by Mikol L. Clarke | November 2020
The cacophony of celebratory sounds that rang out last week in reaction to Joe Biden’s win was based on a sundry of emotions—ranging from relief at ending a racist regime dominated by white men who were fanatical about protecting their own wealth and privilege to jubilance over a historic win for Kamala Harris, the first woman and African American to be elected vice president. We were all celebrating our new white savior with a side of sister and new hopes that a brighter day was on the horizon. That day has not come just yet. The celebration only fueled the anger and resentment of a cadre of white men who’ve made it their dual mission in life to be both sycophants to a man in orange and to hinder any semblance of progress in this country. The days that followed Biden’s victory speech were riddled with egregious examples of toxic white masculinity.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Politics] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [History] [Silencing POC] [Justice System] [Health Disparities]
by Glenn Rifkin | November 2020
The incident occurred on Dec. 6, 2017. Honestie had stepped out the back door of her home with her mother and another family member to go to the store when they were confronted by police officers with their guns drawn. “Put your hands on top of your—,” an officer ordered them before he was interrupted by Honestie’s mother screaming, “She is 11 years old, sir!” “Stop yelling!” the officer responded, as recorded by an officer’s body camera. He ordered Honestie to walk backward toward him with her hands up. A second officer grabbed her arms, pulled them behind her back and handcuffed her. Honestie shouted, “No, No, No!” pleading with the officers not to place the cuffs on her. The police, who said they had been searching for a 40-year-old woman in connection with a stabbing, removed the handcuffs after several minutes.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [White Blindness] [-ing While Black] [Black Lives Matter] [Assumptions] [Health Disparities]
by L.A. Justice | November 2020
While Black people are being relentlessly pursued because our lives have been determined to be expendable, numerous churches across this country have not only been silent, but too many have been complacent and complicit with these atrocities. Myriad white churches have been guilty of not only espousing racist rhetoric, but also of preaching a theology that urges Christian silence when it comes to standing up for justice, especially when it means standing against the racially motivated brutalization of Black bodies. This encourages the perpetrators of such inhumane violence to continue to act with impunity, no matter how abhorrent the violence committed against us may be.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Systemic Racism] [Policing] [Denial] [History] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [White Blindness] [Accountability] [Faith-Based/Spiritual] [Black Lives Matter] [Collective Action] [Cognitive Dissonance]
by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez | December 2020
A Black mother who was attacked by a horde of Philadelphia police officers is speaking out about the harrowing experience. Rickia Young was driving an SUV with her 2-year-old son and teenage nephew on October 27 as the city was engulfed in protest over the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr. earlier that day. Officers descended on the vehicle, broke its windows, assaulted and arrested her and separated her from her child. Young’s arrest went viral due to a shocking video of the police swarming her vehicle, and after the National Fraternal Order of Police — the country’s largest police union — posted a photo of her 2-year-old on social media, falsely claiming he “was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia, wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness.”
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [Black Lives Matter] [-ing While Black] [Assumptions] [Accountability]
by Scott Beggs | February 2019
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which sanctioned the removal of Japanese immigrants and Americans of Japanese heritage from their homes to be imprisoned in internment camps throughout the country. At the time, the move was sold to the public as a strategic military necessity. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the government argued that it was impossible to know where the loyalties of Japanese-Americans rested. Between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were relocated to internment camps along the West Coast and as far east as Louisiana. Here are 12 facts about what former first lady Laura Bush has described as “one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history.”
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [Assumptions] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Asian] [History] [Accountability] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [White Defensiveness] [Economics]
by Jordan Davidson | October 2020
Two lawmakers introduced a bill Tuesday addressing previous actions the U.S. government inflicted upon Native Americans. The bill, authored by Rep. Deb Haaland from New Mexico and Sen. Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, specifically addresses the “intergenerational trauma” caused by policies that tore Native American children away from their families and sent them to boarding schools to be educated in white culture, HuffPostreported. The bill, called The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy in the United States Act, would create a formal inquiry to document how the government’s Indian boarding school policy amounted to cultural genocide as children were prevented from learning Indigenous traditions. Instead, the government forced them to assimilate into mainstream American culture.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Indigenous] [Systemic Racism] [White Culture] [White Supremacy] [History] [Politics] [Teachers] [Accountability]
