Author: Henry Taylor

Selected Media

Trump and Barr call NYC an ‘anarchist jurisdiction’ in brazen ploy to crush dissent

By Kim Kelly, freelance journalist and organizer

Read the full article from NBC News, here.

“On Sept. 21, 2020, millions of people in three major U.S. cities awoke to find themselves living in what President Donald Trump and his Justice Department cronies had declared “anarchist jurisdictions.” New York City, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle — all of which are led by Democrats — were slapped with the label and, as a result, are now at risk of being defunded by the federal government, even as they grapple with massive budget shortfalls tied to the coronavirus pandemic. The president is playing a political game with those whom he considers to be his enemies, and that list is growing day by day. Anarchists (and antifascists, or “antifa”) have become his favorite new bête noire.”

Selected Media

Where in The U.S. Are You Most Likely to Be Audited by the IRS?

By Paul Kiel and Hannah Fresques

Read the full article from ProPublica, here.

“The study estimates that Humphreys, with a median annual household income of just $26,000, is audited at a rate 51 percent higher than Loudoun County, Virginia, which boasts a median income of $130,000, the highest in the country. In a baffling twist of logic, the intense IRS focus on Humphreys County is actually because so many of its taxpayers are poor. More than half of the county’s taxpayers claim the earned income tax credit, a program designed to help boost low-income workers out of poverty.”

Selected Media

OAH Statement on White House Conference on American History

“As the largest professional organization in the country representing historians of U.S. history, the Organization of American Historians opposes the biased views and mischaracterizations of historical inquiry and education expressed in these statements. Further, the OAH rejects the narrow and celebratory “1776 Project” put forward in this speech as a partisan ploy meant to restrict historical pedagogy, stifle deliberative discussion, and take us back to an earlier era characterized by a limited vision of the U.S. past.”

Selected Media

Poor kids get hit twice when landlords ignore lead law

By Rod Watson

Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.

“Exposure to lead in chipping, peeling paint can cause brain and nervous system damage, slow a child’s growth and development, and cause learning and behavior problems. The damage can be irreversible. Yet the only recourse for a parent unwittingly renting a lead-infested property is to file their own lawsuit. And even then, the federal Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act doesn’t allow for punitive awards, or even for the lifetime impacts of stunted development. It allows only for ‘3 times the amount of damages incurred by such individual.'”

Selected Media

We’ve Entered the Era of ‘Branding for Black Lives’

By Dave Zirin

Read the full article from The Nation, here.

“Amid this push and pull between player dissent and league branding, a hero did emerge—but not in the NFL. Naomi Osaka won the US Open in thrilling fashion, and the 22-year-old tennis star wore a different mask before every match with a different name of someone who had been killed by police. After her final triumph, a comeback victory against Victoria Azarenka, ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi asked Osaka, ‘You had seven masks with seven names, what was the message you wanted to send?’ She gave a response for the ages, looking at Rinaldi and saying, ‘Well… what was the message you got?'”

Selected Media

Report: PPP loan program shortchanged Buffalo’s Black neighborhoods

By Jerry Zremski

Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.

“The federal government’s main effort to rescue small businesses during the pandemic tended to benefit wealthier neighborhoods far more than predominantly Black parts of metro Buffalo, according to a new study by a group that researches federal policy and its implications nationwide. The study found that the ZIP code with the largest Black population in Buffalo, on the city’s East Side, received the smallest number of loans. Meanwhile, the most loans locally went to the 14221 ZIP code, which includes Williamsville and parts of Amherst and Clarence.”

Selected Media

Black Labor Leaders Are Needed Now More Than Ever

By Marc Bayard

Read the full article from The Nation, here.

“These actions and acts of radical defiance by workers have made it clear that systemic racism cannot be separated from the growing and perverse economic inequalities that have devastated Black workers and Black America for generations, and made them much more vulnerable to the current global pandemic. To win the corporate accountability required to rectify this inequality, our labor and worker movement must embrace this racial awakening and elevate and adequately resource Black people in roles of leadership and strategy.”

Selected Media

They’ll give your killer water and ignore your gasps for air: An American love song is violent

By Jeneé Osterheldt

Read the full article from Boston Globe, here.

Police will give water to Kyle Rittenhouse, your killer, before he shoots you, Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum. And after you die they will tell the world how he was cleaning walls before he shot you for protesting police brutality. They’ll barely say your names. You were white and fighting for Black lives, so they are burying you like they bury us.

Selected Media

Tito Ruiz’s camera is his ‘weapon of choice’ in exhibit featuring Buffalo police protests

By Nick Lippa

Read the full article from WBFO, here.

It wasn’t just George Floyd’s name heard at protests across Buffalo this summer. The names of Quentin Suttles, Wardel ‘Meech’ Davis, and Cariol Horne were all chanted as a national fight against systematic racism continues. Photographer Tito Ruiz was on the front line with protestors to capture the emotion felt locally in Western New York’s fight for racial justice. Now, more than 30 of his large prints are on display as part of a solo exhibit at CEPA Gallery.

Translate »