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Racism

Leader Behind White Supremacist Rally Literally Chased Out Of Town

August 14, 2017 Kyle Neubeck, www.complex.com , , , ,
By Kyle Neubeck for Complex - Watching a small, violent group of white supremacists storm through Charlottesville, Virginia was a painful reminder of just how deeply entrenched racism is in America. But even in these moments of darkness, there can be triumph of the human spirit, where your fellow countrymen remind you there are good people out there after all. As it turns out, you didn't even have to leave Charlottesville to get that reminder this weekend. Jason Kessler, the organizer for the rally in Virginia this weekend, held a press conference on Sunday afternoon, ostensibly to try to salvage whatever screwed-up purpose he thought the rally might have to begin with. And then something amazing happened—the city of Charlottesville told him collectively to get the hell out. Giving him the Game of Thrones treatment, locals harassed Kessler with chants of "Shame!" as he approached his podium, not letting him off the hook for the death of Heather Heyer, who was murdered by a driver that aimed his car at a group of counter-protesters Saturday.

Newsletter: The Movement Must Respond To Racial Violence

August 13, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. We had planned to focus on climate change this week given the contradiction between not just the science of climate change but our lived-reality of it getting stronger while the Trump administration denies this reality. An impressive government report on the climate crisis was recently leaked out of fear that the Trump administration would prevent its publication. At the same time, a wide variety of resistance actions are being taken by people across the country to stop the construction of more carbon infrastructure and people are working to increase the use of cleaner, more sustainable energy sources. The events in Charlottesville, Virginia yesterday required us to change course and attempt to put the racist violence that occurred into historical and political context as well as to discuss what the movement should do to respond to aggressive racism by extremist groups.

Kentucky Mayor Announces Removal Of Confederate Statues

August 13, 2017 Julia Manchester, www.thehill.com ,
By Julia Manchester for The Hill. The mayor of Lexington, Ky., is accelerating his plans to remove Confederate statues from key locations in the city due to violence spurred by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday. "I am taking action to relocate the Confederate statues. We have thoroughly examined this issue, and heard from many of our citizens," Mayor Jim Gray (D) said on Twitter. "The tragic events in Charlottesville today have accelerated the announcement I intended to make next week," he continued. Gray said he is looking to remove Confederate statues at the city's Historic Courthouse, which will be the city's new visitors center.

For Media, Driving Into A Crowd Of Protesters Is A ‘Clash’

August 13, 2017 Adam Johnson, fair.org/home , ,
By Adam Johnson for FAIR. The Washington Post, Boston Globe, AOL News, The Hill, BBCand Sky News UK all chose to frame the ramming of a car into anti-fascist protesters as “clashes.” The BBC’s breaking news tweet, “One dead amid clashes between US white nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville,” is an extremely odd way to describe a person driving a car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters—as was AOL’s “1 Dead, 34 Injured in Clashes at Virginia Rally.” The term “clashes”—as FAIR (10/14/15) has noted before—is a term designed to obscure blame, presenting a picture of two equal sides engaging in violent activities. Reading “one dead” after “clashes” at a white nationalist rally gives us no idea who died, or who did the killing. (Alternatively, one can veil responsibility by attributing agency to an inanimate object and disembodied emotions, as with the New York Times‘ headline, “Car Plows Into Crowd as Racial Tensions Boil Over in Virginia.”) There are times when things can be ambiguous, but after a person the police say “premeditatedly” rammed into a crowd of anti-racist protesters with a car, it’s fairly clear the anti-racist protesters aren’t to blame for the death. But one would hardly know this, reading these “clashes” framings.

Police Stood By As Mayhem Mounted In Charlottesville

August 13, 2017 A.C. Thompson and Robert Faturechiand Karim Hajj, www.propublica.org , , ,
By A.C. Thompson and Robert Faturechiand Karim Hajj for ProPublica. There was nothing haphazard about the violence that erupted today in this bucolic town in Virginia’s heartland. At about 10 a.m. today, at one of countless such confrontations, an angry mob of white supremacists formed a battle line across from a group of counter-protesters, many of them older and gray-haired, who had gathered near a church parking lot. On command from their leader, the young men charged and pummeled their ideological foes with abandon. One woman was hurled to the pavement, and the blood from her bruised head was instantly visible. Standing nearby, an assortment of Virginia State Police troopers and Charlottesville police wearing protective gear watched silently from behind an array of metal barricades — and did nothing. It was a scene that played out over and over in Charlottesville as law enforcement confronted the largest public gathering of white supremacists in decades. We walked the streets beginning in the early morning hours and repeatedly witnessed instances in which authorities took a largely laissez faire approach, allowing white supremacists and counter-protesters to physically battle.

One Dead After Car Plows Into Anti-Racist March

August 13, 2017 John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us , , ,
By John Zangas for DC Media Group. Charlottesville, VA - Anti-fascist and anti-racist counter-protestors confronted a planned white nationalist gathering in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday. Multiple angry clashes between groups in the morning resulted in many injuries. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and Virginia State Police moved in to end the protest. The Virginia National Guard was deployed and began patrolling Charlottesville. But, in the early afternoon, a silver Challenger driving at high speed plowed through a march of anti-racist counter-protestors forming on 4th Street, tossing several people into the air like rag dolls before ramming into the rear end of another car. It appeared the car was driven deliberately into the crowd, then reversed and sped backwards.

Welcoming The Fascists To Charlottesville

August 11, 2017 David Swanson, www.davidswanson.org , ,
By David Swanson for Let's Try Democracy - I have mixed emotions about the fact that I’ll be missing the latest big fascism rally here in Charlottesville, because I’ll be elsewhere participating in kayak trainings for an upcoming Flotilla to the Pentagon for Peace and the Environment. I’m delighted to miss the fascism and the racism and the hatred and the gun-toting lunacy. I’m sorry to miss being here to speak against it. I’m hopeful that there might be something resembling a disciplined nonviolent and nonhateful opposition presence, but strongly suspect that a small number of violent and hateful opponents of racism will ruin that. I’m thrilled that taking down a racist war monument has gone mainstream. I’m depressed that, even though the legal delay in taking it down is based on its being a war monument, one side wants it down for being racist, the other side wants it up for being racist, and everybody is perfectly happy to pack the town with war monuments. I dread the possibility of hearing that the racists again chanted “Russia is our friend!” meaning that they believe without evidence that Russia corrupted the U.S. election and they are grateful for it, but I’m hopeful that they have moved on to other bizarre chants — though my hope is minimal that anyone might chant “Russia is our friend” and mean by it that they’d like to build peace and friendship between Americans and Russians.

Marijuana Arrest Capital, NYC Police Focus On Black People

August 11, 2017 Phillip Smith, www.alternet.org , , , , ,
By Phillip Smith for AlterNet - Last month, the Drug Policy Alliance released a report noting that marijuana arrests under New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio continue to be marked by shocking racial disparities, much as they were under his predecessors, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg. Stung by the criticism, de Blasio is fighting back, but his response so far has consisted of attacking DPA as "legalizers" and comparing apples to oranges. The DPA report, Unjust and Unconstitutional: 60,000 Jim Crow Marijuana Arrests in Mayor de Blasio’s New York,noted that while pot possession arrests are down under de Blasio from the numbers achieved under Giuliani (more than 40,000 arrests in 2001) or Bloomberg (more than 50,000 arrests in 2011), NYPD still arrested more than 18,000 people for pot possession last year, and a whopping 86% of them were black or brown, maintaining the racial disparities so apparent in earlier administrations. That's "a far cry from the mayor's pledge to rein in NYPD's targeting of people of color," charged DPA New York State director Kassandra Frederique in the report. That de Blasio had managed to bring pot arrests down to an average of only 20,000 a year during his tenure shouldn't be portrayed as progress, argued Frederique, instead describing it as "slower injustice, but slower injustice is still injustice delivered."

NAACP Issues First-Ever Travel Advisory For A State

August 7, 2017 Ian Cummings, www.governing.com , ,
By Ian Cummings for Governing - NAACP officials say their recent travel advisory for Missouri is the first that the civil rights group has issued for any state. But the warning follows a recent trend of similar alerts issued by other groups for vulnerable people around the United States. The travel advisory, circulated in June by the Missouri NAACP and recently taken up by the national organization, comes after travel alerts began appearing in recent years in light of police shootings in the U.S. and ahead of immigration legislation in Texas and Arizona. The Missouri travel advisory is the first time an NAACP conference has ever made one state the subject of a warning about discrimination and racist attacks, a spokesman for the national organization said Tuesday. Missouri became the first because of recent legislation making discrimination lawsuits harder to win, and in response to longtime racial disparities in traffic enforcement and a spate of incidents cited as examples of harm coming to minority residents and visitors, say state NAACP leaders. Those incidents included racial slurs against black students at the University of Missouri and the death earlier this year of 28-year-old Tory Sanders, a black man from Tennessee who took a wrong turn while traveling and died in a southeast Missouri jail even though he hadn't been accused of a crime.

Kaboom Town Burns Millions Of Pounds Of Munitions

August 6, 2017 Abrahm Lustgarten, www.propublica.org , ,
By Abrahm Lustgarten for ProPublica. A private facility in Colfax, 95 miles south, operated by Clean Harbors, a longtime Defense Department contractor and one of the largest hazardous waste handlers in North America. The Colfax plant is the only commercial facility in the nation allowed to burn explosives and munitions waste with no environmental emissions controls, and it has been doing so for the military for decades. And so while the Army ultimately commissioned a special incinerator to dispose of most of the Minden explosives, more than 350,000 pounds of them were shipped here. Over the ensuing months, the munitions were burned on the grounds of the plant, fueling raging fires that spewed smoke into the air just hundreds of yards from a poor, largely black community. In 2015 alone, 700,000 pounds of military-related munitions and explosives were trucked to Colfax, where both Clean Harbors and the military have so far been able to outmaneuver a community with abundant concerns but little money, and even less political influence, to fight back. The Department of Defense did not respond to questions regarding its use of the Clean Harbors burn facility in Colfax, or environmental concerns related to it.

Black Women Work 7 months In 2017 Equal Pay Of White Men In 2016

July 30, 2017 Staff, www.epi.org , , , ,
By Staff for Economic Policy Institute. July 31st is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, the day that marks how long into 2017 an African American woman would have to work in order to be paid the same wages as her white male counterpart was paid last year. Black women are uniquely positioned to be subjected to both a racial pay gap and a gender pay gap. In fact, on average, black women workers are paid only 67 cents on the dollar relative to white non-Hispanic men, even after controlling for education, years of experience, and location. Pay inequity directly touches the lives of black women in at least three distinct ways. Since few black women are among the top 5 percent of earners in this country, they have experienced the relatively slow wage growth that characterizes growing class inequality along with the vast majority of other Americans. But in addition to this class inequality, they also experience lower pay due to gender and race bias.

White Texas Cop Caught On Video Harassing Black Man For Mowing Grass

July 28, 2017 D.L. Chandler, www.hiphopwired.com , , ,
By D.L. Chandler for HIp Hip Wired - There have been conflicting reports about Gipson’s age and name, with some outlets reporting as both 18 and 19. The Houston Chronicle piece referenced above states Gipson is 21. Gipson’s video was published to YouTube Tuesday (July 25) and has since gone viral. The outlet did further digging and discovered that Gipson, who resides in Houston, had an outstanding charge from 2015, and two pending charges dating back to April related to offering false information to police. An attorney from Philadelphia flew into Houston this week to meet with Gipson and the family. In a YouCaring fundraising page description, Gipson explained the situation from his perspective. The crowdfunding campaign is aimed to help expand his lawn mowing business and has raised $6,500 thus far. The page also features images of Gipson and his brothers, along with bite marks from a K-9 unit he claimed was set to attack him inside his home.

Activists Ask Charlottesville To Drop Charges

July 18, 2017 Lauren Berg, www.richmond.com , , , , ,
By Lauren Berg for The Daily Progress - CHARLOTTESVILLE — Activists want all charges dropped against protesters arrested at the July 8 KKK rally in Charlottesville after they say police used unnecessary force against demonstrators, and the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is asking residents to urge the City Council to increase “civilian oversight and accountability in policing.” Lodging allegations of police brutality, activists associated with Solidarity Cville held a news conference Friday in front of the Charlottesville Police Department, asking for police to apologize for their tactics at the rally and revoke the permit for the Aug. 12 “Unite the Right” rally, organized by pro-white blogger Jason Kessler. Emily Gorcenski, who attended the rally, said it was unnecessary for police to declare unlawful assembly as protesters gathered around a garage where members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had parked. She said police did not give protesters and others enough time to leave the area before Virginia State Police deployed three canisters of tear gas. “To be frank, it is ridiculous to expect a grieving community, with a deep legacy of racial violence, to simply pack up and go home after the KKK rallied in our city,” Gorcenski said. After the Klansmen left, some protesters turned their attention to police and followed officers back up to High Street, where they continued to defy police commands to leave the area.

Police Searches Plummet In States That Legalize Weed, But…

June 25, 2017 Andy Campbell, www.huffingtonpost.com , , ,
By Andy Campbell for the Huffington Post. Marijuana is often used as a tool by police officers to search your car. In many cases, the mere odor of weed serves as probable cause to pull you over and rifle through your belongings. States that have decriminalized it are still grappling with the legality of using marijuana for warrantless searches. In the case of Philando Castile, who was shot to death by a Minnesota police officer during a traffic stop last year, we saw the devastating effects the smell of marijuana can have on an officer’s perception of motorists. Though marijuana is decriminalized to some degree in the state, St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez would later tell investigators that he thought he was in danger because he smelled weed. It may come as no surprise, then, that states that have legalized marijuana are seeing a dramatic decline in warrantless searches.

Redneck Revolt Builds Anti-Racist Working Class White Movement

June 22, 2017 Jared Ware, www.shadowproof.com ,
By Jared Ware for Shadow Proof - In the infancy of the Trump presidency, a new community defense network is espousing anti-racist and anti-capitalist politics to build coalitions in cities, small towns, and rural areas across America. Redneck Revolt recruits predominantly poor and working class white people away from reactionary politics. The organization advances an analysis of their class condition and white supremacy’s role in upholding the wealth and privilege of a small, white elite. Redneck Revolt inserts themselves into overwhelmingly white spaces—NASCAR races, gun shows, flea markets in rural communities, and country music concerts—to offer a meaningful alternative to the white supremacist groups who often also recruit in those spaces. The organization’s growing membership comes as media pundits, the Democratic Party, and the United States’ relatively small socialist parties all grapple with how to address the plight of working class white Americans in the wake of Donald Trump’s election. “Economic anxiety,” a term presented by the media to defend Trump’s ascension, has become an internet meme for acts of racial terror. Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance has been paraded around to defend and mythologize the travails of working class white Republican voters.
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