As the American civil war reached its bloody end in 1865, the Union general William Sherman seized land from Confederates and mandated it be redistributed, in 40-acre plots, to newly freed slaves.

The promise of 40 acres and a mule was never fulfilled. But a debate has raged ever since about what America owes to the descendants of slaves, and to the victims of racial terror and state-sanctioned discrimination that persisted long after emancipation.

We helped build this nation. We built the United States Capitol. We built the White House. We made cotton king and that built the early economy of the United States, the Texas congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, the sponsor of a House resolution to study reparations, said in an interview this week.

We were never paid, never given insurance, never received compensation for the more than 200 years of living and working in bondage. And we continue to live with the stain of slavery today.

Jackson Lee said the disparities exposed by compounding national crises a pandemic, an economic collapse and widespread protests over police brutality, all of which have taken an unequal toll on African Americans are helping to make the case for reparations.

In the weeks since George Floyd died pleading for his life under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, an act many saw as an embodiment of the violent oppression black Americans have endured for centuries, public support for the Black Lives Matter movement has soared.

Look at the protests. Look at the protesters, Jackson Lee said. We are winning the hearts and minds of the American people. Thats why I think the time to pass reparations is now.

Reparations were once a lonely cause championed by black leaders and lawmakers. Now the debate has moved to the center of mainstream politics.

Several states, localities and private institutions are beginning to grapple with issue, advancing legislation or convening taskforces to develop proposals for reparations. Progressive candidates running for Congress from New York to Colorado to Texas have declared their support for reparations. And earlier this month, at an AME church in Delaware, Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, listened as the state senator Darius Brown challenged him on the issue.

It shouldnt be a study of reparations, Brown said. It should be funding reparations.

But for scholars and advocates who have been making the case for reparations for decades, Bidens support for studying the issue represents a dramatic break from the past.

[We] never received compensation for the more than 200 years of living and working in bondage. And we continue to live with the stain of slavery today

John Conyers, who died in 2019 and was the longest-serving African American in Congress, first introduced a bill to study reparations for slavery in 1989. The Michigan Democrat reintroduced it every cycle for nearly three decades, until he resigned in 2017. Even Barack Obama, when asked by the author, Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose influential 2014 essay in the Atlantic reintroduced the subject, said he was opposed, arguing that reparations was politically impractical.

Jackson Lee reintroduced Conyers bill, which would develop a commission to study the legacy of slavery across generations and consider a national apology for the harm it has caused. The measure, designated HR 40 in reference to Shermans unmet promise, now has more than 125 sponsors, the blessing of Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, and the New Jersey senator Cory Booker introduced a companion measure.

On Juneteenth last year, a congressional subcommittee convened a first-of-its-kind hearing to discuss how the nation might atone for its original sin, as well as the Jim Crow segregation that followed and the modern scourges of mass incarceration, persistent inequality and police violence that still plague African Americans.

Such a commission would have to grapple with profound moral and ethical questions as well as profane matters of money and politics. Proposals vary widely, as do the cost estimates and suggested criteria for eligibility. But at their core is an attempt to make economic amends for historic wrongs.

William Darity, an economist at Duke University and the author of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century, argues that the wealth disparities between white and black Americans is the most powerful indicator of the cumulative economic toll of racial injustice in America.

The data paint a stark picture. Black Americans hold one-tenth of the wealth of white Americans. Just 41% of black families own their homes compared with more than 70% of white families. And black college graduates have a lower homeownership rate than white high school dropouts.

Darity says the objective of a reparations package should be to close the wealth gap, and that the best way to do that is by direct payments to eligible black Americans. As for political objections to the scale and expense of such a program, he notes that earlier this year Congress allocated $2tn for a coronavirus relief measure that included direct payments to Americans.

Others have suggested compensation in the form of educational vouchers, health insurance or investments in programs that address disparities in education, housing and employment.

That the debate has expanded to include discussions over feasibility and mechanics is a sign of progress, Darity said.

Were finally moving away from the question of whether or not its the right thing to do because more and more people acknowledge that, at least in principle, it is the right thing to do, he said. And that is a major step forward because the logistical questions can be resolved.

Still the notion of compensating descendants of American slaves is not widely popular. But there are signs that is shifting.

According to a Gallup Poll conducted in 2002, 81% of Americans opposed reparations, compared with just 14% who supported the idea. In 2019, Gallup found that 29% of Americans agreed the government should recompense descendants of the enslaved, with support rising among white Americans from 6% to 16%. The most dramatic increase was among black Americans, whose support climbed from a simple majority in 2002 to nearly three-quarters in 2019.

At the same time, young Americans are significantly more likely to agree that the legacy of slavery still impacts black Americans today, while also being more likely to say the US government should formally apologize for slavery and pay reparations, according to an AP-NORC poll published in September.

And supporters are hopeful those numbers will rise amid a national reckoning over racism and discrimination. Public opinion on race has shifted dramatically in the span of a few weeks, with a majority of Americans now in agreement that racial discrimination is a big problem in the United States.

In California, assemblywoman Shirley Weber said the protests fueled interest in her bill to study reparations in the state, which the chamber approved overwhelmingly last week.

Something dramatic is going on, said Weber, who is the daughter of sharecroppers and a scholar of African American studies. Folks now begin to realize just how extensively, how deeply, issues of race are embedded in our society and how that can produce what we saw happen to George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Reparations have long been met with strong resistance from conservatives and some prominent black leaders, who have dismissed the idea as impractical and unnecessarily divisive.

I dont think reparations help level the playing field, it might help more eruptions on the playing field, Senator Tim Scott, the lone black Republican senator, told Fox News earlier this month.

Coleman Hughes, a fellow at the free market thinktank Manhattan Institute, worries a renewed focus on reparations was a distraction from the more pressing issues, like police brutality and mass incarceration, that has devastated Americas black communities.

How are reparations going to hold police accountable? he said. What is the added value of talking about reparations as opposed to talking about just good public policy that is going to address inequality and poverty?

Yet recompense for historical injustices are not without precedent in America.

After the second world war, Congress created a commission to compensate Native American tribes for land seized by the US government, though many say the approach was paternalistic. Decades later, Ronald Reagan signed legislation that authorized individual payments of $20,000 to Japanese Americans who were interned in the US during the second world war, and extended a formal apology from the US government.

In 2008, the House passed a resolution acknowledging and apologizing for slavery. The Senate approved a similar resolution a year later, but a disclaimer was appended to ensure the apology could not be used as a legal rationale for reparations.

Facing history is a necessary part of the healing process for nations cleaved by atrocity said Susan Neiman, an Atlanta-born academic based in Berlin and the author of Learning from the Germans.

She said it took time for Germany to confront the horrors of nazism and the Holocaust, Neiman said, and the process faced strong resistance. Since 1952, Germany has paid reparations, mostly to Jewish victims of the Nazi regime.

It needs to be a multi-layered process, one involving schools, the arts, rethinking what values we want to honor in public space, and all manner of legal measures from reparations to ending police brutality, she said. Ideally, a broad democratic discussion must accompany such a process, and once its done, countries are actually better off for it.

The cruelty of the Covid-19 outbreak, the economic crisis and police brutality against black Americans must be understood as part of a continuum that began with the Middle Passage, said the California congresswoman Barbara Lee, author of a new bill to establish a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Commission.

This is truth-telling time, she said. We have to, as I say, break these chains once and for all.

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Calls for reparations are growing louder. How is the US responding? - The Guardian

As we continue into the first days of summer surrounded by nationwide protests for intersectional Black liberation, many were understandably appalled when President Donald Trump announced he was planning to hold a rally in Tulsa, Okla., on June 19. This decision to hold his first rally in three months on Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the ending of slavery in the U.S., and in Tulsa, where this month marks the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, was deemed racially insensitive by many. After resolving that President Trump was unfamiliar with the significance of both June 19 and Tulsa, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the only Black Republican in the Senate stated, Im thankful that he moved it once he was informed on what Juneteenth was, that was a good decision on his part. After this incident, many have moved to recognize Juneteenth as a holiday for employees, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and companies including Best Buy, Nike and Postmates, among others. This has also been the first year weve witnessed widespread media coverage of Juneteenth, which has undeniably uncovered the fact that millions of Americans are unaware of the histories of our country.

The demand is simple: Juneteenth needs to be a federal holiday, one that recognizes the humanity and deserved independence of all American citizens, not only those who sought independence to then enslave others. We live in a nation whose schooling system is designed to indoctrinate a false history of America. The White House and the Trump administration who were admittedly ignorant to the day on which the last enslaved people were officially emancipated, the significance of Tulsa and Black Wall Street and the Tulsa race massacre, which is known to be the worst incident of racial violence in American history symbolize this complicit American ignorance and lack of education. We must do better. We must celebrate Black history, not in the month of February or when Black bodies are hanging, but as a way of life and as American history.

Trump and his campaign aides failed to grasp the significance of holding a political rally on Juneteenth, nor did they realize that Tulsas history compounded the racial insensitivity of already wanting to hold a rally amid a deeply painful time for the country. When asked if the coincidental scheduling was intentional, Trump responded, Think about it as a celebration. My rally is a celebration. However, the presidents rallies never seem to celebrate anything other than white supremacy and further division of the country. In a Politico Playbook audio briefing, they said Trump is torn between the impulse to speak and cater to his base, and the demands of governing a multiracial country in the throes of unprecedented turmoil and upheaval. He seems generally uncertain of his place in the moment, and in the broader history of our country. It is not surprising to many, especially after learning of his inability to grasp the fundamental history of Pearl Harbor. A former senior White House adviser said: He was at times dangerously uninformed.

This seems to be a recurring embarrassment for the president, but to think that all of those who advise Trump are not sophisticated enough to understand the significance of holding a rally so close to Juneteenth in Tulsa would also be a dangerous underestimation. This leads many to believe that Stephen Miller a white nationalist, one of the presidents closest aides and his xenophobic homunculus understood the direct message they were sending with the rally: deeper division of the country along humanitarian and racial lines.

We are often taught that Abraham Lincoln was the white savior of the slavery narrative, that he courageously abolished slavery and the inhumanities that had transpired in Americas past. This narrative, along with so many other examples of whitewashed American history, has been undeniably contorted when one examines actual perspectives of the former president. From Lincolns Sept. 18, 1858 debate with Judge Douglas, he states: I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races -- that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making VOTERS or jurors of negroes, NOR OF QUALIFYING THEM HOLD OFFICE, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

Simply put, Lincoln was never anti-racist. However, one can say that Lincoln had morally and politically detested the system of slavery throughout his life. His opinion was that the method of unfree labor was opposed to the basic postulates of republican freedom and believed they would morally undermine the nation. Lincoln saw great promise for the country and rejected the popular notion that society needed a permanent class of low-wage workers to provide the foundation for economic progressan idea that in its most extreme form was the rationale for slavery. Depicted most prominently in his House Divided speech from June 1858, Lincoln believed, A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. America could not have sustained itself as a half free and half slave nation, and thus the concept of free labor was reimagined, making it opportune for economic progress in the North to stop reliance on slavery. He finally reached a compromise with the radical opponents of slavery at the time, and they decided that containment of slavery to let slavery exist where it was granted by the Constitution, but prevent further expansion would suffice.

Rewinding to the start of the 19th century, the economy of America was predominantly agricultural and scattered throughout rural communities. However, as industries and technologies began to weave themselves into American society, the rise of railway construction and factory-based mass production led to an economic boom. Americans that were once used to working in small, local shops or for themselves took up jobs in the growing number of factories. This industrial promise of upward mobility was essential for both the nations social stability and economic prosperity. However, it was a different story for many antebellum Americans that remained advocates for slavery and, therefore, resented the economic developments that paralleled abolition. Unlike the northern states who were boasting industrialized factories and modern technological developments, the South still relied heavily on agricultural economics and consequentially, the enslavement of Black people. Even after the Emancipation Proclamation declared the abolishment of slavery on Jan. 1, 1863, many states waited until the 13th Amendment was ratified by Congress, which was passed by a narrow margin on Jan. 31, 1865.

Regardless, many Confederate states refused to follow the order even after rejoining the Union and so the official process of liberation did not occur unless an enslaved person escaped and reached Union zones or until their enslaver had been confronted by federal Union troops with an executive order to release their enslaved people. The last body of enslaved people to be reached with the news of abolishment was in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 two and a half years after the implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation marking the official liberation of all chattel enslaved Black people in America. Noliwe Rooks, director of American studies and professor of Africana studies at Cornell University, stated, The idea that people in that part of Texas had no idea that the war was over is farcical, quite frankly. There were wire services, there were newspapers The larger plantation owners were very wealthy and wealthy people have access to information. They were brutal people but they were the ruling class in the United States. They were elite, many were wealthy, they were not illiterate or backwards. They were brutal and inhuman, but not ignorant. The prolonged, painfully drawn-out end to slavery was fueled by selfishness, apathy and greed. For this reason, and many others, June 19 is an important holiday and is recognized as the true American Independence day among the Black community. It is officially recognized in 47 states.

After the Civil War, the Confederate flag became a heroic symbol for nostalgic racists and was sustained as a white supremacist logo to be rekindled amongst civil rights progressions in the nation. An indoctrinated misconception is that slavery was exclusive to the South, but the reality is that slavery was incredibly present in the North, especially in New Jersey. In fact, the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the Confederate states, failed to acknowledge the persistence of slavery in northern states such as New Jersey which did not officially liberate their slaves until 1866. It didnt stop there.

More than 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, into the 1960s, there were still Black families in the Deep South who had no idea they were categorically free. From being cyclically and continuously indebted to plantation owners to ancestors signing documents they couldnt read, 20th century slaves were not allowed to leave the plantation property. There was no way for the families to know that how they were living was any different from anyone else in the country the land down [there] goes on forever. These plantations are a country unto themselves. Antoinette Harrell, who researched and interviewed Black families who came forward with their experiences, said, Slavery will continue to redefine itself for African Americans for years to come. The school to prison pipeline and private penitentiaries are just a few of the new ways to guarantee that black people provide free labor for the system at large. However, I also believe there are still African families who are tied to Southern farms in the most antebellum sense of speaking. If we dont investigate and bring to light how slavery quietly continued, it could happen again. Slavery has been maintained in numerous mediums including the amendment itself which excludes criminal and incarcerated individuals from the abolition of enslavement.

Nearly three weeks ago, on June 1, America marked the sixth day of still ongoing protests over police brutality and racial injustices, and also marked the 99th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. In the 1920s, the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Okla., was often called Black Wall Street. The district flourished with more than 300 Black-owned businesses and was home to Black millionaires, physicians, pharmacists and even a pilot with his own airplane. Not everyone was immensely wealthy in the district, but it was a renowned place of opportunity and the welcoming atmosphere fostered success within the Black community, something that was not vastly accepted in 1920s America.

Black success in Greenwood was already a rampant source of friction that kindled hatred within the neighboring white community. Mechelle Brown, the director of programs at the Greenwood Cultural Center, said, Some type of confrontation between blacks and whites was inevitable because of the racial climate at the time, because of the presences of the Ku Klux Klan in almost every aspect of our society. She continued that success within the Black community caused some envy and anger among white people who commented, How dare those negroes have a grand piano in their house, and I don't have a piano in my house. Racially-motivated hatred and tensions reached a breaking point when there was an encounter between a Black man and a white woman in an elevator a pattern weve seen expand across history. Sarah Page worked as an elevator operator and Dick Rowland had been granted permission to go into the building; the two saw each other nearly every other day.

Some say that Rowland tripped leaving the elevator and grabbed Pages arm, who then screamed as an onlooker went to the authorities. Others claim there was an assault within the elevator. Either way, Page never pressed charges, but the authorities did. Inaccurate reflections and reports of the incident further compounded racist aggressions and, by the end of the day, large crowds of white residents demanded Rowland be lynched.

The Black community did not believe Rowland would do such a thing and Brown stated, They were willing to risk their lives, they knew that they would be risking their lives to help defend (him). It is estimated that 10,000 people stormed the railroad tracks that divided Black north Tulsa and white south Tulsa. The Black community was severely outnumbered and some of the survivors didnt just remember the fighting in the streets but also raining down upon their homes. Brown said, Many of our survivors have commented that they remember seeing planes dropping bombs. Dropping nitroglycerin bombs. We know that at least one company allowed white rioters to use their planes to drop bombs. While many were able to flee the town that night, there is no way to know exactly how many lives perished that night. The historical account details that at least 300 Black lives were taken. From the CNN article, a 2001 state commission report stated, Tulsa was likely the first city in the (United States) to be bombed from the air. Black Wall Street and its residents never received any justice for all the lives lost, and all insurance claims for the 35 blocks that were bombed and burnt to the ground were denied. Still, Black Wall Street was rebuilt.

The ignorance of the presidents organizing is about more than just Black Wall Street and Juneteenth. The Supreme Court has spent the past two years with no decision in sight debating the case of Sharp v. Murphy, which will subsequently decide once and for all whether or not the majority of eastern Oklahoma Tulsa included belongs to the Creek Nation tribe under the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. A decision for the Creek Nation would monumentally change the politics of the area and shift legal control of the land to the federal government. The Trump campaign seems to not care. Brad Parscale, Trumps campaign manager, apparently chose Tulsa for the campaigns first return rally because he believed it would be an uncontroversial spot, with Oklahoma voting for Trump by 36 percentage points in 2016 and Tulsa having a Republican mayor. But the initial rally date on Juneteenth, the history of the Tulsa race massacre and the precarious status of Eastern Oklahoma, reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of non-white history by the Trump campaign. What is most concerning about this layered and allegedly malicious plan is President Trump and his entire administration seemingly knew nothing about these histories. If this does not concern you in regards to our governing state, it should at least create concern about our educational system. If the president and his team can publicly broadcast ignorance with regard to some of the most significant moments and territories in American history while their most moral explanation is to claim unawareness, we must deeply examine our educational systems and priorities. What is imminently necessary includes complete reconstruction of the academic structure and curriculum without the complete whitewashing of history that disturbs and erases societal progress.

With that in mind, even though the Trump campaign did move to reschedule the rally to June 20 instead of on Juneteenth, many officials are still pleading with him to cancel it or hold it outdoors. The campaign responded with claims they would have hand sanitizer stocked and masks would be adorned on each attendee, with temperatures taken at the door. However, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh did state, Masks will be optional but each attendee will receive one. In an enclosed space that seats over 19,000 where respiratory droplets are able to disperse freely, not mandating mask-wearing is a dangerous mistake, but is also one that the president has never enforced himself. Many are worried this rally could become a super spreader event for COVID-19, as new cases in Oklahoma are up approximately 110 percent compared to last week and over 100,000 people are expected to show up to the event. As the nation is still continuing to reopen and a handful of states have had record numbers of cases reported as of late, a mass gathering of individuals who view wearing masks as a political statement instead of to protect themselves and others is not ideal, to say the least.

July 4 reigns as the historical mark of American independence and is celebrated nationally as such. This celebration in and of itself fails to acknowledge the existence of Black Americans or their official day of liberation which occurred nearly one hundred years after July 4, 1776 on June 19, 1865. Now, in 2020, the Black liberation movement continues as Black Americans existence continues to go unacknowledged or respected. However, companies are beginning to pursue reparative actions such as recognizing Juneteenth as a paid holiday; Virginia, once the capital of the Confederacy, is now committing to legislation that recognizes Juneteenth as an official holiday. Until all of America works to recognize the ugly, violent, racist and oppressive history of our nation, it will not be able to fully heal. Jamaal Bowman writes, Only by acknowledging its ugly past can a nation begin to heal itself. Our government has never gone through the Truth and Reconciliation process that Germany, South Africa, and Rwanda undertook after genocide and state-sanctioned violence in those countries. We have never apologized for slavery and Jim Crow, nor enacted policies to undo the harm. We whitewash the brutality of slavery in our national dialogue, and most egregiously in our school curriculum. There are still history textbooks in schools across this country that portray slavery in idyllic terms.

America will not be able to progress toward a proper process of reconciliation until the persistence of the slave institution is acknowledged. The adamant declaration of progression as a transitional attempt from past oppression disturbs the possibility of actual progress because it refuses to recognize that the oppression is not a historical one but rather an inherent or systemic aspect of American society and structure. However, this systemic oppression has not only impacted Black America, it affects the middle-class working white and non-Black community who also fall victim to the economic system. If we saw a restructuring of the educational system and a committed investment into community and youth development, it would uplift a large majority of the national population who is subconsciously oppressed. No revolution or reconstruction can occur successfully without an academic agenda. It is essential that we begin at the root which is the mental revolution and therefore we must invest in a school system that is diverse in representation and perspective. This calls for an inclusive curriculum that centers Black and Native American voices as narrators of American history allowing for a proper interpretation of American history that is not the product of a whitewashed agenda perpetuating the patriotic image of the white American that is the monolithic portraiture of society.

Culturally representative education and educators could correct these structures of oppression and indoctrinated ignorance about essential historic events such as Juneteenth and the Tulsa race massacre. An inability to recall our own history is an inability to correct it whereas the contrary is an ability to transform with the wisdom that is provided from our past. When the colonized become aware of the immobile state and the oppressor is similarly educated on their role in maintaining the slave institution, we will see unity and the rebirth of a nation properly liberated. However, if we continue to indoctrinate our children with false histories that erase the majority of our population and alienate them into inhumane spaces within society, we all stay dormant. Amongst a global pandemic and a global uprising, we have the opportunity to inspire the largest civil rights and Black liberation movement in history. It is essential we know what we are fighting for.

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From The Daily: Juneteenth, Black Wall Street and why ignorance is not bliss - The Michigan Daily

Michael Warren Published 11:00 p.m. ET June 13, 2020

The streets are awash with protesters. Looting and arson dot our landscape. COVID-19 has killed over 100,000. Unemployment is pounding workers. And we are, of all things, supposed to celebrate the flag on June 14? Once an uncontroversial display of patriotism, you can no doubt envision the histrionic divides that celebrating our national emblem will likely bring. Would we really be surprised if Flag Day is marked by flag burnings?

Before those inclined to torch Old Glory do so, they might consider the origins of Flag Day it is deeply rooted in freedom and equality. On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution establishing a uniform national flag. The Betsy Ross flag was born to represent the freest nation the earth had ever seen. Although it no doubt generated heartfelt feelings of patriotism, it was not revered.

The Civil War changed that. Fort Sumter was attacked, and the flag of the United States was torn asunder.

A visceral reaction of passionate patriotism took hold. Republican Unionist Jonathan Flynt Morris urged Charles Dudley Warner of the Hartford Evening Press to pen an editorial about the need to revere the flag; on June 10, 1861, Warner proposed that America establish a new Flag Day. The editorial sang: This flag is our dearest symbol of nationality. It stands for civil liberty on this continent. To keep it full high advanced is our highest pride; to strike at it is to arouse all the passion of the nation to defend it, and to punish the perpetrators of the outrage.

Flag Day was born in a spirit of saving the Union and freeing the slaves.

Like most holidays, Flag Day slowly grew. Federal recognition waited until May 30, 1916, through a proclamation from President Woodrow Wilson.Wilsons magnificent proclamation explained that Flag Day is a day upon which we should direct our minds with a special desire of renewal to thoughts of the ideals and principles of which we have sought to make our great Government the embodiment.

Finally, on Aug. 3, 1949, President Harry S. Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14 of each year as National Flag Day.

An American flag flies outside the Department of Justice in Washington.(Photo: Andrew Harnik, AP)

Flag Day exemplifies unity the brainchild of Republicans and instituted by Democrats. It reminds people of our founding first principles declared in our Declaration of Independence and embedded in our Constitution. The first principles include equality, limited government, the rule of law, unalienable rights, the Social Compact, and the right to alter or abolish oppressive government.

Today we are painfully reminded that America did not fulfill those first principles for all in 1776 or even today. Yet it was the belief in those first principles that inspired generations of patriots to move us closer to their fulfillment. Abolitionism, womans suffrage, and the civil rights struggles all called upon the first principles to push the country toward the arc of justice.

Demands for equality, the equal application of the rule of law, and protecting the unalienable rights of everyone is at the heart of the protests sparked by George Floyds death. Unlike any other country in the world, our flag stands for ideals ideals we should all embrace. Our flag is not a symbol of oppression, but one representing the most free nation on earth an indispensable stepping stone to the expansion of liberty on the world stage.

This is why Patriot Weeks celebration of a different historical flag each day of the week is so vital:Sept. 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks; Sept. 17, the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution; the current U.S. Flag;the Betsy Ross Flag;the Suffragette Flag;and the Fort Sumter Flag. They tell the story of America and how the battle for liberty and freedom is an unceasing struggle.

More than ever, this Flag Day we should all proudly display Old Glory and rededicate ourselves to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and our first principles.

Hon. Michael Warren is an Oakland County Circuit Court Judge and co-founder of Patriot Week (www.PatriotWeek.org) with his then 10 year old daughter Leah.

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Opinion: Flag Day rooted in freedom and equality - The Detroit News

From: Tom Lane

Columbus

I do not understand why it is so difficult for people to grasp the need to wear masks. Yes, the government is trying to control you. Just like driving your car every day. Do you seriously think it is "government oppression" to stop for red lights and stop signs? Do you think your freedom is impinged upon by going the speed limit (or close to it)? Is it somehow your "right" to put others at risk?

We live in a connected society and laws get made to protect the common good. The more we have people who seem clueless the "common good" the more we have to make laws to enforce safety and protection and allow the greatest good for the most people. At times, we have made laws that have protected some people more than others, and they have been changed or need to be changed. We are learning to live together and the idea that "freedom" means I can do anything I want, is childish.

I go to the store and about 50% have masks on and I do wonder if those without just dont understand, or more sadly, just dont care.

Link:

Letter: Wearing masks isn't oppression - The Republic

In the last few months, contact tracing, has exploded into our collective psyche.

COVID-19 has provided a need and an avenue for our governments to track us, citing our own best interests in the middle of a health crisis. But like anything, situations can change rapidly and solutions that were once deemed necessary can be used against us.

What was previously called surveillance now passes as contact tracing for public health purposes. Yet the risks regarding the use of peoples data gathered in this way remain.

At the Centre for AI and Digital Ethics (CAIDE) we wrote in April warning that freedoms could be put at risk by the need to combat COVID-19. Our concern then was that once surveillance is implemented it can be very hard to get rid of.

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Surveillance measures that were once necessary and promised as only temporary actions can quickly be redefined and redeployed for very different purposes, in the absence of strong government mechanisms that regulate and restrict surveillance.

Just over two months later, the concerns raised around the world about the dangers of surveillance have come to a head in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner, John Harrington, made a statement that the state government would be using background checking analogous to contact tracing on people arrested during the protests that have been sparked by the death of African-American George Floyd.

His comments have stoked concerns about contact tracing and other public health measures being repurposed or their scope extended.

Other reports have indicated that the Minneapolis police have been trialing facial recognition technology, including Clearview AI, giving them the capacity to deploy facial recognition software on protestors.

The use of an unarmed predator drone circling above the protesters in Minneapolis only exacerbated these concerns.

While legislation should protect citizens, the unprecedented volume of data, coupled with the increased capabilities of computing to process images, voice, social media data and other data paves the way for potential misuse should security situations rapidly escalate, the way it has in the United States.

It is easy to see how COVID-19 has given rise to the next economic crisis but experts have also been predicting that COVID-19 could sow the seeds of political revolutions.

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State of emergency laws give governments extraordinary powers.

With the development of contact tracing measures, many governments now have access to data and location information in ways they didnt have before COVID-19. Things can change exceptionally quickly and while legislation may be in place, state of emergency laws mean that governments can bring in new legislation very quickly, allowing them to adapt from tackling a pandemic to tackling civil unrest.

While many states of America have declared states of emergency and enacted new laws in response to protests, deploying surveillance technologies similar to those used for a public health crisis, raises even more concerns.

The USs much touted first amendment gives people the right to protest but doesnt include a clause exempting them from facial recognition technology.

Privacy activists across the world fear that increased surveillance capabilities will inevitably infringe on participation in political demonstrations.

Regardless of the situation that technology is being used to respond to, the surveillance techniques will be similar whether it is being used to control pandemics or control civil unrest.

The Australian government has made a huge effort to be transparent with its COVIDSafe app. But the same safeguards dont exist for policing purposes.

In February, Vox published an article about the New York Police Department refusing to disclose details of their surveillance technology despite it being known that they are using historical data to predict future crime with AI.

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While many liberties have been curtailed during COVID-19, all modifications to existing rights are required, under law, to be legal, necessary and proportionate. They need to come to an end.

Several researchers, including University of Melbournes Associate Professor Ben Rubinstein and now-independent privacy researcher, Chris Culnane, have analysed the Privacy Impact Assessment of COVIDSafe and found that authorities have the ability to decrypt the provided data and contact those who have tested positive as well as monitor their usage.

Research has also shown that further risks arise with the tracking of Bluetooth data that provides far more information than necessarily required for tracking COVID19 in late May the Guardian reported that the app had so far identified only one case.

If governments can deploy this technology while being transparent, what is to stop governments that have no interest in transparency deploying even more invasive technology and utilising it against citizens?

While Australia has sunset clauses in place on COVIDSafe, the rate of downloads has been very low. Downloads are sitting at around 6 million, with the rate flattening after the initial hype when the app was first launched.

Research done by the Guardian has credited this to the lack of trust in government stating that it was hardly surprising. After all, this is the same government that has deployed technology to raid reporters homes, harangue welfare recipients and crash the census.

The Black Lives Matter protests in the US cut to the heart of the very issue that contact tracing creates.

When we give our data to governments, even with legislative protections, we do so in good faith. But for many citizens around the world, this requires trust in government. For many, institutionalised racism, massive income inequality, lack of legal support or protections, and violence at the hands of police, makes contact tracing measures frightening and dangerous.

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Increased surveillance will disproportionately affect the safety and privacy of minority communities the world over.

Pandemics and other disasters call for measures that are permitted by law, and which require sunset clauses that expire when emergencies pass.

Governments have released these apps in response to extraordinary circumstances. However, consideration of privacy and the rights of all, especially minority and persecuted groups are paramount, not just in the initial disaster but because one disaster can easily perpetuate another.

The changes we make during crises need to ensure that rights are protected or they risk embedding values that may not be those that represent the society we wish to be particularly for those most at risk of exploitation and abuse.

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When tools for a health emergency become tools of oppression - Pursuit

Against police brutality

The police in India are not under civic management, but under the home department of the government (George Floyd: Minneapolis police department to be dismantled, Trump withdraws National Guard troops). Instead of that arrangement making for a more sensitive and accountable internal security force, it has been time and again accused to cater to the narrow political interests of whichever party is in power. This is regarded as a colonial inheritance and thought to prop up by force any ruling power that gives short shrift to ideas of justice and rule of law.

Is it now time that there is a country-wide clamour for police reform when the police appear to follow blindly dictates of autocrats in government? There is scandalous lack of application of mind in cases where victims of violence are charged with being perpetrators of violence. And any protest against the government is twisted into a case of sedition and criminal violence against the state. Police officers of integrity and conscience often feel frustrated at the state of things.

The courts have often castigated the police though that seems to rub off on the force without any effect. Widespread and sustained public condemnation could be the only course of action to bring the force into a sense of its own true role and responsibility. Hiren Gohain

***

Such height of anarchy! What a kind of an outpour of anger and revolt against authoritarianism! (George Floyd death: Donald Trump took shelter in White House bunker as protests raged, say reports). The issue is a grim reminder that oppression leads to revolt. One cannot hold a spring compressed for too long. The moment it is released, it rises back with renewed energy.

To quote Martin Luther King Jr, A riot is a language of the unheard. Let us not forget that discrimination of all kinds is detrimental to democratic dictums. Undoubtedly what Floyd did is wrong but the treatment meted out to him is inhuman. The incident has had deep-seated roots in the overall failures in the management of the pandemic and the repercussions thereof. The big boss hiding himself in a bunker reveals the extent of fury and might of the protest.

As if to adds fuel to fire, threatening to unleash vicious dogs and ominous weapons on the agitators and calling them thugs would unduly disturb a conciliatory path for peace, especially at a time when the country is fighting with an unprecedented health crisis. Ramana Gove

***

The opinion of a group of experts that the lockdown was of no use is incorrect in my opinion (Full Text: Draconian lockdown, incoherent strategies led to India paying a heavy price, say experts). It ensured that the numbers of cases remained low and occurred over a longer period of time. This allowed the government to mobilise medical resources and people to habituate themselves with the importance of avoiding various social activities.

A resource-poor country like ours could not have dealt with the kind of overwhelming experience of USA and European countries. Who is to say that the case numbers predicted by the modellers would not have happened without the lockdown? The way forward remains cautious, with restricted opening up of important economic activities.

The government should liberalise testing and provide more kits for common citizens to get tested with ease. No doubt, the lives of many have been disrupted and lost, but could it have been better without the lockdown? I personally dont think so. The hospitals would have been filled up with Covid-19 cases, keeping healthcare workers engaged, and patients with other diseases would not have gotten any treatment even in that situation.

At least today our Covid-19 death rate is not anywhere close to countries with similar number of positive cases. SK Gupta

***

A scientific study says that every weeks delay in lockdown adds to the number of lives lost (No, Mr Home Minister, migrant workers did not start walking home because they lost patience). If the lockdown was announced earlier, more lives would have been saved. Even in war, an operation is called off if the casualties are to be heavy. This is the crunch point. Its a difficult decision.

Our bureaucracy is not all that efficient to make arrangements quickly if lockdown had been delayed. This is evident by the manner in which migrants are being handled. Just to list out the names of those who want to go home by trains will take ages. Earlier, it would have compelled the government to divert their already-meagre resources at that time for this purpose. Meanwhile, Covid-19 would not have waited for administrative arrangements.

Rail and bus services would have been used even by non-migrants resulting in more confusion and spread of Covid-19. But was there need to rush to the bus and rail stations without confirmation? Why did the government, politicians, bureaucracy and union leaders not make efforts to sort out the confusion once the migrants decided to rush like this? Why were the migrants not told that staying back would not cost them their lives because the mortality rate is less than 5%? The migrants will come back once the work commences. No one will give them jobs where they are. Sudhir Jatar

***

Honestly speaking, do you folks have nothing better to do? Can you not see entertainment for the sake of entertainment? Must you seek to politicise everything and make everything into a conspiracy? (Pakistan is obsessed with a Turkish drama that glorifies the sword and distorts Islamic history). Have you considered that people may enjoyed this series because of its production quality or because they are tired of misogynist Pakistani dramas that are mostly about absolute nonsense?

Instead of belittling someones efforts to portray their vision on screen, maybe the scribe could teach Pakistani producers and writers how to bring some quality entertainment. People may watch the show for entertainment and so they learn something useful. Have you thought that maybe you are biased and unflattering? Or do you consider all Pakistanis mindless drones who only deserve to watch the senseless content we are used to watching? Syed Talha Salman

***

I am an atheist in the USA and I love this programme (Pakistan is obsessed with a Turkish drama that glorifies the sword and distorts Islamic history). I understand that the series is only loosely based on historical figures and events. I dont mind that a lot of the combat scenes are preposterous. They are exciting to watch.

The religious views of the characters are not important to me. I enjoyed similar series and films about the Roman empire, the Vikings, King Arthur and his knights, and the Tudor dynasty. That the characters worshipped Jupiter, Odin, Jesus, or whoever did not matter. Its the stories and performances that drive my interest. The exploits of Ertugrul and his tribe are very exciting. After three years of living under a president who is a bigoted, hateful, corrupt, incompetent, and a morally bankrupt liar, watching a brave, honest and caring leader fight tyranny and corruption is a pleasant fantasy. Mark Murphy

***

It was so healing to read Vinod Mehtas piece on Vajpayee (Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924-2018): A poet among bigots). In the midst of this euphoria over him, he was deeply blemished man, but climbed to the top as so many corrupt and megalomaniac men have. It is sad for India, which is a remarkable nation full of worthy, bright and idealistic people.

Vajpayees oratory got him accolades and indeed to watch him deliver a speech was truly seductive. But while he is no worse than many of our leaders and prime ministers, he certainly does not deserve the overarching praise and respect that we see pouring out. I prefer leaders like Karunanidhi or Jayalalitha. In fact, an aspect that I notice and abhor is the North Indianness of this sycophancy. I wish the idea of the South as a separate nation could have taken off. We would have been less myopic. Devaki Jain

***

I would like to make a very quick point about the article on Sadhguru (Opinion: The disturbing irrationalism of Jaggi Vasudev). It is poorly put together and biased. And for some reason there is no mention of the person who wrote the article maybe out of fear of receiving flak. I think you can do a much better job writing an article that communicates your guru-phobia from an objective standpoint.

Youre just another religion that of blind rationality trying to profess your beliefs. Others communicate through sermon, you do it with the pen. You are not invoking an objective outlook or even simple critical thinking. Instead of presenting the facts in absolute objectivity, youre only making sure they lean on your side by twisting the facts and presenting them as you want. I hope to see less hypocrisy from you and more objectivity with a thirst to deliver truth. Dilip Kandangath

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Readers Comments: If you oppress a people for too long, they will rise with greater force - Scroll.in

OJ Oleka, Opinion contributor Published 3:44 p.m. ET June 11, 2020

Over the course of the last several weeks, in the wake of the tragic deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floydand Breonna Taylor, our nation seems to be coming unbound on the issue of race. While we are far from civil war, many are searching for a set of New Age radical Republicans 19th century conservatives who founded the Republican Party on the idea that human beings should not be kept in bondage and denied the fruits of their labor who are willing to lead the way on policy reforms that can finally rid our nation of the scourge of racism. After all, conservatism is the natural home for such policy.

As a conservative black man, I readily admit that conservatives need to do a better job of explaining how this is true, but the right has a strong historical tradition of championing racial equality. If conservatives are ever to be taken seriously on matters of race again, we need to restore that strong tradition to its rightful place, front and center in Americas conservative party.

Racism is the deliberate hatred and oppression of someone because of their skin color. While racism is a heart issue and difficult to eradicate, institutional racism is something else entirely. Institutional racism is the direct, structural implementation of racism within an organization, governmentor system. Institutional racism is deeply insidious; good-natured people could be participating or benefiting from it without even knowing it exists. Rather than preserve individual liberty, institutional racism systematizes group oppression. This is typically manifested through a disproportionality of negative outcomes for black communities when compared to their peers.

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This is demonstrated by the over-criminalization of black men, the unnaturally high rates of maternal mortality among black womenand the educational opportunity gaps among black children. Institutional racism prohibits full participation in the American experiment. It disenfranchises the black voter, disturbs the peace in the black neighborhoodand collapses black wealth. It destroys economic viability for black businesses, widens disparities in black health outcomesand buries our black loved ones. It is evil. Institutional racism is also incompatible with conservatism.

American conservatism, as explained by the post-World War II conservative philosopher Russell Kirk, focuses on the preservation of personal liberty and moral order in society. In todays climate, these two values seem almost contradictory, but this could not be further from the truth. Modern conservatism defends voluntary community, encourages strong families, praises earned wealthand demands honest labor. Racism oppresses. Conservatism liberates. Conservatives should be front and center, leading the way on how to end institutional racism in America.

For subscribers: Ex-police chief said Louisville cops aren't trusted. It started long before Breonna Taylor

Conservatives should take up the courageous cause of ending institutional racismand vocally champion a conservative ideology to guide the policy and community framework for reform. Such an ideology is anti-racism. Anti-racism is the rejection of all forms of racism and the acceptance of every race. It uplifts humanity through creating an equitable education system, incentivizing economic development in historically ignored communitiesand by ensuring that the civil rights of black Americans are protected. An anti-racist approach to policy would inspire trust from black Americans in American institutions and jurisprudence. Anti-racism is not antithetical to law enforcement or the rule of law; it is also not a government-centered, top-down, bureaucratic approach. Anti-racism seeks to offer necessary reforms to equalize the black experience under the rule of law and its enforcers, but it is not a tool of political partisanship. Anti-racism promotes life and liberty, making it a natural component of American conservatism.

Ending racial inequity will be daunting but developing specific anti-racist policies to eviscerate institutional racism is a courageous cause that modern conservatives ought to champion. As our radical Republican ideological ancestors understood, human beings should not be denied their humanity and the fruits of their labor. They deserve equal participation in the American experiment. It is a case that conservatives must make, and one on which we must stand firm.

OJ Oleka is a co-founder of AntiRacismKY.

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Opinion: Why conservatives should be leading the way to end institutional racism - Courier Journal

Heavily armed citizens showed up recently at protests in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Montana, Coloradoand Idaho to allegedly protected peaceful protesters from antifa.

In Coeur dAlene, Idaho, groups of 25 to 50 armed men in combat gear spent successive nights patrolling the downtown area, following internet rumors that antifa agitators would be arriving from Seattle.

The FBI stated there is no evidence that any protests have been linked to antifa. Still, President Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpMelania Trump is 'behind-the-scenes' but 'unbelievably influential': book Police unions face lobbying fights at all levels of government Ernst challenger leads by three points in tight Iowa Senate race MORE tweeted: Domestic Terrorists have taken over Seattle, run by Radical Left Democrats, of course. LAW & ORDER!

In his June 1 Rose Garden address amid vowing to shield American citizens from professional anarchists, violent mobs, or arsonists, looters, criminals, rider rioters, Antifa the president promised to protect Second Amendment rights.

InJanuary,he tweeted, Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attack in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia,days before a gun rights rally in Richmond. The gun-rights rally itself drew 22,000 peoplemany of them heavily armed and in combat gearto protest Democratic state legislators pledge to enact new gun control legislation.

In mid-April, after blue-state governors enacted quarantine measure, he alsoclaimed multiple timesthat these governors were trying to take peoples guns away. In an odd non-sequitur, the president seemed to conclude that lockdown restrictions were also tied to Second Amendment rights.

Less than two weeks later, armed anti-lockdown protesters descended on Michigans statehouse. In response, some state legislators worebulletproof vests, and the states legislative session ended early.

In each instance, armed protesters used the Second Amendment to undermine democracy and individual rights. Democratically elected bodies in Virginia and Michigan were effectively threatened if they choose to act on measures gun control and an extension of lockdown orders that had wide public support. When citizens descend on a state capital brandishing guns, they effectively end any commitment to democratic debate.

While gun control advocates point out that36,000Americans are killed by guns each year, it is also essential to consider how guns threaten First Amendment rights and the will of democratic majorities.

The idea that a right to bear arms is necessary to protect oneself from a tyrannical government implies that violence would, at some point, be justified.

The contrast between the anti-lockdown protests and the Black Lives Matter protests demonstrates the limits of the Second Amendment to check government tyranny.Mostly white, heavily armed, protesters were able to challengelargely popularpublic health measures by intimidating state officials.

However, it is difficult to imagine Black Lives Matter and other anti-police brutality protesters using the Second Amendment effectively. It stretches the bounds of credulity to think that heavily armed Black Lives Matter protests would be met with anything other than large-scale state-sanctioned violence.

The historical context of the Second Amendment also cannot be overlooked.

During debates regarding the ratification of the Constitution, some anti-federalists took particular notice ofArticle 1 Section 8of the Constitution. The offending passages give Congress the authority to call forth and train militias.

At the time, Southern slaveholdersworried that since the federal government was given power over the militias, Congress could eventually block southern states from using their militias to put down slave rebellions.

The full text of the Second Amendment states: A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. It is not an accident that James Madison, a slaveholder himself, mentions the need for states to have militias in the Second Amendment.

The great irony here is that the Second Amendment can be read a different way as protecting Americans from an overly militarized police force.

The use of the term militias in both Article 1 Section 8 and the Second Amendment is a reflection of the fact that the founders feared permanent professional standing armies would be a threat to liberty. The Second Amendment mentions militias because the framers intended military units made up of part-time citizen-soldiers to be the first line of defense.

The photos and video footage from around the country of a heavily militarized police force firing rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds of peaceful protesters certainly seems to justify the founders warnings to the dangers of standing armies.

The First Amendment protections of freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press, have proven to be the most effective tool for civil rights leaders past and present to demand justice and challenge instances of government oppression.

In contrast, the Second Amendment has historically been atool of the oppressors rather than the oppressed. It is time to let go of the myth that the Second Amendment is an effective tool for protecting individual liberties.

Katie Scofield has a Ph.D. in political science from Indiana University, with a focus on comparative constitutional law. She was awarded a Fulbright grant to study the Ecuadorian Constitution and its treatment of human rights and teaches government at Blinn College in Texas.

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Myth: Second Amendment protects individual liberties | TheHill - The Hill

Dynamic grassroots movements are especially needed in authoritarian states where institutions are fundamentally broken. But even in established democracies, the recent failure of supposedly strong institutions to prevent the rule of law from being undermined has shown that there is no substitute for an active and organized citizenry.

HARARE On a cold winters night in July 2016, thousands of people gathered inside and outside Rotten Row Magistrates Court in Harare to await the verdict in the Zimbabwean governments case against Pastor Evan Mawarire, the leader of the #ThisFlag movement and a staunch opponent of then-President Robert Mugabe. When the magistrate eventually threw out the treason charges brought against Mawarire for peacefully rallying people against corruption, a street party broke out. It was an unexpected victory for the rule of law won, at least in part, through collective non-violent action by ordinary people.

In its most basic form, the rule of law simply means that no one is above the law. Everyone is treated fairly and justly, and the government does not exercise its power arbitrarily. These principles lie at the heart of the ongoing protests against systemic racism and police brutality in the United States following the death of George Floyd. The rule of law is very different from rule by law, which characterizes many authoritarian states and, increasingly, some democracies as well.

Many argue, not unreasonably, that building robust institutions is essential to strengthening the rule of law. But what do you do when the institutions which are meant to uphold the rule of law are so hollowed out that they have become the primary tools for its subversion? The conventional focus on building institutions can leave ordinary people feeling disempowered, waiting patiently for the all-important institutions to reform, while they remain on the receiving end of oppression meted out by those very institutions. It can also lead to unhelpful interventions by well-meaning external actors, which inadvertently strengthen the authoritarian capabilities of captured institutions, rather than the rule of law.

To strengthen the rule of law, we first need to focus on strengthening people, not institutions. This involves the difficult, dangerous, and often unglamorous work of grassroots community organizing that empowers citizens to act through informal channels outside of established institutions. Such action includes non-violent protests marches, boycotts, strikes, and pickets as well as community initiatives that directly improve peoples lives, such as worker advice centers and community gardens.

Such efforts are especially necessary in authoritarian states where institutions are fundamentally broken. But even in established democracies, the recent failure of supposedly strong institutions to prevent the rule of law from being undermined has shown that there is no substitute for an active and organized citizenry. Such engagement cannot be legislated or decreed, or copied and pasted from another jurisdiction. People must build it collectively from the ground up.

Building people power starts with opening citizens minds to a different type of society and a new way of doing things. In apartheid South Africa, for example, the study groups and adult literacy classes in townships during the 1970s helped to lay the groundwork for the mass movement that emerged in the 1980s under the banner of the United Democratic Front. The UDF would go on to play a leading role in the struggle against apartheid, culminating in 1990 with Nelson Mandelas release from prison and the unbanning of the African National Congress.

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Next, like-minded people need to organize themselves, connect with one another in the real world (not just on social media), and become actively involved in issues directly affecting their lives. These issues might at first be local rather than national, and involve less risky actions. Over time, however, people build mutual trust and gain confidence in both themselves and their collective power as a group. Coalitions form, and actions become larger in scope and perhaps more confrontational. Before you know it, a social movement emerges that is bigger than any of the individuals or organizations involved and can unlock peoples power to bring about change.

People power can strengthen the rule of law in at least three ways. For starters, it can counteract and even neutralize the top-down pressure placed on courts and police by the authorities typically, the executive. This can help to ensure that even hollowed-out or compromised institutions discharge their duties in accordance with the rule of law as in the case involving Mawarire.

Second, a people-power movement can create alternative spaces that prefigure a society in which the rule of law is respected. The movement must operate internally in a just and fair way, and apply the same standards to all its members regardless of rank. And any civil disobedience must have a strategic purpose and be highly disciplined, so that participants understand that such action does not constitute a rejection of the rule of law, but rather a means of establishing it.

Third, people power has repeatedly proved to be an effective tool in defeating even the most brutal dictatorships and achieving a transition to a more democratic system of governance. Far-reaching reforms that strengthen the rule of law can then be implemented in ways that would not have been possible under a corrupted system. In November 2019, for example, Sudans new transitional authority established after months of non-violent protests against President Omar al-Bashirs dictatorship and then against the military regime that ousted him repealed an oppressive public-order law that had governed how women could behave and dress in public. Although Sudans transition is by no means complete, this represented a huge triumph for the rule of law. It would not have been achieved without people power.

Authoritarian leaders understand and fear people power. Soon after Mawarires hearing, the Zimbabwean regime erected a fence around Rotten Row Magistrates Court to prevent similar public gatherings there in the future. But just as authoritarian regimes adapt and learn from their past mistakes, those of us fighting for a society based on the rule of law also must adjust, innovate, and improvise, and accumulate enough power to dismantle the oppressive systems that shackle us. Only through the struggle of ordinary people can we eventually shift our focus to building strong institutions that protect everyone equally.

The author is writing in his personal capacity, and the views expressed here are his own.

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How People Power Strengthens the Rule of Law by Doug Coltart - Project Syndicate

How should the oppressed respond to their oppressors?

If we revere the Founding Fathers as much as we profess, then we will find that they, much like my generation today, used protests, riots, and yes, even violence. In pursuit of liberation from the British empire, John Adams words speak to the unrest remaining today, We wont be their Negroes.

Proclamations like Live free or die and Give me liberty or give me death gave birth to this nation. But today, it seems that many Americans would rather fantasize about long gone patriots than acknowledge that black Americans are completing the Founding Fathers dream of ultimate equality for all.

But because racism is so deeply woven into the American consciousness, most patriot-lovers dont recognize the irony. Rebellion and protest is only for white-bodied peoples. Anarchy and vandalism is for everyone else. White people can storm capitol buildings in full military gear to protest stay-at-home orders. But black people taking a knee to protest systemic racism are thugs.

I do not remember taking Activism 101 in high school or college, but I do recall being taught to admire colonists who tarred and burned office buildings after the enactment of the Stamp Act of 1765 and who responded with violence after the Boston Massacre in 1770. As someone who has been an educator around the world, most recently in Ethiopia and China, I can assure you that no country actively teaches its citizens how to violently protest their own government. That has certainly been Americas tactic.

Our nonviolent figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Park are idolized, while members of black nationalist movements like Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, and Angela Davis are villainized. But even King, before he was assassinated, had begun to abandon his belief that America would evolve into a nation of equality. And Rosa Parks was not at all passive in her activism but had been on the executive board of directors of the group organizing the Montgomery bus boycott.

Let us be clear. The protests you see today are not a result of George Floyds murder alone. These protests are a result of suppressed collective pain and frustration from the unrelenting abuse black people have faced at the hands of white America. From Emmett Till to the Tulsa Race Massacre, from the assassination of black leaders to modern-day lynching, and from slavery to current economic oppression, black people have had enough.

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The great American strength is amnesia. This country has an unparalleled ability to forget and dismiss its own history. This month, I had the great privilege to interview the Rev. Mpho Tutu, the daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, on my podcast, The Buddy Pass. When asked if she sees a way forward for America, she responded with this:

One of the challenges in the United States, one of the challenges for racial reconciliation in the U.S. is that white communities are not willing to listen to the story being told. If you cant get past Step 1, how do you expect to get to Step 4? You cant jump from a hurt to reconciliation without going through the steps in between. And the stories are painful to retell and theyre painful to hear. The method works whether it is at an institutional level, a societal level, or a personal level. But you must follow the process.

The process Rev. Tutu is referring to is the Truth and Reconciliation process enacted by black and white leaders of South Africa after apartheid.

Step 1: Victims must be able to tell their story in full and as many times as they need.Step 2: Victims must be able to name their emotional hurt.Step 3: Victims must choose to forgive.Step 4: Victims can choose reconciliation or release from that relationship.

So in the spirit of Rev. Tutu, lets not jump to Step 4 and absolve white America without allowing black people to tell our stories and name our hurt. When we emphasize the plan ahead before acknowledging how we got here in the first place, we ignore and silence the oppressed. What is a protest, a riot, a march, a bashed-in shop window, or a bent knee, other than a person yelling out, Let me tell my story! You havent been listening. And what is any of that compared to the destruction of black bodies?

Instead of asking why we cant all just get along, America needs to ask the right questions. Why are people willing to leave the safety of their homes during a global pandemic to protest in crowded streets? Why in a country of economic prosperity are people willing to climb through broken windows for a pair of jeans from Target? Why are white people so determined to uphold white supremacy at the expense of their own humanity?

These are some of the questions you should be asking yourself. And it is my belief that once you do, once you allow yourself the deep reflection into the pain and struggle of black Americans, you may be compelled to join those who protest for justice. Or, at the very least, you wont condemn broken windows in response to broken bodies.

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For the Unoppressed, Protests and Riots Are Not the American Way - Rivard Report

Published: 6/14/2020 2:00:11 PM

In the last few weeks, my eyes have been opened to racisms daily physical and emotional assaults on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color).

I have gained a deeper awareness of how white privilege has blinded me to the depth of oppression against BIPOC by our political and economic institutions. Though it may appear that all Americans are governed by the same Constitution, its laws and protections are applied in radically unequal ways depending on skin color.

Indications of well-being suggest that racism has infected black people with higher levels of poverty, lower life expectancy and infant mortality rates, greater susceptibility to diseases such as asthma, heart disease, diabetes and COVID-19.

A system of unequal education convinced my daughter she was capable, while the school-to-prison pipeline has killed the hopes and dreams of many BIPOC children.

The deeds and actions of our institutions have indoctrinated us with the myth of black inferiority in order to retain an economic and political system based on white supremacy. Apartheid is defined as, a policy of segregating and economically and politically oppressing the nonwhite population. I maintain that the consequences of systemic racism, including housing and employment discrimination, discriminatory lending practices, education funded by property taxes, racial profiling, and mass incarceration have created a system of apartheid in this country.

The recent calls to protest across the country and around the world by BIPOC beckoned white people out of COVID isolation and onto the streets to demonstrate solidarity and re-envision an end to the militaristic policing of BIPOC. We have been outraged witnessing protestors of every color being brutalized by police for exercising their constitutional right to peaceful assembly. This, we have learned, is everyday life for BIPOC. How do we look the other way after bearing witness to the magnitude of such injustice?

Author Ta Nehisi Coates, in a recent interview, said the unprecedented numbers of white people who have joined the protests have given him hope. I am hopeful too, but also worried. How long will we keep showing up?

This is a movement to change the culture of America. Its going to be an uphill battle. There will be backlash. Media interest will fade. This country rose to power by whites stealing land and getting rich on the backs of BIPOC. While we build a movement to defund police, the white nationalist movement has been gaining valuable ground that was lost during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. They have convinced a large swath of white America that changing demographics are a threat to their power.

Their tactics include voter suppression, advocating for restrictions on immigration, mass incarceration, and weakening the federal government, while strengthening states rights. The Trump administration is filling our courts with judges who uphold discriminatory laws and practices. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has built a firewall against progressive legislation, while the fascist-in-chief encourages police brutality.

Will our work end when weve shed our tears, marched, rallied, and convinced ourselves that showing up to empathize with the grief and rage of our black brothers and sisters was enough? We may call ourselves allies, but all white people have benefited from the oppression of BIPOC, whether by living on stolen land or being able to enter a store without fear of being followed by a security guard.

Its time for white allies to commit to this movement and resist the temptation to abandon the fight for racial justice when the next big issue demands our attention. Carve out a role for yourself. Start locally.

How can we move our own communities in an anti-racist direction? What are our children learning about the history of BIPOC? Do our neighborhood schools have teachers who are BIPOC? What has your faith-based community done to stand against racism? Why are there so few black people living in Hampshire County? How can we help to create opportunities for establishing black-owned businesses in this area? What is your local police department doing to ensure that Black Lives Matter?

Learn about the platforms of the organizations leading the movement, like Movement for Black Lives, Color of Change, or the Equal Justice Initiative? How do we guarantee every persons right to vote and have their vote counted on Nov. 3? Do we respond as allies when friends or family minimize police brutality or shift the focus to vandalism and looting?

In record time, this movement has won promises from cities and towns to reform their police departments. How are we going to be sure that pledges to end choke holds and hold police accountable dont evaporate, along with our outrage? This is an important opportunity for us to join together to crush systemic racism and build a nation rooted in equality. We must guard against betraying the trust of those who have welcomed our participation.

As Bishop William J. Barber said, It is time now, in memory of all those who died ... those whose breaths were taken not by God, but by us ... Work for justice. Work for love. Work for mercy.

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Columnist Sara Weinberger: A movement to change the culture of America - GazetteNET

The relationship between each of these systems says a lot about the disguised intentions of corporations and government organizations, outlining the significance of breaking the continued pattern of oppression that unfortunately lies on top of this countrys strong foundation of racism. Pieces such as 13th are so valued because they voice the importance of movements like Black Lives Matter, which strive against systemic racism. Considering the fact that the systems themselves are failing, its ultimately up to the people to set things right.

One of the most effective tools in persuading citizens to fight for Black rights is empathy. No one will ever truly understand the struggles faced by the Black community other than those within it, but remembering the stories of murdered individuals has the effect of garnering an emotion as close to empathy as possible. People including Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Kalief Browder, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sam DuBose, Freddie Gray, Jason Harrison, Laquan McDonald, Eric Harris and Philando Castile were among those mentioned in the documentary, along with clips of their murders.

Van Jones, founder of Dream Corps and one of the activists featured, explains the difference between what has changed and what hasnt: The difference now is somebody can hold up one of these [phones], get whats going on, they can put it on YouTube and the whole world has to deal with it. Thats whats new. Its not the protests, its not the brutality, its the fact that we can force a conversation about it.

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'13th' advocates humanization over criminalization The Daily Campus - UConn Daily Campus

Ignore President Donald J. Trump, whose latest tactic to mollify his base is to forbid the renaming of military installations that honor Confederate officials. Trump issued that defiant declaration after reports that top Pentagon brass were mulling a process for stripping the names of Confederate commanders.

The president and his reactionary constituency are losing this battle. Around the country, Confederate statues and insignia are being stripped from places of honor as business, political and cultural leaders belatedly recognize their odious symbolism.

As a black woman born and bred in the Deep South, I have spent decades pondering the stubborn staying power of the Lost Cause mythology, which transformed a treasonous war with a racist foundation into a virtuous rebellion against government oppression. That lie pervades history texts, cultural and political institutions, and public spaces -- not only in the 11 states of the Old Confederacy, but also throughout the nation, which has been force-fed falsehoods about the causes and controversies that led to war.

Now, finally, more than a century and a half after the Civil War ended, the symbols of the Lost Cause mythology are giving way. The protesters who have taken to the streets in the wake of the murder of George Floyd have not yet managed to curb the excesses of violent police officers or blunt the insidious racism that permeates the criminal justice system, but they have nonetheless accomplished something significant: The Confederacy and its flags and markers and monuments are falling as they march.

Consider this: NASCAR -- as explicit a representation of Southern good-ol'-boy culture as there is -- has now banned Confederate battle flags from its events. That's near-miraculous. If you've ever watched a NASCAR race on TV, you've seen scores of flags sporting the St. Andrew's cross-with-stars floating above the largely lily-white crowd. The Confederate battle flag is as much a symbol of NASCAR as drivers with names like Earnhardt and Petty.

The statues of Confederate hate-mongers are also tumbling, no matter how fervently their defenders cry, "Heritage, not hate!" Tell that to my ancestors, who were enslaved -- their children sold, their marriages violated, their backs scarred by the whip -- for that "heritage."

Oh, I've heard the lie that slavery was not the reason those 11 states seceded. The war was fought over tariffs, Confederate defenders say, or states' rights. States' rights to do what? Enslave black people, of course.

In March 1861, Alexander Stevens, vice president of the Confederacy, laid out the reasons for secession in his infamous Cornerstone Speech, in which he argued that the new Confederate constitution was based on ideals that were the opposite of Thomas Jefferson's founding principles.

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition," he said.

After the South was defeated -- its great plantations in ruin, its great men destitute, its cities scarred -- its white defenders sank into self-pity. So they set about creating a story that would make their racist war seem just, the deaths of their young men a noble sacrifice, their poverty another cruel blow by Yankee tyrants. Most Confederate monuments were built not in the ashes of defeat but in the late 19th century, decades after the Civil War and just as the white South was embarking on a hundred years of Jim Crow.

It's long past time that the saints of the Lost Cause lose their esteemed places at the entrances to courthouses, in carefully tended public parks, even in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. And it makes no sense that U.S. military installations would honor men who embarked on treason against their country.

There are still those who are deeply invested in keeping their version of history in place, enshrined in monuments that glorify Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Bell Hood, among others. As recently as 2017, the Republican leaders of my home state of Alabama joined other Southern legislatures in passing laws to prohibit the removal of Confederate monuments.

They are coming down anyway. The Lost Cause is losing.

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Tributes To Traitors Finally Fall - The National Memo

By Gina Medina June 13, 2020

Juana Garcia/The Cougar

Although the protests happening around the world seem to be a result of the tragic and unjust death of George Floyd, his death was simply the straw that broke the camels back.

America has been controlling the U.S. history narrative for more than 400 years; a show where white people act triumphant and hardworking in the front of the stage, while minorities do the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

Admittedly, hard work is not race exclusive and this is not to say white people have not worked hard; but the reality is that throughout most of history, they have taken credit for and greatly benefited from the labor of minorities in this nation, and black people continue to receive the raw end of a deal they never agreed to.

Ever since the birth of our nation, the principle of white supremacy has been at its core. From stealing land that was already occupied, to kidnapping people from their homes and forcing them into labor; white people have a history of benefiting from the oppression of others that dont look like them.

Our nation prospered because of our agricultural proficiency, and despite the great weather and fertile soil, the real reason why the colonies were able to become a respected nation is because of slave labor.

The first documentation of Europeans bringing Africans into the Americas was in 1619 when an English ship encountered a Portuguese slave ship and took between 50-60 captive African passengers. That English ship landed in what is now Hamptons, Virginia.

Slavery grew exponentially as colonists realized the benefits of exploiting the free and forced labor of Africans.

Eventually, the U.S. declared independence and claimed that every man was created equal and had certain unalienable rights; ironic that the men who called for liberty also held the principle of slavery so close to their hearts.

Developments in Englands textile industry increased the demand for American cotton, and with the invention of the cotton gin, the model of minority exploitation was nearly perfected.

Fast forward a little less than a hundred years of oppression and brutality, and the south begins to see slave rebellions accompanied by a growing Abolitionist Movement.

However, southerners began experiencing confirmation bias for how they viewed slaves; slave rebellions made racist southerners believe even more that Africans were a lesser, more barbaric race that needed to be controlled by force, instead of recognizing that the horrible conditions they experienced were the cause for their rebellions.

These confirmed beliefs turned into stricter laws and regulations for slaves, which further limited their voice in the narrative of U.S. history.

By denying education for slaves and silencing opposition, the south was able to solidify their racists beliefs as they no longer had to face a different view.

The Abolitionist Movement momentarily burst that bubble of supremacy as opposition to slavery became popular. The Civil War narrative, which to no surprise was controlled by white people, minimizes the central role freed men, women and runaway slaves had before and during the war.

Once the Emancipation Proclamation was signed and the 13th amendment was put into effect, black people continued to face violence and discrimination.

The 13th amendment outlawed slavery, unless as a punishment for a crime, which created the perfect loophole for maintaining black people and oppressing other minorities.

The government started to give harsher sentences to minorities while white people benefited from the free labor that came from the prison system.

If you want to learn more about how the U.S. deliberately set out to bring black people into slavery through the prison system, the Netflix documentary 13th is a great place to start, and you can watch it for free here.

Additionally, the Jim Crow laws that were passed allowed for oppression and segregation to be the norm in everyday life.

By making a clear distinction between colored and white people, as well as making black people hold a lower status than that of their white counterparts, the government was able to create tension among citizens.

When the U.S. officially called for schools to be integrated in 1954, de facto segregation persisted as some white communities in the U.S. had grown accustomed to their privileges and not interacting with people who did not look like them.

Despite the Civil Rights movement and the constant Black Lives Matter protests after cases of police brutality surface, very little has changed.

School districts around the U.S. continue to be segregated; in 2016, a school district in Mississippi finally settled a segregation case that started 50 years prior.

Physical boundaries between communities have further divided the nation. A clear example being UH; our campus is fenced-in by the railroad track that separates our campus from Third Ward, which is a predominantly black community.

Today we see peaceful protests turn into riots and acts of vandalism, because supposed allies of other races are shouting over black voices; these violent actions will most likely be blamed on peaceful black protesters.

There are people who are not black, who are trying to speak for the black community when they should really be listening.

It is time that we let black people speak and tell their narrative that has been silenced for so long. It is time for us to listen, educate ourselves and support in ways that are productive, not destructive.

Gina Medina is a journalism senior who can be reached at [emailprotected]

Tags: #blacklivesmatter, black history, BLM

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A one sided narrative and how we got to where we are now - The - The Daily Cougar

In Uttar Pradesh even during the epidemic corona virus infection, CM Yogi Adityanath's grip on criminals is being tightened. Among them, his action in the case of Dalit and women oppression, after Mayawati, the head of Bahujan Samaj Party, has been strongly praised by Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SPSB) President and former Cabinet Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar.

For your information, let us tell you that Mayawati, the head of Bahujan Samaj Party, has appreciated the action of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath government in the case of Dalit oppression in Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati said that even though it happened late, the action is correct. Mayawati has tweeted about this on Saturday. Along with this, he has also advised the state government. Mayawati, the leader of the highly active Bahujan Samaj Party on social media, said on Saturday that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath may have taken a late action, but it was correct to take action in the recent harassment case against the Dalit daughter in Azamgarh. That He came late, but he came well, that's a good thing. He said that if action should be taken immediately and on time in the case of sisters and daughters, then it will be much better.

In his statement, he said that whether in Uttar Pradesh, whether in Azamgarh, Kanpur or any other district, especially in the case of harassment of Dalit sister-daughter or any other caste and religion, there was a case of harassment with sister-daughter. Yes, whatever is condemned for it, it is less. Along with this, no matter who is the biggest leader of any religion, caste and party and any influential person, there should be immediate and strict legal action against them.

In Uttar Pradesh even during the epidemic corona virus infection, CM Yogi Adityanath's grip on criminals is being tightened. Among them, his action in the case of Dalit and women oppression, after Mayawati, the head of Bahujan Samaj Party, has been strongly praised by Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SPSB) President and former Cabinet Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar.

For your information, let us tell you that Mayawati, the head of Bahujan Samaj Party, has appreciated the action of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath government in the case of Dalit oppression in Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati said that even though it happened late, the action is correct. Mayawati has tweeted about this on Saturday. Along with this, he has also advised the state government. Mayawati, the leader of the highly active Bahujan Samaj Party on social media, said on Saturday that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath may have taken a late action, but it was correct to take action in the recent harassment case against the Dalit daughter in Azamgarh. That He came late, but he came well, that's a good thing. He said that if action should be taken immediately and on time in the case of sisters and daughters, then it will be much better.

In his statement, he said that whether in Uttar Pradesh, whether in Azamgarh, Kanpur or any other district, especially in the case of harassment of Dalit sister-daughter or any other caste and religion, there was a case of harassment with sister-daughter. Yes, whatever is condemned for it, it is less. Along with this, no matter who is the biggest leader of any religion, caste and party and any influential person, there should be immediate and strict legal action against them.

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Om Prakash Rajbhar speaks about the work of Yogi government - News Track English

Airstrikes in Syria displace thousands

BEIRUT -- Suspected Russian airstrikes pounded villages on the edge of the last rebel enclave in northwestern Syria, sending thousands of civilians fleeing, activists reported Tuesday.

The violence at the edge of Idlib province is the most serious breach of the cease-fire in place since early March, when an agreement between Turkey and Russia halted the Syrian government's three-month air and ground campaign into rebel-held Idlib.

The Syria Response Coordination Group, a team of aid workers, said the military escalation displaced more than 5,800 civilians in the past 24 hours from areas in southern Idlib and western Hama countryside. Many of the displaced had only recently returned to their villages after the cease-fire, the group said.

On Monday, insurgents opened a limited offensive against government-held positions, briefly seizing a couple of villages. Government troops, backed by Russian air support, responded, repelling the insurgents but also widening their area of operations, targeting 10 villages, said Mohamed Rasheed, a Syrian media activist documenting the offensive.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights recorded 15 airstrikes Tuesday, also saying they were believed to be Russian. The Observatory and other local networks said at least one civilian was killed in Kansafra village.

Meanwhile, Syrian state media outlets said government forces repelled an offensive by the insurgents, and that a soldier was killed.

Border labor lawyer arrested in Mexico

MEXICO CITY -- Border state authorities have arrested a crusading labor lawyer who led a wave of 2019 walkouts for higher wages at border assembly plants known as maquiladoras.

Detectives arrested Susana Prieto on Monday in the border city Matamoros on charges including inciting riot, threats and coercion. Prieto taped her own detention and posted it on social media, saying she had been expecting the arrest.

A volunteer collects turtle eggs Tuesday at a hatching center in Bali,Indonesia.About100newlyhatchedLekangturtleswere released during a campaign to save the endangered sea turtles. (AP/Firdia Lisnawati)

The state prosecutor's announcement of the arrest did not specify the incident that led to it.

Prieto claims that officials in the border states of Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, where she was arrested, are persecuting her because she affected the economic interests of maquiladora operators.

Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, was the city where Prieto led a wave of successful strikes in early 2019 at 48 export-oriented maquiladoras that won workers 20 percent pay increases and $1,650 bonuses.

Prieto also recently campaigned against policies at maquiladora plants in Ciudad Juarez that she claimed put workers at risk of catching the new coronavirus.

Sudanese war-crimes suspect in custody

BANGUI, Central African Republic -- Sudanese militia leader Ali Kushayb, who is charged with 50 crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Darfur conflict, has been arrested more than 13 years after a warrant was issued for him and transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, authorities said Tuesday.

Kushayb surrendered to authorities in a remote corner of northern Central African Republic, International Criminal Court spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said.

In the Darfur conflict, rebels from the territory's ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.

The government responded with a scorched-earth assault of aerial bombings and unleashed militias known as the janjaweed, who are accused of mass killings and rapes. As many as 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.

According to the court's arrest warrant, Kushayb is accused of commanding thousands of janjaweed militia in 2003-04 and acting as a go-between for the militia and the Sudanese government. The criminal court says he "personally participated in some of the attacks against civilians" and allegedly "enlisted fighters, armed, funded and provided food and other supplies to the janjaweed militia under his command."

Turkish soldiers sought in failed coup

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkish prosecutors issued warrants Tuesday for the detention of 191 suspects -- including 181 on-duty servicemen -- who are suspected of involvement in a scheme that allegedly recruited followers of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric blamed for a failed coup in 2016 into air force training schools, the state-run news agency reported.

The Anadolu Agency said the suspects are accused of cheating during air force schools' entrance examinations between 2004 and 2016 that favored candidates with links to cleric Fethullah Gulen. At least 145 of the suspects were detained in raids in western Izmir province and 22 other provinces.

The suspects include 173 sergeants, six lieutenants, two first lieutenants, eight former sergeants and two former cadets, Anadolu said.

Turkey is still chasing alleged members of Gulen's network, four years after the coup attempt.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, denies any involvement in the coup attempt, which left 250 people dead.

-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports

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The World in Brief - NWAOnline

As China prepares to take over Hong Kongeffectively ending the era of one country, two systemsother countries are struggling with how to respond.

One of the best responses has come from Great Britain. In acolumn for The Times, Prime Minister Boris Johnson proposed apath to British citizenship for nearly 3million Hong Kong residents. Johnson writes:

Many people in Hong Kong fear that their way of life which China pledged to uphold is under threat. If China proceeds to justify their fears, then Britain could not in good conscience shrug our shoulders and walk away; instead we will honor our obligations and provide an alternative.

The Washington Post reports that, Chinas Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Britain has no jurisdiction over Hong Kong. Britain must step back from the brink and stop interfering in Hong Kongs affairs and Chinas internal affairs.

While Boris Johnsons plan is light on details, it provides atemplate for other countries responses to Chinas increasingly authoritarian takeover of Hong Kong. The threat of losing millions of talented citizens could motivate the Chinese government to ease its grip. Other countries should follow Great Britains lead and provide asafe haven for individuals whose lives and liberties are under threat by the Chinese Communist Party.

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The United Kingdom Shows How to Combat China's Oppression of Hong Kong - Cato Institute

Dread Scott began his career at the center of national controversy with his installation What Is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag? (1989), which prompted visitors to step on an American flag laid on the ground. His work continues to spark national debate and legislation as the artist focuses on the prevalence of racist violence in US history. After the shooting of Walter Scott in 2015, the artist created the flag A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday (2015), taking inspiration from the NAACPs anti-lynching campaign during the Jim Crow Era. Last year, Scott staged a reenactment of the 1811 Slave Rebellion in New Orleans. Amid ongoing protests against racism and police brutality, images of Scotts work have been disseminated widely on social media. During the Covid-19 lockdown, he also created two social media projects that reflect on the viruss toll on the Black community. Scotts work is currently on view in the group exhibition Mourning: On Loss and Change at the Hamburger Kunsthalle through August 2. Below, Scott discusses the ways in which his work incorporates the broader scope of American history and current events to incite thoughtful action.

There are practical ways in which my work gets taken up by a movement. Images of A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday and Sign of the Times [2001] have been printed on T-shirts and shared on Twitter and Instagramand thats great. But, more importantly, my work connects Americas past to our present.

Suite, Malcolm [2020] was a decentralized social media performance that occurred during the pandemic lockdown, as Covid-19 was disproportionately affecting the Black community. I asked participants to make short videos performing part of Malcolm Xs speech The Ballot or the Bullet, in which he says, Im not a Republican, nor a Democrat, nor an American, and Ive got sense enough to know it. Im one of the 22 million Black victims of the Democrats, one of the 22 million victims of the Republicans, and one of the 22 million Black victims of Americanism.

It feels important to make work at a time when the system is increasingly showing that it does not care about peopleit crushes people. Black and Latinx workers were forced to work without personal protective equipment and to forgo social distancing measures so that others would be more comfortable during the lockdown. The Black Lives Matter movement is raising questions about these deep structural problems. When I made A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday, it forced the public to think deeply about the police as inheritors of lynch mob terror. I want people to investigate this decrepit, outmoded system in which we liveto think about it and act.

I made another piece on social media in response to Ahmaud Arberys death. I took images of myself running and sequenced them into a short video. The killing of Black people is not new in America. There are over forty-four hundred documented cases of racial violence and lynchings from 1865 to 1939. Many lynchings were photographed, and the images circulatednot just in newspapers, but as postcards that served as threats to Black people as well as mementos for white people. Now were seeing present-day videos that were made to serve the same purpose as a photograph of a hanging, but have instead sparked outrage.

Lynching images are also present in the work of artists Hale Woodruff, Isamu Noguchi, and Diego Rivera. Its important to look at these images. If you dont know that this is how the police routinely treat Black people, you need to look. You need to hear George Floyd, a man who was handcuffed after possibly passing a counterfeit $20 bill, lying face down with a cops knee pressed to his neck, asking for his dead mother and saying, I cant breathe, as his life drains from his body. Many Americans believed that this was no longer a place where Black people were bought, sold, and hung from trees. They were surprised to learn that Black life matters no more now than it did in 1820. What is fortunate about this moment is that many people have looked and are sickened.

My 1994 installation El Grito, with Joe Wippler, envisioned a rebellion leading to a revolutionan American civil war in the future. It was a fantastical piece that highlighted the fact that it took a war to end slavery. Slavery wasnt a moral question and it was not voted out. The South seceded from the North to expand enslavement. The North initially only cared about preserving the Union. But slavery didnt end with the Civil War or with the Civil Rights Movement. Under slavery, enslavers bought people. Under capitalism, they rent themand its going to take wars to end capitalism, another system that has enslaved and exploited the planet. What does it mean that thousands of people in the United Statesdisproportionately Black and poor peopleare dead because of the policies of this government? People need to question why they have an allegiance to this system that callously bails out wealthy corporations and refuses to provide essentials such as masks and goggles for hospital workers.

My recent project Slave Rebellion Reenactment [2019] looked at how enslaved people in 1811 tried to free themselves by overthrowing the system of enslavement and setting up an African republic on the ashes of New Orleanian society. The history of this radical vision has been suppressed. I decided to reenact it with 350 Black and Indigenous people. We marched in period costume with machetes, muskets, sickles, and sabers twenty-four miles on the outskirts of New Orleans at the locations where this rebellion took place two hundred years prior. We chanted: Freedom or death! Were going to end slavery. Join us! It was not so much about the horrors of slavery, as it was about liberatory potential: Africans and people of African descent, were agents of change, fighting to be free from this system of exploitation. These enslaved rebels had the most radical vision of freedom and democracy in the United Statesthis countrys founding fathers predicated their idea of freedom on owning people. The notion of we the people, as written in the US Constitution, did not include those who worked the fieldsand it could not. You cant tell the history of America without talking about enslavement, and you cant tell the story of enslavement without discussing slave rebellions. Thats what I wanted to understand, because it has everything to do with our present.

Days ago, it was very difficult to see a callous lynching, knowing that its part of a long history of brutality. I know some people have agonized about these uprisings, but theyre missing the point. These mass protests are among the most beautiful things Ive experienced in my entire fifty-five years. People across the countryand all over the worldare heroically standing up with tremendous passion and heart to this confusion of police violence, military force, media lies and slander, and threats posed by President Trump. Theres a lot of work to do and a lot of struggle to be had, but we need to celebrate and continue to fight with determination as we figure out how to build a world where all human beings can flourish. Lets make this count.

As told to Francesca Aton

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Dread Scott on Confronting Racial Oppression in America - ARTnews

By Jean Shaoul 9 June 2020

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come out openly in support of the US against China over Hong Kong. He announced that Britain will open its doors to any of the 2.9 million Hong Kong citizens eligible for a British National Overseas passport if China imposes its national security law.

Writing for the Murdoch press Times newspaper June 3, Johnson said that his offer, which would require a change in Britains immigration rules, would allow anyone holding or eligible to hold these passports to come to the UK for a renewable period of 12 months, be allowed to work or study and thus potentially be eligible for citizenship. He described his offerriddled with all sorts of loopholesas extending the hand of friendship to the people in Britains former colony.

He forgot to say that this former colony, seized from China, has never benefited from Britains friendship. It was wrested from China in 1841 during Britains first two-year-long opium war, served as Britains commercial gateway to the country and became a byword for colonial domination, oppression and social misery.

In 1997, after the expiry of its 99 year leasea term that denotes its feudal and exploitative relationship with the territorythe UK handed Hong Kong back to China under a 50-year form of semi-autonomy known as one country, two systems that perpetuated its citizens lack of democratic rights under British rule.

Johnsons offercoming from a man whose career has been built on fostering xenophobia and who made limiting immigration into Britain the centrepiece of his Brexit strategy, even increasing the visa fee for vital staff for a National Health Service which has more than 100,000 vacanciesis disgusting. It is a cynical and hypocritical public relations stunt aimed at demonstrating his craven support for US President Donald Trump, even though it means threatening the City of Londons profit base, the last prop of the British economy.

Johnson made this offer amid the Trump administrations escalating anti-China campaign. This has included blaming Beijing for the global COVID-19 pandemic and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeos declaration that the facts on the ground showed that Hong Kong no longer had a high degree of autonomy from China.

The US is preparing to impose a raft of economic and trade sanctions that would damage Hong Kongs position as a global financial hub, the third most important in the world, and its role as a springboard into mainland China due to its looser export controls and agreements on technology transfers, academic exchanges, taxation, currency exchange and sanctions. This economic assault on Hong Kong forms part of Washingtons broader efforts over the last 10 years to undermine Chinas economic and strategic position and prepare for a possible war.

Pompeos announcement came in response to Chinas declaration last month that its annual National Peoples Congress (NPC) would pass a new national security law covering subversion, terrorism and foreign influence in Hong Kong. The legislation, if enacted, would override Hong Kongs legislature, which had to abandon a similar law in 2003 in the face of mass demonstrations against its reactionary measures, led by pro-imperialist forces.

Trump upped the ante, saying in a bellicose speech that the US would respond very powerfully if the NPC passed the proposed legislation, while Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell confirmed that the State Department was discussing what punitive action to take.

Washingtons assault on Hong Kongs special economic status threatens to undermine Britains banking, financial services, fintech and commercial corporations, on whose speculative and parasitic activities the British economy has become ever more dependent and which are in turn heavily reliant on the Far East for the majority of their profits, not to say their viability.

More than 300 UK-based companies have regional headquarters or offices serving Hong Kongs domestic market and the region, while the UK is the prime destination for Chinese foreign investment, which in the last five years has equalled the total in the previous 30 years.

Last week, Britains largest bank HSBC, which had once threatened to move its headquarters to Hong Kong and generates the bulk of its profits in Asia, announced that first-quarter profits had nearly halved as it set aside $3 billion in bad loan provisions due to the coronavirus pandemic. This comes just two months after it announced that it would shed 35,000 jobs worldwide to cut costs.

Johnsons very public support for Washington has prompted a furious response from Chinas foreign ministry, which warned Britain to step back from the brink and abandon its cold war mentality. It said, Interfering in Hong Kongs affairs will definitely backfire. Both HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank have now distanced themselves from Johnson and declared their support for Chinas national security legislation for Hong Kong, thereby driving a wedge between the City and the government and intensifying its political crisis.

Johnsons Get Brexit Done game plan involved straddling two horses: seeking an ever-closer alignment with Washingtons economic and military agenda while at the same time pursuing bilateral trade deals with countries around the world, including China. He thought that a Global Britain approach would either compensate for the loss of trade with the European Union (EU), that accounts for nearly 50 percent of British exports, or enable him to force a trade deal with the EU on the strength of his alliance with Washington.

He had therefore been reluctant initially to alienate China and join the Trump administrations economic war. However, Washington made it clear abstentionism was unacceptable.

Johnson then came under heavy pressure from right-wing forces in both the Conservative and Labour parties opposed to Chinas growing economic power.

The Henry Jackson Society, a British foreign policy think tank closely aligned with neo-conservatives in the US, argued in a recent report, endorsed by former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove, that the Five Eyes countries (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK) should reduce their dependence on China for strategic goods that service critical national infrastructure. It called for Huawei, the Chinese telecoms manufacturer, to be designated as a high-risk vendor and barred from playing any part in the development of Britains 5G network.

Johnson has been forced to review the decisionmade in Januaryto allow Huawei equipment a limited role in the project. A similar controversy has erupted over the plan to build the Sizewell C nuclear plant with China Nuclear Energy (CGN). Sizewell is the second of three nuclear plants that the Chinese government agreed to build in the UK under a 2015 deal signed with the Cameron government.

Pro-imperialist NGO Hong Kong Watchs chief executive Johnny Patterson described Britains response as limp, inane and could have been copied and pasted directly from their previous statements and called for the government to coordinate a joint response of like-minded countries to Chinas move.

Adding to the pressure on Johnson, seven former foreign secretaries, both Labour and Conservative, appealed to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab for Britain to be more assertive over Hong Kong. Concerned that the response to China should not be left to Trump, and unwilling for Britain to sever its ties with the European powers from whom it is becoming increasingly isolated, they appealed to him to coordinate a European response to China.

While Trump has proposed a meeting in September of the G7 nations plus Australia, Korea, India and Russia, the European Union is at odds with the Trump administration over its handling of the conflict with China, which it views as contrary to its commercial and geostrategic interests. At an EU meeting last week, only Sweden supported Washingtons proposed sanctions.

In throwing in his lot with Washington, however reluctantly, over sanctions against Hong Kong and China, Johnson has intensified his governments political crisis and isolation. His delusional fantasy of Global Britain has been exposed as a chimera. It has proved impossible for Britain to pursue its own international commercial interests without jeopardising its strategic relationship with the US, the worlds dominant military power that has, since the end of World War II, enabled London to punch above its weight on the world arena.

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Johnson government falls in behind Washington's economic war with China - World Socialist Web Site

The plight of a minority one of the most crucial issues to understand today. The difficulties they face and the lack of opportunity they have are prevalent. While many are making strides in improving the lives of minorities, the crux of the problem remains unsolved.

Today, I write not simply as a minority group member myself, but as a citizen of the United States to all law enforcement and to my fellow citizens. The key in a situation as dire as ours is to listen to one another with an open mind and heart. So, before you read this article, I request us all to take a few minutes and attempt to be mindful of our actions, as they will inevitably impact our world as we know it and its future.

Our history is filled with events of oppression and injustice toward minority groups. The origin of the United States was itself a heroic act against oppression by the government. The Civil War divided the North and South due to an egregious injustice: slavery. History is filled with narratives of misconduct against smaller groups of people: the Jim Crow laws, the Japanese internment camps, etc. It continues in recent history, involving police brutality.

On May 25, George Floyd, an African American male, was murdered in Minneapolis by a Caucasian policeman, Derek Chauvin. Ex-officer Chauvin handcuffed and restrained Mr. Floyd before needlessly kneeling on his neck for nine minutes. Three other cops stood by watching while Mr. Floyd gasped for air, calling out for his mother, repeating the haunting words, I cant breathe. Granted, these four officers were fired from Minneapolis PD. Americans cried out for the arrest of these four men for the death and for an obvious misuse of the uniform. Due to the delay in the criminal justice system, peaceful protests were organized in Minneapolis and other cities in the U.S. This horrifying event has shattered the faith of the American people in the government. Inaction on the part of the U.S. government system has escalated the situation otherwise peaceful citizens are now protesting violently to be heard, demanding justice.

Millions of people all around the world have seen this unbelievably xenophobic video where former officer Chauvin is kneeling on the neck of a clearly restrained and unarmed Floyd. Articles are flowing through daily about the countless names of people who have dealt with police brutality, often resulting in their deaths. The situation makes me angrier than ever, and it saddens me; but worse, it puts a deep fear in my heart. Mr. Floyd couldve been my friend, my brother, my father, or he couldve been me. I am disappointed, and as an otherwise proud American citizen, I feel ashamed knowing that my countrys justice system isnt choosing to uphold its core values the same way for all lives. The American democracy, a harbor for people around the world and a beacon of hope, one that is supposed to protect all of its citizens the same, is allowing key elements to abuse their powers to hurt.

My faith in people of the United States has been rejuvenated as I see people bringing awareness through social media and peaceful protests: Black Lives Matter. This is the opportunity for minorities to show the world of the inherent racism rooted within the so-called justice system. It is time to bring a change and make sure that the deaths of George Floyd, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and several others were not in vain. However, some violent protests have unknowingly changed the narrative. During what was a peaceful protest, people started to hurl projectiles at the police in precincts and in the Atlanta CNN center. Because innocents have now been hurt, the violent protests are unfortunately sending the message that we are no better than the police officers who we are condemning.

As it is morally incorrect to generalize any group of people, it is equally wrong to stereotype and retaliate against all police force. Instead of focusing on the dysfunctional and unjust justice system in the United States, the violence has unwittingly made the story about the people causing unrest in the streets of several cities in our nation. Instead of accomplishing a feat beneficial for all individuals in the United States, the violent protests have made the story about people throwing rocks at innocent police officers and breaking windows of minority-owned businesses. While I wholeheartedly agree with the cause to protest against differential treatment, by resorting to violence, we will have squandered the opportunity to accomplish justice for all.

Had Derek Chauvin and the others before asked themselves this one basic question, perhaps our status quo wouldnt be so grim. That is the question we each need to ask ourselves also: Is this the right thing to do?

Our great leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks and the Dalai Lama, all have proven one basic tenet: nonviolent protest is powerful. Studies have demonstrated that nonviolent protest doubles the efficacy of the cause in comparison to violent protest and rioting. I urge protesters and social reformers to choose not to engage violently, and to instead honor the memory of George Floyd with peace.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, Riots are the voice of the unheard. People who are using his initial statement out of context are using it to justify the violent protests. MLK had since then clarified this statement by saying, Riots are self-defeating and socially destructive. Let us carry on his legacy of nonviolence as a joint task force and send our message by means of nonviolent protest. We would be building towards his famous dream and fortifying the core of the Black Lives Matter movement.

This could be the great moment in our lives, when we each choose to be catalysts for positivity and equality in the system. Lets stop the focus from shifting to the rocks being thrown at windows, and instead, bring awareness for the BLM movement by throwing the rock of nonviolent protest at the U.S. government. Lets choose to honor George Floyds last breath and his memory, push the justice system to correct itself and make peaceful efforts to demand equality for all. It is time to take our rightful place in the history of revolutionary change. Together, we can do it.

Vivek K. Gupta is a former Stockdale Mustang and is currently studying at Amity University in New Delhi, India.

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COMMUNITY VOICES: Is this the right thing to do? - The Bakersfield Californian