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Anti-Racism

After Largest Anti-Racist Uprising, Historic Trials Provide Important Lessons

January 1, 2022 Natalia Marques, Peoples Dispatch. , , ,
In the summer of 2020, the people of the United States witnessed the largest anti-racist struggle in the country’s history after a video of the brutal murder of George Floyd by officer Derek Chauvin went viral. While Floyd’s murder was the catalyst, the first year of the pandemic was marked by increased police and vigilante violence. Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot in a botched “citizen’s arrest” by vigilantes and Breonna Taylor, who was shot dead while asleep by police, were among the most egregious cases. In the year 2021, it was the turn of the US government, particularly its judicial system, to respond to the protests of 2020. Historic trials of the killers of unarmed Black people and protestors were set to answer an important question: how would the system respond to the outcry of millions against racist violence?

Racism In Britain Has A Long If Contested History

November 14, 2020 Angelique Richardson, Black Agenda Report. , ,
The demobilized troopship HMT Empire Windrush that arrived at Tilbury Dock on 22 June 1948 was not Britain’s first migration ship, but its passengers were the first to be promised British citizenship, which the British Nationality Act of 1948 conferred on “every person born within the United Kingdom and Colonies.” Of the 1029 passengers, 802 from the Caribbean, 96 were household domestics and 85 were mechanics; there were also, in smaller numbers, scholars, civil servants and a judge. They had accepted an invitation to help rebuild the Mother Country and arrived full of hope for a warm reception.

Anti-Racism Protests In UK As Police Officers Face Court In US

September 13, 2020 The Canary. , , ,
Anti-racism demonstrations took place across the UK on 11 September as the four officers charged over the killing of George Floyd in the US went on trial. Protesters said they are determined to show that previous Black Lives Matter demonstrations were not “just a moment”. Mass protests were staged across the world after footage emerged of officers kneeling on the neck of Floyd, a Black man, killing him. The four men are charged over the death, but it’s understood they will push for separate trials in order to diminish their roles in the incident.

Connecting Beyond The Height Of Emergency

September 3, 2020 By Anoa Changa, Prism. , , ,
Three months ago, protests in Minneapolis gave way to a national uprising. Ushering in a new focus on racial justice, the uprisings have challenged the way people relate to one another and how some talk about community safety. Coupled with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, the uprisings have forced people to rethink how to protect their communities through strengthening their bonds with one another. Mutual aid groups and block-level community defense are two ways people shifted beyond traditional American individualism. A climate organizer with TakeAction Minnesota, Magdalena Kaluza said that in the midst of the uprising, neighbors began meeting and planning with each other. For Kaluza and many others, the focus was on protecting people first and foremost.

When The State Cannot Protect, Civilians Have The Responsibility To Intervene

July 14, 2020 Mel Duncan, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
A few years ago, I was walking in Minneapolis, just a few miles from where George Floyd was murdered, when a panicked, young Native American man ran by me and into the street. Immediately afterward, a Minneapolis Police squad car pulled next to me. One officer jumped out, tackled the young man in the middle of the street and started pounding his face into the pavement. I approached the officer and told him that he was using excessive force and I had his badge number. His partner quickly escorted me back to the curb while informing me that I would be arrested for interfering with the arrest. I stood, yelling, while the beating continued. Recently standing at the memorial in front of the Cup Foods where Mr. Floyd was murdered, I recalled my earlier experience.

Your White Neighbor’s ‘Black Lives Matter’ Yard Sign Is Not Enough

July 5, 2020 By Shayla Lawson, In These Times.   , , ,
Despite my having grown up in the South, Portland is the most racist place I have ever lived. This is because being anti-racist isn’t about using politically correct buzzwords and giving lip service to sensitive conversation topics. Being anti-racist is about constructing a landscape that is safe for dark people to inhabit. It is not about white people trying to prove they are “woke” by putting up yard signs. That is not even what “woke” means. “Woke” is a territory of open-eyed, unsuperficial, cultural awareness white people are nowhere close to occupying; they are not even in the neighborhood. But being anti-racist in this dangerous era is something they can do, by going out of their way to make nonwhite people feel safe.

Contemporary White Antiracism

June 4, 2020 Cross Cultural Solidarity. , ,
The easiest way to find local White antiracist groups is to look at SURJ’s list – which includes SURJ chapters as well as other White antiracist groups – organized by state and city.  SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) is a nationwide network of White antiracist groups, with chapters in roughly 100 cities.  For building White working-class antiracism, see SURJ’s commitment to such organizing, as well as the more explicitly radical, self-defense oriented group, Redneck Revolt.  White antiracist groups, historically and in the present, tend to be predominantly female.  White women and LGBT people are far more likely join antiracist groups than men, and especially straight men.  STAND is one example of an organization working to bring White men into antiracist work.

No Fascist USA! Lessons From A History Of Anti-Klan Organizing

February 18, 2020 Hilary Moore and James Tracy, Roarmag.org , , , ,
Ever since fascism first crawled out of the ideological sewer, anarchists and autonomists have been there to confront, antagonize and organize against it. You need not dig deep into past history to find evidence of this. After the mayhem of Charlottesville, Cornell West, reported to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!

People’s Mobilization Unites For People And Planet

September 8, 2019 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance , , ,
The People's Mobilization to Stop the US War Machine and Save the Planet is two weeks away. The "People's Mobe" will be held from September 20 to 23 in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly. Members of the Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective started organizing the People's Mobe in May. Organizers sought to bring the issue of US violations of international law, such as when the State Department violated the Vienna Convention by raiding the embassy on May 16, to the UN General Assembly and began to plan around September 21, the International Day of Peace. Organizers wrote: At a time when all of the world leaders gather, we will say we’ve had enough of the US War Machine. We demand the US be held accountable for its destructive acts. It’s time for the US government to obey the United Nations Charter by stopping regime change operations, ending the use of unilateral coercive measures (aka sanctions) and ceasing military attacks. We demand the US sign the nuclear weapons ban treaty, rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement and Paris climate treaty, disband NATO and close bases and outposts around the world.

Coalition Pushes To End Criminalization Of Marijuana And Other Drugs

September 8, 2019 By Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment , ,
A coalition of more than 100 civil rights groups—including ACLU, NAACP, National Education Association and National Organization for Women—released a criminal justice reform platform for the 2020 elections on Thursday that calls for the legalization of marijuana and supports the “dismantling” of the criminalization of other drugs. As part of the document’s plank on ending the war on drugs, the organizations said states should “legalize marijuana through a racial justice framework that focuses on access, equity, and repairing the damage of prohibition” and the federal government should end cannabis prohibition and “implement marijuana reform through a racial justice lens.”

How To Start An Anti-Racist Student Group In Your School

August 26, 2019 Staff, Waethnicstudies.com , ,
The painful truth about public education is that racism is as common as bored students and overworked teachers. While many in our home of Seattle take pride in the city’s “progressive” reputation, the students of Seattle Public Schools, especially students of Color, know reality starkly contrasts with this reputation. In fact, Seattle Public Schools is home to some of the worst racial disparities in the entire country – and the district has known about them for decades and decades. Yet little has changed – exemplified recently by a white teacher calling 911 on a 10 to 11-year-old Black child.

What The Media Gets Wrong About Antifa

September 29, 2018 Kim Kelly, Medium.com , , , , , ,
On August 12, exactly one year after the Unite the Right neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virigina, left over a dozen of people injured and one 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, dead, white nationalists, white supremacists and members of the “alt-right” marched on Washington, D.C. To be more specific, about 20 to 25 of them descended upon Lafayette Park, a modest square of greenery that abuts the White House. I was there and could just about see them, huddled in a corner, protected by over a thousandMetropolitan Police officers, SWAT teams, and Secret Service agents. They were transported to a rallying point via a private metro car — an arrangement made against the explicit wishes of the transit workers themselves, and whose union, ATU Local 689, issued a strident statement condemning the public transportation agency for giving special treatment to a hate group.

One Year Later: Lessons from Charlottesville

August 15, 2018 Phil Wilayto, Popular Resistance   , ,
This Aug. 12 marked the one-year anniversary of the murderous “alt-right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. The mainstream media have been bursting with commentary, but almost all of it misses the most important lesson from that infamous event: that it was a tremendous victory. A year later, the national fascist movement is greatly weakened. It’s divided by infighting. It lacks an agreed-upon leader, let alone a program. This weekend in Charlottesville there were hundreds of anti-racists on the streets and virtually no fascists. The attempt to hold a rally in DC instead also failed miserably.

Black Lives Matter In Our Schools: Developing An Anti-Racist Pedagogy

August 13, 2018 Mark Karlin, Truthout.org ,
In this way, I think the Black Lives Matter (BLM) at School movement and the broader movement for Black lives inspired the idea for Teaching for Black Lives as a book that could be used by educators, students, activists and community organizers. The BLM at School movement went national during the 2017-2018 school year and educators in over 20 cities participated in a week of action from February 5 to 9, to affirm the lives of Black students and challenge institutional racism. The BLM at School movement developed three demands: (1) End “zero tolerance” discipline and implement restorative justice; (2) Hire more Black teachers; (3) Mandate Black history and ethnic studies in K-12 curriculum.

Massive Anti-Racist Crowd Shows, Fringe-Reality Of Racists

August 12, 2018 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance , , ,
The Unite The Right Rally today, one year after the one in Charlottesville, can only be described as a complete flop. The racists were unable to fill a single train car and were dwarfed by police surrounding them and over ten thousand anti-racists, who gathered in various parts of Washington, DC. The Alt-Right racist movement has been exposed for what it is -- an unpopular, shrinking fringe movement that the national consensus finds despicable. In fact, counterprotesters outnumbered white nationalists by the hundreds at the DC rally — to the point that some counterprotesters left early because it was kind of boring.
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