Category Archives: Black Lives Matter

In the letter E of the street mural in front of Palo Alto City Hall, Oakland artist Cece Carpio painted the likeness of Assata Shakur, a convicted cop killer from New Jersey who escaped from prison and is believed to be in Cuba. Post photo.

This story was originally printed by the Daily Post on Thursday. To get all of the local news first, pick up the Post in the mornings at 1,000 Mid-Peninsula locations.

BY EMILY MIBACHDaily Post Staff Writer

A Santa Clara County judge issued a tentative ruling yesterday (March 2) in favor of the city of Palo Alto in a lawsuit filed by six of its police officers, who claim that a Black Lives Matter mural in front of City Hall was racist and offensive.

Judge Socrates Manoukian posted a ruling yesterday siding with the citys request to throw out the lawsuit. The ruling isnt final. The judge will hear from both sides one more time and could reverse himself.

Six officers sued the city saying they were harassed and discriminated against by the city, which commissioned a Black Lives Matter mural that depicted Assata Shakur. Shakur is a civil rights activist turned fugitive after she was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973.

The mural was painted on Hamilton Avenue just a month after demonstrations swept the country in response to the death of George Floyd in 2020. The lawsuit complained that a portion of the mural included part of the logo for the New Black Panthers, which has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.

Matthew McNicholas, a lawyer for the six officers, wrote in a Feb. 17 filing that the city sponsored hate speech, and it seriously affected the officers psychological wellbeing.

Was it a hostile work environment?

McNicholas argued that the mural created a hostile work environment.

But Judge Manoukian said that in order to come down on the side of the officers, they must show that the city took some sort of action against the officers, like demoting them. Simply annoying them doesnt count.

Manoukian then cited McRae v. Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, a 2006 state case, in which the court said workplaces are rarely idyllic retreats, and the mere fact that an employee is displeased by an employers act or omission does not elevate that.

The mural, Manoukian, doesnt reach the threshold of creating a hostile workplace.

The officers also argued that the mural was an attack on their race, ethnicity or national origin.

Plaintiffs are racially diverse

The officers initially claim in their lawsuit that they are protected based on race, ethnicity, and/or national origin. But, Judge Manoukian points out that officers Michael Foley, Chris Moore and Julie Tannock are Caucasian. Eric Figueroa is Filipino and Caucasian. David Ferreira is Caucasian and Pacific Islander/ Asian and Robert Parham is Hispanic.

Since the officers are not all one race or ethnicity, Manoukian agreed with the citys argument that the only thing common to all the plaintiffs if that they are all police officers, but being a police officer is not a protected class.

Manoukian said that if the officers had pointed out in their lawsuit that the New Black Panthers are a hate group targeting all non-African Americans, then he may have been included to agree that at least a portion of the mural was offensive.

However, the officers made that claim in their objection to the citys request to throw out the lawsuit, not their lawsuit.

There is nothing to suggest that the mural and its iconography was created in favor of one (protected) group over another, Manoukian wrote.

The judge goes on to state that the citys refusal to remove the mural was not based on plaintiffs race, ethnicity or some other protected classification.

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Judge tentatively rules against police in lawsuit over Black Lives... - The Daily Post

Less than a fifth of Black, Asian and minority ethnic people in Britain think Boris Johnson has kept his promise to address racism made at the height of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in the UK, according to a new survey.

The State of Hate 2022 report from Hope Not Hate (HNH) also found more than half of ethnic minority Britons (52 per cent) said they have experienced or witnessed racial abuse in the past 12 months alone.

The survey is based on a sample of 1,082 ethnic minority adults in the UK between 17 December 2021 and 4 January 2022.

Meanwhile, the HNH poll found two in four people (43 per cent) experienced or witnessed racial discrimination in the workplace in the last year, while just under half had experienced racial discrimination from a public institution.

This contradicts the findings of the government-approved Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities (CRED), which produced a widely-contested report last year concluding that Britain does not have a problem with systemic racism.

Back in 2020, Mr Johnson addressed racism felt by Black and minority ethnic people in the UK at the height of the BLM protests, sparked by the murder of George Floyd, a Black man in the US who was killed by serving white police officer Derek Chauvin.

The injustice sparked international demonstrations, with many people taking the streets in solidarity with Mr Floyds family, fuelled by a sense of outrage at systemic racism around the world.

Speaking in June 2020 in a video shared online, Mr Johnson promised to address racism and said people who lead and govern cannot ignore the feeling from people in Black and minority ethnic groups that they do face discrimination.

He added: You are right, we are all right, to say Black Lives Matter; and to all those who have chosen to protest peacefully and who have insisted on social distancing I say, yes of course I hear you, and I understand.

After it emerged just 17 per cent of people surveyed in the HNP report believe Mr Johnson has addressed racism since June 2020, senior policy officer Rosie Carter said: It is clear that when communities are listened to, the premise in the Commissions report that the UK should be seen as an international exemplar of racial equality, and that issues of race and racism are becoming less important in explaining social disparities, is even more of an insult to those who experience racism.

The anti-racism organisations report also found that politics is deemed to be more divisive than ever.

It found that far right terrorism convictions have increased by 50 per cent since 2020, while more than two-thirds of the British public think the UK is going in the wrong direction.

A mixture of political distrust, the pandemic, growth in conspiracy beliefs and the cost of living crisis has created fertile ground for the growth of right-wing ideas and its increasing influence on more mainstream political and media narratives, it said.

Nick Lowles, CEO of HNH, said: After years in the political wilderness, the crises weve collectively faced over the past two years have emboldened cynical far right activists to exploit our fears and uncertainties and return to traditional methods of campaigning.

In 2021, we saw far right activists marching on our streets, leafleting, and now they are preparing to stand in local elections. What were looking at is a country that has moved on from Brexit, which marginalised the British far right, and the fallout from an erosion of political trust.

The threat is real - the far right is stirring again, but there is still hope. While they have more opportunities to exploit discontent than for many years, we can still prevent them from succeeding.

The rest is here:

Just one in five think PM kept promise during BLM protests to address racism - The Independent

Throughout Black History month in February, Black Lives Matter signs went up in some schools while the same signs in other schools were being torn down in others.

National, state and local-level battles over Critical Race Theory, which erupted at the same time parents were getting charged up about mask-wearing and other pandemic protocols in schools, have energized conservatives and played a role in school board races and school governance. But as pandemic restrictions relax, its unclear how much diversity training and Black Lives Matter signs will remain an energizing force in the next round of school board races in April.

Meanwhile, school districts continue to take a variety of different approaches to teaching about diversity, even as Republicans in the Legislature have pushed legislation to ban both the teaching of critical race theory and anti-racism and anti-sexism staff training for employees of school districts and independent charter schools.

Black Lives Matter at School is a national coalition organizing for racial justice organized by the National Education Association (NEA). School districts around the country participated in the National Black Lives Matter Week of Action this year, Jan. 31 Feb. 4. Milwaukee Public Schools was the only Wisconsin school system to officially participate this year although other school districts may have pulled elements from the BLM at School website.

In Milwaukee, on Monday, Jan. 31, the week kicked off with a presentation by Decoteau Irby, Ph.D., associate professor of educational policy studies at the University of Illinois Chicago and author of Stuck Improving: Racial Equity and School Leadership where he outlines how schools can move from being stuck in failure to embrace an improvement process.

Milwaukee school superintendent Keith Posley found many aspects of the action week powerful.

He observed how intensely high school students absorbed the movie, John Lewis: Good Trouble.

An intergenerational panel discussion was important, he said, because so many young people spend so little time with elders in the community, hearing what it was like growing up Black in years past.

NEA Demands: Justice For Black Lives states NEA EdJustice, the sponsor of Black Lives Matter at School. It makes four demands under the following headings:

At its national website, Black Lives Matter at School makes no apology for its goals: [to] mobilize activists in the fight for racial, social and economic justice in public education and offer resources and tools for activism.

Lawmakers in at least 27 states are attempting to pass legislation that would require teachers to lie to students about the role of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and oppression throughout U.S. history, the NEA EdJustice website states. In response, educators across the United States are signing a pledge to teach truth.

An opponent of this approach, Conor Friederdorf, writes in a March 14, 2021 article in The Atlantic headlined What Happens When a Slogan Becomes the Curriculum that BLM at School has moved from giving information about Americas history of racism to pure indoctrination.

And educators should not be neutral as to the question Should my students be taught what to think, or how to think? Schools should do the latter. They should promote truth seeking and diversity of thought, writes Friederdorf.

But supporters of BLM at School contend that students are already being indoctrinated on the other side to accept or at least tolerate elements of racism or deny that systemic racism exists in our society. There are not always two sides to every conflict, they say Sometimes one side is right; the other side is wrong.

In February 2018, in Oconomowoc, the high school principal and one school board member resigned after the high school was told to curtail any discussion of white privilege. In August 2021, three more Oconomowoc school board members resigned stating that conflicts with other board members and an interim superintendent made continuing on the board counterproductive.

CRT isnt here? Are you sure about that? Its in Oconomowoc, its in Beloit, its in Elmbrook, school board candidate Alexandra Schweitzer wrote on her campaign Facebook page. Its everywhere. Parents need to rise up and get this vile hate out of OUR schools! We need to remind the school boards that these are OUR kids. And the board serves US! We, the People [do]NOT give consent for this garbage to be indoctrinated into our kids minds!

Schweitzer lost her election but got more votes than incumbent Juliet Steitzer who also lost her seat on the board. Steitzer was one of three board members who faced a recall effort in September 2020, but the recall petition failed to garner enough signatures. The main issue highlighted in the recall effort was not critical race theory or white privilege but in-person learning versus virtual and hybrid.

The mixing of racial issues and pandemic protocols in school board elections makes it difficult to measure to what degree diversity is in the forefront of voters minds. In the Mequon-Thiensville school board recall election, it became clear that a core group had enough passionate voters to sign the petition for a recall, but failed miserably with voters in the November 2021 recall election. During that election, issues of diversity were overshadowed by issues concerning the pandemic.

As mask wearing and in-person instruction become less of an issue, it is unclear whether cultural conflicts will remain strong enough to propel conservatives to victory in the April school board races.

Not every school district outside of urban areas faces intense conflict over diversity education.

A March 22, 2021, article in the student newspaper of Wauwatosa, The Tosa Compass, asks the question in a headline: Does the Wauwatosa School Districts curriculum reflect its contemporary and diverse student body?

Student journalist Evelyn Skyberg Geer gives a mixed answer. It is true that Tosa schools recently instituted an optional Black literature class at both high schools but there is much more they could do.

Geer quotes the principal of Tosa West, Ebony Grice: I like the idea of equity focused courses. I think those are important There are so many groups who need to be highlighted who are underrepresented and undervalued.

Grice acknowledges that there will be pushback, telling Greer, The world is more comfortable with leaving things the way they are.

Geer asks, Is the district listening?

The Tosa Compass has also covered Wauwatosas new superintendent, Demond Means, who is hardly new to southeastern Wisconsin.

From 2008 to 2017, Means was superintendent in Mequon Thiensville during a calmer period. As a Black superintendent who was open to charters and vouchers, he was seen by many Republicans as an alternative to the leadership in Milwaukee Public Schools. Perhaps, some suggested, he should be superintendent of MPS.

In Nov. 2015, he was chosen by Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele to head the Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program created by state Republicans to take over and privatize low-performing public schools in MPS. In 2016 MPS improved its standing on state report cards and DPI announced it no longer had to participate in the program, which was never implemented.

Means got his chance to manage a larger, more racially diverse school district in 2017 with his appointment to the Clark County district in Athens, Georgia. He lasted just a little over two years, until the school board bought out his contract.

He was brought into Clark to address the racial disparities in the district, but quickly became embroiled in the communitys politics. He was accused of being autocratic and hiring people he knew from Milwaukee. A local publication, flagpole: the colorbearer of Athens, Georgia, reported The African-American head of the Georgia Federation of Teachers accused Means of using racial tactics to divide the community with the goal of turning failing schools over to for-profit companies.

Some school board members gave Means high marks for progress in minority student achievement, but the gains were not across the board, and the pandemic made it difficult to determine how successful Means reforms would be in the long term.

Means did not respond to the Examiners request for an interview about how the district is interacting with the community on diversity, what he learned from his experience in Georgia and what insight he has. The question is how a superintendent can effectively drive educational reform especially around issues like equity and diversity.

Its mostly community makeup, that drives change, says Posley. A superintendent that has been around does have a little moxie They may have been [a community members] childs teacher; [that community member] may have gone to school with the superintendent.

Outsiders parachuting in with a reform agenda face challenges. Eric Gallien understands the limitations of that approach. Gallien became superintendent in Racine in 2018 after serving in the Milwaukee school administration.

The Racine districts makeup is complex, with a diverse central area and mostly white, middle-class communities that are not part of the city of Racine. Some parents use open enrollment to leave the district.

Politically, much of the Racine district is represented by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, and Racine was the second city in Wisconsin, after Milwaukee, to be opened up to private school vouchers.

During the worst of the pandemic, Racine school board meetings became contentious as teachers demanded that schools go virtual while many parents pushed to keep schools open as much as possible.

Diversity conflicts have been minimal at the board level, says Gallien. We have been very strategic in avoiding the political debates. The district has used a softer approach offering teachers various options for training in diversity. Teachers have to learn to meet the needs of their students no matter where they are.

During Black History Month, it was up to each Racine school to determine its activities, not the central administration. One high school had the Black student union host a forum with community members. Other schools had performances based on events in Black history. Other schools held celebrations and potlucks.

What factors make diversity work and de-escalate conflict? Is it the composition of the community or how the board and administration has handled a situation? I think it is a combination of both, reflects Gallien.

Reducing conflicts does not mean Gallien sweeps everything under the table. The Racine district does have an equity office; it tackles problems with less fanfare than in some other districts.

In Waukesha schools, taking down diversity signs and telling everyone not to talk about controversial topics did not eliminate those conflicts.

Posley believes we cant ignore conflicts in hopes that they will just go away. The more we introduce and communicate, and work together, the better this is going to become We have to teach the truth tell the real story of our history. For Posely, it also means that people have to be willing to open up and share what is in their hearts when the staff comes together in diversity workshops. One of the big things for us is the courageous conversations about race. It is mandatory for all of our staff. I am finding that people are approaching conversations more now and talking about stuff and really having dialogue. In the past people just kept it to themselves and didnt say anything But now, they get to put those views on the table and share those kinds of things.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly reported that Eric Gallien was formerly schools superintendent in Beloit. We regret the error.

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Bridging the diversity divide in schools - Wisconsin Examiner

UPLIFT Concert Focuses on Black Futures Month, Hosted by BLM at the Miracle Theater in Inglewood

(courtesy of UPLIFT)

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLM) hosted the second installment of their two-part concert series in Inglewood, on Thursday, March 3. Jimetta Rose and the Voices of Creation took to the stage, while pierre bennu debuted exclusive short films at The Miracle Theater in Inglewood, California.

Damon Turners cultural organization, Trap Heals, worked in collaboration with BLM to usher in a free local event, the UPLIFT concert was in honor of Black Futures Month.

Part one of the concert was deemed a success. Last Thursday, over 150 people attended the show to commemorate Black Futures Month. The experience provided a space to honor the progress of the Black community and look towards an exciting journey past the separation caused by COVID-19.

Co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of BLM, Dr. Melina Abdullah stated, Providing our community a space to celebrate and uplift Black joy and creativity is an essential part of ending white supremacy, which attempts to relegate us to a dehumanized existence.

(courtesy of UPLIFT)

Abdullah continued, We are building Black futures that enable us to live as our freest and most divine selves. After surviving a pandemic and enduring continued and increasing state violence and economic oppression, our people deserve an inspiring and healing experience. That is what UPLIFT provides for Black Angelenos.

Visual Artist pierre bennu stated, BLMs work on a global stage is transformative to our era. My work seeks to liberate the viewer on an interior level. Having them coexist during this years Black Futures Month celebration has definitely been transformative to me as an artist and I hope that it can be transformative to the viewers who we reach.

(courtesy of UPLIFT)

Performing sensation Jimetta Rose shared her thoughts on the event, by stating, The songs we perform are intended to be new prayers and mantras for the changing world. We sing these songs to heal ourselves and others and to remember that togetherness is not a thing of the past and that love is not taboo. We are using our voices and our powerful focused intention to build the future we want to see coming into view.

The following is the list of songs Jimetta Rose & The Voices of Creation performed:

The Key to this event is to bring awareness, to the opportunities that will be available in the future of the Black community. It was created to inspire the collective community and surround the neighborhood with a much-needed healing experience.

Read the rest here:

UPLIFT Concert Focuses on Black Futures Month, Hosted by BLM at the Miracle Theater in Inglewood - Lasentinel

The global color line endures, well into the 21stcentury, and white supremacy remains a global political and social project.

This is true both in times of war and peace. But it is during times of war and other disruption that these divides of race and other forms of social inequality are laid bare in the extreme.

War is a crucible for society; it reveals the deep character of a nation and people, the good and the bad, those attributes and traits more easily concealed during other more normal times.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has focused the world's attention. Reports suggest that at least 1,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine, and millions displaced. Immense damage, into the billions of dollars, have been done to the country and its infrastructure.

RELATED:Ukraine and the dark lessons of war: What does it mean to "take" a country or a city?

To this point, the Ukrainian military is performing better against the Russian assault than most observers expected. The Russian military has yet to capture Ukraine's major cities, and has reportedly suffered heavy casualties.

In terms of conventional warfare, Russia will almost certainly prevail but it may, in the end, be defeated by what national security experts predict could be a 10- or 20-year insurgency and resistance campaign. Russia appears to lack either the will or the military power to occupy and pacify the entire country of Ukraine for an extended period.

Ultimately, the Ukraine war is a security crisis in the heart of Eurasia, whose consequences will impact that region, and the entire world, for many years to come.

The global color line intersects all these events and possible outcomes. Questions of identity and national belonging are central to the Ukraine crisis.

Reflecting that dynamic, much of the coverage of the war in Ukraine by the mainstream news media is advancing a narrative which implies that the lives of white people (especially when they are Christian and European) are more important than those of nonwhite people and Muslims.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

In his new essay recentlypublished at Salon, Chris Hedges summarizes this:

Rulers divide the world into worthy and unworthy victims, those we are allowed to pity, such as Ukrainians enduring the hell of modern warfare, and those whose suffering is minimized, dismissed or ignored.

It is not that worthy victims do not suffer, nor that they are not deserving of our support and compassion, it is that worthy victims alone are rendered human, people like us, and unworthy victims are not. It helps, of course, when, as in Ukraine, they are white.

In a recent essay for MintPress News headlined "It's Different, They're White," Alan MacLeod explains:

For many, this disparity is simply about racism. "Ukraine is not the worst act of war since World War II. It's not even the worst war going on right now," wrote Sri Lanka-based journalist Indi Samarajiva, referring to Syria and Yemen; "It's just the worst to happen to white people."

Certainly, there has been a shocking amount of casually racist commentary on corporate media. "This isn't a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European city where you wouldn't expect that or hope that it's going to happen," said CBS News foreign correspondent Charlie D'Agata from Kiev.

Al-Jazeera English presenter Peter Dobbie made similarly Orientalist remarks, expressing his concern for wealthy Ukrainian refugees fleeing, while also demonstrating his contempt for poor non-white people in the same circumstances, stating:

"What is compelling is that just looking at them, the way they're dressed. These are prosperous, middle-class people, these are not obviously refugees trying to get away from areas in the Middle East that are still in a big state of war. These are not people trying to get away from areas in North Africa; they look like any European family that you would live next door to."

Others made similar remarks. "It's very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed," said Ukraine's former Deputy Chief Prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze, while talking to the BBC, which did not challenge him on the statement. "The unthinkable has happened This is not a developing, third-world nation; this is Europe!" exclaimed ITV News reporter Lucy Watson in a tearful explanation as to why we need to help the refugees. "They seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking," wrote former Member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan in The Daily Telegraph. "War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations. It can happen to anyone," he added.

D'Agata later apologized for his comments. Frankly, why should he? He was simply sharing his deeply held beliefs common to many white people in the West about the comparative value of Black and brown people's lives.

MSNBC host Joy Reid also addressed the way questions of race are influencing news coverage in the American and European media:

As the world watches the devastation unfold in Ukraine, nearly 4,000 miles away, another crisis is deepening that we don't hear much about in the U.S., and that is the war in Yemen.

The coverage of Ukraine has revealed a pretty radical disparity in how human Ukrainians look and feel to Western media compared to their browner and Blacker counterparts, with some reporters using very telling comparisons in their analyses of the war

Let's face it, the world is paying attention because this is happening in Europe. If this was happening anywhere else, would we see the same outpouring of support and compassion?....

We don't need to ask ourselves if the international response would be the same if Russia unleashed their horror on a country that wasn't white and largely Christian, because Russia has already done it. In Syria,

This is a teachable moment for us in the media. We aren't afraid to call out our own industry. There is a lot of soul-searching that we need to do in Western media about why some wars and lives seem to matter more than others.

On the ground, race and the color line are a matter of life and death in Ukraine.It has been reported that Black African immigrants in Ukraine (including students) are not being given the same priority as white Ukrainians for evacuation and permission to enter neighboring countries such as Poland.

Race as a modern concept was an invention of roughly the 15th century, at the outset of the European global project of colonialism and imperialism, which included the Transalantic Slave Trade and acts of genocide against Black, brown and indigenous peoples around the world. Biologically, the concept of race is meaningless: All human beings are 99.9% the same genetically. But race is real because it is a social fact, one that has shaped entire societies for centuries.

For example, in practice this means that race is made real (and can be unmade) by societies and individuals. Therewere no "white" people in Europe prior to the invention of the race concept. Other identities of religion, class, region, language, clan, birth, "people," "country" and "nation" were primary.

For most of its existence what is now known as Europe has not been united by a common identity. For centuries that continent and region featured savage warfare and other conflict between people we would now consider "white," even without considering the obvious examples of the two world wars in the 20th century.

Despite the racist fantasies that Europe was once a "pure" and exclusively "white" civilization that was somehow homogeneous, actual history tells a different story. Mongols, Arabs, Africans, Turks and other "non-white" people(s) have played influential roles in the history of Europe from antiquity to the present. This is especially true in the vast landmass of contemporary Russia, much of which is actually in Asia.

RELATED:Trumpism is rooted in twisted visions of medieval Europe

One reason why race endures as a category of power and societal meaning is because it shifts and changes over time in response to the political and social questions of the moment. Russians and other Eastern European or Slavic peoples were not viewed as entirely or decisively "white" by American and European elites until well into the 20th century. (The same can also be said of many people from southern Europe, including Italians and Greeks.) For example, Hitler and the Nazis clearly viewed Slavic peoples as inferior, as compared to Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, Teutonic and other "prime" European "stock."

The centuries-old racial logic that places white Europeans at the top and all other so-called races in descending order of "civilization," "intelligence," "beauty" and overall desirability with Black people on the lowest level still holds influence in contemporary Western and global society. Much of this racist pseudoscience is based on the concept of the "Great Chain of Being," which posited that God was at the top of the natural order, closely followed by white Europeans and then descending downward to "the negro," apes and gorillas.

Associologist Lisa Wade wrote in 2012:

The theorization of the great chain of being was not just for "science" or "fun." It was a central tool in justifying efforts to colonize, enslave, and even exterminate people. If it could be established that certain kinds of people were indeed less than, even less than human, then it was acceptable to treat them as such.

This is a "generalizable tactic of oppression," by the way. During the period of intense anti-Irish sentiment in the U.S. and Britain, the Irish were routinely compared to apes as well.

Madison Grant, a "race scientist" of the late 19th and early 20th century, made this influential pronouncement in his book "The Passing of the Great Race":

The United States of America must be regarded racially as a European colony, and owing to current ignorance of the physical bases of race, one often hears the statement made that native Americans of Colonial ancestry are of mixed ethnic origin. This is not true. At the time of the Revolutionary War the settlers in the thirteen Colonies were not only purely Nordic, but also purely Teutonic, a very large majority being Anglo-Saxon in the most limited meaning of that term. The New England settlers in particular came from those counties of England where the blood was almost purely Saxon, Anglian, and Dane.

The prosperity that followed the war attracted hordes of newcomers who were welcomed by the native Americans to operate factories, build railroads, and fill up the waste spaces "developing the country" it was called.

These new immigrants were no longer exclusively members of the Nordic race as were the earlier ones who came of their own impulse to improve their social conditions. The transportation lines advertised America as a land flowing with milk and honey, and the European governments took the opportunity to unload upon careless, wealthy, and hospitable America the sweepings of their jails and asylums. The result was that the new immigration, while it still included many strong elements from the north of Europe, contained a large and increasing number of the weak, the broken, and the mentally crippled of all races drawn from the lowest stratum of the Mediterranean basin and the Balkans, together with hordes of the wretched, submerged populations of the Polish Ghettos.

As to what the future mixture will be it is evident that in large sections of the country the native American will entirely disappear. He will not intermarry with inferior races, and he cannot compete in the sweat shop and in the street trench with the newcomers. Large cities from the days of Rome, Alexandria, and Byzantium have always been gathering points of diverse races, but New York is becoming a cloaca gentium which will produce many amazing racial hybrids and some ethnic horrors that will be beyond the powers of future anthropologists to unravel.

In a widely-discussed 2009 essay for the New York Times, Brent Staples explored the relationship between white supremacy and the dehumanization of Black people in American society:

Hitler found quite a bit to admire about this country during its apartheid period. Writing in the early 1930s, he attributed white domination of North America to the fact that the "Germanic" peoples here had resisted intermarriage with and held themselves apart from "inferior" peoples, including the Negroes, whom he described as "half-apes."

He was not alone in these sentiments. The effort to dehumanize Black people by characterizing them as apes is central to our national history. Thomas Jefferson made the connection in his notorious book "Notes on the State of Virginia," in which he asserted fantastically that male orangutans were sexually drawn to Negro women.

By defining Negroes not as human beings but as beasts, the nation rationalized subjugation and cruelty and justified laws that stripped them of basic human rights. The case for segregation itself rested heavily on the assertion that animal origins made Negroes feebleminded, smelly and intolerably offensive to white sensibilities.

From before the founding through to the present, America remains a society structured by race and racial inequality. Social scientists and other experts have repeatedly shown that Black and brown people's life opportunities are disadvantaged across almost every area of American society, when compared to white people as a group.

In all, the assumption that white people's lives are more valuable to society is like a kind of cultural oxygen. To challenge it with the assertion that "Black lives matter" is to invoke a rage and backlash so extreme that tens of millions of white Americans are willing to destroy their own democracy and society in a racist temper tantrum embodied by Trumpism and neofascism.

RELATED:There is no "Putin wing" of the GOP: Why almost no Republican backs Ukraine over Russia

The news media and others with a public voice have a responsibility to make the world and its complex events more legible for the public at large. In a time of global democracy crisis, that responsibility is even more essential, and especially so when global stability is under threat by a war in Europe. To refuse to see race and the color line, and their impact on such events, is simply to deny reality.

In a recent essay for CNN,Peniel Joseph explored this global context:

The global crisis of racism, inequity and anti-immigrant xenophobia might seem secondary to the violence of the conflict in Ukraine but in truth, they are inextricable concerns. Russia's assault on Ukraine's sovereignty reflects the growing strength of autocratic leaders, such as Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro. Similarly, the treatment of African refugees in Ukraine in the context of war illustrates the xenophobia and racial intolerance that has fueled Brexit and aspects of the anti-globalization and nationalist movements that have flourished over the past decade.

One of the most important lessons of Russia's war against Ukraine is that the whole world continues to watch, respond to and take cues from not only American and Western power, but more tellingly, the power of our example. No single ethnic, racial or religious group has a greater capacity for civilization, personal dignity or citizenship than others. Now is the time to stand with all Ukrainians, immigrants and refugees seeking refuge from the storm of war.

The Ukraine conflict has complicated origins. But it is also clear that Vladimir Putin is a hero of the global right, which includes the various neofascists, white supremacists, racial chauvinists and allied forces who dream of creating a new "white Christian empire." Resisting and defeating Putin will weaken those forces as well, and strengthen bothAmerican and global democracy. That is a struggle that people of conscience on both sides of the color line should unite behind.

Read more on the Ukraine conflict and how we got here:

Read more here:

Whose lives really matter? How racism colors coverage of the crisis in Ukraine - Salon

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A 12-year-old Black girl made a 'Black Lives Matter' swimsuit for a competition and refused to change when an official said she'd be disqualified -...

This Black History Month, the Community Solidarity Response Network of Toledo is putting an emphasis on local leaders making history now.

TOLEDO, Ohio This month marks a time of transformation for Toledo's Black Lives Matter movement.

It's Black History Month and the Community Solidarity Response Network of Toledo is putting an emphasis on local leaders making history now.

The organization meets every week to discuss what is happening within their movement. And with a new year comes new opportunities for the organization to fight against social injustice.

"We're in the month of Black History Month. And this is a month that's set aside so that we can begin the process of honoring each other," said Brother Washington Muhammad, a representative with CSRN.

It's a time when the group can look back on the strides Black people have made.

Muhammad and his team focus on educating and leading a discussion to keep the movement going each week.

"Knowing the achievements of Black people helps give us perspective for what we can achieve, for what we can do," CSRN representative Julian Mack said. "And frankly, the sky's the limit."

This month, they're highlighting Black History Month and making sure the people making a difference today don't go unrecognized.

"By honoring some of our heroes and sheroes that are still with us today. So we've reached out to some of our elders to ask them to come on our Facebook Live, our podcast and talk about their experience and their journey," said Muhammad.

Because they say history is being made now.

By doing things differently, they hope the takeaway is even bigger for those tuning in.

"New ideas. That's something that stagnates a lot of movements. 'cause they get stuck on the anger or they get stuck on, sometimes, even the mission," said Jodie Summers, the treasurer for CSRN.

But with better communication and ideas, CSRN plans to move forward, with its fight.

"The only reason why we're able to do the work today is because of the work of previous people. We have the enormous opportunity to make history right now," Mack said.

One of the things CSRN is working on right now is going back to having their meetings in person after about two years.

The group would also like to open them up to the public once they find a place that's safe for everyone.

In the meantime, you can tune into their Facebook Lives every Tuesday at 6 p.m. by visiting their page here.

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Read more here:

Black Lives Matter group dedicating Black History Month to local changemakers of the present - WTOL

As a kid growing up in a tough part of Sacramento, Maya Madsen had a complicated relationship with food. Complicated in that there was never enough of it, and the possibility of getting more was not on the table.

Today, the fancy term is, food insecure. Back in my day, it was just being hungry all the time, Madsen said during a phone interview from her home in Scripps Ranch.

When you are a hungry child in a classroom trying to focus, everything looks like food. The teacher looks like a burrito. The kids look like sandwiches. All I could think about was when I was going to eat and how good it was going to taste.

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Many decades later, Madsen is still thinking about food. But what used to be a source of pain and frustration is now a cause for pride and celebration.

Madsen is the founder of Mayas Cookies, a San Diego-based wholesale bakery whose gourmet vegan-cookie offerings Chocolate Chip Smores! Brown Sugar Butterscotch! White Chocolate Espresso! have customers thinking about when they are going to get their hands on the next one, and how good it is going to taste.

Seven years after the former personal trainer and spin-class instructor started selling her home-baked cookies at the Little Italy farmers market, Mayas Cookies has a thriving online business, a new retail storefront, and a high profile on the vegan-food scene.

Perhaps most importantly, Madsen has survived her blinding time in the zeitgeist spotlight and come out with a clearer vision of what she wants to accomplish and how she is going to do it.

In June of 2020, as the country was being rocked by the marches and protests that swept the nation after the killing of George Floyd by a White Minneapolis police officer, Mayas Cookies became part of a viral campaign to support Black-owned businesses. Orders poured in by the thousands, a wave of goodwill that threatened to drown Madsen and her small bakery, but ended up pushing her into new territory.

It wasnt easy, but it was life-changing.

It was exhilarating, exciting and scary. It was daunting and emotional. You have all these people looking at you to move the machine forward, said Madsen, who worked 15 hours a day, seven days a week for 90 days straight to keep up with customer demand.

I dont even have a college degree, but what I have are problem-solving skills and passion. I try to think of the positive, and that has made me able to get through many things in life. I lean on my faith. Thats huge for me. And that has really convinced me that anything is possible. You just have to persevere.

Since that fortune-shifting summer, Madsen has turned the lobby of her Grantville bakery into a small retail space, hired more employees, expanded her corporate-gift business, and forged partnerships with movers-and-shakers like former NBA champion John Salley, who joined the company in an advisory role earlier this month.

Madsen has also been able to give back to the community. She has mentored other small-business owners; worked with nonprofit organizations like Junior Achievement of San Diego County and DETOUR, a local mentoring program for girls of color; and participated in panels about the joys and challenges of being a Black female entrepreneur.

Most recently, the mother of three adult sons has poured her passion for baking and consciousness-raising into her new Black History Month Collection, which honors Black icons with special-edition cookies that use ingredients from Black-owned businesses.

There is The Superhero, which pays tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman with a Black Panther"-inspired dark-chocolate cookie studded with extra-dark chocolate chunks from the Black-owned, woman-owned Kanda Chocolates, whose products are grown, processed and packaged in Ghana.

There is also The First Lady, a cookie inspired by Michelle Obama and her mother, Marian Robinson. The lemon-spiked sugar cookie features white-chocolate chunks and marionberries soaked in red wine from a Black-owned vegan winery.

The collection is rounded out by The Uncle Nearest, a brown-sugar cookie that contains candied pecans that get a boozy jolt from Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, which honors African American master distiller Nearest Green.

The cookies are meant to be savored, not analyzed. But in addition to an ingredient list that includes premium chocolates, organic flours and sugars, and a vegan buttery spread, the cookies in Madsens Black History Month Collection are made with purpose.

As Madsen has discovered during this exhilarating, daunting time, people are hungry for that, too.

Before Black Lives Matter was in the forefront of everyones mind, you would shop Black if you could. It was just a thing you did, the 52-year-old Madsen said.

I have a platform now, and its important within our community that we lift each other up and support each other. We have to be stronger, and when we have a platform, we have to use it.

Mayas Cookies are available online at mayascookies.com and at the storefront at 4760 Mission Gorge Place, Suite G, Grantville.

Excerpt from:

Column: Black Lives Matter put Maya's Cookies in the spotlight, and owner Maya Madsen is making it count - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Its not often that law enforcement leaders, county attorneys and Black Lives Matter activists all agree on police reform legislation.

But thats the case with S.B. 126, which the Utah Senate Judiciary Committee approved Wednesday.

It requires police to intervene when they see another officer engaging in misconduct, like using excessive force. It also requires them to report it.

Ken Wallentine, president of the Utah Chiefs of Police Association, said the bill is a step toward law enforcement officers truly being [their] brothers and sisters keepers.

It really is a way to improve our profession, to provide an avenue for law enforcement officers, to keep others from making mistakes and causing the harm that results from those mistakes, Wallentine said.

That sentiment was shared by Rae Duckworth, the head of Black Lives Matter Utah. She said this is the first step in building trust with communities.

This bill is going to encourage officers to get rid of those bad apples, and then hopefully we just continue to get justice from this point on, Duckworth said.

The legislation also prohibits retaliation against an officer who intervenes in and reports misconduct.

Continued here:

Black Lives Matter activist says a new bill will help police address 'bad apples' in their ranks - KUER 90.1

An independent volunteer race official claimed the 12-year-old's suit went against USA Swimming's policy of no political language. The YMCA said that was inappropriate.

SUPERIOR, Wis.- The Duluth YMCA has banned an independent volunteer official from all future swim meets after that person nearly disqualified a young girl for wearing a swimsuit sporting the words Black Lives Matter at an event at Superior High School Sunday.

I was like, why do I have to take my suit off if like my life matter, other black peoples lives matters too? said the swimmer, 12-year-old Leidy Gallona.

According to Gallona and her mother Sarah Lyons, Leidy started competing in the meet, when a race official stopped her and said her Black Lives Matter swimsuit went against USA Swimmings policy of no political language, and she had to take it off.

Leidys mother said when she asked, the official claimed they had the authority to decide what fit the definition of political.

Leidy made the swimsuit the night before after hearing about the police shooting of 22-year-old Amir Locke, awakened and killed by Officer Mark Hanneman while a SWAT team was serving a no-knock warrant at his apartment in Minneapolis. Interim MPD Police Chief Amelia Huffman said the warrant did not name Locke.

If someones sleeping on their couch, of course, like theyre going to act bad because they didnt know and if you have a weapon with you of course theyre not going to like react bad, Gallona said.

Lyons asked her daughter what she wanted to do, and Leidy said she wanted to keep the swimsuit on.

The easy thing to do wouldve been to take the suit off and she chose not to do that, Lyons said. She chose to stand up for what she thinks is right. Its a proud mama moment for sure.

Black people that are getting killed, their lives matter because they were, their lives were taken from them. So I think its respectful to show that I matter, everyone thats black matters too, the young swimmer said.

So thats when Lyons called the head of the Duluth NAACP, who was there with other members in support in about 15 minutes.

Then, Sarah said YMCA officials also came by.

She said they were receptive and overturned the officials decision, allowing Leidy to swim with the BLM suit.

Like the only kid not swimming cant be the only black kid whos swimming in this meet thats not, we cant do it like that, the mother said.

They then removed that volunteer from the competition and banned them from any future YMCA events.

But Lyons said its clear something has to change. We cant deny that there is emotional damage already done and so just kind of keeping that in mind that we can make things right but that doesnt mean that harms not already done.

Meanwhile, the Y released a statement to the media shortly after Sundays incident:

The Duluth YMCA is working alongside the family of a swimmer following an unfortunate incident during our meet being held at Superior High School today.

An independent volunteer official inappropriately barred a student-athlete from taking part in the meet, due to their Black Lives Matter swimsuit, stating that it went against USA Swimmings policy of no political language.

In response to this ruling, Duluth YMCA staff swiftly disputed the claim directly with swimming officials and were in immediate contact with Duluth YMCA Leadership. The Duluth YMCA quickly overruled the decision, removed the official and the student is now participating in the meet.

The Duluth YMCA is saddened that the student, their family, and teammates had to endure this unacceptable behavior. The Duluth YMCA will continue our ongoing commitment to train all staff and volunteers on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Duluth Area Family YMCA is committed to being an anti-racist organization and stands with BIPOC communities throughout the Northland and throughout our country. We know that Black Lives Matter and we will continue to work to educate ourselves, to stand against inequality, and to strive to be active allies in the ongoing fight for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Duluth YMCA will work to hold independent officials accountable for further education to address systemic racism. The official is not associated with the Duluth YMCA and will be banned from any further Duluth YMCA hosted swim meets.

According to Lyons, she and the directors of the YMCA are set to meet Monday to discuss what happened, and the rules, further.

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Duluth YMCA Bans Official, Stands with Girl Wearing 'Black Lives Matter' Swimsuit - FOX 21 Online