the vicious beatings fled to a nearby church where they sought refuge and comfort from prayer and song. Eventually the white mob dispersed. Sixteen-year-old Rodney L. Hurst was president of the Jacksonville Youth Council, leading sit-ins at “whites only” lunch counters in Woolworth’s and W.J. Grant Department Store to protest racial segregation.

Hurst has written about his experiences in the award-winning book “It was Never about a Hot Dog and a Coke.” History teacher Rutledge Pearson inspired Hurst to become involved in the civil rights movement at a very early age. Hurst says that Pearson was an innovative teacher who facilitated interactive classes. “As we talked about American history and as he gave us his insights, he would tell us ‘freedom is not free, and if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.’ He would encourage us to join the Youth Council NAACP, which we did.” Today, Rutledge H. Pearson Elementary School in Jacksonville bears the name of the teacher who influenced many young people to become leaders in the African American community.

In 1959, the year before Ax Handle Saturday, Nathan B. Forrest High School opened in Jacksonville, celebrating the memory of the first Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. As of July 1, 2014, the name has been changed to Westside High School. The violence of Ax Handle Saturday did not occur in a vacuum. Racial segregation and overt racism had been building tension in Jacksonville for decades. In his book, Hurst places his personal story as a young activist into the larger historical context of the civil rights movement. “Jacksonville was a mess, not unlike a lot of other southern cities,” Hurst says. It is believed that the Ku Klux Klan organized the violence of Ax Handle Saturday. “The intent was to scare, intimidate, and bring physical harm,” Hurst says. “Many times you could not draw a line between the Klan and law enforcement, because law enforcement were at least accomplices to a lot of the things the Klan did.”
By Ewan Palmer

An online petition demanding that the Ku Klux Klan be listed as a terrorist organization has gained more than one million signatures in just four days. The Change.org petition is demanding that the white supremacist hate group be formally listed as a terrorist organization by the government. Currently, the KKK are classified as a domestic extremist group as there is no definition for domestic terrorism organizations in the U.S. "Ever since the inception of the Ku Klux Klan in December 24,1865 they have terrorized American citizens for the color of their skin and opposing views," the petition states. "This group has a long history of murder & intimidation of people based on color and religion. "Black Americans have suffered the most under this terror group." The "Change KKK status into Terrorist Organization" campaign is one of a number of similar petitions to have gone viral in recent days on the change.org website. One petition calling for the KKK to be classed as a terrorist organization has gained 178,000 signatures, with a second receiving more than 100,000 before it was closed. Another petition demanding "Make the KKK illegal" is also approaching one million signatures. The petitions started to go viral after President Donald Trump said the far-left and anarchist movement antifa will be treated as a terrorist organization. They also gained popularity amid ongoing debates about race relations in the U.S. in the wake of the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd which sparked worldwide protests.
By Keith Griffith For Dailymail.com

Black Lives Matter demonstrators and pro-police counter-protesters joined forces in Nevada to chase off a small group of men wearing the white hoods of the Ku Klux Klan who tried to disrupt their peaceful rallies. The incident occurred on Monday in Fallon, a small city 60 miles east of Reno, where a group of BLM protesters and counter-demonstrators had faced off across a street chanting at each other. In a surprise move, the two sides joined together and exchanged hugs and dialogue - but as the rallies wound down, two men tried to disrupt the peace by marching up wearing KKK hoods and waving a flag supporting President Donald Trump. Both the BLM protesters and the pro-law enforcement demonstrators began shouting at the men in hoods, and chased them off as police escorted them away. A spokesman for the Fallon Police Department did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com about the incident. The two official protests had begun with animosity, exchanging chants of 'Black Lives Matter!' and 'All Lives Matter' across the street from each other. But at some point, the aggression turned to dialogue as the two sides crossed the street and exchanged hugs. 'We all want peace. Yes we do,' said pro-police demonstrator Max Ryan as he hugged BLM protest leader Ladaysha Dula, in a moment captured by KTVN. Ryan was openly carrying a gun to the protest to demonstrate support for his Second Amendment rights, and ensure things didn't devolve into violence, he said.
By Ewan Palmer

A peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Nevada was briefly interrupted by two men wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods and carrying Donald Trump flags. Video has emerged showing the moment protesters from both sides came together to jeer and chant against the men who showed up at the demonstration in Fallon on Monday. The clip shows one officer arriving to talk to the men in white hoods while at least one protester chants: "No Trump, No KKK, no racist, fascist USA." The footage ends with both men appearing to turn and walk away from the crowd after being spoken to by the officer. The Fallon Police Department has been contacted for further comment. The incident had marred what had been a peaceful protest, which resulted in BLM protesters and "all lives matter" counter-demonstrators, some of whom were armed, coming together and hugging. Max Ryan, one of those who brought a gun to the rally in order to "address my second amendment right to bear arms and to make sure this stayed peaceful," described how the BLM came over to the counter-demonstrators to discuss their views.
By Ewan Palmer

Calls for the government to list the Ku Klux Klan as a terrorist organization are continuing to grow as a number of online petitions attract more than half a million signatures. For the past few days, several change.org petitions demanding the white supremacist group be classified as terrorists have gone viral. As of the morning of June 10, three petitions have gained at least 517,000 signatures between them, with a fourth petition demanding "Make the KKK Illegal" also attracting more than 233,000 signatures. "The KKK has long been a group of thugs that have suppressed the voices of and invoked fear into Minority Communities across the country. It is time for that to end," a description on the Declare the KKK a Terrorist Organization petition, backed by 118,000 signatures, reads. "This organization does not belong in this country, if declared a terrorist organization any attack would be an act of terror and will be treated as such. If equality and protecting the American people is your true goal this will easily resonate with you." A second petition, Change KKK Status into Terrorist Organization, has gained more than 300,000 signatures. It said that the KKK could be considered the best example of a "modern terrorist group that was even allowed, by the government, to function and even do marches in the capital of the country."
Minneapolis residents are forming patrols to protect their city from people who would mar the protests with violence—and some report having strange run-ins with armed white men.
By Justin Glawe, Kate Briquelet

MINNEAPOLIS—Edward walked up to an SUV full of four armed white men on Monday night, pumped his shotgun, and told them to get out of his neighborhood. The men—who he said were armed with hunting knives and wearing tactical vests—told him they were from a suburb south of the city. After repeatedly asking them what they were doing and why they were in the Field neighborhood of South Minneapolis, Edward signaled to his wife, who retrieved the weapon and gave it to her husband. “I just figured I’d respond using the language and methods that they use, and it worked,” Edward, who requested to use a pseudonym out of concern for his safety, told The Daily Beast. The incident speaks to the fear that has descended on Minneapolis in the week since George Floyd was killed by a local police officer, and protests—including occasional bursts of violence, looting, and arson— consumed the city. Across the city and its surrounding suburbs, residents who sympathize with anti-police protesters are creating small, independent groups of citizens—or else arming themselves individually—to look out for their own neighborhoods. In other words, with police—and a bevy of state and National Guard reinforcements—focused on monitoring protests, the people of Minneapolis are in some cases policing themselves. KB Brown, who owns a printing shop in north Minneapolis, said he coordinated community patrols two days after Floyd’s death, when protests began to roil the city. These volunteers included rival gang members, now reportedly united to protect the area, a contingent of biker clubs, and even “white people with hockey sticks.” “We were abandoned by law enforcement so I figured the quote-unquote thugs were the best ones to patrol the streets, and they were more than willing to do it,” Brown, 45, told The Daily Beast. “I agree with you protesting over Floyd,” the business owner said, adding that one of his printing machines was damaged in the riots. “I don’t agree with you tearing up my stuff. I worked too hard for it. A lot of people in the neighborhood felt the same way.” Brown’s nighttime network of about 60 people has covered a large swath of north Minneapolis, which is predominantly black, to fend off outsiders and looters. At one point, he says, his group faced off with armed white men firing shots, and thieves trying to break into a single mother’s house. Using patrols by foot and by car, Brown says, he provided intel to the mayor’s office and police. One night he stationed himself outside a mosque on Lyndale Avenue N.
DISTURBING

Residents of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and a nearby suburb are receiving anonymous threats over their Black Lives Matter signs on their properties.
By Justin Glawe, Kate Briquelet

As protests continue to rage over the death of George Floyd, residents of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and a nearby suburb are receiving threats over the Black Lives Matter signs on their properties and over their support of anti-racist causes. Julie Reuvers, a single mother of two in Roseville, between Minneapolis and St. Paul, woke up Saturday morning to find a handwritten note tucked inside her door. “In light of Rioters with Blm signs I would be in The best intrest [sic] of your safty [sic] to Remove your sign Because Pay Back is Coming,” read the ominous message, written in black marker on a sheet of white computer paper. Reuvers, 47, called the Roseville Police Department, which has since fielded reports of nearly identical missives and is investigating, the department tweeted Monday. Because she feared for her children’s safety, Reuvers decided with a heavy heart to take down her homemade Black Lives Matter sign, which had been propped inside her front window. She alerted neighbors to the unsettling discovery on the Nextdoor platform, and on Sunday morning, another resident reported receiving a similar letter with matching handwriting: “Your neighbors are sick of riots and your SJW Shit. Your sign ‘Bullshit Matters’ comes down or you and your Home will Burn real Quiet while you sleep in it!” According to Reuvers, this homeowner seemed to be targeted over a Social Justice Warrior poster on his property. “We don’t know who’s leaving notes, but find comfort in continuing to teach our children our values,” Reuvers said in a tweet about the second threat. A third neighbor on Nextdoor reported finding a note on her windshield, Reuvers said.
OPEN CARRY

Anti-racism protests in smaller towns—particularly on the West Coast—have attracted armed counterprotesters who monitor, harass, and sometimes even attack marchers.
By Kate Briquelet

Protests and violence in large cities over the death of George Floyd have dominated national news networks. But in smaller towns across America, counter-protesters are showing up to monitor or harass—and in some cases assault—peaceful demonstrators. And in places like Snohomish, Washington, and Missoula, Montana, some of these agitators have been heavily armed as they stake out protests against police brutality. The Missoulian, a daily newspaper, reported that a couple of pickup trucks, with people waving Trump campaign banners and American flags, parked near Missoula demonstrators on Tuesday night. Some armed men also stood sentinel at a pawnshop. In Snohomish, protesters marched downtown Monday, chanting “Black Lives Matter!” and hoisting signs, according to local TV station King5. They were ambushed by at least one white man in a camouflage sweatshirt and baseball cap who started punching demonstrators, video shows. “I just saw someone get punched and before you know it, I had two, three people choking me,” Julien Crawford told the news outlet. On Tuesday night, a faction of “heavily armed men” joined the protesters. One of them, carrying an assault rifle, announced: “We support you. We just want you to be safe, we want you to be peaceful. We don’t want any vandalism or graffiti.”
As people enraged by the death of George Floyd took to the streets in cities across the country, white men with guns started showing up—and risking disaster.
By Kelly Weill

Protesters in Minneapolis didn’t know the precise affiliation of a man who showed up on Tuesday at the first night of unrest over the death of 46-year-old George Floyd in police custody. What they did know was that he was white and heavily armed. “There was what we think was a white supremacist who was fully armed with clips and everything, who some of the men in the crowd were able to identify and remove,” Nekima Levy-Armstrong, a civil rights attorney who attended the Tuesday protests, told The Daily Beast. “He [the armed white man] actually said, ‘You all just saved some lives tonight.’” The Minneapolis protests this week—which resulted in fires and broken windows and reports of at least one adjacent shooting death—aren’t just drawing racial justice activists. They’re attracting attention from heavily-armed forces on the right. Some of them, members of a growing white supremacist movement, openly hope to co-opt the protests to start a race war. Others claim to make common cause with anti-police protesters, but may be inclined to turn guns on protesters when they appear to threaten private property. Both are a potential powder keg as protesters take to the streets in cities across the country, and hint at a new coalition of volatile right-wing ideologies. Brian Hughes, associate director for the Polarization & Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University, said the protests were drawing attention from a range of far-right tendencies. “On the far other side of the spectrum, you have accelerationist and dyed-in-the-wool fascists and neo-Nazis,” he told The Daily Beast. “They want to see ‘Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo’ happen, and make it a race war.”
By Helier Cheung BBC News, Washington DC

Thousands of Americans are taking to the streets to protest about racism - many for the first time in their lives. Why has this particular tragedy struck such a chord? George Floyd is not the first African American whose death in police custody sparked protests. There were also rallies and calls for change after Tamir Rice, Michael Brown and Eric Garner were killed by police. But this time seems different, with the response more sustained and widespread. There have been demonstrations across the US - in all 50 states and DC - including in cities and rural communities that are predominantly white. Local governments, sports and businesses appear readier to take a stand this time - most notably with the Minneapolis city council pledging to dismantle the police department. And the Black Lives Matter protests this time seem more racially diverse - with larger numbers of white protesters, and protesters from other ethnicities, standing with black activists. A number of different factors combined to create "the perfect storm for rebellion" over George Floyd's death, Frank Leon Roberts, an activist who teaches a course on the Black Lives Matter movement at New York University, told the BBC.

Floyd's death was particularly 'gruesome and obvious'
A police officer, Derek Chauvin, kept his knee on Mr Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes - even as Mr Floyd repeatedly said "I can't breathe" and eventually became unresponsive. The incident was clearly recorded on video. "In many previous instances of police violence, there's a possibility of an ambiguous narrative - there's a partial view of what happened, or the police officer says they made a split-second decision because they feared for their life," Mr Roberts said. "In this case, it was a completely unambiguous act of injustice - where people could see this man [Floyd] was completely unarmed and incapacitated."
By Harmeet Kaur and Kay Jones, CNN

(CNN) A man who is accused of driving his car through a group of protesters in Virginia is an "admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology," according to the Henrico County Commonwealth's Attorney. Harry Rogers, 36, is charged with attempted malicious wounding, felony vandalism, and assault and battery, and is being held without bond. He was arraigned in court on Monday morning, according to online court records.

Rogers' next court hearing is scheduled for August 18. The Henrico County Police Division said in a statement that it received a call from Richmond Police on Sunday about an incident that had happened during a protest in Richmond. CNN affiliate WTVR reported the protest was a Black Lives Matter march, one of dozens that have occurred across the country since the death of George Floyd last month. Several witnesses reported that a vehicle had "revved their engine and drove through the protesters occupying the roadway," police said.
By Melissa Alonso and Susannah Cullinane, CNN

(CNN) A retired US Navy captain who used derogatory language and racial slurs during a conversation with his wife that was accidentally live streamed on Facebook says he is "mortified" and working to be a better person. Scott Bethmann resigned from the US Naval Academy Alumni Association board after he accidentally streamed the conversation with his wife Nancy, according to a statement from the alumni association and a family spokesperson.
Bethmann and his wife were live on Facebook for more than 30 minutes, discussing recent events around the country, according to audio obtained by CNN affiliate WJXT.  Bethmann is heard using the N-word and complaining about not being able to speak his mind, saying, "The white m*****f*****s can't say anything. That's the point we're making here, Nancy." His wife is heard in the recording talking about "F****** Asians from China who love to steal all of our intellectual property." Bethmann's Facebook page has since been removed.

'We are deeply sorry'
In a statement issued through a family spokesperson, Bethmann said it was never appropriate "to use derogatory terms when speaking about our fellow man." "There are no words that can appropriately express how mortified and apologetic my wife and I are about the insensitive things we said that were captured on social media," he said. "I know that an apology from us rings hollow on many ears in our community, especially in the current environment. We intend on using this experience as an opportunity to grow, listen, learn, and reflect. - They are always sorry after they get caught.
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