Racial Justice

Justice For Mitch Henriquez: Black Lives Matter Goes Dutch

July 6, 2015 Mathijs van de Sande, www.roarmag.org Educate! Holland, Netherlands, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Mathijs van de Sande in RoarMag - This weekend, on June 27, the 42-year-old Aruban man Mitch Henriquez was brutally murdered by police in The Hague. Henriquez was visiting his family in the Netherlands, with whom he attended a music festival. While leaving the venue, Henriquez was beset by a handful of police officers, allegedly on the basis of the vague, unfounded — and, indeed, in due course falsified — suspicion that he was carrying a weapon. A press release stated that police had employed physical force, as Henriquez violently resisted his arrest. It also argued that only during the detainee’s transportation to the police station, Henriquez suddenly became unwell. He had to be reanimated in the vehicle, while being hurried to hospital. Henriquez died a few hours later.

Freedom Side’s Emerging Radical Democratic Imagination

July 3, 2015 Geoff Gilbert, www.wagingnonviolence.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Immigration, Nashville, Racial Justice, Youth

By Geoff Gilbert in Waging NonViolence - The young black and brown activists descended on Nashville to stand together in resistance against the policies that criminalize them — policing practices that have the effect of racial and socio-economic profiling, like “broken windows” policies; excessive drug sentences and drug enforcement in low-income communities; the systematic separation of immigrant families made more efficient by the post-9/11 creation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the Department of Homeland Security; and the perverse social incentives created by increasing privatization of prisons and detention centers. “Criminalization of young people of color has different guises, but it’s all the same,” said Malaya Davis, an organizer with the Ohio Student Association, or OSA. “[Our] demand was just for the governors to somehow acknowledge our presence and statements.”

At Least Five Black Churches Destroyed By Fire In Past Week

June 29, 2015 Nick Visser, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Ohio, Racial Justice, Racism, South Carolina

By Nick Visser in Huffington Post - At least five predominantly black churches have caught fire in the last week, including at least three that have been the subject of arson, the Southern Poverty Law Center reports. The string of blazes, which have occurred in four Southern states and Ohio, comes a week after nine people were gunned down at a Charleston, South Carolina, church. Dylann Roof, 21, has been charged with nine counts of homicide and possession of a firearm during commission of a violent crime. An arsonist set fire to the College Hills Seventh Day Adventist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Monday. The following day, God’s Power Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia, was gutted by flames.

Pentagon Admits 60,000 Black Soldiers Used In Human Experiment

June 29, 2015 TeleSur, www.telesurtv.net Educate! Chemical Weapons, Racial Justice, usa, Wars and Militarism

By TeleSur - The U.S. Defence Department has, for the first time, admitted that it carried out race-based tests on U.S. troops as part of its research about mustard gas. The U.S. Government used Black soldiers as human guinea pigs in chemical experiments during World War II, according to a new NPR report. Around 60,000 U.S. soldiers were enlisted in a classified chemical weapons testing program in which soldiers were enclosed in gas chambers and exposed to chemicals. “They said we were being tested to see what effect these gases would have on Black skins,” Rollins Edwards, a U.S. Army soldier during World War II told NPR. “You had no choice. You did not know where you were going. They didn’t tell you anything,” Edwards added.

National AARC Sends Urgent Letter To Obama

June 27, 2015 National African-American Reparations Commission, www.ibw21.org Create! Obama, Racial Justice, Racism, Reparations

By National African-American Reparations Commission - "The National African-American Reparations Commission (NAARC) is comprised of eminent black leaders from the legal, academic, health and faith-based communities across the country. NAARC is requesting that President Obama name the Commission in honor of the esteemed historian and academic Dr. John Hope Franklin who had chaired President Bill Clinton’s Commission on Race some 22 years ago. “In honor of Dr. Franklin’s 100th birthday, we call upon you to have the vision to create a commission on reparatory justice in his name. This is only fitting as it also offers an opportunity to complete the unfinished work of President Clinton’s Commission on Race”, states the letter.

I Interrupted Obama Because We Need To Be Heard

June 26, 2015 Jennicet Gutiérrez, www.washingtonblade.com Resist! Immigration, Obama, Racial Justice, Transgender

By Jennicet Gutiérrez in Washington Blade - Pride celebrations of the LGBTQ community are taking place throughout the nation. The community takes great pride in celebrating our diversity and the progress we have made throughout the years. However, for the immigrant LGBTQ community progress has not been fully realized because of the continuous discrimination and violence we face in our daily lives. I was fortunate to be invited to the White House to listen to President Obama’s speech recognizing the LGBTQ community and the progress being made. But while he spoke of ‘trans women of color being targeted,’ his administration holds LGBTQ and trans immigrants in detention. I spoke out because our issues and struggles can no longer be ignored.

Harlem Black Lives Matter Protest Ends In Violent Arrests

June 25, 2015 Christopher Robbins, www.gothamist.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Harlem, New York City (NYC), police brutality, Racial Justice

By Christopher Robbins in Gothamist - A Black Lives Matter march in Harlem to honor the nine people murdered in the mass shooting in South Carolina ended last night with several arrests and one man being hospitalized following an altercation with police. After dozens of people gathered outside a state office building on 125th Street for a vigil for the members of Emanuel A.M.E. Church who were shot and killed by a white supremacist in Charleston, demonstrators began marching and chanting through the streets of West Harlem. Near the intersection of 104th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, police tackled and arrested a young woman. A short while later, 27-year-old Christen Conyers was arrested and charged with felony assault of a police officer, resisting arrest, two counts of disorderly conduct, obstructing vehicular traffic, and harassment in the second degree.

Former B’more Police Officer Comes Clean About Brutality

June 25, 2015 Michael McLaughlin, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Baltimore, Corruption, Patriarchy, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Michael McLaughlin in Huffington Post - A former Baltimore police sergeant took to Twitter Wednesday to air a stunning list of acts he said he participated in and witnessed during his 11 years on the city's force. Michael Wood gave a no-holds barred look at his career in a previous radio interview, but his tweets gained traction for their brazen admissions that officers lied to get overtime, illegally searched "thousands of people" and committed gross acts during raids, like urinating and defecating on suspects' beds. A spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department confirmed that Wood left the force in 2014. In subsequent tweets, Wood promised to reveal more and expressed surprise at the attention paid to his commentary.

Good Riddance To The Confederate Battle Flag

June 24, 2015 Meteor Blades, www.dailykos.com Resist! Racial Justice, Racism, Wars and Militarism

By Meteor Blades in Daily Kos - Welcome though belated moves. But while those may garner some sniping from the likes of Bill Kristol and Haley Barbour, taking down the flag is easy. No matter how good it will be to see less of that symbol of treason and slavery tainting the land, it is just a symbol, a relic of the "Lost Cause" and a symptom not the disease of deep-seated racism that plagues our nation a century and a half after the Civil War. If disappearing from public view this flag—which was dragged from obscurity by advocates of Jim Crow in the 1950s—is really to mean anything significant, it must mark the start, not the end of reforms needed to crush racism. Let me not be misunderstood. Some people have said that fighting for the removal of this flag is a waste of political energy.

‘Stand With Charleston’: Communities Rise Up For Black Lives

June 22, 2015 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Charleston, Racial Justice

As Charleston’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church reopens for services, people across the United States on Sunday are marching through the streets, mobilizing in their faith communities, and staging direct actions to demand an end to white supremacist terror nationwide. "What happened to our family is part of a larger attack on Black and Brown bodies,"wrote Rev. Waltrina Middleton, a family member of Rev. Depayne Middleton, who was killed in the massacre. "We call on all people, public officials, faith leaders and Americans from all walks of life to help address the festering sores of racism as it spurs an unforgiving culture of violence." Maurice Mitchell of Movement for Black Lives—a national coalition of groups including Ferguson Action, Black Lives Matter, and Black Youth Project 100—toldCommon Dreams that others in the city and state are echoing this call.

Activists In Berlin Dig 100 Mock Graves To Highlight Refugee Crisis

June 22, 2015 RT, www.rt.com Resist! Germany, Immigration, Racial Justice, Refugees

By RT - Some 5,000 activists in Berlin rallied in front of Reichstag and dug at least one hundred graves to express their solidarity with asylum seekers, who have died trying to reach Europe after fleeing war and persecution in their home countries. The rally was organized by the Center for Political Beauty; a group, which says it wants to “re-transform Europe into a continent of immigration.” The organization used the controversial slogan: "The Dead Are Coming,” while they have also made art works to spread their message. The protest, which took place a day after UN World Refugee Day, gathered at least 5,000 people, according to police estimates. An officer told AFP that a "small number" of people were arrested for minor offences. The activists, many of them dressed in black, carried improvised coffins, which apparently symbolize the caskets of asylum seekers who have died while trying to make their way to Europe.

We Were Never Meant To Survive: Response To Charleston Attack

June 20, 2015 Alicia Garza, www.truth-out.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Charleston Shooting, Racial Justice, Racism

By Alicia Garza in Truthout - In the days following this one, many in the media will portray Roof as a mentally ill gunman with a troubled past who committed an isolated crime against an unsuspecting group of Black people. Facebook photos show Roof wearing a jacket with patches bearing the flag of apartheid South Africa. However, we at #BlackLivesMatter would assert that this is not, in fact, an isolated incident, but just one incident in a pattern of violence enacted against Black people in this country and around the world. The real question we should be asking is: Who taught Roof to hate Black people, enough to kill nine of us, in a sanctuary? And can we really say that he is the only one? The honest answer to the above question is that this country has never valued Black people - even though Black people have been of extreme value for this country.

US Terrorism: White Supremacy’s Long History Of Violence

June 20, 2015 Lawrence Brown, www.salon.com Educate! History, Racial Justice, Terrorism, White Supremacy

By Lawrence Brown in Salon - The evidence is clear. The reports are in. There is no other conclusion. It’s 2015, and Black people in America are under a sustained and lethal terrorist attack. In North Charleston, S.C., not too far from the place where the A.M.E. terrorist attack on 9 Black church members took place, Walter Scott was shot several times in the back as he fled from police on foot, posing no immediate threat. In Staten Island, N.Y., Eric Garner was choked to death by officers as he gasped for air, exclaiming: “I can’t breathe.” In Baltimore, MD, a frightened Freddie Gray fled from Brian Rice and two other white officers on foot. By the time he was placed in the police wagon, his leg had been broken.

Mass Protests Trigger On-Going Investigations Of Police Homicides

June 19, 2015 Dr. Martha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Resist! Murder, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Dr. Martha Coleman-Adebayo in Black Agenda Report - In a recent article entitled “Fatal Police Shootings in 2015 Approaching 400 Nationwide” theWashington Post reports that 385 people across the US ranging in age from 16-83 have died from police homicide. According to this report, one in six victims of police terror were unarmed, Black or Hispanic. Predictably, in light of the Department of Justice amnesty given to the killers of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, officers were charged in less than 1% of the cases of police homicide. The magnitude of this violence should be unimaginable for a country that self-defines itself as civilized. Nelson Mandela, in response to the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, in which apartheid-era police killed 69 people, declared: "We no longer accept the authority of a state that makes war on its own people.”

Tenants Say Greed & Discrimination In Mass Eviction

June 19, 2015 Naureen Khan, www.occupy.com Resist! Eviction, Housing, Los Angeles, Racial Justice

By Naureen Khan in Occupy - Tenants of this 43-unit apartment building — predominantly African-American, many of them elderly or disabled and receiving vouchers for Section 8 federally subsidized housing — were told their rental contracts were being terminated shortly after the building came under the ownership of Lafayette Square Apartments in December of last year. Critics charge that the maneuver is part of an increasingly common scheme in Los Angeles to drive away low-income residents and raise rents, contributing to the affordable-housing crunch in the city and the gentrification of once diverse neighborhoods. Notices informing residents that they had 60 to 90 days to forfeit their units began arriving in their mailboxes in January. By March, most tenants had been notified that their rental contracts would be terminated by mid-June.

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