Category Archives: racism

News to use, racism

Pelosi Statement on Trump’s Unconstitutional Census Memorandum | Speaker Nancy Pelosi

“The Constitution is clear: it requires an ‘actual Enumeration’ of the ‘whole numbers of persons’ for the population count and congressional apportionment.  There is no ambiguity about its command.  Trump’s unlawful effort is designed to again inject fear and distrust into vulnerable and traditionally undercounted communities, while sowing chaos with the Census.

“The Trump Administration’s relentless, politically-motived attempt to illegally include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census was unequivocally rejected by the Supreme Court last year.  Nevertheless, the Administration continues to advance its cruel anti-immigrant agenda, fanning the flames of hatred and xenophobia, tearing countless families apart and challenging our bedrock values of equality and justice for all.

“The House of Representatives will vigorously contest the President’s unconstitutional and unlawful attempt to impair the Census.  We will be vigilant to ensure a full, fair and accurate Census and continue working to guarantee maximum participation and inclusion so that every person in every community is counted.”

 

Source: Pelosi Statement on Trump’s Unconstitutional Census Memorandum | Speaker Nancy Pelosi

human rights, racism

British Vogue editor racially profiled by magazine’s security guard | World news | The Guardian

Edward Enninful, who is black, has been the fashion magazine’s editor-in-chief since 2017. He said the incident took place as he walked into his offices on Wednesday.

“Today, I was racially profiled by a security guard whilst entering my work place. I was instructed to use the loading bay. Just because our timelines and weekends are returning to normal, we cannot let the world return to how it was. Change needs to happen now.”

 

Source: British Vogue editor racially profiled by magazine’s security guard | World news | The Guardian

human rights, racism

Trump Snaps ‘So Are White People’ When Asked Why Black People Are Killed By Cops | HuffPost

A 2016 Washington Post story notes white people make up about 49% of those who are killed by police officers, while Black Americans account for 24% of those fatally shot and killed by the police. However, since Black people make up just 13% of the U.S. population, that means they are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers.

Source: Trump Snaps ‘So Are White People’ When Asked Why Black People Are Killed By Cops | HuffPost

Apartheid, human rights, racism

Why Trump’s White Grievance Message Strikes a Sour Note in the Suburbs – The New York Times

From North Carolina to Pennsylvania to Arizona, interviews this week with more than two dozen suburban voters in critical swing states revealed abhorrence for Mr. Trump’s growing efforts to fuel white resentment with inflammatory rhetoric on race and cultural heritage. The discomfort was palpable even among voters who also dislike the recent toppling of Confederate statues or who say they agree with some of Mr. Trump’s policies.

As the president increasingly stakes his candidacy on a message of “law and order,” casting himself as a bulwark against “angry mobs” and “thugs,’’ there are signs that he is alienating voters in bedroom communities who approach the debate over racial justice with a far more nuanced perspective than the president does.

Fail!, human rights, racism

The case for British slavery reparations can no longer be brushed aside | Afua Hirsch | Opinion | The Guardian

The African American intellectual WEB Du Bois was right when he described the enslavement of at least 12 million Africans as “the sum of all villainies, the cause of all sorrow, the root of all prejudice”. In the Caribbean, Britain received, in the words of Nobel prize-winning economist Arthur Lewis, 200 years of free labour – from over 15 million black people, and those who were indentured from India.

A common complaint about reparations is the alleged unfairness of burdening today’s generation with debt arising from their ancestors’ wrongs. Yet where is the outrage that my generation contributed towards the more than £300bn in today’s money notoriously paid to Britain’s slave owners for the loss of their human “property”? Their compensation under the Slavery Abolition Act – comprising an astounding 40% of the national budget at the time – was so large that it wasn’t paid off until 2015.

The pattern is clear. Reparations have been paid to those who profited from African enslavement, rather than those who were enslaved.

Source: The case for British slavery reparations can no longer be brushed aside | Afua Hirsch | Opinion | The Guardian

Fail!, racism

Black Activists Warn that Facebook Hasn’t Done Enough to Stop Racist Harassment – Mother Jones

“People get blocked all the time for just saying the word ‘white,’” Faison recently reiterated. “It’s all still the same.” Meanwhile, Facebook has allowed threats against Faison and BLM activists to remain up. In early June, one man whose page appears dedicated to harassing BLM activists, posted a video of Faison with an all-caps message: “I WOULD LOVE TO WAKE UP TO THE NEWS THAT SOMEONE OFFED THIS EVIL BITCH.” As one commenter on the BLM Sacramento Facebook page wrote, “Facebook is so ridiculous. I reported his page and profile and the crazy posts hes made and everything came back as meeting community standards. HOW? What he said about Tanya is basically a death threat.” It’s not clear if Facebook ultimately took any action, but at some point the harasser changed “offed” to “offended.” The post remains up, and in context, the threat remains clear. Another post last month by the same harasser read that “I’d like to give a shout out to all the good people that have been making looters disappear and never be seen again.” The message, which was followed by an emoji of two beers clinking together, was set against a skull-theme backdrop. It is still up.

Such threats, coupled with activists’ own pages and posts coming down or being deleted, “hinders the work” of racial justice organizers, Faison says. “If they’re not able to go on social media, they can’t go live when something’s happening. It impacts what we’re doing. It impacts it in a huge way because we use social media platforms to inform people.” The number of videos of police brutality that went viral during the first weeks of the protests make it clear that access to social media is, indeed, crucial to such activists.

 

Source: Black Activists Warn that Facebook Hasn’t Done Enough to Stop Racist Harassment – Mother Jones

Fail!, racism

America’s international students are facing deportation. This is a disaster | Gayatri Devi | Opinion | The Guardian

The threat to evict international students from our campuses appears to be an attempt to financially blackmail universities already poised on the edge of precarity brought about by the pandemic, as well as an attempt to exploit the pandemic to kick non-white immigrants out of the country.

Education should not be used to exclude and disenfranchise students. These extreme F-1/M-1 visa restrictions are an act of blatant educational discrimination. There should be no difference between a citizen student and an international student. The absence of either is of imminent concern.

 

Source: America’s international students are facing deportation. This is a disaster | Gayatri Devi | Opinion | The Guardian

racism

Martinez Man and Woman Charged for Defacing BLM Mural

(A) white man and woman have been charged with hate crimes after they were filmed (and also filmed themselves…) defacing a Black Lives Matter mural less than an hour after it was painted on a street in front of a courthouse on the 4th of July.

The statement said Anderson and Nelson are charged with violation of civil rights, vandalism under $400 and possession of tools to commit vandalism or graffiti. If they are convicted, they will both face up to one year in county jail.

Source: Martinez Man and Woman Charged for Defacing BLM Mural