racism
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It’s 2023, and the NAACP Board of Directors has issued a travel advisory for Florida, citing that the state is “hostile toward African Americans.” Considering MAGA-friendly Governor Ron Desantis’ blatantly racist legislation aimed at the “woke,” often a replacement for the n-word in far-right circles, where is the lie?
On Saturday, May 2020, the NAACP issued its damning travel advisory. Part of it reads, “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”
In the past year, Desantis has overseen the kneecapping of AP African American Studies courses for high school students, banned the teaching of critical race theory and has signed four bills that restrict LGBTQ rights including an expansion of the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Added NAACP President & CEO Derrick Johnson, “Under the leadership of Governor Desantis, the state of Florida has become hostile to Black Americans and in direct conflict with the democratic ideals that our union was founded upon. He should know that democracy will prevail because its defenders are prepared to stand up and fight. We’re not backing down, and we encourage our allies to join us in the battle for the soul of our nation.”
Another feasible question is, when is Texas going to be added to that travel advisory list? History has shown that one way to handle blatant racists in power is to hit them in the pockets.
See some of Twitter’s reactions to the NAACP’s chess move in the gallery.
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Elon Musk continues to prove that you can be a billionaire while still being tone deaf, obtuse and asinine at the same damn time. The guy who ruined Twitter recently asserted that a Texas mass shooter is not a white supremacist, despite said shooter having a tattoo of a swastika on his body.
While appearing on CNBC, Musk told David Faber that the recent mass shooting Allen, Texas at a mall frequented by people of color was a psy-op and “incorrectly ascribed to be a white supremacist action.”
Musk claimed that the allegation was based on Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based investigative journalism and research group, that only used an “an obscure Russian website” for its sourcing
However, as Crooks & Liars pointed out, it was the New York Times that actually reported on the shooter’s white supremacist ties. And Bellingcat went out of its way to point the shooter’s documented history of hate.
Also worth noting, the now-deceased shooter, 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, has an “SS” tattoo on his arm and a swastika tattoo on his chest. Safe bet he’s a white supremacist regardless of his last name.
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Justin Jones, one of the two Black Democrat representatives expelled by Republicans last week from the Tennessee House, was sworn back in.
On Monday (April 10th), members of the Nashville city council held a special session to return Jones to the legislature. After a prayer by council member Zulfat Suara for the six lives lost in the Covenant school shooting as well as those lost in a mass shooting in Kentucky that day, the vote was unanimously in favor of Jones, 36-0. An hour later, he returned to the state capitol surrounded by hundreds of supporters and took his oath on the steps.
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“I want to welcome democracy back to the people’s house,” he said after returning to his old desk. “No expulsion, no attempt to silence us will stop us, but it will only galvanize and strengthen our movement,” he said, concluding with: “Power to the people!” The move by the Nashville city council members was done so swiftly that Jones hadn’t missed a floor session of the Tennessee House.
House majority leader William Lamberth & House Republican caucus chairman Jeremy Faison issued a statement before the vote saying that “should any expelled member be reappointed, we will welcome them.” A vote to reinstate Rep. Pearson was scheduled to be held by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners in Memphis on Wednesday (April 12th). Both lawmakers have expressed that they will run in special elections to be held later this year to permanently obtain their seats.
Jones, along with Pearson and Rep. Gloria Johnson, were targeted by the Republican majority of the legislative body for expulsion last Thursday (April 6th). The vote took place a week after the three lawmakers had taken to the House floor and interrupted a session by demanding action be taken on gun violence, using megaphones to lead protesters. Jones and Pearson would be expelled through a vote, while Johnson (who is white) was spared, prompting her to cite racism as the reason her fellow Democrats were kicked out.
The move by the Republican majority of the House, something that had only been done twice since the Civil War, sparked local and nationwide outrage all the way to the White House, as President Joe Biden expressed his anger and Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise trip to Nashville to speak at Fisk University in support of the lawmakers. Lawyers for Jones and Pearson, including former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, sent a letter warning against retaliation to House Speaker Cameron Sexton.
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Romelu Lukaku, a striker for Serie A club Inter Milan in Italy, is the first Premier League player to sign with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports and has amassed fame for his exploits on the pitch. However, Romelu Lukaku, like many Black footballers before him, has endured racist taunts and Roc Nation Sports took out an ad in an Italian newspaper demanding they do better.
TMZ was the first to report on Roc Nation Sports taking out the ad in the Italian sports news daily, La Gazzetta dello Sport, which defended Romelu Lukaku and other Black footballers from the racist taunts from fans in attendance at matches.
On Tuesday (April 4), Inter Milan played against Juventus F.C. and fans in the stands made monkey noises toward Lukaku. The ad singles out how this practice has been allowed to endure for years during football (soccer) matches.
From the ad:
In professional football, Black players have been subjected to hatred during professional football games. The hatred has displayed itself in the form of monkey chants, racial slurs and banana peels tossed at the best players in the world, as the world watches, as the children watch, as the players’ families watch.
No one has faced any consequences for this heinous behavior. Nothing has changed. No action has been taken.
Roc Nation Sports put out an accompanying video demanding that fans stop the racist taunts, clearly singling out that this has been an issue for years in the game.
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Photo: Mondadori Portfolio / Getty
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Actor Bryan Cranston blasted the slogan that former President Donald Trump heavily used as racism while defending the need for critical race theory recently.
In an interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace on Sunday (February 26th), the Emmy Award-winning actor talked about why he felt that critical race theory was necessary for American society and spoke on how the slogan “Make America Great Again” used by Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign can be seen as a
racist sentiment.
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“When I see ‘Make America Great Again,’ my comment is, ‘Do you accept that that could possibly be construed as a racist remark?’” the Breaking Bad actor said to Wallace. “A lot of people go, ‘How could that be racist, to make America great again?’ I said, ‘So just ask yourself from an African-American experience: When was it ever great in America for the African-American? So if you’re making it great again, it’s not including them.’”
He would continue: “It’s to teach us, in the ‘woke’ world, to open up and accept the possibilities that our privilege has created blind spots for us. Maybe I haven’t seen what’s really happening, in all my years.”
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Apparently, comedian, actor, and former Richard Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein is still pressed about Quaker Oats updating the historically racist Aunt Jemima brand and replacing it with a racially neutral and far less mammy-era-inspired brand, because conservative white people in America just really love their anti-Black nostalgia despite their insistence that America was not founded on racism.
Recently, Stein posted a video of himself reminiscing over the good old days when racist imagery on consumer products was no big deal (to white people) and no one (who was white) complained about it.
“Aunt Jemima yummy pancake syrup,” Stein said while holding a Pearl Mining Company bottle, which is Aunt Jemima’s new brand. “Now, this used to show a large African American woman chef. Because of the inherent racism of America’s corporate culture, they decided to make it a white person or maybe no person at all. But I prefer it when it was a Black person showing their incredible skill making pancakes.”
Stein appeared to mock the idea of “inherent racism” in America, while, you know, passionately expressing his love for a symbol derived from American racism. But the real question is—why is he still so salty about a decision made two years ago that he’s going out of his way to get himself dragged by the fine folks on Twitter like this?
At the end of the day, white people like Stein show off their privilege when they debate about whether or not racist imagery should be preserved they just love their various odes to Black subjugation, whether it’s a confederate monument or a racist syrup bottle. White people, including politicians, are still, in the 21st century, using “Aunt Jemima” as a slur against Black women. But folks like Stein haven’t experienced that, so, for them, it’s as simple as a “woke agenda” run amok.
Even Black folks who didn’t necessarily have a problem with the Aunt Jemima brand should take issue with white people who believe their racist traditions should trump our lived experiences. Because that’s exactly how white supremacy works.
Or, whatever, maybe it’s just syrup.
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FOX News is all but confirmed as an alleged propaganda network. Not that anyone should be surprised, but recently revealed court documents show that the network’s anchors knew guests like Rudy Giuliani were spreading lies, and they continued to hand them megaphones anyway.
The documents (actually texts) are thanks to Dominion’s lawsuit against the network. In texts shared between racist FOX talking heads Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, they confirm that they’re clearly aware the guests they have on their shows are right-wing “lunatics.”
Reports CNN:
The most prominent stars and highest-ranking executives at Fox News privately ridiculed claims of election fraud in the 2020 election, despite the right-wing channel allowing lies about the presidential contest to be promoted on its air, damning messages contained in a Thursday court filing revealed.
The messages, included in a legal filing as part of Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News, showed that Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham brutally mocked lies being pushed by former President Donald Trump’s camp asserting that the election was rigged.
In one set of messages revealed in the court filing, Carlson texted Ingraham, saying that Sidney Powell, an attorney who was representing the Trump campaign, was “lying” and that he had “caught her” doing so. Ingraham responded, “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy [Giuliani].”
Also in the docs were references to a source who claimed to know of election fraud due to “time travel.” Nah, we’re not kidding—that is their source.
While MAGA Twitter is doing all types of gymnastics to try to dismiss these latest revelations, FOX News is trending for all the wrong reasons. Like seriously, why is that network still getting press credentials?
Peep some of the more potent Sly Fox News slander and observations of the elite hypocrisy in the gallery.
1. Standards?
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A food company publicly apologized after students at a school in upstate New York were served a racially insensitive lunch at the beginning of Black History Month.
According to reports, students at Nyack Middle School were served chicken and waffles with a side of watermelon last Wednesday (Feb. 1), the first day of Black History Month. The original menu offerings were supposed to be Philly cheesesteaks, broccoli and fresh fruit. Students including Honore Santiago spoke out about the meal. “I was questioning because they don’t usually give watermelon,” she said.
Principal David Johnson sent out a letter to parents apologizing for the situation. “I am disappointed that Aramark would serve items that differed from the published monthly menu, especially items that reinforce negative stereotypes concerning the African-American community,” the letter read.
Johnson called the menu items “insensitive.” He contacted the school’s food provider Aramark to voice his concern and to see if this situation can be avoided in the future. “If they had served chicken and waffles by itself, I don’t know that we would be having this conversation. But the moment you add in the watermelon, that changed the whole complexion, literally,” Wilbur Aldridge of the Nyack chapter of the NAACP said.
A spokesperson from Aramark released a statement, saying: “The situation at that middle school was our mistake and never should have happened. It stands in direct contrast to who we are as a company and our longstanding commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We have apologized for our mistake, and are working to determine how it happened and make sure it never happens again.”
The interim school superintendent, James Montesano, said that the company has committed to working with the school to have “workshops that are focused around the concept of equity and institutional racism,” involving their employees.
This wasn’t the first time that Aramark has wound up in a scandal along these lines. In 2018, students at New York University were served barbecued ribs, collard greens, cornbread, Kool-Aid and watermelon-flavored water during Black History Month. After a vocal backlash, the workers involved were fired and the company apologized. For Honore Santiago, she just has one thought about it all: “I just hope that they won’t do it again, at a different school or my school ever again.”
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A family in an Oregon suburb is speaking out about a neighbor targeting them because they’re Black – by spraying a slur on their own house.
According to reports, the Channel family has been for years dealing with the unhinged antics of a neighbor of theirs in West Linn, a suburb just south of Portland, Oregon. But the neighbor, a woman who has not been identified publicly, has ramped up her disturbing behavior and directed it toward the Channel family, who is Black by recently spray-painting the N-word on her own house.
Andre Channel spoke to local news outlets about the incident, which apparently took place on Christmas Day. He had received a call from another neighbor named Jason while traveling outside of the country. “He was like hey, just want to let you know, your neighbor wrote the n-word all across their house,” Channel said to KPTV. “This is the crossing the line for me, this is new.”
The family stated that the neighbor also directed the slur toward their son earlier in the month. A representative of the West Linn Police Department confirmed they were called to the scene, and that they spray painted over the slur with the homeowner’s consent. But Channel says that action didn’t occur until after him and other neighbors repeatedly called the police to come back. His neighbor Jason stated, “the cops have been here pretty much two or three times a week for the past two months, three months. They’re doing all they can do about it, but we all know the system is broken.”
Channel feels that law enforcement should be doing more. “It seems like we keep getting the run around in regards to there’s a process to this, a process to that,” Channel said. “My daughters shouldn’t have to be at home wondering what’s going to happen next.”
“Incidents such as this cause actual harm, both to those specifically targeted and the wider community at large. We stand firmly against hate and bigotry in all of its forms, and in solidarity with our community members,” the West Linn Police Department said in a statement.
They’ve also said that they’ve notified the Oregon branch of the Department of Justice. Andre Channel is insistent that this ugly incident won’t force him and his family to leave. “I’m not going to let one person force me out of a neighborhood in a city that I love,” he said. “We should be able to come home and feel safe, period.”