racism in America
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Source: Marion County Sheriff’s Office / MCSO
A prosecutor in Florida has declined to pursue murder charges against Susan Lorincz, who shot and killed Ajike “AJ” Owens, who was unarmed.
On Monday (June 26th), State Attorney William Gladson publicly announced the criminal charges brought against Lorincz for Owens’ killing, and cited “insufficient evidence” as a reason that his office would not upgrade the charge of manslaughter to murder, claiming that they couldn’t establish that she showed “a depraved mind toward the victim at the time of the killing.” Gladson said that he had consulted with Owens’ family before the announcement. “My office will do all it can to seek justice for Ms. Owens and her family,” he said.
Pamela Dias, Owens’ mother, expressed that the family was “devastated” by the decision. “How do I explain to AJ’s children, my young grandbabies, that the loss of their mother’s life is still not being taken seriously?” she said to a local news network. “Only a living, breathing AJ would be true justice, and today’s charge could not be further from that.” Reverend Al Sharpton also blasted the decision in a statement: “The fact that this woman hurled insults including the N-word at her children and proclaimed, ‘this isn’t the underground railroad, slave,’ should be enough for the Justice Department to investigate this as a federal hate crime.
The mother of four, who is Black, had gone to Lorincz’s door in their Ocala neighborhood to confront her for taking an iPad that belonged to one of her children on June 2nd. Lorincz, a white woman who has a history of documented racist behavior, shot through the door striking Owens who was standing next to her 9-year-old son at the time. Owens died later at a local hospital. Lorincz wouldn’t be arrested until June 6th, after heavy public pressure about the case prevailed. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office claimed that the delay was due to investigating if the incident fell under the “Stand Your Ground” law, which would make it justified.
The 58-year-old Lorincz is being held on a $154,000 bond at the Marion County Jail on a charge of manslaughter with a firearm. Protests over the decision were scheduled for Monday evening. Owens’ family has also created a website where those concerned can take action in addition to a surging GoFundMe campaign, with one of those actions including a petition to repeal Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” gun laws.
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A Black woman on TikTok publicly shamed a racist sitting next to her on a plane over texts he sent about Black and gay people to his family.
On Friday (May 26), Talia Rouse posted a video that showed her confronting a passenger sitting next to her sending off racist text messages. The travel blogger, who regularly posts tips and hotel reviews through her TikTok account to her 25,000 followers, was on a flight heading from Puerto Rico to Atlanta. The video begins with Rouse telling someone off-camera: “You know what? I wasn’t going to say anything … but I decided I want you to feel as uncomfortable as I do,” she began. “And I want you to know that I saw your text messages, and I think you’re disgusting.”
In the caption of the video, she stated that she initially glanced over at the phone of the man sitting next to her and saw “big Black woman” in a text. “He and his family went on and on about the woes of being stuck next to black and gay people,” Rouse recalled. “Then I see this man say he hopes airlines raise prices so these people get weeded out.”
She told the man that if airlines did start “weeding people out,” then maybe he can afford to sit with his family. “If you’re going to be bold enough to pull your phone out in the middle seat of an airplane and freely talk disrespectfully about Black people, then I’m going to be bold enough to say something to you,” she wrote in the video caption.
The man would offer an apology to Rouse, but she countered that it was only because she saw the texts. “You don’t have to be sorry to me. You’re sorry because I saw it,” she said. Rouse would post a follow-up video showing the man’s offensive text messages on the screen of the phone in response to a commenter asking, “We can’t even send texts to our family about how unpleasant you people are?” on the first video. She countered with the caption, ‘Not when you’re in the middle seat next to me, no.”
Rouse didn’t respond to further press inquiries.
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February is Black History Month, which serves to make sure the members of the African diaspora are recognized and celebrated in a society where too often they have been marginalized. Apparently, this concept is tough to comprehend for the MAGA contingent, thus the asinine “White History Month” is trending on Twitter.
Pick up a history book or turn on your vintage TV shows and movies and it becomes quite evident that just about every day is White History Month. And while we’re on the topic, BHM wasn’t officially recognized until 1976 by President Gerald Ford. That was not that long ago.
But since February is BHM (the shortest month of the year, no less), all the slow-witted folk scared that their grip on power, and the admonishment of white supremacy, is getting shaky as their reading comprehension levels, are now quite butt-hurt.
This is evident since the people (or bots) pushing the trending topic tend to be far-right wingnuts or irredeemable trolls. There is also plenty of education, and slander, going on in the trend, too.
Check out some of the sharper reactions, good and bad, in the gallery below.
1. Learn something.
2. Goofy Is As Goofy Does
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Controversial Republican politician George Santos has made headlines again, this time for flashing a white nationalist symbol during a vote in the House of Representatives last week.
Santos, the elected Republican representative from New York, was making his vote for Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) in the tenth round of his bid to become Speaker of the House of Representatives on Thursday (Jan. 5th). As he did by raising his right hand, his left arm was folded across his waist and observers noted from the coverage on C-SPAN that his left hand made a sideways “OK” gesture.
The gesture has been appropriated by white nationalists as an expression of white supremacy, which was first boosted by right-wing trolls on the 4chan website in jest. There are those who use the gesture as a way to “trigger liberals,” as shown by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Santos’ action was not received well by many, including another Representative from New York, Democrat Ritchie Torres who derisively wrote on Twitter: “George Santos is not biracial but tri-racial. He has Latino, black, and now white power.”
Santos has been constantly under fire ever since he admitted to lying about large swaths of his work and education history after an investigation by the New York Times in late December found many discrepancies in his story. Further investigations also found that Santos had attended a gala in Manhattan that was frequented by numerous white nationalist figures and prominent supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Santos was sworn in after McCarthy finally was elected speaker on Friday night (Jan. 6th). The troubles for the congressman aren’t over – on Monday morning (Jan. 9th), a formal ethics complaint was filed against him with the Federal Election Commission by the Campaign Legal Center. The Washington D.C.-based nonprofit group contends that Santos illegally used campaign funds for personal use. Authorities in Brazil have also announced that they will reopen a fraud case against Santos involving a stolen checkbook in 2008 in Rio de Janeiro.