Racial Justice

‘No Justice, No Peace’: Clarity Of Purpose, Warning To Ruling Class

June 18, 2015 Glen Ford, www.blackagendareport.com Strategize! Civil Rights, Human Rights, Law, Racial Justice, Social Change

By Glen Ford in Black Agenda Report - The logic of the emerging movement is Black self-determination – the principle that Black people have the inherent human right to determine their own destiny – which, in the immediate sense, means control over how they should be policed, and by whom. The venerable slogan “No Justice – No Peace” has served as a workhorse of the current protest, and would be an ideal organizing principle if the implications of the slogan were fully understood, rather than simply mouthed. The slogan takes the political position that the price that Power must pay for continued injustice against Black people is the loss of civil peace. It is a vow by the movement to transform the crisis that is inflicted on Black people into a generalized crisis for the larger society, and for those who currently rule.

Shattering The Myth Of The Leaderless Movement

June 17, 2015 Barbara Ransby, www.colorlines.com Educate! History, Leadership, Racial Justice, Revolution, Twitter

By Barbara Ransby in Color Lines - Who gets to tell the story? This is a question implicit in the work I do as a historian. But the question I have been wrestling with lately is more immediate: Who gets to shape the narrative, define the history-makers, and capture the words and images of the current black-led, anti-state violence movement evolving in the United States right now? Even the act of naming a movement like this has its power. Last month The New York Times Magazine bestowed part of the defining privilege on a young former sports writer, Jay Caspian Kang. Kang reduced the growing movement to the personal story lines of two young, earnest and committed social media activists, DeRay Mckesson and Johnetta "Netta" Elzie. While their work has made a critical contribution, Kang frames that work in a way that misrepresents the larger movement.

Police Criminals & The Brutalization Of Black Girls

June 16, 2015 Sikivu Hutchinson, www.thefeministwire.com Educate! Black Women, Patriarchy, police brutality, Racial Justice, Texas

By Sikivu Hutchinson in The Feminist Wire - The videotaped assault and sexual harassment of 14 year-old Dajerria Becton by a rampaging white police officer after a pool party in McKinney, Texas makes it clear that it continues to be open season on black women and girls. In the video officer Eric Casebolt grabs, straddles and violently restrains Becton while she is lying face down on the ground in a bikini. Ignoring her cries of pain and anxiety, he sadistically sits on her back while handcuffing her. Casebolt then pulls a gun on a few young people who attempt to intervene. Some of the good white citizens of McKinney have reportedly praised Casebolt’s thuggery. The assault of Becton is an enraging reminder of the particular brand of sexual terrorism black women routinely experienced in the Jim Crow South at the hands of white law enforcement and ordinary white citizens.

Black Churches Led Civil Rights. Can They Do It Again In Baltimore?

June 15, 2015 David Dagan, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Baltimore, Faith, police brutality, Racial Justice

By David Dagan in Huffington Post - Many of today’s black pastors, some young activists argue, have moved away from the black church’s traditional role as a center for African-American mobilization. “Today, what we see is churches being appendages of the kind of status-quo body politic,” said Dayvon Love, 28, director of public policy at the Baltimore think tank and activist group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. “This has happened generally post-integration, post-civil rights. You have cadres of individual back people who get positioned in white-dominated institutions, and their presence is used as a way to deflect from structural change.” It sounds like a radical critique, but senior clergy have similar concerns.

Beyond Confrontation: Community-Centered Policing Tools

June 12, 2015 Policy Link, www.policylink.org Strategize! Community, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Policy Link - On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, was shot multiple times and killed by Darren Wilson, a White police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri. This tragic act provoked grief and outrage in Ferguson and across the country. We mourned the loss of an innocent young man, taken before his time, and recognized that his killing was the latest in a long and rapidly growing succession of cases involving police use of lethal force against unarmed people of color. The disproportionate, militarized police response to subsequent community protests in Ferguson — including the use of tear gas and snipers, curfews enforced by armored trucks and tactical units, and the unwarranted arrest of multiple journalists — further incensed the country and, in conjunction with Michael Brown's killing, raised an urgent question: What must change so that not one more person of color is unjustifiably and indefensibly killed by the police?

Judge Finds Cause To Prosecute Police Who Killed Tamar Rice

June 12, 2015 Ben Mathis-Lilley, www.slate.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice, Tamar Rice

By Ben Mathis-Lilley in Slate - Cleveland activists and civic leaders have formally asked a judge to arrest the police officers involved in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, taking advantage of an Ohio law that allows citizens to file requests for prosecution. "Ohio law allows anyone with 'knowledge of the facts' to file a court affidavit and ask a judge to issue an arrest warrant," the New York Times writes. "If approved, the arrest would be followed by a public hearing." Per Cleveland.com, the activists' approach would expedite the process by which the case is brought before a grand jury; county prosecutors reportedly plan to eventually take such an action, but at the moment say they are continuing to investigate Rice's death.

Black Panther Ordered Released After 40 Yrs In Solitary Confinement

June 9, 2015 Cain Burdeau, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Black Panther, Mass Incarceration, Political Prisoner, Racial Justice

By Cain Burdeau in Huffington Post - The last of the "Angola Three" inmates, whose decades in solitary confinement on a Louisiana prison farm drew international condemnation and became the subject of two documentaries, was ordered released Monday. The ruling would free 68-year-old Albert Woodfox after more than 40 years in solitary, which human rights experts have said constitutes torture. U.S. District Judge James Brady of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ordered the release of Woodfox and took the extraordinary step of barring Louisiana prosecutors from trying him for a third time. A spokesman for the Louisiana attorney general said the state would appeal Brady's ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "to make sure this murderer stays in prison and remains fully accountable for his actions."

Rage Is Our Rightful Response to Anti-Black Racism

June 9, 2015 Kirsten West Savali, www.theroot.com Resist! Black Girls, Black Women, police brutality, Racial Justice, Texas

By Kirsten West Savali in The Root - Yes, it was painful to watch the boys restrained in handcuffs. One boy even appeared to be bleeding from his mouth, though whatever happened to cause that injury happened off camera. Still, it is the young girl, forced by her hair to the ground as she screamed for her mother, that chilled me the most. It’s the pleasure the white officer seemed to take from exerting power over her black body—as adult men, both black and white, stood by and did nothing—that enraged me. It is the thought of Daniel Holtzclaw, the former Oklahoma City police officer accused of sexually assaulting eight black women while on duty—and what the officer in this case possibly does to young black women when the cameras aren’t rolling—that made me sick to my stomach.

The Answers To 5 FAQs About The Walter Scott Shooting

June 9, 2015 Jessica Dickerson, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Media, police brutality, Racial Justice, South Carolina

By Jessica Dickerson in The Huffington Post - The fatal police shooting of South Carolina man Walter Scott has, not undeservedly,taken the Internet by storm. But what is it that people want to understand most about the shooting? And where are the people that are searching answers to these questions the most? Google knows. Trends data acquired by the internet search engine -- one that boasts over 100 billion searches monthly -- shows not only the most frequently asked questions in regards to Scott's shooting, but also where the majority of those searches are coming from. In this case, the southern United States take the cake. And so, for those who want to know, here are the answers to the Internet's most asked questions regarding Walter Scott.

This Is How You Can Support Trans Women Of Color Right Now

June 8, 2015 Princess Harmony Rodriguez, www.blackgirldangerous.org Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), People of Color, Racial Justice, Transgender

By Princess Harmony Rodriguez in Black Girl Dangerous - On 5/18, I saw heartbreaking news flood my Facebook timeline. Philadelphia’s committed body of trans activists, many of them of color, were talking about a trans woman’s murder. Her name was, and still is, Londyn Chanel. She was 21 years old. There are people with boots on the ground in Philadelphia, and in other major cities throughout the country, who do the most difficult and emotionally draining work in the fight for our community to stay alive. These trans and cis activists reach out to trans women of color and provide services to us, organize rallies when we are murdered, and give us spaces where we can simply be allowed to exist in peace. Not everyone is cut out for the work these people do, because they often have to deal with violence, death, and illness. It’s emotionally draining and requires a level of self-sacrifice that most people can’t get to. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; self-care is important and if you know you can’t do something like that it’s best that you find other ways to be helpful. Here are some things that you can do to support this work:

Protesters Angered Over Lack Of Charges In Ezell Ford’s Death In L.A.

June 8, 2015 Steve Kuzj, www.ktla.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Los Angeles, Racial Justice

By Steve Kuzj in KTLA - Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck and the Police Department’s independent watchdog have determined that two officers were justified in fatally shooting Ezell Ford, a mentally ill black man whose killing last year sparked protests and debate over the use of deadly force by police, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. Department investigators found evidence indicating that Ford had fought for control of one officer’s gun, bolstering claims the officers made after the shooting, said two sources who spoke on the condition that they not be identified because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case. Protesters angered over recent reports that charges were not expected to be filed in the fatal police shooting of Ezell Ford marched in South L.A. on Saturday. Steve Kuzj reports from South L.A. for the KTLA 5 News at 6 on Saturday, June 6, 2015.

How Many Lies Can You Find In This Interview With Ferguson Chief?

June 8, 2015 Molly Hennessy-Fiske, www.latimes.com Educate! Ferguson, Missouri, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske in The Los Angeles Times - Alan "Al" Eickhoff, interim police chief in Ferguson, Mo., took over the embattled department in March after former Chief Tom Jackson resigned amid investigations into how police handled the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Eickhoff, 59, had joined the department as assistant chief five days before Brown's shooting Aug. 9 by Officer Darren Wilson. Previously, he spent four years with the nearby Creve Coeur Police Department and 32 years with the St. Louis County Police Department. After a grand jury decided in November not to indict Wilson in Brown's death, riots erupted in Ferguson. Then in March, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice said Ferguson police had persistently and repeatedly violated the constitutional rights of African Americans.

The US Gov’t Could Count Those Killed By Police

June 5, 2015 Rashad Robinson, www.theguardian.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Rashad Robinson in The Guardian - For centuries, black communities in America have faced physical abuse and unjustified deadly force at the hands of law enforcement. Modern policing even originated in slave patrols and night watches that captured people who tried to escape slavery. According to the most recent FBI data, local police kill black people at nearly the same rate as people lynched in the Jim Crow-era – at least two times a week. The Guardian’s latest count for the first five months of 2015 puts that number at around once per day. But the verifiable impact on black lives of racially discriminatory policing remains largely unknown. Despite federal law authorizing the US attorney general to collect nationwide data on police use of force, there remains no federal database on how often police kill civilians, let alone abuse their authority.

Theology of Liberation To Inspire White Anti-Racist Organizing

June 2, 2015 Chris Crass, www.truth-out.org Resist! Allies, Faith, Liberation Theology, Racial Justice

By Chris Crass in Truthout - With tens of thousands of white people coming into consciousness and thousands of experienced white anti-racists trying to figure out how to step up, this interview with Unitarian Universalist leader Ashley Horan, and this series of interviews with white racial justice leaders and organizers around the country who are engaging and moving white communities, are some of my efforts to meet the need my comrade Opal Tometi and so many others have made plain. I first came into my own Unitarian Universalist faith when I was brought in as a member of Catalyst Project to lead anti-racist organizing trainings for hundreds of fired up, passionate UU youth from around the US and Canada.

Arizona Protesters Organize Against Border Patrol Checkpoints

May 30, 2015 Ashoko Jegroo, www.wagingnonviolence.org Resist! Arizona, Immigration, Patriarchy, Racial Justice, Wars and Militarism

Protesters from a small Arizona town staged a demonstration at a nearby border checkpoint early on May 27 to express their opposition to its presence as well as the discriminatory and racist practices of Border Patrol. “If I was with a ‘brown’ person, I’m stopped. If I’m by myself, I’m a honkey, and I go right through,” protester Susan Thorpe told News 4 Tucson. “That makes me very sad to see what’s happened to my country.” About 100 people from the town of Arivaca, Arizona made their way to the temporary Border Patrol checkpoint on Arivaca Road, about 50 miles southwest of Tucson, at around 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

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