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Racism

It’s Time To Go On The Offensive Against Racism

When I read this in the morning paper, my heart stopped: Just 40 minutes away from me, the white mother of black children in New Jersey was repeatedly harassed via Facebook by a stranger, who told her that her children should be hung. Kentucky police arrested the young white man on Oct. 18, as he was backing out of his driveway with weapons, 200 rounds of ammunition and plans for shooting up a nearby school. The authorities thanked the mom — Koeberle Bull of Lumberton, New Jersey — for alerting them. I’m the white grandfather of a family of mostly black children. Someone armed and active is so offended by a mixed-race family that he wants to kill children like mine.

The Cult Of Trump

Cult leaders arise from decayed communities and societies in which people have been shorn of political, social and economic power. The disempowered, infantilized by a world they cannot control, gravitate to cult leaders who appear omnipotent and promise a return to a mythical golden age. The cult leaders vow to crush the forces, embodied in demonized groups and individuals, that are blamed for their misery. The more outrageous the cult leaders become, the more they flout law and social conventions, the more they gain in popularity. Cult leaders are immune to the norms of established society. This is their appeal. Cult leaders demand a God-like power. Those who follow them grant them this power in the hope that the cult leaders will save them.

West Point Can’t Hide Its Reverence For The Confederacy

Charlottesville, Va., triggered a movement. In the wake of a 2017 white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally that left one dead and several injured, activists across the country have worked diligently to exorcise the lingering ghosts of the Confederacy. Most recently, a coalition of anti-racist students at the University of North Carolina brought down a statue of “Silent Sam”—the latest in a series of victories over the chintzy reification of white supremacy. And yet from Seattle to Pennsylvania, totems of racial violence can be found just around the corner. Take the nation’s pre-eminent military academy—and my alma mater—the U.S. Military Academy, or West Point.

Israel Invokes Its “Fight for Survival” As It Descends Into a Racist State

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has confirmed that over 100 Palestinians were killed in a single day during the 30th March of Return held October 19, and yet the Israeli government is being criticized from within for not being tough enough. Hard as it may be to believe — even though Israel’s ongoing response to the Gaza Return March protests can only be described as extremely heavy-handed, injuring thousands and killing hundreds — there are calls from within the Israeli cabinet and the Knesset, as well as the press, demanding Netanyahu and his defense minister Lieberman adopt a more “heavy-handed” response. Education Minister Naftali Bennet referred to Israeli policy as “restrained” when he stated that, “the policy of restraint has failed.”

Black Liberation Activist Freed After 40 Years In Prison

After 40 years in prison, Mike Africa Sr., of the Black liberation group, Move, has been released on parole. Africa is the second member of the group to be released. His wife, Debbie Sims Africa, was released on parole last year. “It’s kind of surreal that I’m sitting on the porch with my son and his family — my wife is here,” Mike Africa Sr. told teleSUR. “A couple of hours ago I was sitting in a jail cell. I’m just trying to take it all in and get my bearings.” Move, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., was founded in 1972 in resistance to police brutality and environmental destruction. Nine members were arrested in 1978 during a police raid, becoming known as the Move Nine.

Dual War And Repression: Domestic And Foreign Policy On Black People

Parallel tracks of US government policy against the Black working class in the US and on the African continent expose much more than incidental similarity but a concerted fatal conspiracy. For the US, African people globally have no economic value short of being unwitting consumers whose labor-use has expired, and whose resistance to social injustice must be repressed at all costs. This conflict of interests reveals a natural contradiction between North American versus African or Black identities. African-American on many levels is an oxymoron. This month marks the 10th anniversary of U.S. Africa Command – AFRICOM, created on October 1, 2008. AFRICOM is the re-colonization of Africa by the U.S. and constitutes the new scramble for Africa equivalent to when...

Court: Non-Unanimous Jury Verdict Unconstitutional Based On Racism

A district court in Louisiana ruled the state’s use of non-unanimous juries is unconstitutional and violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. The court found the “non-unanimous jury verdict scheme in Louisiana was motivated by invidious racial discrimination.” “All cases that are currently pending trial and all cases on direct review must now be adjudicated subject ot a unanimous jury requirement,” the court ordered. However, prior cases and convictions may not be challenged. According to the state’s constitution and a section of the state’s criminal code, cases involving capital punishment require a unanimous decision by jurors.

Why We Need To Understand U.S. Imperialism

The United States has been at war or involved in military aggression for all but a few years since its founding. This is not surprising when we understand that the US is the largest empire in the history of the world. We speak with Ajamu Baraka, national organizer for Black Alliance for Peace, about imperialism and its connections to colonialism, racism and white supremacy. Without an understanding of imperialism, people in the US who believe they are for peace wind up supporting war and intervention. This is why it is critical that peace advocates are also against imperialism in all of its forms.

3 Florida Ex-Cops Sentenced In Scheme To Frame Innocent Black People

The former Biscayne Park police officers had pleaded guilty in a department conspiracy to clear property crime cases by any means necessary. Three former Florida police officers were sent to prison this week after pleading guilty to their roles in a departmentwide conspiracy to frame people of color for crimes they did not commit. A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Guillermo Ravelo, a 37-year-old former officer with the Biscayne Park Police Department, to 27 months behind bars, the Miami Herald reported. On Wednesday, former officers Charlie Dayoub, 38, and Raul Fernandez, 62, were sentenced to one year apiece after pleading guilty to making false arrests. Dayoub and Fernandez had cooperated with federal authorities in making a case against former police chief Raimundo Atesiano.

In Latest Fit Of Censorship, Facebook Deletes Video Detailing Brutal Legacy Of Christopher Columbus

With nothing but a vague "violation of community standards" note and offering no ability to appeal the decision, Facebook has once again blocked a piece of critical journalism—this time a short documentary video depicting the brutal legacy of Christopher Columbus—from its global online platform. "Monbiot’s piece of video journalism was about the airbrushing of history; therefore, there is a great irony in the fact it has now been airbrushed from their platform." —Yannis Mendez, Double Down News.The short video—produced by Double Down Newsand titled "The true legacy of Christopher Columbus: 'Western Civilisation'"—features author and journalist George Monbiot recounting the infamous European explorer's history of subjugation and brutalization of the Indigenous people he encountered when he arrived in the so-called "New World" in the late 15th Century.

Peace Congress To End US Wars At Home And Abroad

On November 10 in Washington, DC, there will be an historic gathering of groups and people to launch the Peace Congress to End US Wars at Home and Abroad. The Peace Congress will bring together advocates for peace and economic, racial, environmental and climate justice to develop a strategy, goals and actions based on the principles of unity. The Peace Congress arose from the successful effort to stop President Trump's military parade scheduled for November 10. The Peace Congress is open to all who want to participate.

Hundreds Of Thousands March In Berlin Against Far Right

Berlin, Germany - Hundreds of thousands of people marched Saturday afternoon demonstrating against racism and calling for solidarity against the rise of the far-right across Germany and Europe. On a hot and sunny fall day a 3-mile stretch of Berlin city's center, from Alexanderplatz through the Brandenburg Gate to the Victory Column, was closed to accommodate the huge parade, which was united under the hashtag #unteilbar ("indivisible").

Terry Albury Is A Conscientious Whistleblower

Terry Albury was the only Black agent at the FBI field office in Minneapolis. He saw inherent racism in the FBI’s targeting of local communities of color and sought to blow the whistle on that racism and the agency’s unethical use of paid informants. For that, he was fired, arrested, and charged under the Espionage Act. He pled guilty earlier this year and now faces 4 or more years in prison. He’ll be sentenced next week. Because his action was in the public interest, because it caused no harm to national security, and because it’s time to end the unconscionable use of the Espionage Act to persecute whistleblowers initiated under President Obama, we believe Albury’s sentence should be a non-custodial sentence of community service.

ACLU Sues San Francisco For Targeting African-Americans In Drug Arrests

San Francisco's Tenderloin is a heavily populated, racially mixed neighborhood in the heart of one of America's iconic progressive cities. Yet when the San Francisco Police Department and the DEA targeted the neighborhood to crack down on drug dealing between 2013 and 2015 as part of "Operation Safe Schools," the only people they managed to roll up were black. When 37 black defendants—and no defendants of any other race—got hauled away, nobody noticed. That is, until the defendants started showing up looking for federal public defenders. The federal public defenders noticed, and they began making noise about racial disparities and selective enforcement of the drug laws.

Shockoe Bottom Advocates Demand Mayor Choose A Side

Longtime advocates for Shockoe Bottom have sent an Open Letter to Richmond, Va., Mayor Levar Stoney asking him to finally take a stand on whether he supports the community-generated proposal for a nine-acre memorial park. The letter refers to “an endless series of discussions, meetings, reports and presentations” concerning the future of Shockoe Bottom, once the epicenter of the U.S. domestic slave trade. “And while all these endless discussions continue, real estate and development deals are being made in the Bottom that would threaten the viability of the memorial park.”
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