Black in America, IV

Thanks be for cell phone videos.

Police Officer Charged With Punching Black Student, Lying About It

An Indiana police officer has been charged with assaulting a high school student more than two weeks after multiple witnesses and two videos caught the cop pummeling the teen as if… Well, there may be a more poetic metaphor, but the way the officer delivered the heinous punch can best be described with one simile:

Like a cop punching a black boy.
…
Lawson reportedly showed up at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, Ind. on August 29 to break up a large fight, according to Fox 59. When police arrived, the school resource officers already had one juvenile in custody and the aunt of the child who was attacked was at the scene. The second video shows the officer approaching the aunt while yelling: “You want to go to jail? You want to go to jail? Let’s go!”

When the teen steps in between his aunt and the cop, Lawson punches the kid squarely in the face, sending the boy to the pavement.
…
According to the Star, Lawson said the child “clinched his face in anger” but the investigating detective John Howard noted that, although the child’s face wasn’t visible in the footage, both hands were open and not making a fist. Lawson’s incident report also said that he immediately handcuffed the youngster but the video shows him kneeing the high-schooler in the chest. Lawson’s version also insisted that another officer on the scene, Sgt. Marzetta Jenkins (I’m gonna go ahead and say she’s black) with the Indianapolis Public Schools Police Department, saw the student swing his fists. But when investigators asked Jenkins, she denied saying any such thing.

Muslim men blame racial profiling for flight cancellation (BBC)

Two Muslim men in the US have demanded an investigation after they say they were subjected to racial and religious profiling on a flight home to Dallas.

Abderraoof Alkhawaldeh and Issam Abdallah allege their flight was cancelled because crew members did not feel comfortable flying with the men...

FLIGHT CANCELLED BECAUSE AIRLINE STAFF ‘NOT COMFORTABLE’ WITH MUSLIM PASSENGER AFTER HE FLUSHED TOILET TWICE, PAIR CLAIM (Independent)

Two Muslim passengers onboard an American Airlines flight have said they were racially profiled after the service was cancelled due to “safety and security concerns”...

Florida grandmother outraged after 6-year-old arrested for ‘tantrum’
Sep 21, 2019

ORLANDO, Fla. (CNN/WKMG) — A Florida grandmother was shocked to find out her 6-year-old granddaughter had been arrested Thursday for throwing a tantrum.

Meralyn Kirkland says Kaia’s journey to the juvenile detention center by Orlando Police Officers began at Lucious and Emma Nixon Elementary charter school.

... ‘there was an incident and she kicked somebody and she is being charged ...'

...First grader Kaia was handcuffed and carted off where Kirkland says she was fingerprinted and even had a mug shot taken...

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-grandmother-outraged-after-6-year-old-...

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Rebecca J. Kavanagh @DrRJKavanagh (NYC Public Defender) | 9/21/2019:
The name of the police officer who made the arrest is Dennis Turner. Turns out he also arrested an 8-year-old boy on the same day in an unrelated incident. Department policy requires officers to get permission to arrest children under 12. He didn't.

So the department will investigate that part. But there is no minimum age for arrest in Florida.

In 2014/2015, 80 children under 9 were arrested in the state.
In 2010, a 4-year-old was arrested with other children for breaking a padlock on a shed and vandalizing property.

In case you're tempted to say only in Florida, Florida is actually only one of 13 states that have no minimum age of criminal liability.

Thirteen States Have No Minimum Age for Adult Prosecution of Children
September 19, 2016

...Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia have no minimum age for the adult prosecution of children. Very young children are vulnerable to unfair pressure when accused of crimes. The absence of a minimum age also exposes very young children to being held in adult correctional facilities, where they are at increased risk of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse...

https://eji.org/news/13-states-lack-minimum-age-for-trying-kids-as-adults

Black America saddles up to own its cowboy heritage (Guardian)

African American cowboys have largely been erased from the record by Hollywood narratives starring John Wayne and Robert Redford, but were estimated to amount to one in four in the wild west...

increased awareness of the part African Americans played on the western ranges at the end of slavery, when many former slaves headed to Texas looking for work...

In Canada, Ontario received perhaps the most refugees, but Nova Scotia has a long, rich history of Black settlement, the earliest as slaves, but less so over the years. Sounds like they tended to be skilled people (or refugees): my dad said that (like cowboys?) many came as sailors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Nova_Scotians .

Viola Desmond ("Canada's Rosa Parks"), arrested in 1946 for sitting in the "whites only" section of a theatre in New Glasgow, NS., now graces the $10 bill : https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/viola-desmond-10-bill-wins-banknote-d... .

>3 margd: Jaw hit the floor.

>6 2wonderY: That girl was in Gr 1 for--what, 3 weeks max?

ETA:
Orlando school officer suspended after arresting 2 kids — ages 6 and 8 — report says
Bianca Padró Ocasio | September 22, 2019
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article235365692.html#storylink=cpy

Virginia: 12-year-old girl says white classmates forcibly cut her dreadlocks (Guardian)

In TX, a Black's home is not his castle... Unbelievable!
(This sounds more like home invasion!!)

Shannon Watts @shannonrwatts | 1:56 PM · Sep 30, 2019:
BREAKING: A judge has ruled a jury can consider the Castle Doctrine - basically a Stand Your Ground law - during deliberations to determine whether a Texas woman should be punished for entering the wrong apartment and fatally shooting an unarmed Black man.

Judge Rules Jury Can Consider Castle Doctrine In Amber Guyger Murder Trial
A number of developments Monday morning as the Amber Guyger trial in Dallas entered its 7th day.
September 30, 2019

...The Castle Doctrine...allows a person to use “or using force (even deadly force) in the protection of a home, vehicle, or other property if someone attempts to forcibly enter or remove an individual from the premises...

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2019/09/30/jury-consider-castle-doctrine-amber-guyger-m...

>9 margd: That's a bizarre ruling. It wasn't her castle, even if she was confused and thought it was.

Amber R. Guyger, a former Dallas police officer, was found guilty of murder in the death of her neighbor Botham Shem Jean.
Marina Trahan Martinez and Sarah Mervosh | Oct. 1, 2019

DALLAS — A former Dallas police officer who shot her unarmed black neighbor in his own apartment was found guilty of murder on Tuesday, in an unusual and high-profile case that dealt with issues of race, policing and mistaken identity.

The former officer, Amber R. Guyger, who is white, was charged in the death of her 26-year-old neighbor, Botham Shem Jean, after she said she accidentally went to the wrong floor of their apartment complex, entered the unit directly above hers and fatally shot him last year. Ms. Guyger claimed she thought she was entering her own apartment and acting in self-defense against an intruder.

But on the second day of deliberations, the jury rejected that argument and returned a rare murder conviction against a police officer who, in this case, was off-duty but in uniform.

...Ms. Guyger, 31, faces a prison sentence of between five and 99 years...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/amber-guyger-trial-verdict-botham-jean.htm...

ETA_______________________________________________________________________

Extraordinary act of mercy: Brother of Botham Jean hugs and forgives Amber Guyger after 10-year sentence imposed
bill hutchinson | Oct 2, 2019
https://abcnews.go.com/US/jury-deciding-sentence-police-officer-amber-guyger-wro...

A Fort Worth Cop Killed A Black Woman Inside Her Home (a bedroom through the window) After Her Neighbor Called Police Because Her Door Was Open
Ryan Mac and David Mack | October 12, 2019

“Put your hands up, show me your hands,” the officer said before firing a shot — all in less than four seconds.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/fort-worth-police-killed-black-woma...

>12 margd: As a couple other articles I read on this pointed out, you do not hear him identify himself as the police. And then I have to wonder about this...

Fort Worth PD released body camera footage from the incident taken from the angle of the officer who fired the shot. In it, the officer can be seen taking notice of an open door at the residence — which had its lights on — and then walking around the home’s perimeter with a colleague. He then opens a gate and walks to a darker part of the yard while holding a flashlight.

If they're there to do a wellness check, why the hell are they walking to a DARKER part of the yard? They should be walking up to the open door as they ID themselves.

He fired within four seconds.
Can you imagine having a flash light appear at your window from the darkness? I'd freeze or dive, I think.

>14 margd: I'd freeze or dive

I've often thought about this myself. If I'm minding my own business and someone shouts "Police", "Freeze", "Hands up" or whatever, it wouldn't automatically register that they were talking to me, and I'm unlikely to obey instantly because my brain is not processing that information in that way. It's different when I'm at work in a war zone like South Sudan, when my mind is open to that sort of thing. Or perhaps for black people in USA everyday life is like a war zone?

But there's also a question as to why US police are trained to shoot to kill before they have ascertained what the supposed threat actually is. Or, if that's not what they're trained to do and they are in fact trained in more cautious rules of engagement, why are so many of them ignoring their training?

The officer involved resigned Monday morning, and has been arrested and charged with murder.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article236219523.html

Rolling Stone compares two videos in the news

The Lives that won't ever matter in Trump's America

>16 rastaphrog: de-escalation

I was interested to see the police chief in that article speak of a policy of de-escalation. Apart from what I read in the news, all I really see of the US policing system is from watching so-called "reality TV" shows on satellite TV. Presumably they show the better side of policing and filter out serious police misbehaviour. Yet in many of the situations they show, the initial behaviour of the police when they arrive on scene is guaranteed to escalate rather than de-escalate a situation - shouting, giving orders, projecting an authoritarian, domineering and intimidating manner towards everybody present, whether they are victims, suspected perpetrators, witnesses or innocent bystanders, rigid and inflexible behaviour, brandishing weapons, handcuffing people pretty indiscriminately. I don't see much calmness, listening, empathy, humanity and humaneness.

Off topic but connected to the musings on the US police, I was in New York and DC a couple of months ago with one of my retired Catholic bishops, and he commented to me at one point , "This country has become a police state!" He has some credibility in recognising what a police state looks like, having come from one.

>18 John5918:, That, I believe, is called taking control of the situation and is how police in this country are trained to act.

>20 jjwilson61:

Interesting. So their policy and training is the opposite of "de-escalation".

Buffalo Wild Wings said it fired a group of employees who asked a party of African-American customers to move to accommodate 'racist' regulars (Business Insider)

- Buffalo Wild Wings fired several employees after a diner's Facebook post describing a racist incident on October 27 went viral.
- On Facebook, diner Mary Vahl said that wait staff moved her party for the benefit of a "regular" whom employees openly acknowledged as "racist."
- Vahl described her party of 18 as majority African American.
- A Buffalo Wild Wings spokesperson said that the regular has also been barred from its locations for life...

Not specifically about "Black in America" but it relates to all people of African origin wherever they are.

The company decoding African DNA to help fight diseases (BBC)

Black Africans are at disadvantage when it comes to drug treatments because they represent only 2% of the genetic samples used for pharmaceutical research, but a new Nigeria-based genomics company wants to change that.

This dearth of genetic studies on diverse populations also has implications for risk prediction of diseases across the world...

black Africans and people of black ancestry are more genetically diverse than all of the other populations in the world combined, making their genetic information "a huge resource to be tapped"...

"Drugs are not even made with Africans in mind, they are not trialled clinically with an African population, so what you have is drugs with lower efficacy for African populations and with poorer safety profiles"...

Again, a phone video sorts out the truth.

Indiana cop fired after stopping black customers for acting 'suspicious'

The policeman was fired from his day job with the Township and his security side job at Nordstroms.

Woman calls police on black UPS driver delivering packages because he makes her "nervous". (includes some video)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7734061/White-woman-calls-police-black-...

William Barr Says Those Who Don’t Show More Respect To Cops May Not Get Police Protection
The remarks are the latest example of the U.S. attorney general’s “tough on crime” approach that President Donald Trump has adopted.
Sanjana Karanth | 12/03/2019

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said...while giving a speech at the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing...

“But I think today, American people have to focus on something else, which is the sacrifice and the service that is given by our law enforcement officers,” Barr said. “And they have to start showing, more than they do, the respect and support that law enforcement deserves ― and if communities don’t give that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need.”

...In August, Barr told the Fraternal Order of Police ― the country’s largest police organization ― that there should be “zero tolerance for resisting police.” The attorney general gave an emotionally charged speech going after local prosecutors he accused of making police officers’ jobs more difficult because of their more progressive approaches to criminal cases.

“There is another development that is demoralizing to law enforcement and dangerous to public safety,” Barr said in his August speech. “That is the emergence in some of our large cities of district attorneys that style themselves as ‘social justice’ reformers, who spend their time undercutting the police, letting criminals off the hook and refusing to enforce the law.”

Barr is also behind the Justice Department’s push to reinstate the federal death penalty, something that hasn’t been put to use since 2003. The attorney general scheduled five executions for this month and the next, though a district judge ordered a preliminary injunction while some of the people Barr wants to put to death legally challenge his workaround for reinstating capital punishment at the federal level. The injunction was upheld this week by a federal appeals court. The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to make a ruling.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/william-barr-communities-police-protection-show-r...

From Diana L. Hayes, No Crystal Stair: Womanist Spirituality (Orbis Books: 2016)

Reality for blacks in the United States has always been one of seeming paradox. “Trouble” always seems to be in our way, regardless of the form it takes, from forced migration, slavery, second-class citizenship, to the constant enervating struggle with proponents of racism and the lack of opportunity for education, decent health care, and a life of dignity and happiness. Yet, through it all . . . we have been a people with our eyes “fixed” on God, a people for whom “trouble don’t last always.”

McDonald’s black franchisees are leaving the chain as cash flow disparity between them and white counterparts grows (CNBC)

KEY POINTS
- McDonald’s black franchisees are choosing to leave the chain, Business Insider reported Monday. In 2008, there were about 304 black franchisees at the chain and in 2017, there were 222.
- The average cash flow of black franchisees is much less than the average cash flow of all of the chain’s restaurants, the report said, citing franchisees, former corporate employees and internal documents viewed by the website.

Banking while black:

This Is What Racism Sounds Like in the Banking Industry
Emily Flitter | Dec. 11, 2019

A JPMorgan employee and a customer secretly recorded their conversations with bank employees...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/business/jpmorgan-banking-racism.html

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Watering white friend's plants while brown:

My brown son attracted attention of white lady walking her pitt bull, when he stopped by house of white colleague to water plants in his absence--as he has many times before. Son said hello, explaining his mission, but found her about upon leaving with phone in hand. He assumes she took photo of licence plate.

I like to think that she was just neighbor being attentive to activity slightly out of ordinary, but one wonders...we white ladies seem to feature frequently in these stories. :(

>29 margd:

True--but part of it is that it's safer to attack racist women (as is women in general) than racist men (as is men in general). It's also easier to ridicule instances of these examples of (for want of a better label) "low-grade" racism, than murder.

Racist white men commit and condone murder and physical attacks, racist white men infest the power structures in the US in numbers dwarfing that of any women in total, racist white men engage in racist wars--but it's the racist white woman phoning the police about a black person who is promoted on the social media as THE symbol of racism.

I don't think that's true. The most prominent symbol of racism seems to be a white cop.

As the title suggests, this is off topic as it discusses racism in the UK, but it might still have some parallels with racism in the USA.

Talking racism in the UK (Al Jazeera)

The reactions to recent statements by Stormzy and Gary Neville show just how hard it is to discuss racism in public...

McDonald's: black executives sue over 'systematic' racial discrimination (Guardian)

McDonald’s is being sued by two African American executives who allege they suffered “systematic but covert” racial discrimination at the fast-food giant...

Another one on "black in the UK", but the dynamics may be familiar in the USA (except that in the UK he didn't get shot).

'This was racism': Soweto Kinch tells of being refused entry to first-class on train (Guardian)

The musician Soweto Kinch has spoken of how he was not allowed into a first-class train carriage, despite carrying the right ticket, as he discussed racism in Britain following the treatment of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex...

Speaking on Robert Peston’s programme, which follows ITV’s News at Ten, Kinch, said. “It’s tiring. Just on my way down to the studio today I was not allowed on to a first-class train carriage with a first-class ticket … And if I kick off about it, then I’m aggressive and I’m, you know, and it’s kind of this tacit acceptance, everybody knows what’s going on.”

Peston asked: “So what happened?”

Kinch said: “What happened was that he {the guard} decided there weren’t enough seats within this first-class carriage, even though I had filmed four seats perfectly available. And rather than just rushing to social media in a rage, I thought, ‘OK let me just observe what this is here.’

“Because I’ll be at fault for pointing out what is the obvious thing here, somebody is obviously frustrated, bullying and wants to take it out on the black guy. It’s something that is continual and rather than the energy being focused into justice, or restoring an imbalance, it’s, ‘Do I have to prove to you that this was the motivation?’ This was racism. Is it racism, or isn’t it racism? And it’s particularly emotionally exhausting”...

In Texas:

Teen told no graduation because of dreadlocks

Superintendent Greg Poole said the decision is not about dreadlocks or race, just about the length of the teen's hair. "There is no dress code policy that prohibits any cornrow or any other method of wearing of the hair," Poole said. "Our policy limits the length. It's been that way for 30 years."

(me: Yeah, right. Sounds like that could be a gender discrimination issue as well.)

Buying souvenirs when brown (+ young + male):

Yesterday, my son was asked for ID when he produced his credit card to buy a small souvenir at a state park.
His white mom, right behind him, who likewise paid for her trinket with a credit card, was not asked for ID.

We were having such a lovely day until then, and my son didn't take it amiss, so I did not ask if this was a common occurrence for him.

Here in Norway the much published case a few years ago. A young black man had saved up and bought an expensive BMW sportscar. He was stopped by the police a lot, often several times a week.

The police obviously assumed a young black male in a expensive car was either a thief or a drug dealer.

He had to always keep the receipt for the car on him and a written statement from the seller that he was the owner. Still the police kept stopping and searching him.

>37 Ardagor:

I believe Archbishop John Sentamu used to complain of the same treatment by the police in UK. Originally from Uganda, he is the second most senior clergyman in the Church of England after the Archbishop of Canterbury, but when not dressed in his archbishop's gear he was frequently stopped by the police who were suspicious of a black man driving a nice big car.

I was startled by article which compared negative coverage accorded Meghan Markle side-by-side with coverage of Kate Middleton for same behaviors.
Unfortunately, here's another such article:

Yes, the UK media’s coverage of Meghan Markle really is racist
Maya Goodfellow | Jan 17, 2020

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2020/1/17/21070351/meghan-markle-prince-harry-l...

Outrage at whites-only image as Ugandan climate activist cropped from photo (Guardian)

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate has called out racism in media after she was cropped out of a photo featuring prominent climate activists including Greta Thunberg, Loukina Tille, Luisa Neubauer and Isabelle Axelsson...

The group had given a news conference in Davos on Friday when Nakate was then cropped out of a published version by the Associated Press, a US news agency...

Detroit man settles race discrimination lawsuit, then bank won't cash his check
Tresa Baldas | Jan. 23, 2020

...Detroiter (Sauntore Thomas, 44, of Detroit) sued his employer alleging racial discrimination in a lawsuit that settled confidentially. Then he went to (TCF) bank this week to cash his settlement checks, but the Livonia bank refused to cash or deposit his checks. Instead, they called the cops and initiated a fraud investigation — actions that dumbfounded Thomas and his lawyer, triggering another lawsuit...

... two officers questioned him inside the bank, while two others stood guard outside...he was an account holder for nearly two years at that TCF branch...."I'm a United States veteran. I have an honorable discharge from the Air Force."...

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/01/23/tcf-bank-race...

Christopher Hasson: White supremacist Coast Guard officer jailed for 13 years (BBC)

A former US Coast Guard officer has been jailed for 13 years for stockpiling weapons to carry out an alleged white supremacist attack...

The guy who thought KNEELING during the national anthem was disrespectful:

...Here's the President of the United States, dicking around during the national anthem, fake conducting, pointing like an idiot, doesn't have his hand over his heart and actually moves to sit in the middle of the song...

0:26 ( https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/status/1224527050741964802 )

- Holly Figueroa O'Reilly @AynRandPaulRyan | 9:56 PM · Feb 3, 2020

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ETA
As others stand at attention for anthem, Trump fidgets, points, pretend-conducts the band
Sarah Blaskey | February 03, 2020

...The video was included in an Instagram story by a real estate agent for a Russian-American firm who frequents Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties and events...

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article239913588.html

Not the USA, but coming soon after a US news agency cropped a black activist out of a photo, it suggests a common dynamic.

News outlets criticised for mislabelling photos of black MPs (Guardian)

BBC, Evening Standard and Getty Images apologise after embarrassing mix-up...

Three leading British media outlets have been left embarrassed and facing accusations of racism after they mislabelled a series of photos of black female Labour MPs...

Holden Matthews: Man admits burning churches to raise 'black metal' profile (BBC)

A 22-year-old man has pleaded guilty to intentionally setting fire to three African-American churches in the US state of Louisiana...

He did so because he sought to emulate church burnings carried out by black metal music fans in Norway in the 1990s. In the 1990s, at least 50 Christian churches in Norway were attacked by arsonists in the name of black metal, a subgenre of heavy metal music...

US white supremacist propaganda incidents 'rose by 120% in 2019' (BBC)

Incidents of white supremacist material being spread across the US rose by 120% in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

It was the second year that the circulation of racist and nationalist posters and banners more than doubled...

The following quote from an African-American theologian may be of interest even to the non-religious as it perhaps sheds some light on the experience of oppression and on African-American thought.

Like white American theology, black thought on Christianity has been influenced by its social context. But unlike white theologians, who spoke to and for the culture of the ruling class, black people’s religious ideas were shaped by the cultural and political existence of the victims in North America. Unlike Europeans who immigrated to this land to escape from tyranny, Africans came in chains to serve a nation of tyrants. It was the slave experience that shaped our idea of this land. And this difference in social existence between Europeans and Africans must be recognized, if we are to understand correctly the contrast in the form and content of black and white theology.

What then is the form and content of black religious thought when viewed in the light of black people’s social situation? Briefly, the form of black religious thought is expressed in the style of story and its content is liberation. Black Theology, then, is the story of black people’s struggle for liberation in an extreme situation of oppression. Consequently, there is no sharp distinction between thought and practice, worship and theology, because black theological reflections about God occurred in the black struggle of freedom.

White theologians built logical systems; black folks told tales. Whites debated the validity of infant baptism or the issue of predestination and free will; blacks recited biblical stories about God leading the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, Joshua and the battle of Jericho, and the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace. White theologians argued about the general status of religious assertions in view of the development of science generally and Darwin’s Origin of Species in particular; blacks were more concerned about their status in American society and its relation to the biblical claim that Jesus came to set the captives free. White thought on the Christian view of salvation was largely “spiritual” and sometimes “rational,” but usually separated from the concrete struggle of freedom in this world. Black thought was largely eschatological {focused on the ultimate destiny of humanity} and never abstract, but usually related to blacks’ struggle against earthly oppression.

James H. Cone, God of the Oppressed (Orbis Books: 1997), 49-50.

US House passes anti-lynching law over 100 years after first attempt (BBC)

The US House of Representatives has overwhelming voted to make lynching a federal hate crime in the country. The move comes over 100 years after lawmakers first attempted to criminalise lynching...

The majority-black city blocked from electing black officials (Guardian)

Pleasant Grove, Alabama... The majority-black city has never elected an African American person to be its mayor or to serve on its five-person city council. Black candidates have run for office, and lost. That’s not an accident, civil rights advocates say: Pleasant Grove’s election system is discriminatory, making it almost impossible for African Americans to win seats...

Pleasant Grove has been using a voting system that has historically disadvantaged African Americans by allowing powerful blocs – in this case, of white residents – to vote en masse for their candidate of choice and win every seat.

It’s a system Alabama municipalities instituted over a century ago to dilute the impact of African American voters on local elections, in conjunction with other discriminatory rules, to allow white majorities to maintain their political influence in cities across the state. Seats on the council are not allotted by district; instead the whole electorate votes for all members...

The culprit is the “at-large” voting system, when all city residents vote for each seat on the council, rather than voting by neighborhood or district. This means that if members of a particular majority group in the city all vote for the same candidate – in Pleasant Grove’s case, the white majority that existed until recently – their candidate always wins...

Oklahoma college recruiter fired after telling students to line up by skin color (Guardian)

Student said Oklahoma Christian University recruiter told students to line up and ‘barely talked about the school’...

New York woman was shackled to bed during childbirth, lawsuit says (Guardian)

A 22-year-old African American woman has filed a civil rights lawsuit in New York, claiming she was shackled to a hospital gurney during labor, after being arrested on a minor assault charge that was later dismissed...

How to argue with a racist: Five myths debunked (BBC)

Stereotypes and myths about race abound, but this does not make them true. Often, these are not even expressed by overt racists... "Racism is being expressed in public more openly today than at any time I can recall, and it's our duty to contest it with facts"...

Mind you, I've had conversations (which I think is more productive than to "argue") with a lot of racists, and I'm not sure that facts have much influence on most of them.

I once worked with a man from SC. Lovely southern accent. Lovely person. I would never have guessed from his working relationship with an African-American in our group thar he had ever held a racist viewpoint. After retirement I asked him about it. He said that growing up he had absorbed the racism around him. Serving in Viet Nam was where he realized, ~"They were just like me." He was badly injured in the war, so I assume his service was in the field.

It's not just in the US that innocent Black people face discrimination.
The Canadians are just as bad.
Check ouit this poor young man's case.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/edmonton-police-warn-of-release-of-violent...

He'd done his time. Now he should be allowed to carry on ... probably studying to be a doctor or an astrophysicist.

If you live in Edmonton and you see him, and if you're a good white liberal, invite him to come live in your home, especially if you have children. Prove your anti-racism! Or, if he can be located ... he's probably willing to travel to where you live! Show your virtue!!!

https://www.nwfdailynews.com/opinion/20200329/walter-e-williams-progressive-citi...

Progressive cities and black education

By Walter E. Williams, Syndicated Columnist
Posted Mar 29, 2020


A recent report by Chris Stewart has shed new light on some of the educational problems faced by black youth. The report is titled “The Secret Shame: How America’s Most Progressive Cities Betray Their Commitment to Educational Opportunity for All.” Stewart is a self-described liberal and CEO of Brightbeam, a nonprofit network of education activists who want to hold progressive political leaders accountable.

The report asks, “So how do we explain outstandingly poor educational results for minority children in San Francisco — which also happens to be one of the wealthiest cities in the country?” “The Secret Shame” reports that progressive cities, on average, have black/white achievement gaps in math and reading that are 15 and 13 percentage points higher than in conservative cities. For example, in San Francisco, 70% of white students are proficient in math; for black students it’s 12% — a 58-point gap. In Washington, D.C., 83% of white students scored proficient in reading compared to 23% of black students — a 60-point gap.

Yet, three of the 12 conservative cities researchers looked at — Virginia Beach, Anaheim and Fort Worth — have effectively closed or even erased the gap in at least one of the academic categories studied, achieving a gap of zero or one. “The politically conservative Oklahoma City has even turned the tables on our typical thinking about race-based gaps,” says Stewart. Black students in Oklahoma City even have higher high school graduation rates than white students.

Had the “Secret Shame” study analyzed other cities, it would have found that educational outcomes for most black youngsters is a national disgrace. As of 2016, in Philadelphia, only 19% of eighth-graders scored proficient in math, and 16% were proficient in reading. In Detroit, only 4% of its eighth-graders scored proficient in math, and 7% were proficient in reading. In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore’s 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient on the state’s math exam. In six other high schools, only 1% tested proficient in math. Only 15% of Baltimore students passed the state’s English test.

National Assessment of Education Progress tests (also called the Nation’s Report Card) give further testament to the tragedy. In Philadelphia, 47% of its students scored below basic in math and 42% scored below basic in reading. In Baltimore, it was, respectively, 59% and 49%. In Detroit, 73% scored below basic in math and 56% in reading. Below basic means that a student is unable to demonstrate even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at his or her grade level.

Then there’s gross fraud practiced by the education establishment. High school graduation rates for black students range from a high of 84% in Texas to a low of 57% in Nevada and Oregon. However, according to ACT data, the percentage of black students judged to be college-ready in English, math, reading and science ranges from 17% in Massachusetts to only 3% in Mississippi. One concrete example of this fraud is the fact that Baltimore’s Frederick Douglass High School has a graduation rate of 70% while not a single student tested proficient in mathematics and only 3% did so in reading.

“The Secret Shame” report didn’t say why the black/white achievement gap was smaller in conservative cities compared to their progressive counterparts. But permit me to make a suggestion. An Education Week article reported that in the 2015-16 school year, “5.8% of the nation’s 3.8 million teachers were physically attacked by a student.” A National Center for Education Statistics study found that 18% of the nation’s schools accounted for 75% of the reported incidents of violence, and 6.6% accounted for half of all reported incidents. These are schools with predominantly black student populations. My guess is that part of the reasons black academic achievement is greater in conservative cities is that schools are less tolerant of crime whereas schools in progressive cities make excuses.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

"A Systematic Issue of Disparity": Black People in Louisiana Account for 70% of COVID-19 Deaths (Democracy Now)

Louisiana faces one of the worst outbreaks of the coronavirus in the United States. New data shows black people account for 70% of all the state's coronavirus deaths, though they comprise just 32% of the state's population. Louisiana also has the highest incarceration rate in the country, and more than 65% of the people in its jails and prisons are black. At least 28 people are infected, and 22 corrections staff have tested positive. State corrections officials are sending infected prisoners to the Louisiana State Penitentiary — known as Angola, the largest maximum-security prison in the United States — where they are being held in Camp J, a notorious part of the prison that was shut down in 2018 because of inhumane treatment. The ACLU of Louisiana sued to stop the statewide transfer of COVID-19 patients to Angola prison, but a judge denied the request last Thursday. We speak with Alanah Odoms Hebert, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, and Albert Woodfox, who served the longest time in solitary confinement of any prisoner in the United States — 44 years in Angola prison. His memoir is "Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement, My Story of Transformation and Hope."

And not just in Louisiana:

The coronavirus is disproportionately killing blacks and Hispanics in New York.

Of course--freshman sociology in 1977 explained a situation that has only worsened.

In this case "Black in Germany" rather than America.

German diocese transfers black priest after death threat (Crux)

Catholic Church officials in Germany say they are transferring a black priest to another post over concern for his safety, after his house and car were attacked and he received a death threat... Asomugha, who is from Nigeria, has faced hostility in the parish since last year and his rectory was twice broken into. Last fall, his car tires were slashed and in March a death threat was left on his garage door. Two days later somebody smashed bottles against the door of his home. A police investigation is ongoing...

Four years ago, a Congolese-born priest stepped down from his post in Bavaria after receiving anonymous death threats and hate mail for standing up for refugees...

>55 Doug1943: That’s not much of an article.

1. An author with an admitted axe to grind “Stewart is a self-described liberal and CEO of Brightbeam, a nonprofit network of education activists who want to hold progressive political leaders accountable.” What he didn’t say is the author is a CEO who obviously has no understanding of proper sampling methods or statistical analysis.

2. No operational definition of what constitutes a “progressive” or a “conservative” city/school district therefore no way to ascertain if the classifications are of any value.

3. No meaningful comparisons of any kind just some gee whiz stats for San Francisco, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Detroit (which I guess are supposed to be considered progressive) as opposed to the obviously cherry picked “conservative” cities of Virginia Beach, Anaheim and Fort Worth. Note there is no mention of the results of the other 9 “conservative” cities.

4. If you are going to compare things such as school districts you have to make sure you are comparing like and like. Having lived in several of the above cities (both “progressive” and “conservative”) I can tell you there is no way the amalgam of school districts in Virginia Beach, Anaheim and Fort Worth could be considered equivalent matches to the amalgam of school districts in San Francisco or Washington D.C. For a reasonable comparison you would have to take data from specific school districts within each of those cities and make sure you had matches on such things as student racial/gender percentages, student socio-economic status, teacher pay/training/support, class size, etc. and then compare the results of those matched schools.

5. Even if the author had some kind of operational definition for progressive and conservative and had done proper matching of school systems he would still be faced with the issue of measurement comparison. In this case the the focus would be on contrasting typical results (median, mean, quartiles, etc.) for these groups. All he has is a bunch of numbers that focus on extremes.

6. The reviewer – Walter Williams – may be a professor of economics but his comments provide ample proof that, whatever his credentials, he is shamefully ignorant of the methods of proper analysis of data of this type.

7. There is one statement Mr. Williams made that is correct. “The Secret Shame” report didn’t say why the black/white achievement gap was smaller in conservative cities compared to their progressive counterparts.” I agree. Not only didn’t he say why there was a gap he didn’t demonstrate there was one – all he did was play games with some cherry-picked numbers from some cherry-picked cities. The article is a case of garbage in – garbage out. Unfortunately for Mr. Stewart, Mr. Williams and a percentage of their readers, it is a case of garbage in and gospel out.

'Don't shoot him no more!' California police face backlash over killing of man in Walmart (Guardian)

Steven Taylor was experiencing mental health crisis when he wielded a baseball bat inside San Leandro store, family lawyer says...

Georgia to consider charges in killing of unarmed black jogger as video emerges (Guardian)

Prosecutors were reluctant to charge former police officer and son in shooting of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery...

Ahmaud Arbery killing: man called 911 to report 'black male running' prior to shooting (Guardian)

Lawyers for Arbery’s family have said his death was a “lynching” and requested it be investigated as a hate crime...

Ahmaud Arbery is dead because Americans think black men are criminals (Guardian)

When Greg McMichael and his son, Travis, got the call from their neighbor that a “burglar” was running through their Brunswick, Georgia neighborhood that chilly February day, what color man do you think they imagined as they locked, loaded, and embarked on their “mission”?

Ahmaud Arbery is dead today because when Americans dream of vigilante justice, black men are the villains of their imaginations...

>64 John5918: Not all Americans "dream of vigilante justice". Not even most Americans. There be vicious monsters out there, however...
The larger crime, perhaps, is that it took so long to charge them: virtually all Americans are appalled, I think?

(My youngest son is Ahmaud's age...)

ETA: Georgia lawmakers renew push for a hate crime bill after Ahmaud Arbery shooting
Amir Vera | May 8, 2020

...Georgia is one of four states -- including Arkansas, South Carolina and Wyoming -- that don't have hate crime laws or require data collection on such crimes, according to the US Justice Department website. However, even if a state doesn't have hate crime laws, the Justice Department says such crimes can still be reported to the FBI...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/08/us/georgia-hate-crimes-ahmaud-arbery/index.html

_______________________________________________________________

ETA:
Fox & Friends host concerned that murder of unarmed black jogger with shotgun in southeast Georgia
by white former cop and son in pickup truck who were then let go by former cop’s ex-colleagues
despite having victim’s blood on hands might be turned into one of them racial things
- George Conway, Noble Committee Chair @gtconway3d | 7:25 AM · May 9, 2020

Quote Tweet
The Washington Post @washingtonpost · 11h
Analysis: A Fox News host worries the Ahmaud Arbery killing could become a "racial situation"
https://wapo.st/3fw2B0A

_______________________________________________________________

ETA:
Georgia home site owner denounces Arbery shooting | ABC NEWS PRIME
ABC • May 11, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Qt2--_BIs

Nancy Grace tears down 'citizen's arrest' defense in deadly Ahmaud Arbery shooting
Matt London | May 11, 2020

...Former Georgia county prosecutor and Fox Nation host Nancy Grace said that the legal defense (citizen's arrest) apparently being claimed by two defendants in the deadly shooting of Ahmaud Arbery should never hold up in court...

https://www.foxnews.com/media/ahmaud-arbery-citizens-arrest-defense-nancy-grace

Grandmother and son wrongly accused of TV theft sue police over beating (Guardian)

Viral videos from Missouri show Marcia Gray, 68, and son Derek, who are black, being thrown to the ground, causing severe injuries...

Biden apologizes for saying voters who back Trump 'ain't black'

Joe Biden has apologised for saying that if African Americans “have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black”...

Black Americans are in an abusive relationship with the Democratic party

An offensive comment by the Democratic presidential candidate is a reminder that black people – all people – deserve better than Joe Biden...

Both from the Guardian.

'We're expendable': black Americans pay the price as states lift lockdowns (Guardian)

Experts warn reopening states could have dire consequences on public health, and black Americans already face greater risk...

Birdwatching while black.
Thank goodness for phone videos. I read elsewhere that woman's employer (Franklin Templeton) placed her on administrative leave, and the rescue group took back the poor spaniel. She apologized.

A Black Man Bird-Watching in Central Park Asked a White Woman to Leash Her Dog. She Called the Cops.
Elliot Hannon | May 26, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/black-man-bird-watching-bramble-cent...

FBI investigates death of black man after footage shows officer kneeling on his neck (Guardian)

Hundreds protest after death of George Floyd, who told Minneapolis police ‘I cannot breathe’...

>70 John5918:

Police fire tear gas into a peaceful protest of George Floyd’s murder
but stood like the goddamn Queen’s Guard when white assholes w guns storm the state capitol protesting HAVING 2 WEAR A MASK IN A PANDEMIC.
We live in 2 America’s & if this doesn’t make it clear ur a dummy

- Sarah Silverman @SarahKSilverman | 10:27 AM · May 27, 2020

Before You Call the Cops
Consider this man’s words before you call the cops on a Black person

3:06 ( https://twitter.com/SykesCharlie/status/1265845774153383941 )

From NowThis

--------------------------------------------------------------

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/27/us/birdwatching-black-christian-cooper/index.html

Incredible scene in downtown Atlanta.
The chief of police comes out, wades into the crowd of protestors, says not to worry about a curfew, just be peaceful in protest, and no one will get arrested.
Shows real leadership and begins calming the crowd.
- Erick Erickson @EWErickson | 6:55 PM · May 29, 2020·

https://twitter.com/joonhopekook/status/1266494398080172032
https://twitter.com/Emily_Gagnon/status/1266530311363596293

Boiling Point (excerpt of 50:09 episode)
On the Media | May 29, 2020

1. Apryl Williams @AprylW of the University of Michigan examines the Karen meme and what it tells us about criticism of privilege in the pandemic. Listen here.
2. Jessie Daniels @JessieNYC of the CUNY Graduate Center on the history of white women in racial dynamics. Listen here...

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media

Two reactions from the Catholic Church:

"Racism is not a thing of the past": US Bishops Respond to George Floyd Killing

Leaders of the U.S. bishops’ conference responded to the killing of an African American man in Minneapolis this week by stressing that the fight to eradicate racism is a pro-life issue.

“As bishops, we unequivocally state that racism is a life issue,” they said in a May 29 statement.

“Racism is not a thing of the past or simply a throwaway political issue to be bandied about when convenient. It is a real and present danger that must be met head on,” the bishops said.

“As members of the Church, we must stand for the more difficult right and just actions instead of the easy wrongs of indifference,” they said. “We cannot turn a blind eye to these atrocities and yet still try to profess to respect every human life.
...

After Death of George Floyd in U.S., Minnesota Catholics Pray for Justice

While rioters and looters took to the streets and parts of Minneapolis burned, some Minnesota Catholics called for justice and unity after the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a police officer on Monday.

“I am saddened. I am sickened. I am angered. And I am tired. I am tired of such things happening again and again. ‘How long, O Lord,’ must we endure such things?” Fr. Erich Rutten, pastor of St. Peter Claver Parish in St. Paul, said in a YouTube message May 27, two days after Floyd was killed.

“The love of God, revealed in Jesus Christ, clearly shows us that we are all children of one God, and that we are all equally subjects of Christ our King, in the Kingdom of God our Father. We are all brothers and sisters.”

The parish is home to the largest African-American Catholic community in the Twin Cities. In 1888, it was the first Catholic Church founded by and for African-Americans living in Minnesota.

“Here is a case where white supremacy has cost someone their life. The misguided idea that white people can somehow push other people around, or that we own this country, or that we own Minneapolis, leads to terrible disrespect. Leads to poverty. Leads to, in this case, violence, and in many cases, violence,” Rutten added in his video...

“Our faith calls us way beyond racism, into a radical unity, in the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom we're all brother and sisters. I mean truly: Really brothers and sisters,” Rutten added...

Both from ACI Africa.

Being black while in nature: 'You’re an endangered species' (Guardian)

Many black nature-lovers have to employ defense mechanisms – lest a situation turn sticky and they have to answer questions from a suspecting police officer...

In America, Black deaths are not a flaw in the system. They are the system (Guardian)

Whether it’s police violence, poor medical care, or simply trying to breathe, we suffer from an underlying condition: racism...

What it's like to be an African in the US (BBC)

As protests rock the US following the death of African-American George Floyd in police custody, Kenyan journalist Larry Madowo writes about the racism he has experienced in the country...

From TED News Hour, an interesting listen, a reflection from a black father of small children;

Clint Smith Reflects On This Moment (52:00)
By NPR/TED STAFF | June 5, 2020

...writer and scholar Clint Smith reflects on this moment (killing of George Floyd, massive protests), through conversation, letters, and poetry.

...a writer, poet, teacher, and Emerson Fellow at New America...(his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he studied the sociology of education)

...His most recent piece, " Becoming a Parent in the Age of Black Lives Matter," was published in The Atlantic earlier this week.

...Smith's two TED Talks, " The Danger of Silence" and " How to Raise a Black Son in America," have collectively been viewed more than seven million times.* The latter was featured on the TED Radio Hour episode, " The Consequences of Racism."

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/05/869765344/clint-smith-reflects-on-this-moment

*
How to raise a black son in America (5:13)
Clint Smith | March 2015

As kids, we all get advice from parents and teachers that seems strange, even confusing. This was crystallized one night for a young Clint Smith, who was playing with water guns in a dark parking lot with his white friends. In a heartfelt piece, the poet paints the scene of his father's furious and fearful response.

https://www.ted.com/talks/clint_smith_how_to_raise_a_black_son_in_america

The Danger of Silence
Clint Smith | July 2014

"We spend so much time listening to the things people are saying that we rarely pay attention to the things they don't," says poet and teacher Clint Smith. A short, powerful piece from the heart, about finding the courage to speak up against ignorance and injustice.

https://www.ted.com/talks/clint_smith_the_danger_of_silence

Will Bunch @Will_Bunch | 6:10 PM · Jun 10, 2020
Let's be clear about this dog whistle: On Juneteenth, when hundreds of thousands will be in the streets demanding racial justice on a day slaves were freed in 1865, Trump will be rallying in the city where angry whites burned down Black Wall Street in 1921

Trump Will Return to Campaign Trail With Rally in Tulsa
Annie Karni | June 10, 2020. Updated June 11, 2020

The president’s first rally since the coronavirus shuttered most of the country will take place on Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery, in the city where one of the worst racist massacres in American history took place....

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/us/politics/trump-rally-tulsa-oklahoma.html

My youngest son (brown) once saw a girl in central Ohio, which entailed long, after-work drives sometimes in winter conditions. Not infrequently his Rx leaves him so sleepy that he has to pull over to snooze. I was so frightened for him, but my concerns held no weight against love... Thankfully, he survived and is now seeing a local girl. :)

2020 Is the Summer of the Road Trip. Unless You’re Black.
The family road trip is making a comeback in the wake of the coronavirus, but for African-American motorists, it’s never been a source of unfettered freedom.
Tariro Mzezewa | June 10, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/travel/road-trip-black.html

Another day, another Karen.

CEO caught on video confronting neighbor over Black Lives Matter message

(Lisa) Alexander, along with her husband, could be seen threatening to call police on James Juanillo, who is Filipino, as he stenciled “Black Lives Matter” with chalk in front of his own home.
…
In the video, which was first shared on Tuesday and had since been retweeted nearly 200,000 times, the couple asks him whether Juanillo lives in the house before asserting that they know he doesn’t and is breaking the law.
…
Juanillo said a police officer pulled up several minutes after the encounter and drove away after recognizing Juanillo as a longtime resident. He later told KGO-TV he believes the couple accused him of defacing private property because they didn’t think he belonged in the wealthy Pacific Heights neighborhood.
---------------------------------------
She has since apologized after having lost business associations and her husband was fired from his job.

Two black men found hanged in California communities were ruled suicides. Even though no chair or support stand was evident.

Robert L. Fuller, 24, Palmdale, California
As one woman says in the video, "If it was a white boy, they'd be on it."

Another, quoted in the NYT article, “Why was it right here in public, in front of City Hall, next to a church, in front of a library? Why was it like that? Who would do that? No black man would hang himself in public like that.”

Malcolm Harsch, 38, Victorville, California (50 miles east)

“There are many ways to die but considering the current racial tension, a Black man hanging himself from a tree definitely doesn’t sit well with us right now,” the family said in a statement. “We want justice, not comfortable excuses.”

FBI and California Attorney General's Office to monitor investigation of man found hanging from a tree

>81 2wonderY: It would be really disgusting but at the same time really refreshing if the Lisa Alexanders of the world would just own it. They are flaming bigots, they know they are flaming bigots, they're not going to be anything but flaming bigots so just suck it up - take your well deserved losses and whatever other negative things come your way because of your position and quit trying to pretend you are in any way, shape, or form reformed or at all sorry for what you are and what you did.

Claudia Rankine in 2015 : ‘The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning’

... Though the white liberal imagination likes to feel temporarily bad about black suffering, there really is no mode of empathy that can replicate the daily strain of knowing that as a black person you can be killed for simply being black: no hands in your pockets, no playing music, no sudden movements, no driving your car, no walking at night, no walking in the day, no turning onto this street, no entering this building, no standing your ground, no standing here, no standing there, no talking back, no playing with toy guns, no living while black. ...

We live in a country where Americans assimilate corpses in their daily comings and goings. Dead blacks are a part of normal life here. Dying in ship hulls, tossed into the Atlantic, hanging from trees, beaten, shot in churches, gunned down by the police or warehoused in prisons: Historically, there is no quotidian without the enslaved, chained or dead black body to gaze upon or to hear about or to position a self against. When blacks become overwhelmed by our culture’s disorder and protest (ultimately to our own detriment, because protest gives the police justification to militarize, as they did in Ferguson), the wrongheaded question that is asked is, What kind of savages are we? Rather than, What kind of country do we live in?

In 1955, when Emmett Till’s mutilated and bloated body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River and placed for burial in a nailed-shut pine box, his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, demanded his body be transported from Mississippi, where Till had been visiting relatives, to his home in Chicago. Once the Chicago funeral home received the body, she made a decision that would create a new pathway for how to think about a lynched body. She requested an open coffin and allowed photographs to be taken and published of her dead son’s disfigured body.

Mobley’s refusal to keep private grief private allowed a body that meant nothing to the criminal-justice system to stand as evidence. By placing both herself and her son’s corpse in positions of refusal relative to the etiquette of grief, she “disidentified” with the tradition of the lynched figure left out in public view as a warning to the black community, thereby using the lynching tradition against itself. The spectacle of the black body, in her hands, publicized the injustice mapped onto her son’s corpse. “Let the people see what I see,” she said, adding, “I believe that the whole United States is mourning with me.” ...

The truth, as I see it, is that if black men and women, black boys and girls, mattered, if we were seen as living, we would not be dying simply because whites don’t like us. Our deaths inside a system of racism existed before we were born. The legacy of black bodies as property and subsequently three-fifths human continues to pollute the white imagination. To inhabit our citizenry fully, we have to not only understand this, but also grasp it. In the words of playwright Lorraine Hansberry, “The problem is we have to find some way with these dialogues to show and to encourage the white liberal to stop being a liberal and become an American radical.” ...

The Charleston murders alerted us to the reality that a system so steeped in anti-black racism means that on any given day it can be open season on any black person — old or young, man, woman or child. There exists no equivalent reality for white Americans. The Confederate battle flag continues to fly at South Carolina’s statehouse as a reminder of a history marked by lynched black bodies. We can distance ourselves from this fact until the next horrific killing, but we won’t be able to outrun it.

What I've learned about being a Black scientist
Neil A. Lewis, Jr. | Jun. 16, 2020
https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2020/06/what-ive-learned-about-being-black-sc...

>81 2wonderY: to >83 alco261:

Let's all live on a racial knife-edge and, like James Juanillo does, keep a chip-on-our-shoulder attitude if questioned by someone about something we're seen to be doing in public--- oh. wait....

The living on a racial knife-edge, constantly faced with being assumed to be racist by others who know us not at all, that's for "White" people.

And, the going around with a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude---that's reserved for "people of color."

James Juanillo could have simply replied, "Yes, I live here" and that should surely have been the end of it.

What seems to me clear is that Juanillo wasn't interested in that. Instead, he wanted to escalate the circumstances and make it much more than it had to have been.

In addition to wearlng a face-mask, using antisceptic hand-cleaner frequently, how'd you like to just as frequently deny accusation, expressly made or implied, that you're a racist?

Trump hasn't brought us to this pass. The "Woke" cancel-culture which includes fanatical supporters of "BLM" has brought us to it.

So, now everyone gets to live in Ferguson, MO.

_____________________

About all the touching concern for race and refugees, consider:

With such stuff, you're making hundreds of thousands of prospective voters refugees, driving them into the arms of Donald Trump's re-election campaign and making his re-election more likely.

>86 proximity1: - No, it surly would not have been the end of it...and your belief in such a possible outcome given the racial makeup of the situation is nothing but wishful thinking. It was the bigot bitch who not only insisted he didn't live there because she knew who did (which was a lie and you know it) but who also flat out told him she was going to call the cops (and she did). I can guarantee you if he had been white nothing would have been said or done.

I also have no doubt his run-in with that professional bigot was just the latest in a lifelong series of such encounters. How do I know? Because my situation is such that I have witnessed this you-are-obviously-up-to-no-good-because-you-have-a-high-melanin-count-and-that-gives-me-the-right-to-treat-you-any-way-I-feel-like behavior more times than I can count in my 30+ years of marriage. Given what I personally know of how these things unfold (and also how they do not unfold if you are white and doing the exact same thing) and the frequency with which they occur, I would have to give the guy extremely high marks for his restrained behavior.

>86 proximity1: James Juanillo could have simply replied, "Yes, I live here" and that should surely have been the end of it.

The idea that Black people should be forced to account for their movements to white people is simply not on, and the fact that you find this acceptable is very revealing.

this

... " I can guarantee you if he had been _(insert race identity here)_ nothing would have been said or done." ...

and this

..."given the racial makeup of the situation is nothing but wishful thinking" "it surely would not have been the end of it" ...

and this

... "I also have no doubt his run-in with that professional bigot was just the latest in a lifelong series of such encounters. How do I know? Because my situation is such that I have witnessed this you-are-obviously-up-to-no-good-because-you-have-a-high-melanin-count-and-that-gives-me-the-right-to-treat-you-any-way-I-feel-like behavior" ...

are prime examples of exactly what you readily condemn in others as racist and bigoted--when it is directed at other-than-White people.

There we have it: your life-long direct experience is a valid basis for race-based and negatively discriminatory preemptory conclusions about the "the bigot bitch who ... insisted he didn't live there"

But of those of "the bigot bitch" variety--those, you've already designated and denounced as racist, bigoted, and your life experiences, because they trump those of people you neither like nor trust to allow
any benefit of a doubt, because you refuse to consider the possibility of one, of all of that, you "have no doubt."

This little picture is how we got to this present idiot shit-storm of racially-charged suspicions and distrust we now live in. You and others like you, some White, some Black, are responsible for the circumstances you already blamed on Trump (whose racist character was for you a foregone conclusion before he was even elected to office).

These, your race-based biases, are all fair and honest--of course!: they confirm your biased life-experience taught you: Whites, virtually all racist bigots except those few who are special exceptions, are out to get the Blacks. And nearly all of these whites are driven by racist prejudices and preconceived ideas of "the other" even as you rest in the comfortable certainty that you aren't.

"Given what I (that is, you) personally know of how these things unfold (and also how they do not unfold if you are white and doing the exact same thing)"

that is, then, you enjoy the benefit of preemptory conclusions about those you designate as your ideological adversaries while--again, according to you,-- they have no such right to do anything like the same.

You and others like you make the case for Trump's supporters' argument that, in electing Donald Trump, the country narrowly escaped what otherwise should have been the continuation of a too little questioned and too little challenged moral catastrophe designed and promoted by those who think as you do.

Even so, there's still Hell to pay for the decades of moral decline up to then.
_____________________

So, just to be super-clear on this, you think that the view that Black people's lives matter - which is to say, that Black people are fully human and should be entitled to walk the streets of the United States without being threatened, harassed, or killed out of hand by police or by random passers-by - is a sign of "moral decline"?

You really want to go on record with that?

EDIT: I guess you're already on record with that, nevermind...

>89 proximity1: Thank you for that Shakespearean Analysis.

What you need to unlearn about U.S. history to understand Juneteenth

I was thinking about this present when it seems that finally masses of white people are opening their eyes to the reality of racism and their own contribution to it as the beneficiaries of white supremacy, and looked at the past installments of this thread.

It was started in 2015, almost exactly five years ago (June 18) in the aftermath of the Charleston massacre:

American racism

And continued with the first post in the second thread linking to an article about "Our Racial Moment of Truth":

Racism in America, II

In February 2016, the sense of a "new political moment" had remained strong:

Black in America

But in November of that same year, the appalling election result had shocked us with the realisation that the USA's unspoken racist agenda not only hadn't retreated, it had become "spoken", and how. (Never noticed until now I had misnumbered the thread then... I still feel the unbelieving, flustered grief of that day in my guts):

Black in America, III

From then to now, I think I may conclude this--but, mind, not about anyone specifically in this group, nor this group as a whole (which has degenerated completely into a seat of open fascists and Republicans-lite)--a conclusion bearing rather on some intangible wider "public" outside this tiny section of the internet...

...and it's just this: things DO change. Did. In some way, not entirely clear to me. And costing way too much in black human life and misery. And likely to cost even more before anything REALLY gets better.

I am not proposing optimism. If we see today the media, the businesses, the parties saying they think black lives matter, it's only because the injustice has grown so monstrous so visibly. Only because things have gotten so bad they can't safely ignore it anymore.

Former Long Beach Officers Write Death Threats Against BLM Activist Shaun King

Screenshots included in the Medium article show current and former officers of various California agencies saying "Toss this guy from a helicopter," "Need a sniper," "Shaun King needs to be put down," "I recommend retro active birth control, or post birth abortion, whatever you wanna call it," and other threats apparently aimed at King.

According to King, the threats began with retired Long Beach Police Officer Laura Tartgaglione, who allegedly wrote, "The man who put this tweet out today is a FOUNDING MEMBER OF BLM, he also introduced Bernie Sanders at his attempted presidential run. I think (California) needs to start putting a team together of retired military, police and NRA MEMBERS! We have no protection.

These criminals that the Democrats created need to be stopped."

‘We are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them’: Three cops fired after racist talk of killing black residents

Sitting in his patrol car in Wilmington, N.C., Officer Michael “Kevin” Piner predicted Black Lives Matter protests would soon lead to civil war. “I’m ready,” Piner told another officer, adding that he planned to buy an assault rifle.

“We are just going to go out and start slaughtering them f------ n------,” he said.

The shocking threat came amid extended, openly racist conversations between Piner, 44, and two other police officers, 50-year-old Cpl. Jesse E. Moore II, and 48-year-old Officer James “Brian” Gilmore. In the discussions, taped by accident on a patrol car camera and released Wednesday by the department, the men freely drop racial slurs, suggest killing black residents and deride protesters.

“Wipe 'em off the f------ map,” Piner said of African Americans. “That’ll put 'em back about four or five generations.”

>95 LolaWalser:

Wow, that's gross.

'The noose was real': NASCAR releases photo of rope found in Bubba Wallace's garage

NASCAR asked officials at every track to check their garages this week. Out of 1,684 garage stalls at 29 tracks, only 11 had a garage door pull-down rope tied in a knot, Phelps said, and the only one fashioned in a noose was the one discovered Sunday by a crew member in Wallace's No. 43 stall.

>97 LolaWalser:

Question: If this photo is a faithful representation of the rope which was found in the course of the F.B.I. investigation, then how did it happen that not a single one of the fifteen agents involved found credible evidence sufficient to support a charge on the kind of act being alleged here to have occurred in this case?

Question: Where is the press's interest in and responsibility for the pursuit of the release and publication of the official F.B.I. investigation's photo-evidence of the "scene of the 'crime'" and, where are those photos?

They ought to be produced in response to this photo's publication. So why haven't they been produced?--if the photo linked in the cited post above is genuine and accurate, why not demonstrate that by showing corroborating F.B.I. photos?

If this is the scandal it's alleged to be, then let's see that shown to be so through release of the officially-gathered evidence. There's apparently to be no trial proceedings envisioned in this case because the fifteen agents assigned to it determined there weren't sufficient grounds to conclude that any crime had occurred. So there's no reason not to publish the photos which show the scene as they found it and why that lacked convincing evidence of a criminal act. Or, failing this release of their photo evidence, let the lead agent simply state publicly that the photo shown in the linked page is or is not, as the case may be, an accurate picture of what the F.B.I. agents found when they investigated.

That should settle this matter.

We don't need another "Steele dossier" fiasco, now, do we!?

Always.

"What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?": James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass's Historic Speech

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2020/07/05/frederick-douglass-st...

Later an admirer of the Declaration of Independence and quite the Constitutional Scholar, it should come as no surprise that the protesters would deem him an agent to the enemy. We pass the speech of him as a young man, but you should read some of his later works.

>100 Cubby.R.S.: the Times coverage indicates that the perpetrator has not been identified. Does your (paywalled) link give you any reason to suppose that this was done by "the protestors"? (and if so, by which protestors?)

https://www.aaihs.org/frederick-douglass-and-the-united-states-constitution/#:~:...

The racists are restless.

Frederick Douglass statue torn down on anniversary of great speech

>102 Cubby.R.S.: That does not address my question.

>101 kiparsky:

Doesn't matter, those in support of removing statues by vandal, support the removal of any statue without the consent of the community in which it exists. It is no doubt done in protest, as the timing suggests.

>105 Cubby.R.S.: Unpacking this, this morning you have stated that:

1) you have no idea who removed the statue, but they were "protesters" in any case but
2) you're happy to try in your ham-fisted way to imply that they were some sort of leftists and regardless of who they were
3) they were ideologically opposed to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and this explains their opposition to a memorial to Douglass and
4) anyone who supports the removal of any statue approves of removing all statues

(1) simply means that the word "protesters" has no meaning at all for you (it just means whoever you refer to when you use the word). Good to know, I will assume until contradicted by further evidence that you are similarly sloppy in your use of language generally.
(2) does not speak well for your intellectual honesty. Some of us find that matters. Others of us are Proxette and Carny. You can choose whether it matters to you.
(3) is clearly nonsense, since you've admitted (2). And of course you'll conveniently forget that you ever asserted (3) when it turns out that the vandals in question were more inclined to your end of the ideological spectrum.
(4) is vacuous given the widespread community support for removing these statues

>106 kiparsky:

1) Given the timing, why would you remove a statue without protest of something?
2)3) The Far Left and Far Right are really fighting back to back, destroying everyone in between before they turn around. The tidbit about the Constitution means you assume that Leftists would not like Douglass because he found the Constitution positive, but again the far Right is essentially the same.
4) by vandalism, a point which you so happily ignore.

White police mocking the death of a black man killed by the police. And people think Get Out is satire.

US officers fired over photos imitating chokehold on Black man

...McClain's family, friends and community activists noted during a rally that justice was swifter for the mocking photograph than the use of force that led to McClain's death.

The two other officers who stopped the young man are still on the force as authorities look again into possible criminal charges after clearing them last year.

"Rosenblatt got fired not for killing Elijah, not for murdering Elijah, but for making fun of Elijah," said Terrence Roberts, a community organiser and family friend.

"That is the culture that we're fighting, where a police officer can murder a Black man, a Black child, and keep his job and stay on the force so he can go make fun of this child. ...

For Elijah McClain's mother, Sheneen McClain, "it was just devastating to see that people were mocking the murder of her son", family lawyer Mari Newman said.

"The fact that three on-duty, in-uniform police officers thought that it was appropriate to re-enact the murder, jokingly, shows that the department is rotten to the core," she said.

>107 Cubby.R.S.: Don't try to pin your assumptions on me. The assumptions about the motivations of the people who removed that statue are taken from >100 Cubby.R.S.:
Your words, not mine.

Interesting interview, quite unfiltered opinion about the BLM movement.

https://youtu.be/bRCwe7J_4YE

https://www.city-journal.org/black-lives-matter

>110 Cubby.R.S.:

Cubby, it's good form to add identifying information to the links one posts--it might also help with getting the desired attention. Many people never click on unidentified/undescribed links.

ETA: thanks, that certainly helps.

Another case where the original crime is compounded with the police's criminal negligence. Where the police joins in in the crime.

Attempted Lynching in Indiana. Meet the Survivor, Human Rights Commissioner Vauhxx Booker

Nick Cannon. I think we should just roll with the science here. Nearly a half million people showed up for Farrakhan. So I suppose these views are probably held in quite high esteem?

https://alphanewsmn.com/closer-to-animals-nick-cannon-goes-on-racist-anti-semiti...

>113 Cubby.R.S.: Unless I'm missing something that just looks like a comedian saying something outrageous because he's a comedian. Nothing to see here.

White people—with, at least, as far as I'm aware, few or no exceptions—and some of them neither citizens nor even residents of the U.S., pontificating here about experiences as they suppose them, what it must mean to be "Black in America", now on its fourth extension— experiences, as they think them to be based upon their knowledge of mediatized reports.

Neither Black nor even an experienced resident of the U.S.?

Tell us, won't you? all about trials and tribulations of Black Americans.

___________________

"Political Witch-Hunts-R-Us."
(Open-minded need not apply.)

!!! This slime is a US senator... in 2020...

Tom Cotton calls slavery 'necessary evil' in attack on New York Times' 1619 Project

widely seen as a possible presidential candidate in 2024

Well, let's just make sure this never gets forgotten, shall we?

>117 kiparsky:

I find it extremely worrying that such ideas are even getting floated. It signals to me that the tack taken by the Republicans under Trump, far from being pushed back, is getting reinforced. It's a manifesto. To entrench oneself in racism as Cotton is doing is a kind of burning bridges. And if it were only bridges that will burn...

>118 LolaWalser: Amazingly to you and me, Cotton views himself as a sort of principled scholar of history. His idea of history as a discipline is fundamentally broken: he wants it to be a sort of collection of folk tales that we use to put our children to sleep, and these folk tales should always have a moral, and that moral should be that at every stage America has been great and good.
Somehow, he wants to reconcile that with an imperative to "study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country", which in my understanding is exactly the point of the 1619 project. If he's like other people who I've talked to who express similar views, his conception of "studying the history of slavery" is to find ways to tell that story so that it's just a phase America was going through, and we're all right now, or at least we would be if those black people wouldn't keep bringing it up all the time.

Yeah, I don't understand it either, but it's a popular notion. I think at the bottom of it all is a sort of weird essentialism, which holds that a nation like the United States is basically always and eternally the same, and its present and future greatness in some magical way depend on its having been always great. This means that who is not on board with the effort to sweep the reality of slavery and its repercussions aside and replace them with comforting myths (we all have come across them - the "happy slaves singing in the fields" myth, and the "we civilized those people" myth, and the "slavery was better than employment in Northern factories" myth, and so many more) is trying to deny American greatness. I use the ambiguous "deny" intentionally: we are, in this weird magical-thinking world, trying to deny that America was great, and thereby to deny America its so-well-deserved present and future greatness. In other words, for the adherents of this view, you and I are traitors, trying to make America un-great.

How un-great-ful of us!

Genetic impact of African slave trade revealed in DNA study
BBC | 24 July 2020

More than 50,000 people took part in the study, which was able to identify more details of the "genetic impact" the trade has had on present-day populations in the Americas.

It lays bare the consequences of rape, maltreatment, disease and racism.

More than 12.5m Africans were traded between 1515 and the mid-19th Century.

Some two million of the enslaved men, women and children died en route to the Americas.

The DNA study was led by consumer genetics company 23andMe and included 30,000 people of African ancestry on both sides of the Atlantic.

...The study found, in line with the major slave route, that most Americans of African descent have roots in territories now located in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

What was surprising was the over-representation of Nigerian ancestry in the US and Latin America when compared with the recorded number of enslaved people from that region...British Caribbean...

Likewise, the researchers were surprised to find an underrepresentation from Senegal and The Gambia - one of the first regions from where slaves were deported...rice plantations...later years larger numbers of children were sent, many of whom did not survive the crossing.

...a strong bias towards African female contributions in the gene pool - even though the majority of slaves were male - could be attributed to "the rape of enslaved African women by slave owners and other sexual exploitation".

...The study highlighted the "practice of coercing enslaved people to having children as a means of maintaining an enslaved workforce nearing the abolition of the transatlantic trade".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53527405

---------------------------------------------------------------

Steven J. Micheletti et al. 2020. Genetic Consequences of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Americas. American Journal of Human Genetics. Open Access. Published:July 23, 2020 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.06.012 https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(20)30200-7

McDonald's has come out on the side of Black Lives Matter. There goes one of Trump's major food groups. His filet-o-fish sandwiches, Big Macs, Quarter pounders, Egg McMuffins and chocolate milk shakes will never taste the same.

>119 kiparsky:

I meant specifically the idea that someone spouting this extreme racist garbage is seen as a viable, possible, maybe favoured candidate for president... again.

>121 lriley:

ha!

And these military swine are supposed to jump in and defend "FREEDOM" if Trumpo goes tyrant?

Kaepernick shirt was attack dogs' target at Navy Seal event

Louisiana court upholds black man's life sentence for trying to steal hedge clippers

A black man in Louisiana will continue to serve a life sentence in prison for trying to steal hedge clippers after the state supreme court denied a request to review his sentence. Fair Wayne Bryant was convicted in 1997 of attempted simple burglary...

This black man shouldn't spend life in prison for trying to steal hedge clippers

Last week, the Louisiana supreme court refused to review the punishment meted out to Fair Wayne Bryant. This is the dissent written by one Black judge, on why the punishment is excessive:

The sentence imposed is excessive and disproportionate to the offense the defendant committed. Mr Bryant was sentenced, as a habitual offender, to life in prison for unsuccessfully attempting to make off with somebody else’s hedge clippers. Since his conviction in 1997, Mr Bryant’s incarceration has cost Louisiana taxpayers approximately $518,667.

Arrested at 38, Mr Bryant has already spent nearly 23 years in prison and is now over 60 years old. If he lives another 20 years, Louisiana taxpayers will have paid almost $1m to punish Mr Bryant for his failed effort to steal a set of hedge clippers...

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/kimberly-klacik-new-ad-republican-candidate-for-c...

Interesting ad from a Republican campaign.

https://abc11.com/racial-equity-task-force-nc-racism-gov-roy-cooper/6311767/

I suggested that the Racial Equity Task Force in NC take up the issue of the failure of police and prosecutor's to have written policies on releasing exculpatory evidence. This failure leads to wrongful convictions.

Anyone white in America, how would you like being black in America?

17-Year-Old Arrested and Charged With 1st Degree Murder In Shooting Death of 2 During Jacob Blake Protests in Kenosha, Wis.

These people were protesting the hideous attack on Jacob Blake, and this of course drew masses of hideous white men with guns slavering for blood and blood there was... some little white git or other shot and killed two people, firing into the protesters.

Racist garbage call this "justified"

This was "justified"--"fully justified"

"FULLY JUSTIFIED"--in front of Blake's children too (never too young to learn their place in America, black kids)

‘It should have been long ago’: majority-Black US city elects first Black officials (Guardian)

Pleasant Grove, a small Alabama city outside of Birmingham, made history Tuesday by electing a majority-Black city council. The city, which is nearly 60% Black, had never previously elected a Black candidate to the city council.

Tuesday’s election was the first after the city settled a 2018 lawsuit filed under the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 civil rights law, and agreed to change its system for holding elections. The city had long allowed all residents of the city to vote for all the city council members, regardless of where they lived, allowing white voters to cast their ballots in a cohesive bloc that blocked Black candidates from winning elections. Similar practices, often called “at-large elections”, had long been used throughout Alabama to block African Americans from gaining political power at the local level.

Black residents there told the Guardian in February they felt shut out from the town’s all-white city council. Late last year, Pleasant Grove agreed to settle the case and adopted a new election method called cumulative voting, in which each eligible voter gets five votes they can allocate however they want among candidates...

Blake had a car full of kids and they shot him 7 times in the back in front of them. His spinal cord has been severed so if he survives he will be paralyzed. Blake was not armed and not in anyway a threat. These two clown cops should go away to prison for the rest of their lives.

Apparently in the wake of these protests armed white militia members came into Kenosha from around the general area and were welcomed by police who passed out bottled water to them. According to at least one militia member the police told militia members that they (the police) would drive protesters towards them (the militia members) and then they (the police) would vacate the scene and let them (the militia members) take care of the protesters or 'we know you can handle it'. After all of this happens you have this 17 year old Kyle Rittinghouse kill two people and wound another. Police are seen talking to Rittinghouse prior to all this and Rittinghouse even asks them for a bottle of water and then later on Rittinghouse is allowed to leave the scene even as protesters are pointing him out to the police as the man who has just shot three people.

Anyway the description of that is from the youtube blogger the Rational National (aka David Doell) and it's one of those videos I've had trouble linking here. But it has video of Rittinghouse and also the militia member who is telling his side of the story to some of the BLM protesters.

>132 lriley:
”These two clown cops should go away to prison for the rest of their lives.”

Rather harsh assessment and sentence when you don't understand the totality of circumstances those officers experienced. Blake was violent, resisting arrest, and reportedly armed with a knife.

Here’s a link to an interesting perspective and commentary regarding the incident, and others, with witness video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Sp8EIHu1A

>134 TrippB:

Hateful, vicious, tendentious garbage. There is no evidence he was violent, no evidence he was holding anything, and he WAS WALKING AWAY FROM THE POLICE.

Whoever thinks Blake didn't react the "best way", that he should have stopped, raised his arms, dropped down on the ground, cried and whimpered like a baby--yeah, sure, MAYBE they are right... AND SO WHAT??

Your fucking racist pig police have already attacked and murdered how many black people who "behaved"? Who did nothing provocative? Even children?

So, again, so fucking WHAT if you think Blake didn't "behave"? If he lost his composure, if he was terrified--who wouldn't be?! Only white pigs can COUNT on being treated like humans by the police and your sort in general.

NOTHING he did justifies shooting him, let alone SEVEN TIMES IN THE BACK.

If the bastard absolutely had to shoot, why not shoot to the side to shock him, or at least in the legs? They were that close they could have chosen which square inch of leg to shoot at.

But no. Had to be the most life-endangering target and then a freaking hail of bullets too.

Fuck this entire strain of convo and fuck every single racist turd trying to argue this abomination into "justified" action--FULLY justified lest we forget.

Jacob Blake shackled to hospital bed despite being paralyzed, father says

Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old who was shot seven times by a Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer on Sunday, is shackled to his hospital bed despite being unable to walk and being heavily medicated, with no clarity on whether or why he might be under investigation, his father revealed on Friday.

“There was the cold steel on his ankle. He is shackled to the bed, but he cannot get up, he could not get up, he is paralyzed,” Jacob Blake Sr, father of Jacob Blake Jr, said on CNN in an interview, describing a hospital visit he had with his son two days ago.

>134 TrippB: Blake reportedly had a knife in the car, like many Americans of all skin colors do. He also had his own children in the car. I'm sure racists are also calling the victimized children dangerous weapons for simply existing.

>134 TrippB: Just to be clear, are you saying that you think being armed is sufficient grounds for use of deadly force? That's interesting, because when the armed whack-job nutbags rioted in various cities for their right to spread contagion at whim I didn't hear you arguing that they should all be shot. Hypocrisy, or did you just not notice them?

For what it's worth, I carry a multitool on my person at most times, and that tool includes a pretty effective blade. I walked past several police officers on an errand just this morning. If being in the vicinity of a knife is a threat, shouldn't I have been shot?

From point blank range this cop emptied his firearm into an unarmed man in front of his three grade school aged kids. That's way way way beyond the pale. This knife thing the cops are making a big deal out of is crap. The guy who shot Blake has completely flipped out. The cop more than deserves a long long prison sentence.

I by the way often have a knife in my car because it comes in handy sometimes for emergencies.

We should also keep in mind the ripple effect of this cop Rusten Sheskey's emptying his weapon into Jacob Blake. Not only is Blake paralyzed for life and his children traumatized but we also have a 17 year old goofball with an assault weapon having murdered two other people and injured another and the ripple effect that that is going to have on the loved ones of the murdered and the self destruction that the 17 year old has done to his own life----all because this one asshole policeman was so enraged or so shit his pants panicked that he emptied his weapon into this unarmed black man....and this can all be pointed back at our fearless leader in the White House who continues to throw gasoline on the fires of division.

>138 kiparsky: "For what it's worth, I carry a multitool on my person at most times"

Don't let the Regents Park Police catch you!

That cop has got to be kicking himself. Seven shots and he didn't kill the man. Never had the chance to pull out a pithy remark like, "“Think it’s going to be a closed casket, homie,”

>138 kiparsky:
”Just to be clear, are you saying that you think being armed is sufficient grounds for use of deadly force?…”

You really had to stretch to come up with that from anything I’ve said, as that is not what I posted. A knife, or a gun, is merely a tool. Inert. Not a threat. A knife or gun in the hand of a combative, non-compliant individual, with a history of violence and non-compliance who is actively resisting arrest is indeed a threat, and deadly force is justified. Fully justified.

Officials said a knife was recovered from Blake’s car—after, and where, he was shot. Officials have not said if he had that knife earlier in the encounter. However, the video shows Blake physically resisting arrest. He appears to come up from the ground at one point (perhaps after one of the two times he was reportedly hit with a taser), and police appear to suddenly back away from their earlier hands-on tactic.

It has been claimed that witnesses said officers were ordering Blake to “drop the knife.” Radio records posted on YouTube reflect one officer made an urgent call for more units to assist about 30 seconds before shots were fired. Why would they step away from Blake and call for more backup even before he made his way to the drivers door?

A still frame allegedly isolated from the video shows what looks like a karambit in Blake's hand. Was it a knife? I don't know, but if it was, that would explain a lot of what happened just before he was shot. Also, when deadly force is justified by an imminent threat, it is applied until the threat no longer exists. Blake fought off police; he apparently fought right through less-lethal uses of force with a taser, twice; and he must not have stopped his resistance with the first, second, or third round fired by the officer.

If it took seven shots to get him to stop his aggression, it took seven shots. The number is irrelevant. That half dollar rap guy took nine shots from a 9mm, and he still pumped out 30 million albums. I don’t know what ammunition the officer was using, but he may want to upgrade.

This would be a much better conversation if the results of the investigation were available. I’m willing to re-evaluate this incident if facts show anything else. Rather ironic that those proclaiming the officers to be murderous racist pigs have come to their conclusions before the facts have been fully reported. This may be a good opportunity for them to work on checking biases. From the posts people have left here, they’ve already made up their minds…much like those who hold up other violent thugs to be heroes.

>143 TrippB: I’m willing to re-evaluate this incident if facts show anything else. Rather ironic,,,

Good. Rather ironic that those who are calling more investigations into systemic racism in the police (and the nation) are being vilified by right wingers, that right wingers are using firearms to kill some of those demonstrating on the issue, and that one of our own right wing posters here, Cubby, is calling the actions of the police PERFECT before having all the facts and the results of any investigation,

>143 TrippB: I used to have a coworker, someone I'd considered a friend, who debated with himself about enlisting in the military or applying for a police officer position. He chose to apply to a local police department. Within months of his hiring, he went from one of the nicest, most thoughtful people I spent time with to someone unrecognizable as he ranted about "scumbags" in the news and from his shifts, using racist language on Facebook, and threatening people who argue that police officers are primarily meant to keep civilians in check. We certainly weren't friends anymore. I didn't want him near my friends or family. He had obviously became a threat to the community at the encouragement of his superior officers. And there was obviously a racial element to the change.

I had seen radicalization before but never that fast. It put every White police officer I've known personally in a new light, and I've known several, having grown up with some in and out of my family, among my classmates in martial arts, and from community activities. A police press secretary would lie on record, department staff were more concerned about officer safety than the families who were being told we would be shot for attending a festival meant to support civil rights, and one member of SWAT was assigned a report writer to explain his use of violence in ways that prevented court convinctions.

The priorities often skew away from accountability and public safety.

I've seen the White supremacy smattered in police forums. We've all, I'm guessing, seen the statistics and the flood of personal stories. Where I live now, much of the local law enforcement is suspected of being a part of an active Klu Klux Klan, which might be meeting regularly at a nearby masonic lodge that has a row of Confederate monuments at the front gate, likely put in when the newer Confederate monuments went up in public spaces in the area. It was only in the past year or so that someone in power could publicly joke about murder and suffer no consequences. As of this year, the calls for public officials who can't even pretend they don't want to personally shoot members of the community to quit or to be removed from office has increased.

So, yes, after years and years of observation, I'm biased away from believing police statements.

On that note: that dark line in the photo isn't a cell phone? If it's a knife, why was it out, why is Blake seen in the following second putting it away while avoiding the police, and why is at least one officer running into knife range with his firearm drawn while his suspect is not showing immediate signs of aggression? The photos don't prove Jacob Blake needed to be shot to protect anyone. The only person who appears to be under attack is Blake.

>145 aspirit: We're dealing with True Believers here. Grainy distorted context-free images are PROOF!!!!

Los Angeles: sheriff's deputies fatally shoot Black man stopped for riding bicycle (Guardian)

Two Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies fatally shot a Black man after ordering him to stop on his bicycle... When deputies tried to stop the man he dropped his bike and ran, with deputies in pursuit... The man dropped a bundle of clothes and the deputies spotted a black handgun in the bundle, at which point both opened fire...

why deputies fired at a man who, according to the sheriff’s official, was not holding a weapon. “If he reached down to grab it, that’s different. But if it’s on the ground, why shoot? That means he was unarmed.” Protesters also criticized the department for handcuffing the man after shooting him and leaving his body in the street for hours...

Colorado school suspends Black boy for playing with toy gun during virtual class (Guardian)

According to the Elliotts, the art teacher emailed them to say she had notified the vice-principal that her son was distracted and playing with a fake gun. The parents assured the teacher it was a toy gun, they said, sharing a photo of the “Zombie Hunter” in question, and said Isaiah would be dissuaded from displaying it in future... footage of the class revealed that their son was not waving the gun as the teacher alleged but moving it from one side of a couch to the other... the action put Isaiah’s life in danger, referencing Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old who was shot dead in 2014 by a Cleveland police officer while holding a BB gun...

It's the government's job to erase racial wage gaps (Guardian)

doing something about pay gaps, not just reporting them, is government’s job. Two recent US studies show that policies can make a big difference, for good or ill. The first examines the decision to segregate the US civil service under President Wilson in 1913, revealing it drove up wage inequality for black civil servants by seven percentage points. State-driven discrimination saw more senior black civil servants shifted to lower-paid positions. The second study, focusing on the 1967 extension of the minimum wage, brings more positive news. It drove down racial pay gaps, with the impact on wages for black workers nearly double that for white employees. That’s a big deal, accounting for more than a fifth of the overall civil rights-era reduction in the racial pay gap...

One from UK, two from USA.

Black barrister mistaken for defendant three times gets apology (BBC)

A black barrister mistaken for a defendant three times in one day has received an apology from court officials. Criminal and family lawyer Alexandra Wilson, 25, said the experience had left her "absolutely exhausted". She lodged a formal complaint after being challenged by a security officer, a solicitor and a clerk. Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) apologised for the "totally unacceptable behaviour"...

The pilots changing the face of aviation (CNN)

First Officer Courtland Savage was boarding a United Express flight to Bentonville, Arkansas, and heading towards the cockpit when a passenger handed him bags to put in the overhead locker. "I immediately felt angry, but I knew I couldn't be angry. I knew I had to just smile and say: 'Hey, I'm not the flight attendant, I'm the pilot' and then proceed to the cockpit to fly the plane.'" For Savage, who is Black, changing preconceptions about being a pilot is key to diversifying the aviation industry...

Transracial adoption: 'I've been accused of kidnapping my white child' (BBC)

Stories of transracial adoption most often feature white families adopting black and Asian children. When the opposite happens, and black and Asian parents adopt white children, officials and members of the public can become very suspicious...

>150 John5918: Dozens of Asian lawyers say they have been mistaken for defendants (Guardian)

More than 20 Asian lawyers have come forward to say they have been mistaken for defendants in court, in the same week that the black barrister Alexandra Wilson said the same had happened to her three times in a day... SAL members said it was very disappointing to hear what had happened to Wilson but that sadly it was not a new phenomenon. Ninety-two percent of lawyers attending the seminar said they had been asked by fellow legal professionals: ““Where are you really from?”...

The latter comment reminds me of a sketch by British stand up comedian Yussuf Islam, who is of Asian background. He says racists often tell him, "Go back to where you came from!" His reply is, "No I won't; I don't like Birmingham". For those not familiar with British geography, Birmingham is a large industrial city in the English midlands, where he was born.

What a sad story... unfortunately, not unique either.

How Trump Ruined My Relationship With My White Mother

(...) Last week proved to me, pretty definitively, something that I feared but hoped wasn’t true: blood is absolutely NOT thicker than dangerous political and racial ideology. Who you support, or don’t, says everything about who you are as a person and what you think about the people around you.

I learned the hard way what happens when somebody you love, who you share blood with, is openly antagonistic to and ignorant about the safety and liberation of my family, my children, my community, and ultimately our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I don’t have space for those people in my life, regardless of who they might be. Choices come with consequences. When you choose to oppose progress and support ignorance, openly, and direct that hatred towards me, I {choose} to let you fly free. (...)

Everybody has a right to their opinions. Once you decide to share {and} act on them, everybody ELSE has a right to respond to them accordingly.

I can’t sit and actively engage with a person—even if it is my mother, whose blood is running through my body—if she doesn’t care about me, my story or what I live through. If she can’t see past her own appreciation for a bigoted, dangerous man, who, because of the position people like her have placed him in, has the ability to do significant damage to my civil liberties, then I don’t know what place she can have, reasonably, in my life. (...)

How a brilliant biologist was failed by science (BBC)

Roger Arliner Young’s brilliance made her the first black woman in the US to hold a doctorate in zoology. But her academic promise was failed by a system too rooted in prejudice to accept her as an equal...

Lindsey Graham says Black people can 'go anywhere' in South Carolina if conservative (Guardian)

In a televised campaign event US senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said African Americans and immigrants can “go anywhere” in his home state but they “ just need to be conservative”...

To young people out there, young people of color, young immigrants, this is a great state, but one thing I can say without any doubt, you can be an African American and go to the Senate but you just have to share our values.”

He went on to say: “If you’re a young, African American or an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state, you just need to be conservative, not liberal”...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHigwjuSWZQ

The different responses to white and black gun rights advocates in Texas.