by Shane Shifflett, Alissa Scheller, Scilla Alecci and Nicky Forster | December 2015
Long before Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke shot and killed a black teenager, sparking a public outcry and now a Justice Department probe into the city’s troubled police department, he had established a track record as one of Chicago’s most complained-about cops. Since 2001, civilians have lodged 20 complaints against Van Dyke. None were sustained by investigators. While it may seem surprising that so many complaints against one officer would be tossed out, a Huffington Post analysis of four years of city data released by the Invisible Institute, a nonprofit journalism organization, reveals that there are more than 180 city police officers with more complaints than Van Dyke who weren’t disciplined at all over that time. Most of those complaints were made by black residents, whose allegations of police misconduct are dismissed at nearly four times the rate of complaints filed by whites, HuffPost found.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Police Shootings] [Policing] [Black Lives Matter] [Justice System] [Silencing POC] [Denial] [Accountability] [Systemic Racism] [-ing While Black]
by Noah A. McGee | December 2021
It took one Black military veteran 45 years to get his benefits. Yes, you read that right. It took four decades to get what was due to him. War veterans have always struggled to get the benefits due to them, especially Black veterans. But now, that could all change. According to The Cullman Times, an initiative was signed that ordered the Government Accountability Office to perform a study “to assess disparities associated with race and ethnicity in veterans receiving benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.” It will be led by Senator Raphael Warnock. Unfortunately, it had to take a measure like this from the federal government for Black veterans who served our country to receive basic benefits that they fought for, but here we are.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Accountability] [Politics] [Black Lives Matter] [Denial] [Silencing POC] [Systemic Racism] [Justice System] [Health Disparities]
by From the Collection: Native Americans | Date Unknown
The creation of Mount Rushmore is a story of struggle — and to some, desecration. The Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota Sioux, the original occupants of the area when white settlers arrived. For some, the four presidents carved in the hill are not without negative symbolism. The Sioux have never had much luck dealing with white men. In the Treaty of 1868, the U.S. government promised the Sioux territory that included the Black Hills in perpetuity. Perpetuity lasted only until gold was found in the mountains and prospectors migrated there in the 1870s. The federal government then forced the Sioux to relinquish the Black Hills portion of their reservation.These events fit the pattern of the late 19th century, a time of nearly constant conflict between the American government and Plains Indians. At his second presidential inauguration in 1873, Ulysses S. Grant reflected the attitudes of many whites when he said he favored a humane course to bring Native Americans “under the benign influences of education and civilization. It is either this or war of extermination.” Many of the land’s original occupants did not choose to assimilate; for them war, was the only option.”
TAGS: [Strategies] [Indigenous] [Racial Terrorism] [Systemic Racism] [Silencing POC] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Blindness] [Politics] [Social Justice] [History] [White Privilege] [Prison System] [Art & Culture]
by Andrew L. Yarrow | November 2021
At this time of year, Norman Rockwell is best remembered for his iconic 1943 painting “Freedom From Want,” depicting a smiling White family gathered around a Thanksgiving turkey. But it is less well known that he decisively turned a corner just a few decades later, choosing to reject the airbrushed image of a nation implicitly populated with only happy, White, middle-class families.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [Prison System] [Policing] [Black Lives Matter] [Art & Culture] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [History] [Politics] [Social Justice]
*Paywall Alert
by Erica Chenoweth and Jeremy Pressman | October 2020
When the Department of Homeland Security released its Homeland Threat Assessment earlier this month, it emphasized that self-proclaimed white supremacist groups are the most dangerous threat to U.S. security. But the report misleadingly added that there had been “over 100 days of violence and destruction in our cities,” referring to the anti-racism uprisings of this past summer.In fact, the Black Lives Matter uprisings were remarkably nonviolent. When there was violence, very often police or counterprotesters were reportedly directing it at the protesters. Since 2017, we have been collecting data on political crowds in the United States, including the protests that surged during the summer. We have almost finished collecting data from May to June, having already documented 7,305 events in thousands of towns and cities in all 50 states and D.C., involving millions of attendees.
Because most of the missing data are from small towns and cities, we do not expect the overall proportions to change significantly once we complete the data collection.
TAGS: [Assumptions] [2020’s] [History] [Black Lives Matter] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [Myths]
by James Mulholland | November 2021
After their successes in the recent elections in Virginia and New Jersey, it is obvious the Republican Party intends use inflammatory and false depictions of Critical Race Theory as a strategy to frighten white suburban parents and play on latent racial prejudices. We can expect Critical Race Theory to be the boogeyman of the next election cycle. …The basic tenets of Critical Race Theory can and should be introduced to children in simple terms. For example, elementary children SHOULD be taught that the color of your skin does not make you better or worse than anyone else. High school students SHOULD be taught the history of legal and systemic racial discrimination in America. In addition, Critical Race Theory is vitally important for educators to understand. Teachers SHOULD be taught Critical Race Theory and it should inform their teaching philosophy and classroom content. Understanding Critical Race Theory will make our schools – which are institutions prone to systemic racism – less racist. Ironically, the problem in the United States is not that Critical Race Theory has infiltrated our public-school systems. The issue is that it has not.
TAGS: [Collective Action] [2020’s] [Definitions] [Anti-Racism] [History] [Assumptions] [Individual Change] [Systemic Racism] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Teachers]
