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Systemic Racism

Murder Of Daunte Wright Ruined Derek Chauvin Show Trial

April 16, 2021 Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
The fix was in. The U.S. state was determined to demonstrate to the world that its system was able to render “justice” to its captive African/Black population. So, unlike in the handful of cases where charges were brought against police officers for killing a Black or Brown person, the prosecutors this time did not pretend to follow the demands of the ill-informed public to bring charges of first degree or second-degree murder that would set a bar for conviction so high, it could not be met. That is a favorite strategy of prosecutors when conviction is not what they are looking for.  The prosecutors in the Derek Chauvin case did the opposite. They stacked the charges in a way that would make it impossible to escape a conviction. And everyone fell in line because the stakes were so high. Could the Shining City on the Hill, whose leadership was now associated with the “decent” Democrats, render justice for the killer of George Floyd?

A Crisis Of ‘Forced Mass Displacement’ Of Black Pittsburghers

April 8, 2021 Tom Davidson, TribLive.com. , , ,
Pennsylvania - Why did 7,000 Black Pittsburgh residents leave the city between 2014 and 2018? The answer depends on who’s talking. Community activist Randall Taylor, a former Pittsburgh Public Schools board member and city council candidate, calls it a “crisis of forced mass displacement” of Black residents. City councilmen Ricky Burgess and R. Daniel Lavelle say the issue is more nuanced and that most of the 7% of the Black population that left during that time period did so by choice. Taylor and 31 other city residents on Tuesday petitioned Pittsburgh City Council for a public hearing on the issue and to begin a discussion about what to do about it.

Parisians March Against Systemic Racism And Police Brutality

March 21, 2021 Sputnik News. , , ,
Watch a live broadcast from central Paris where people are gathering on Saturday 20 March to march against "systemic racism and police brutality." Organised by several activist groups to mark the International Day Against Police Brutality (15 March) and the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March), people are demanding the creation of an independent entity to monitor the use of force by police officers and reparation for victims of police brutality. One of the organisers is Assa Traore, whose brother Adama, 24, died in police custody in 2016 after he was stopped for an ID check. According to a 2018 medical assessment, Traore died of asphyxiation after officers pinned him to the ground.

The Housing Crisis: One Year After Lockdown

March 20, 2021 David Rovics, Counterpunch. , , ,
All the folks moving to Portland from California or New York and talking about how great the real estate prices are here may not know it (note: I was once one of them), but this city is the most rent-burdened city in the United States, and it exists within a country that, like this city, is undergoing multiple long-term crises, one of which is a housing crisis. The housing crisis, like so many other crises, got much worse one year ago this week, when the country, and much of the rest of the world, shut down. Although this is a city that lost half of its Black population to the rise in the cost of housing between the years of 2000 and 2010 alone, according to census data, one year ago this week, if we talked about the housing crisis as one neck-deep in institutional racism, we would often be met by blank stares.

NYPD’s Enforcement Of Marijuana Laws Plagued By Extreme Racial Disparities

March 11, 2021 Jake Offenhartz, Gothamist. , , ,
New York City - On March 4th of last year, Fitzroy Gayle was stopped by a plainclothes police officer in his neighborhood of Canarsie, Brooklyn. Video shows the 20-year-old, who is Black, begging to know why he was being detained. Moments later, close to a dozen NYPD officers sprinted toward the young man, tackling him to the ground as he cried out that he did nothing wrong. An NYPD spokesperson later claimed that Gayle was approached after he was spotted with a "lit marijuana cigarette" inside a nearby park. He was charged with possession of marijuana, resisting arrest, and obstructing governmental administration. The incident, which drew widespread outrage, was one of 437 marijuana arrests made by the NYPD in 2020. That number is a fraction of the tens of thousands of New Yorkers arrested for smoking pot in previous years in New York City.

How The Pandemic Economy Could Wipe Out A Generation Of Black-Owned Businesses

March 8, 2021 Lydia DePillis, ProPublica. , , ,
Of all the products made at Danette Wilder’s small manufacturing plant near the University of Kentucky in Lexington, the products she depended on most for sales were the O-rings cranked out by her vintage presses. Each month, Wilder’s crew of six people, working at long tables as they listened to a soundtrack of funk and R&B, made thousands of the rubber loops, cut from spools into precise strips and spliced into uniform perfect circles. The work distinguished Wilder’s company, SealingLife Technology, as one of the vanishingly few rubber products suppliers owned by a female engineer — not to mention one who is also Black. It hasn’t been an easy path: Wilder has navigated state and federal set-aside programs, tight-fisted bankers and what she saw as obvious discrimination. But eventually, Wilder built SealingLife into a reliable vendor for all manner of aerospace, medical and other industrial businesses.

Jackson Water Crisis: Collective Effort Is Critical To Community Sustainability

March 7, 2021 Anoa Changa, News One. , , ,
While the Mississippi city of Jackson works to fully restore water, various community organizations have been filling in the gaps with relief. Mutual aid is a new term for some, but providing it is an old practice in many Black communities. “As a southern Black girl, who grew up in rural Mississippi, mutual aid has always existed in my life,” Calandra Davis, an organizer with the Jackson chapter of Black Youth Project 100 (BYP 100), told NewsOne. Davis said community institutions have always provided aid in times of need. “The churches [and families] in my community always provided mutual aid,” she added. Providing support to communities in Jackson and across the state, the Mississippi Rapid Response & Relief Coalition is a statewide coalition, including rural partners. Member organizations include the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign, the People’s Advocacy Institute, the Milestone Cooperative, Mississippi M.O.V.E., Mississippi Prison Reform Coalition, BYP 100 and Sarah’s Touch.

How The First US City To Fund Reparations For Black Residents Is Making Amends

March 2, 2021 Ashley Brown, Emilie de Sainte Maresville, and Allie Yang, ABC News. , , ,
Evanston, Illinois, is like a lot of American cities. The city just north of Chicago appears picturesque, updated and grand on one side -- but not far away, one can see the signs of economic and racial segregation, despite the city's proud, diverse and liberal reputation. What sets Evanston apart from other cities, however, is its groundbreaking plan to address the impact of that segregation and Black disenfranchisement: reparations. The impetus for the city's reparations resolution, first passed in 2019 and spearheaded by 5th Ward Alderman Robin Rue Simmons, is rooted partially in Rue Simmons' experience growing up Black in Evanston. "Early in my childhood I was invited to have a play date," she recalled. "My white friends never had a play date at my home."

Unemployment Skyrocketing? An Evolved Society Would Celebrate

December 15, 2020 Lee Camp, ScheerPost.com. , , ,
Leaf blowers are everything wrong with capitalism. . . . I’ll explain that in a minute. We all know times are irredeemably grim, and they’re only getting worse. The unemployment level in America seems to be setting the record books aflame, and for some bizarre reason those numbers correlate nicely with the number of Americans under 40 living with their parents again. Understandably, the entire country is a little on edge. If I spend more than 30 minutes around my parents, one eye starts twitching, a dull ringing settles into my inner ear canal, and I start to think Rachel Maddow (which they leave on 24/7 as if she’s Christmas music at Macy’s) makes some logical sense.

How Some Of America’s Richest Towns Fight Affordable Housing

December 15, 2020 Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, ProPublica. , , ,
Westport, CT - A dirt field overgrown with weeds is the incongruous entrance to one of America’s wealthiest towns, a short walk to a Rodeo Drive-like stretch replete with upscale stores such as Tiffany & Co. But this sad patch of land is also the physical manifestation of a broader turf war over what type of housing — and ultimately what type of people — to allow within Westport’s borders. It started when a developer known for building large luxury homes envisioned something different back in 2014 for the 2.2 acre property: a mix of single- and multifamily housing that would accommodate up to 12 families. A higher density project is more cost efficient, he said, and would allow him to sell the units for less than the typical Westport home.

Lynchings By Law

December 11, 2020 Aaron Greene, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
The U.S. death penalty has always been a symbol of white supremacy and a violation of human rights law.  Having already executed 11 people this year, the Trump administration plans to execute five people (four of them Black) during a lame-duck session. This would be the first time a president has carried out executions during a lame-duck session since the Cleveland administration  carried out the execution of an Indigenous man in 1890. The profound anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells once said: “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” 

The AMA Officially Recognized Racism As A Public-Health Threat

November 20, 2020 Bill Bostock and Anna Medaris Miller, Business Insider. , , ,
The American Medical Association has officially defined racism as a public health threat that has created substantial health inequality. Racism, both systemic and structural, has historically perpetuated health inequality and cut short the lives of many Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in the US and around the world. Over the last year, a number of county and state authorities have also labelled racism a public health threat. Among them are county councils in San Bernardino, California, and Montgomery, Maryland, as well as authorities in Michigan, Nevada, Cleveland, Denver, and Indianapolis.

Black Cops Don’t Make Policing Any Less Anti-Black

November 13, 2020 Bree Newsome Bass, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
Amid recent growing calls for defunding police this summer, a set of billboards appeared in Dallas, Atlanta, and New York City. Each had the words “No Police, No Peace” printed in large, bold letters next to an image of a Black police officer. Funded by a conservative right-wing think tank , the billboards captured all the hallmarks of modern pro-policing propaganda. The jarring choice of language, a deliberate corruption of the protest chant “no justice, no peace,” follows a pattern we see frequently from proponents of the police state.

End Worker Surveillance

October 16, 2020 Athena. , , ,
Today, workers are subjected to an unprecedented level of workplace surveillance and control. From voice monitoring to tracking applications, these systems are being introduced into workplaces that are already stacked against low-wage workers, creating an environment ripe for exploitation. Surveillance gives corporations more power over workers. When combined with automation that dictates the pace and type of work, it results in a more dangerous, punishing, and precarious workplace.

Health Justice And Black Liberation: Shay-Akil McLean

October 13, 2020 Gwendolyn Wallace and Roberto Sirvent, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
The way that people treat each other has biological consequences, meaning that our relationships to one another, institutions, and resources are directly linked to quality of life, life expectancy, and quality of death. State violence is a public health issue because what it does is differentially distribute morbidity and mortality to those that are deemed enemies of the state. All of forms of state violence entail the denial of basic needs and the self-determination of the people in one dimension and/or additional others.
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