racism
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The NFL announced that the “Black National Anthem” would be performed at this year’s Super Bowl. Right on cue, and on brand, the MAGA snowflakes are crying racist tears under the false guise of “but equality.”
The Black National Anthem referenced is actually “Lift Every Voice And Sing.” The hymn was written by James Weldon Johnson as an ode to the struggle of African Americans after the Civil War. In time, the song came to be revered and has been sung alongside the National Anthem during sporting events and gatherings. For the 2024 Super Bowl’s pre-game festivities, Reba McEntire will sing the National Anthem, Post Malone will sing “America The Beautiful” and Andra Day will hold down “Lift Every Voice And Sing.”
However, this is a bridge too far for the racists who can’t seem to get their little pea brains around the need for say a “Black History” or “Black History Month” despite the existence of like, white supremacy. So when the NFL said “Lift Every Voice And Sing” would get a look during the Super Bowl (and it’s not the first time—Sheryl Lee Ralph knocked it out the park last year, for example), Cerfified Snowflakes like Charlie Kirk got on their high white horse (pun intended) about the need for unity.
Mind you, these are the same gaslighters doing everything they can to instill divisiveness with their Klan-friendly agendas. You can peep some of the more focused tomfoolery in the gallery.
Also, let’s not lose sight of the fact that out of all the photos of Sheryl Lee Ralph that the outlet below could have used, they chose that one.
Sometimes you just gotta laugh at that snowflake fragility. Stay mad.
1. Team “I See No Color” is strong.
2. Them people.
5. Trolls gonna troll.
6. Until you apply for a loan…
7. Who’s gonna tell them?
9. More “them” energy.
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Whoopi Goldberg criticized GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Wednesday over her claim that the United States “has never been a racist country”.
Whoopi Goldberg didn’t mince words on The View on Wednesday (January 17) in blasting Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley over her claim that America has “never been a racist country.” Haley made that statement during an interview with Fox News the evening before. After playing the clip, the co-host began, “I don’t understand why it’s so hard to admit that racism has been and is a part of U.S. history.”
“When you think back, 1849, 1869, they lynched 20, 30 Italians because they were Italian. They lynched Black folks. Black folks didn’t climb up in the trees and lynch themselves,” Goldberg continued. “You know, people were angry and came and burned them out. Emmett Till did not do that to himself, that was done to him ’cause somebody was angry because he overstepped in their mind what he was supposed to do as a Black person.” The EGOT winner concluded her remarks before the rest of the panel joined in: “Yeah, we are trying to get it better, but stop trying to whitewash it because every time they say we’re gonna take away Black history, we’re gonna take away women’s history — what do you think that says?”
The discussion would be picked up again as Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on the show. She began by stating that it is unwise to turn such a topic into a mere soundbite before saying, “There’s no denying that we have, in our history as a nation, racism, and that racism has played a role in the history of our nation. I think we all would agree that while it is part of our past and we see vestiges of it today, we should also be committed collectively to not letting it define the future of our country.”
Haley’s recent claim statement follows a campaign run in Iowa mired by her refusal to acknowledge slavery as the prime cause of the Civil War. The former governor of South Carolina would try to deflect from that backlash, claiming that
she “had Black friends growing up” as a defense. She currently is trailing behind former President Donald Trump as the GOP candidates begin to campaign in New Hampshire.
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A first-time author busted for writing bad reviews of books by authors of color on an Amazon-owned site has been dropped by her publisher.
According to reports, sci-fi fantasy author Cait Corrain was found to have left numerous one-star reviews for books by Black authors and other authors of color on Goodreads while giving her upcoming book, Crown of Starlight, excellent ratings.
The “review-bombing” controversy forced her publisher, Del Rey Books, to announce that Corrain’s book won’t be published in 2024.
“We are aware of the ongoing discussion around author Cait Corrain,” Del Rey Books’ post on X, formerly Twitter said last Monday (December 11). “CROWN OF STARLIGHT is no longer on our 2024 publishing schedule.” In a follow-up tweet, the imprint owned by Penguin Random House also stated that they would not publish other books on Corrain’s contract. Corrain’s first-ever novel was slated to be published on May 14, 2024, and had earned positive reviews in advance. Corrain was also dropped by her literary agent, Rebecca Podos, and her press affiliate.
Corrain’s behavior was chronicled by Canadian sci-fi fantasy author Xirin Jay Zhao in a TikTok video, which covered Corrain’s bad reviews targeting Black authors like Bethany Baptiste and other POC authors. They all had books set to be released next year between January and August. Goodreads issued a statement, saying: “Goodreads takes the responsibility of maintaining the authenticity and integrity of ratings and protecting our community of readers and authors very seriously. We have clear reviews and community guidelines, and we remove reviews and/or accounts that violate these guidelines.”
Corrain acknowledged her behavior in a letter posted on X, writing that her actions were due to depression and substance abuse. “Let me be extremely clear: while I might not have been sober or of sound mind during this time, I accept responsibility for the pain and suffering I caused,” she wrote, stating that before posting the letter she was “going through withdrawal as I sobered up enough to be brutally honest with you and myself.”
Authors impacted by Corrain’s bad reviews on the Amazon-owned site weren’t too pleased with her non-apology. Baptiste, who had called attention to Corrain’s actions before the controversy broke open, wrote in a post on X afterward: “So, many layers to Cait Corrain’s lies. And yet when I told my truth in a 62-tweet thread, I was called a liar and accused of doubling down.”
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Source: Worden Butler, Alexis Hartnett (J. Reuben Long Detention Center) / J. Reuben Long Detention Center)
It is almost 2024, and not only is racism still a persistent problem in America, but some racists have failed to come up with new ways to be racist. There’s just no other way to explain why a Black couple in South Carolina found a cross burning next to their house in the 21st century.
According to WMBF News, Shawn and Monica Williams, a retired couple, moved years ago into the Grand Strand in Conway, South Carolina. It was a place for them to live a peaceful life until Thanksgiving weekend when they walked outside to find the Ku Klux Klan’s favorite symbol of anti-Black terrorism, a burning cross, facing their home.
From WMBF:
The couple moved to Conway, settling into the perfect retirement home, but said their neighbors have made the last two years a living nightmare.
“He’s blatant with the ‘N-word,’” Monica said. “He chased off our surveyors. He’s chased off people from the water and sewer department.”
The couple even installed a fence, hoping to find peace, but it didn’t work. The cross burning was the final straw, so they called Horry County police.
Officers arrested their neighbors, 28-year-old Worden Butler and 27-year-old Alexis Hartnett, and charged them with second-degree harassment.
Police body camera footage reportedly caught Hartnett shouting racial slurs at the older Black couple, and a police report states that Butler—who already had at least five arrests for assault and disorderly conduct on his record—posted the couple’s address on Facebook, saying he was “going to make them pay.” (Presumably, for existing while Black.)
But the couple of apparent white supremacists with the throwback method for intimidating Black people was “out the next day” after their arrest, according to Monica.
“So now, what are we to do? Live next to a cross-burning racist who’s threatened to cause us bodily harm,” she said. “We feel that not enough laws are in place to deal with this, and there needs to be some accountability.”
South Carolina is one of two states that doesn’t have a hate crime law. (The other is Wyoming, in case anyone needed help compiling a list of states Black people should not reside in.) WMBF noted that “in the past three years, a hate crime bill has made it through the South Carolina State House but stalled on the Senate floor.” (We’ll leave it up to you to guess which political party is the holdout.) This has left it up to the NAACP to launch an investigation into the cross-burning with the hopes that it lights a fire, so to speak, under law enforcement.
“In these days and times, we don’t expect things like that to happen; it’s really appalling; the Emanuel Nine should have set the precedent for a hate crime law,” said Marvin Neal, 3rd vice president of the South Carolina State Conference NAACP. “We thought we were on the road in that direction when that happened, but here we are again.”
Neal was referring to the 2015 killing of nine Black people in a church in Charleston by white supremacist mass murderer Dylann Roof. It was a senseless crime so vile and evil that it’s unfathomable that it didn’t prompt a statewide hate crime law to protect Black people from Klan-ish terrorists like the ones currently threatening the safety and well-being of Shawn and Monica Williams, and other Black people who just want to exist in peace.
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Former Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta star Erica Mena is now apologizing after she got the boot from the reality TV series for a disgustingly racist comment she made about cast member Spice.
Spotted on TMZ, Erica Mena is singing a different tune after VH1 fired her.
Speaking exclusively with the celebrity gossip site, Mena says she is sorry for calling Spice a monkey on a past episode of the popular VH1 reality series.
She insists there was no racist intent behind her words.
Per TMZ:
The ex-‘Love & Hip Hop’ star — who was booted from the show for hurling the word — tells TMZ … “I deeply regret my insensitive comment and want to humbly apologize to anybody I hurt or offended by my thoughtlessness. My choice of words was wrong, and I take full responsibility for what I said.”
She adds, “I am committed to listening to the voices of those affected and will work toward making amends. As a woman of color and the mother of two black children, I want to make it clear that my use of that word was not in any way racially driven.”
Erica ends with this … “That said, I do understand the gravity of what I said and want to use my platform to promote inclusivity and equality.”
A Recap of Erica Mena’s Heada** Behavior
The reality television star and struggle musician who identifies as “Afro-Latina” was let go immediately after the episode aired where she and Spice got into a heated exchange.Mena was not happy with Spice hanging out with her ex-husband Safaree, and things went wrong when she mentioned Mena’s son does not like her, causing her to lose it and call her a “monkey” out of anger.
Viewers immediately called for VH1 to fire Erica Mena for using the slur, and they got their wish.
We shall see if Mena’s apology is enough to regain her job. We won’t be shocked if VH1 decides to bring her back on.
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Photo: Albert L. Ortega / Getty
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Six white former Mississippi police officers, who as part of a “goon squad” tortured two Black men pleaded guilty to blocking prosecution efforts.
According to reports, the police officers pled guilty to hindering efforts by the prosecution among other charges in relation to the brutal raid and torture of two Black men at a home in Braxton on Jan. 24. Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, Christian Dedmond, Hunter Elward, Daniel Opdyke and Joshua Hartfield referred to themselves as a “goon squad” because of their willingness to use excessive force. Five of the men were deputies with the Rankin Police Department while Hartfield was a narcotics investigator for the Richland Police Department.
“To my knowledge,” said Trent Walker, an attorney for victims Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins, “never in the history of Mississippi have, in particular, white officers been held to account for brutality against Black victims.” The six men were found to have committed actions hindering obstruction in the case, which included giving false statements to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and intimidating others involved with that incident and others.
The brutal assault on Jenkins and Parker Jan. 24 included deputies hurling racial slurs at the two, beating and torturing them with various objects, resulting in Jenkins being shot in the mouth. He and Parker would be charged with disorderly conduct, with Jenkins being accused of assaulting an officer and drug possession. All the charges would eventually be dropped.
After being federally convicted, the former officers face varying lengths of prison time. Dedmon and Elward each face up to 120 years, in addition to a life sentence. Opdyke faces a sentence of up to 100 years and McAlpin faces a sentence of up to 90 years; Hartfield and Middleton each face up to 80 years. University of South Carolina School of Law professor Seth W. Stoughton said of the situation that it was “reminiscent of the most blatant racist abuses by police in the Jim Crow and Civil Rights era. This was a lynch mob of officers, pure and simple.” Many are calling for Rankin Police Chief Bryan Bailey to resign, but he has vehemently refused and plans to run again for sheriff in November.
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A Black man in Michigan had his prison sentence cleared after a white judge showed bias in his pre-trial hearing.
Last Wednesday (August 3rd), Leron Liggins, who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for two drug charges had his sentence vacated. This came after a three-judge panel, in line with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled that a judge violated Liggins’ Fifth Amendment right to due process by commenting that Liggins “looks like a criminal” in a pretrial hearing back in 2020.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III, who is white, remarked as he presided over the hearing in January 2020. Murphy had been frustrated with delays in the case due to Liggins, who is Black, deciding to change his attorneys in the time since being indicted in February 2018. Expressing frustration with the delays, Judge Murphy stated that he was “tired of this case.” “What do you want me to do? This guy looks like a criminal to me,” Murphy said before continuing: “This is what criminals do. This isn’t what innocent people, who want a fair trial do.”
The comments compelled Liggins to file a motion to have Judge Murphy recused, which Murphy denied after the case resumed in October 2021. “I was mad, I was hostile, I was disapproving, and I regret it. I made a mistake by yelling like that, but I wasn’t upset or concluding that Mr. Liggins was—was guilty of an offense or hostile or partial toward him,” he said, apologizing in his remarks to Liggins’ attorney.
The panel of judges highlighted this moment in their opinion. “Even if one were to assume a lack of racial bias on the part of the district judge, the remark nevertheless raises the specter of such bias. … Beyond this remark, the district judge’s other remarks could be understood to demonstrate clear prejudgment of Liggins’ guilt,” it said. Federal prosecutors could still file for a new trial, as there was no ruling on evidentiary issues presented by Liggins’ defense team.
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Former Black football players at Northwestern University have alleged racial hazing, including being forced into watermelon-eating contests in lawsuits.
According to reports, the two former players filed lawsuits against the university in Cook County Circuit Court, adding to the growing hazing scandal that has engulfed the Chicago-area college over the past few weeks. The lawsuits claim that Black players on the team were forced to compete in racist watermelon-eating contests. “‘This is a clear promotion of the indisputably racist watermelon stereotype and anti-black racist trope,’ the litigation documents state.
The two players, who remain anonymous, were on the team during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Their lawsuits note that at that time, former head coach Pat Fitzgerald was the linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator and “knew and encouraged this behavior to happen to these very young and impressionable men.”
Further details from the lawsuits echo allegations from previously filed lawsuits, claiming that players were singled out for hazing. “Underclassmen, specifically freshmen on the football team, were forced to engage in horrific, despicable, and sexually explicit forms of hazing,” the documents state. There are more allegations of physical and sexual abuse and claims that the coaches not only knew about it but did nothing to stop it.
Fitzgerald, who maintains that he was unaware of the abuses, was fired by Northwestern last month after independent reporting from The Daily Northwestern exposed further details of the allegations. The university announced on Tuesday that former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will be leading an independent review of the athletic department. “Hazing has absolutely no place at Northwestern. Period,” Northwestern president Michael Schill said in a statement announcing the move. “I am determined that with the help of Attorney General Lynch, we will become a leader in combating the practice of hazing in intercollegiate athletics and a model for other universities.”
Attorney Ben Crump has also been retained by some of the players who have come forward alleging abuse. “This is the opportunity to eradicate hazing and abuse in college athletic programs from coast to coast,” he said in a statement. “That’s exactly what we intend to do, as this will undoubtedly be the MeToo movement of college athletics.”
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Marjorie Taylor Greene and Milo Yiannopoulos have closed a chapter after he repaid her for the financing of Ye aka Kanye West’s campaign website.
According to reports, the controversial far-right activist reimbursed the Republican representative from Georgia for the “use of campaign credit card for personal use,” based on a new filing with the Federal Election Commission. The amount came out to $7,020.16 which Yiannopoulos paid back on May 12th. The purchase was apparently for a campaign website domain, ye24.com, for West who is now known as Ye. Greene’s congressional staff did not respond to requests for comment.
Further details from the filing show that the reimbursement total matches an expense item for a “domain registration and hosting” purchase made with GoDaddy on November 22nd, 2022. That had been previously reported by Greene’s team. According to The Daily Beast, Ye’s team reported paying Yiannopoulos $9,955 for a “domain transfer”. Notably, the purchase was made on the same day that Ye and Yiannopoulos and white nationalist Nick Fuentes arrived at Mar-a-Lago to dine with former President Donald Trump. The situation caused a stir, as a purchase of that type would count as an official sign of entering the 2024 race. The “DONDA” rapper has not yet announced an official presidential run for 2024, although he had a short-lived campaign in 2020.
Yiannopoulos, who has made headlines for seemingly defending pedophilia in addition to making homophobic and racist statements, took credit for the dinner meeting claiming it was “to make Trump’s life miserable.” The dinner would be a precursor to Ye appearing with Fuentes, a rabid Holocaust denier on right-wing figure Alex Jones’ Infowars podcast where he infamously praised Hitler and the Nazi regime along with issuing other antisemitic remarks.
Yiannopoulos would be fired by Ye last December and then rehired in May, but not after suing the rapper for over $100,000. More controversy ensued after Patrick Krason, a former treasurer for Ye, resigned and internal documents were found showing Krason’s concern over Yiannopoulos submitting false invoices.
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The death of Nahel Merzouk at the hands of a police officer in France has spurred numerous protests and shed light on deep racial divisions in the country.
According to reports, the 17-year-old of Algerian-Moroccan descent was detained at a traffic stop in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris last week. Video footage shows one of two officers firing a shot through the windshield of the yellow Mercedes as Merzouk pulled forward. Forensics reports showed that one shot killed the Nahel Merzouk, as the car then slammed into the barriers at Nelson Mandela Square. The killing compelled observers to draw comparisons to the death of George Floyd in 2020 as it was caught on video, which was shared widely through social media. “He saw a little Arab-looking kid, he wanted to take his life,” the teen’s mother said to France 5 Television.
The death of Merzouk sparked intense outrage as many took to the streets to protest Merzouk’s killing in cities and towns throughout the country over the next six nights, often clashing with police and resulting in 3,400 arrests. Protests were even reported in French Caribbean territories such as Martinique and Guadeloupe, and even the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean.
The fury behind the protests also points to how French society and its government have adopted an official stance of colorblind universalism. In fact, it is considered illegal to compile racially-based statistics in the country. Observers point to that stance as the reason decades of systemic racism have been prevalent in a country that welcomed Black American expats such as James Baldwin.
In 2017, the Défenseur des Droits civil-liberties watch group noted that “young men perceived to be Black or Arab” were 20 times more likely to be stopped by police for identity checks, and in 2021 six groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch launched a class-action suit against the French government over its failure to address racial profiling by police.
“For 40, 45 years there have been warning signs about discrimination,” says Abel Boyi, head of the “All Unique, All United” group. The issue has been pointedly addressed by noted authors such as Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, and Léopold Senghor who struck at the colonial underpinnings of France that harmed Black and Brown citizens. “He was a nonwhite person in this country,” university student Syrine Djidi said while at a protest for Merzouk, noting that he was the same age as her brother. “Nonwhite people are targeted by the police.”
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