BLOG FEED – RE-POSTS
UB Professor: Rittenhouse verdict deepens political divide
Read the full article from WKBW, here.
“I was shocked, not surprised,” said Dr. Henry Taylor, the director for the Center of Urban Studies at the University at Buffalo, about the verdict of Kyle Rittenhouse.
Race was one of the central issues in last year’s protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Friday’s verdict had Taylor thinking about race once again.
D.C. Extends Program Diverting Mental Health Calls From Police
By Sarah Holder
Read the full article from CityLab, here.
One of several reforms aimed at reducing fatal interactions between police and those with behavioral emergencies, D.C.’s pilot aims to route more 911 calls to social workers.
HOME gets $350,000 federal grant to advance fair housing fight
By Jonathan D. Epstein
Read the full article from The Buffalo News, here.
The money will target underserved communities most affected by the health, economic and housing consequences of the pandemic.
The Architecture of Prisons Is Everywhere We Look
By Marianela D’aprile
Read the full article from Jacobin, here.
Public buildings — all buildings — perform social functions; they organize people and their activities. Prisons remove people from their environment and therefore their humanity; they discipline and isolate. In a capitalist state, where schools are charged largely with creating orderly and disciplined future workers, it follows that they would share their form with prisons.
Architecture serves as a billboard for the priorities of its commissioners — and generous, welcoming public buildings are low on their list. That’s how we end up with schools and libraries that look like prisons — and prisons that don’t.
Garcia appears likely winner in Erie County sheriff race
By Matthew Spina & Mike McAndrew
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
Republican John Garcia appears to be the likely winner of the Erie County sheriff race over Democrat Kimberly Beaty after elections workers counted mail-in ballots and posted new results late Tuesday.
Garcia had a 3,078-vote lead over Beaty after 11,848 absentee ballots were counted Tuesday. Beaty grabbed more than half of the absentee ballot votes, but was unable to catch Garcia.
The Erie County Republican Committee posted congratulations to Garcia on Facebook at about 10 p.m.
How a Conservative Activist Invented the Conflict Over Critical Race Theory
By Benjamin Wallace-Wells
Read the full article from The New Yorker, here.
Remote work turned out to be advantageous for people looking to leak information to reporters. Instructions that once might have been given in conversation now often had to be written down and beamed from one home office to another. Holding a large meeting on Zoom often required e-mailing supporting notes and materials—more documents to leak. Before the pandemic, if you thought that an anti-racism seminar at your workplace had gone awry, you had to be both brave and sneaky to record it. At home, it was so much easier. Zoom allowed you to record and take screenshots, and if you were worried that such actions could be traced you could use your cell phone, or your spouse’s cell phone, or your friend’s. Institutions that had previously seemed impenetrable have been pried open: Amazon, the I.R.S., the U.S. Treasury. But some less obviously tectonic leaks have had a more direct political effect, as was the case in July, 2020, when an employee of the city of Seattle documented an anti-bias training session and sent the evidence to a journalist named Christopher F. Rufo, who read it and recognized a political opportunity.
“At the End of the Day, Climate Is a Working-Class Issue”
By Andrew Giambrone
Read the full article from Jacobin, here.
India Walton may have lost the Buffalo mayoral race last week, but her campaign isn’t the only socialist one in upstate New York. Today in the Mid-Hudson Valley, Sarahana Shrestha, the Ulster County cochair of the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) local chapter, announced her bid for the state assembly seat for Kingston, New Paltz, Woodstock, Rhinebeck, and other areas. The seat is currently held by Kevin Cahill, a nearly twenty-nine-year incumbent expected to seek reelection in New York’s 2022 Democratic primary.
After a long strike at Mercy Hospital, how do Catholic Health and union workers repair the relationship?
By Jon Harris
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
Catholic Health System and the Communications Workers of America traded blows like heavyweight boxers in a 35-day main event at Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo – shaped during the prior 18 months by a pandemic that forever changed each side.
The bout is now concluded, after about 2,500 workers overwhelmingly ratified new labor contracts over the weekend and into Monday.
Now it’s time to recover. That starts now, as the 2,000 workers who were on strike for 35 days begin returning to Mercy Hospital on Wednesday.
NAACP ‘coming back home’ to African American Heritage Corridor
By Mark Sommer
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
The 106-year-old Buffalo branch of the NAACP is “coming back home,” branch president Rev. Mark Blue said Tuesday of the organization’s imminent relocation to a rehabilitated 19th century building in the Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor.
“This is kind of like a dream come true,” said Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, who grew up on the East Side never knowing about the history of the corridor, including the start of the Niagara Movement, the precursor to the NAACP, or the role of the Underground Railroad at the Michigan Street Baptist Church.
With a community on edge, the trial over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery begins.
By Richard Fausset
Read the full article from The New York Times, here.
The jury, which is made up of residents from Glynn County, where more than a quarter of the population is Black, includes 11 white people and one Black person. Anxiety over the jury’s racial makeup was palpable among observers and participants during the more than two weeks that the jurors were being chosen.
Lawyers have said the trial could last a month. The extraordinarily long jury selection process, a grueling process that took two and a half week and included the seating of four alternate jurors, has already underscored the explosive nature of this case. That is particularly true in coastal Glynn County, where many of the 85,000 residents are connected by bonds of family, school or work, and where racial tension and harmony are deeply laced.
Co-op Leaders Seek to Reconnect with Movement’s Social Justice Roots
By Steve Dubb
Read the full article from Non-profit Quarterly, here.
October is co-op month in the US, a time for co-op leaders to gather, even if gathering these days is hybrid or virtual. This year’s Co-op Impact conference, organized by the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), the US co-op trade association, centered on questions of co-op identity and meaning. Or, as Karen Zimbelman, a longtime food co-op trainer who was inducted this year into the national cooperative hall of fame, put it, “What are the times asking and demanding of us as co-ops today?”
This Louisville neighborhood has landed $20M to boost homeownership and business
By Lucas Aulbach
Read the full article from Courier Journal, here.
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, city officials and others celebrated the massive investment, part of a $200 million initiative from the bank and Enterprise Community Partners to support growth in nine neighborhoods across the country. Russell, Mayor Greg Fischer told the crowd, has a lot to gain from the funding after decades of neglect.
Some public grade schools cancel Halloween due to lack of ‘equity and inclusion’
By Sean Salai
Read the full article from The Washington Times, here.
A handful of elementary schools across the country are canceling Halloween celebrations because some activists and administrators say the spooky holiday is unfair to poor children, minority families and “marginalized” cultures.
Colin Powell, Politely Anguished War Criminal, Dead at 84
By Liza Featherstone
Read the full article from Jacobin, here.
Colin Powell, a principal architect of the US invasion of Iraq, a campaign of armed aggression that killed hundreds of thousands, was beloved by many for his thoughtful and deliberative vibe.
Students learn real history in Indigenous health disparities course
By David J Hill
Read the full article from UBNow, here.
You can’t focus on moving forward without acknowledging the atrocities of the past,” Connelly says. “And that’s not to guilt anyone. That’s not to shame people. That is to bring awareness and inspire people to make true change, just like Dean is doing. He changed my life and he changed the lives of many of the students in this class. I wouldn’t be on my path without him.”
Seneca’s Indigenous health disparities course aims to teach students the real histories of American Indian and Alaska Native people, and how the injustices they faced created many of the health disparities that remain today.
Report: Conditions worsen for Blacks in Buffalo
By Mark Scheer
Read the full article from Investigative Post, here.
In 1990, researchers at the University at Buffalo took a comprehensive look at what it was like to be Black and living in Buffalo. They found large numbers of African Americans were out of work, living in poverty, lacked a college degree and were renters rather than homeowners. The report predicted that the “downward trend” for the city’s Black population would continue unless an action plan was put in place to halt the decline. The “portrait of Black Buffalo remains unchanged” more than 30 years later, a follow-up study released this week has found. The report concluded that Black Buffalonians “have not made progress over the past thirty-one years.” The problems are actually getting worse on the city’s predominantly Black East Side, researchers found. “We have to do something different and, if we don’t, 31 years from now it will be the same way,” said Dr. Henry Taylor Jr., the study’s lead researcher and director of UB’s Center for Urban Studies.
The Tech That Slumlords Hate
By Ethan McLeod
Read the full article from City Lab, here.
Housing activists, officials and researchers are deploying new tools to empower tenants, spotlight negligent property owners and curb evictions in U.S. cities.
House to vote to extend debt ceiling through early December
By Clare Foran & Kristin Wilson
Read the full article from CNN, here.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned lawmakers that the federal government will likely run out of cash by October 18 unless Congress raises the debt ceiling, setting up a ticking clock and high stakes. Congress may not even have that long to act since the deadline is more of a best-guess estimate than a set-in-stone deadline. That dynamic intensified pressure on Democrats and Republicans to reach a deal to address the debt limit.
But the temporary debt limit extension is only a short-term fix and sets up another looming potential fiscal crisis later this year when it runs out.
Erik Brady: The incredible resilience of Mamie Kirkland and the story she rarely told Buffalo
By Erik Brady
Read the full article from Buffalo , here.
The arc of his mother’s life tells the story of the African American experience in the 20th century. Granted, it took Kirkland a lifetime to realize. And even when he did understand, it wasn’t easy to get his mother to go along with a movie.
The award-winning result is “100 Years From Mississippi,” a documentary that is playing at film festivals across North America — and this week is coming to Buffalo, where Mamie Kirkland died in 2019 as our oldest citizen, at 111.
The hourlong documentary will be shown at the Buffalo International Film Festival at 1:45 p.m. Sunday at the North Park Theatre. Kirkland will be there for a Q&A. The last time he was in Buffalo was for his mother’s funeral. That was a celebration of her life. So is the movie.
MacArthur Foundation fellowship recipients include two Black women who say Chicago shaped their work
By Jason Beeferman
Read the full article from Chicago Sun Times, here.
Historian and author Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Jacqueline Stewart, who studies the history of cinema, both focus their work on the Black experience and uplifting Black voices. They are among 25 recipients of the no-strings-attached $625,000 fellowships, unofficially dubbed the “genius grants,” announced Tuesday.
Taylor has lived in Chicago for more than a decade. Stewart was born and raised in Hyde Park. Both said their experiences with Chicago’s Black neighborhoods played a pivotal role in their intellectual development.
Redlining: How racial discrimination hobbled Black homeownership in Buffalo
By Charlie Specht , Sean Mickey
Read the full article from WKBW Buffalo, here.
But this stark disparity did not happen organically. If it seems that people looked at a map and drew lines down Main Street dividing the “haves” from the “have nots,” it’s because they did.
Maps drawn in 1937 for the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation — a federal government agency — were used by the mortgage industry for decades to deny mortgages in areas where poor people and residents of color lived, a practice known as “redlining.”
His Name Was Emmett Till
By Wright Thompson
Read the full article from The Alantic, here.
Emmett till was killed early on the morning of August 28, 1955, one month and three days after his 14th birthday. His mother’s decision to show his body in an open casket, to allow Jet magazine to publish photos—“Let the world see what I’ve seen,” she said—became a call to action. Three months after his murder, Rosa Parks kept her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, and she later told Mamie Till that she’d been thinking of Emmett when she refused to move. Almost 60 years later, after Trayvon Martin was killed, Oprah Winfrey channeled the thoughts of many Americans in evoking the memory and the warning of Emmett Till.
Can Erie County office close the health equity gap?
By News Editorial Board
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz plans to spend $300,000 in federal stimulus money to attack the racial disparity in health outcomes. It’s a good start. The challenge for Poloncarz: Ensure the spending actually narrows the gap.
In Erie County, African American children are more than twice as likely to die within a year after birth, according to the County Health Rankings report, and twice as likely to die before they turn 18. African American girls are 2 1/2 times more likely than whites to give birth in their late teens.
Underlying all of that is poverty. Nearly half of African American children in Erie County are living in poverty – five times the rate among white children.
How Buffalo’s lottery proposal for $500 monthly checks compares to other cities
By News Staff Reporter
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
The “guaranteed income” program Mayor Byron W. Brown has proposed for Buffalo shares the traits of other such initiatives around the country with one exception: More people would participate.
The $500 monthly payment is in line with pilot projects proposed or already running in 16 other cities, according to a Buffalo News review of their criteria.
Related Companies obtain $3 million in tax breaks for affordable housing overhauls
By News Staff Reporter
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
Related plans to invest up to $50,000 per unit on renovations that should begin this fall and take up to 18 months to complete at the Princeton Court Apartments, Parkside Houses Apartments, Brewster Mews Apartments and Oxford Village Townhomes. Current owner M.J. Peterson Corp. will remain a 50% owner and continue to manage the properties.
Amherst Industrial Development Agency officials say the projects preserve roughly 1,000 units of affordable housing in the town for the next 30 to 40 years. The IDA board approved the incentive requests on July 16. Related also is seeking a payment in lieu of taxes agreement from the Town of Amherst.
People Inc. ready to start next project at Elmwood Crossing
By News Business Reporter
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
The next phase of work at Elmwood Crossing is poised to begin in just over a month, with a little-noticed conversion project would bring low-income seniors to live in a former hospital buildings.
People Inc., the region’s largest social services nonprofit agency, plans to transform the former Maternity Building at the old Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo into a senior housing facility.
Buffalo police community outreach
By Sharon Cantillon
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
The Buffalo Police Department held a community outreach called Taking It to the Streets at New Hope Baptist Church, across from Schiller Park, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. It provided a chance for the police to interact with the public. Police officials and various officers were on hand as well as community groups and services. They plan on doing similar events around the city throughout the rest of the summer.
Citizen panel questions Buffalo police chief on white supremacy in policing
By Deidre Williams
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
Noting a series of alarming incidents around the country, members of a citizens police oversight panel that reports to the Buffalo Common Council on Wednesday questioned Police Commissioner Byron C. Lockwood on the steps being taken to prevent a white supremacist from infiltrating the department’s ranks.
In the Twin Cities, Affordable Homeownership Is Increasingly Inaccessible for Black Families
By Yonah Freemark, Eleanor Noble, Yipeng Su, and Kimberly Burrowes
Read the full article from Housing Matters, here.
But deep structural racism and classism have made access to homeownership inequitably distributed along racial and class lines. Nowhere in the US is this inequity greater than in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, a region encompassing Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and their suburbs, where Black families own homes at less than one-third the rate of white families—the largest gap in the nation.
Erie County legislators expect ugly fight before vote on how to spend stimulus money
By Sandra Tan
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
The Democratic majority of the Erie County Legislature stands poised to approve County Executive Mark Poloncarz’s $123.7 million spending plan Thursday, which would take one of the biggest windfalls in decades and use it to boost a variety of infrastructure and community improvement projects, as well as county payroll.
But the Republican-supported minority caucus is gearing up to wage a battle on the Legislature floor. They will push to sidetrack the county executive’s spending plan and replace it with a different plan that they say offers more public input.
Buffalo offering aid for those behind on water bills
By Jeff Slawson
Read the full article from WKBW Buffalo, here.
The City of Buffalo and the Buffalo Sewer Authority are providing relief to the more than 30,000 households that fell behind on water and sewer bills during the past 16 months. Of the $361 million the city received through the American Rescue Plan, $13 million of it will be used to wash away debt for low-income families who faced financial hardships as a result of the pandemic.
After assuring Congress that it hasn’t forgotten about Haiti, the Biden administration scrambles to assess the crisis
By Lara Jakes and Catherine Porter
Read the full article from The New York Times, here.
On Wednesday morning, Representative Andy Levin, a member of the committee who is also a co-chair of the House Haiti Caucus, called the killing of Mr. Moïse “a devastating if not shocking example of the extent to which the security situation in Haiti has unraveled.”
“For months,” he said in a statement, “violent actors have terrorized the Haitian people with impunity while the international community — the United States included, I fear — has failed to heed their cries to change course and support a Haitian-led democratic transition.”
Eric Adams Wins Democratic Primary for New York City Mayor
By Katie Glueck
Read the full article from The New York Times, here.
Eric L. Adams, who rose from poverty to become an iconoclastic police captain and the borough president of Brooklyn, declared victory in the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City on Tuesday, putting him on track to become the second Black mayor in the history of the nation’s largest city.
Another Voice: Education, not guilt, is the focus of Critical Race Theory
By Beth Kwiatek
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
CRT and whiteness studies argue that racism is not the consequence of the actions of individual racists, but that racism is embedded in the systems of our nation: legal, economic, education, religious and political. These systems all purport the myth of equality, but operate in a way that has always benefited whites and continues to do so.
At UNC, the Damage Is Done
By Sarah Brown
Read the full article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, here.
Wilson isn’t planning to leave UNC yet. She had another job offer a year ago and decided to stay in Chapel Hill. But at a recent meeting of the Carolina Black Caucus, a campus group that advocates for Black faculty and staff members, most of the 30 attendees said they were looking for jobs elsewhere — and caucus leaders say that sentiment is reflected broadly across their membership.
Developer expands plans for $7M apartment on Michigan Avenue by 30%
By James Fink
Read the full article from Buffalo Business First, here.
Cedarland Development Co. has changed its plans for a new Buffalo apartment complex, increasing the space by nearly 30%.
Tappo Day Club issues statement after viral post on club’s dress code
By Anthony Reyes
Read the full article from WKBW Buffalo, here.
In a statement Thursday, Tappo Day Club said the dress code policy was posted on their building after a physical altercation that led to Buffalo police being called occurred at the club on May 22.
Forming Partnerships With Public Health Departments, Part 1: Why It’s a Good Idea
By Logan Rockefeller Harris, Megan Gaydos, and Solange Gould
Read the full article from ShelterForce, here.
Meaningful partnerships between public health departments and community organizers are incredibly important—they can build community power to create the conditions that allow people and communities to thrive. At Human Impact Partners (HIP) we’re working to transform the field of public health to center equity and build collective power with social justice movements.
Change universities to change capitalism
By Capital-Star Guest Contributor
Read the full article from Pennsylvania Capital Star, here.
Recently, leading foundations, including Ford, Hewlett, and the Omidyar Network, have developed initiatives designed to promote a reexamination of capitalism and find a successor to neoliberalism with its emphasis on privatization, deregulation, and a reduction in government spending.
The American Rescue Plan and President Joe Biden’s big and impressive infrastructure bill will turn the tide and begin to redirect capitalism for the better.
Producing a truly more humane and effective system will also require changing American higher education. Research universities in particular are sources of new ideas and discoveries, incubators for business and technology, cultural and artistic centers, and local, national and global economic engines.
A Nightmare of Terror Across the Landscape of Palestine
By Yousef Munayyer
Read the full article from The Nation <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-palestine-reign-of-terror/".
“[W]hat is happening in Sheikh Jarrah is not just about Jerusalem but is also reflective of the entire Palestinian experience. Since the start of Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine, the aim has been to slowly and steadily expand control over the territory, pushing the indigenous population out in a continual process of replacement…All of this would be tinder enough for this moment, but it also happens to be taking place in a broader immediate context, one in which the vise grip of accelerating right-wing, theocratic nationalism is tightening across Israel.”
How a Socialist City Councilor Won 100% Affordable Housing in a Gentrifying Chicago Neighborhood
By Carlos Ramirez-Rosa
Read the full article from Jacobin here.
“From the top of Logan Square’s newest seven-story apartment building at 2602 North Emmett Street, just steps from the train stop bearing the neighborhood’s name, the view is incredible…In Chicago’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, this is usually the kind of coveted view and central location only the wealthy can enjoy. But they won’t be able to buy all this building has to offer. Instead, all of the building’s hundred apartments are publicly funded and reserved for poor and working-class people.”
The Debate Over Service Work and Unemployment Benefits Shows Why Marxism Is Right
By Luke Savage
Read the full article from Jacobin here.
“More than any Marxist text ever could, the COVID-19 emergency cash relief programs — and the furious reaction to them from employers — lay bare the raw truth about capitalism: bosses’ profits depend directly on workers’ remaining terrified of destitution.”
Is Capitalism a Threat to Democracy?
By Caleb Crain
Read the full article from The New Yorker here.
“In Vienna, Polanyi had heard socialism dismissed as utopian, on the ground that no central authority could efficiently manage millions of different wishes, resources, and capabilities. In “The Great Transformation,” he swivelled this popgun around. What was utopian, he declared, was “the concept of a self-regulating market.” Human life wasn’t as orderly as mathematics, and only a goggle-eyed idealist would think it wise to lash people to a mechanism like the gold standard and then turn the crank. For most of human history, he observed, money and the exchange of goods had been embedded within culture, religion, and politics.”
Please Don’t Wear A Sombrero: What Cinco De Mayo Really Means, From A Mexican
By Maria Garcia
Read the full article from WBUR here.
“My biggest gripe with Cinco de Mayo is not the cultural appropriation, as off-putting as I find it. The real tragedy for me is that a day that once represented Black and brown solidarity — and resistance against colonialism — has been mired by a commercial whitewashing. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Battle of Puebla in 1862, when a rag-tag army of mostly indigenous Mexicans defeated French forces who attempted to conquer the independent country…At the time, Mexican-Americans in California opposed to slavery felt that the success of the Union could hinge on the Battle of Puebla and upon hearing that Mexican forces had prevailed, they celebrated with fireworks and drinks. Cinco de Mayo was born…In the ’60s, Chicano activists in the U.S. revived the holiday, using it as a call to solidarity for Civil Rights.”
The Fight for Diverse, Inclusive, Antiracist and Just Democracies
By KerryAnn O’Meara, Ahmed Bawa, Hugo Garcia, Ira Harkavy, Rita Hodges and Hilligje Van’t Land
Read the full article from Inside Higher Ed here.
“At the 2020 Association for the Study of Higher Education conference, we shared research and practice from universities in South Africa, the United States and the International Association of Universities. We concluded that postsecondary institutions — notable contributions during the pandemic notwithstanding — have too often been complicit in systems that create or reproduce savage health and economic inequities, public disregard of science, and individuals who feel alienated and forgotten. Examples include the scarcity of locally situated university clinics and the lack of educational opportunities that perpetuates the exclusion of marginalized groups and working-class students.”
‘Justice Will Prevail,’ But Why Must We Die For Us To Come Out Ahead?
By Kevin L. Clark
Read the full article from Ebony here.
“As a rabble-rouser and fellow member of the Black community, it’s soundbites like this that make people like Nancy Pelosi believe that these police-sanctioned murders are “sacrifices” meant as steps to progress that will eventually liberate us from the oppressive and murderous intentions of the state and federal government.”
As Global Pandemic Worsens, U.S. Keeps Blocking Vaccine Patent Waivers Amid Big Pharma Lobbying
Listen to the full story from Democracy Now! here.
“Dozens of countries from the Global South, led by India and South Africa, are demanding a temporary waiver on vaccine patents, but rich countries, including the U.S. under both the Trump and Biden administrations, have opposed the move. Lee Fang, investigative journalist at The Intercept, says there is a “glut” of vaccines going to wealthy countries while much of the rest of the world is left waiting.”
White Supremacy Never Takes a Day Off
By Elie Mystal
Read the full article from The Nation here.
“The police, the people empowered to turn systemic racism into state-sponsored terrorism, remain totally unbowed by the conviction of a single cop. At the very moment the verdict against Chauvin was being read in Minneapolis, police in Columbus, Ohio, shot 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant to death. Cops couldn’t wait until the close of business on the day George Floyd’s family found some measure of justice before killing another Black person.”
We Still Don’t Know Who the Coronavirus’s Victims Were
By Ibram X. Kendi
Read the full article from The Atlantic here.
“More than a year into a pandemic that has killed at least 574,978 Americans and infected 32.3 million as of Thursday, we still have only partial visibility into precisely who coronavirus patients really are. Data inequality, and all its shadows, is the norm. No one knows how many Black Americans died from COVID-19. No one knows exactly how many Native Americans were hospitalized. No one knows precisely how many white Americans were tested for the coronavirus. No one knows precisely how many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were terrorized by other Americans.”
Police Traffic Stops Have Little to Do with Public Safety
By Libby Doyle and Susan Nembhard
Read the full article from Urban Wire here.
“Research on police traffic stops has consistently found widespread racial disparities, with Black drivers more likely than white drivers to be pulled over in cities across the country. These disparities are amplified when considering vehicle search rates; Black and Latine drivers are significantly more likely to be searched than white drivers. In North Carolina, Black drivers were 63 percent more likely to be pulled over and 115 percent more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than white drivers, despite finding that contraband was more likely to be found on white drivers.”
What It Actually Means to Pass Local ‘Reparations’
By Brentin Mock
Read the full article from CityLab here.
“Reparations in the U.S. have conventionally been defined as the idea that Black Americans should be compensated for the wrongs of slavery and racial discrimination — an idea once embraced almost exclusively by members of the Black radical Left. As the term has become mainstream, it’s important to probe: Do these municipal programs actually constitute reparations as opposed to, in Evanston’s case, housing assistance, or, in Asheville’s case, part of the divest/invest strategy that many other cities are pursuing?”
Bill Gates says no to sharing vaccine formulas with global poor to end pandemic
By Jon Queally
Read the full article from Salon here.
“Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest men and most powerful philanthropists, was the target of criticism from social justice campaigners on Sunday after arguing that lifting patent protections on COVID-19 vaccine technology and sharing recipes with the world to foster a massive ramp up in manufacturing and distribution — despite a growing international call to do exactly that — is a bad idea. Directly asked during an interview with Sky News if he thought it “would be helpful” to have vaccine recipes be shared, Gates quickly answered: ‘No.’”
George Floyd, Cariol Horne, and the Duty to Intervene
By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan
Read the full article from Democracy Now! here.
“Horne organized a campaign to pass “Cariol’s Law” in Buffalo, New York. The law codifies the duty to intervene for police officers, whether on- or off-duty, when they see another officer using unreasonable force against a civilian. It also protects those officers who intervene from retaliation. As the protests sparked by George Floyd’s police killing swept the globe, the Buffalo City Council passed Cariol’s Law, and the mayor signed it into law.”
The Chauvin Verdict Represents an Absolute Minimum of Justice
By Elie Mystal
Read the full article from The Nation here.
“[I]f we ignore the structural changes, the hard changes, the necessary changes, we will be back here. We will not break the cycle of violence against people of color or the polarization over whether our lives matter. It is literally already too late for Floyd to be the last unarmed Black man to be murdered by criminal police action. It is already too late for this time to be the last time the country is divided over whether a cop should be held accountable for their actions.”
DeSantis Signs Bill Ending Vehicle Driver Liability For Hitting Protesters
By Chris Walker
Read the full article from Truthout here.
“Adora Obi Nweze, president of NAACP Florida State Conference, also described the law as being ‘racist, discriminatory, unwise, unlawful, and unjust…The Governor put his stamp on this discriminatory law filled with criminalization and civil rights disenfranchisement aimed at Black and Brown Floridians,’ she added. ‘We won’t sit silent on this issue and we won’t let this stop peaceful protests across the state of Florida.’”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot Has Failed Chicago
By Jasson Perez
Read the full article from The Nation here.
“In the aftermath of the tragedy, the mayor, police, and attorney general followed their usual post-police-killing script: They minimized both the violence on the tape and police culpability. Mayor Lori Lightfoot tried to hold abstractions like ‘systemic forces’ responsible…We know who killed Toledo. It was the police, with an assist from mayors like Lightfoot who fund and empower them. This is why we have taken to the streets in Chicago, again.”
What Daunte Wright’s Killing Foretells for the Suburbs
By Will Stancil
Read the full article from The Atlantic here.
“In some respects, segregation is even more harmful in the suburbs than in major cities, which typically have a larger industrial and commercial tax base that allows them to weather crises and sustain public services. On average, predominantly nonwhite suburbs have the lowest per capita tax base of any community type in a major metropolitan area—about 25 percent less than major cities, and about 40 percent less than predominantly white suburbs.”
‘Intellectual diversity’ on college campuses measure heads to Governor’s desk
By Renzo Downey
Read the full article from Florida Politics here.
“The Legislature has passed a bill calling for a survey of the ideological beliefs of Florida’s university and college professors, and it is now heading to Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ desk…The legislation comes as conservatives complain about a so-called liberal indoctrination of students. But in discussions Thursday, Republican Sen. Ray Rodrigues, who is shepherding the legislation through the Senate, opposed assertions that the effort is political. He brushed off suggestions administration could use the survey results in malicious ways toward faculty.”
New York Is Finally Taxing the Rich
By Liza Featherstone
Read the full article from Jacobin, here.
In the annual wrangling over the New York State budget, socialists and other left forces just won far more than anyone expected. The state legislature agreed to temporarily raise taxes on New Yorkers earning more than $1.1 million, with a tax rate of 10.9 percent on incomes over $25 million. This is happening even though Democratic scion Andrew Cuomo is still the governor. After years of Cuomo’s elevation of coddling the rich into a matter of liberal principle, in New York, as at the federal level, decades of austerity are grinding to a halt.
Chicago Awaits Video of Police Killing of 13-Year-Old Boy
By Jamie Kalven
Read the full article from The Intercept here.
“Again and again, incidents of police violence have arisen from relatively trivial occasions (e.g., a woman driving a car with a broken tail light, a man selling loose cigarettes, a child playing with a toy gun in a playground, et cetera). In view of the potential for any police encounter to derail, the first order of business is to reduce the number of unnecessary interactions. ShotSpotter does the opposite: It dramatically increases the number of such interactions and thereby increases the probability of bad outcomes that would not otherwise occur.”
Collaborative Justice-Centered Think Tank Launches at UIC: The Social Justice Portal Project
By University of Illinois at Chicago
Read the full article from Newswise here.
“John D. MacArthur Professor Barbara Ransby, director of the University of Illinois Chicago’s Social Justice Initiative, has convened a formidable roster of social justice scholars and writers as the inaugural cohort of Marielle Franco fellows, named after the assassinated Brazilian human rights leader. They are: Angela Y. Davis, Robin D. G. Kelley, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Naomi Klein. The four Franco fellows will participate in curated discussions and public events over the next two years with some of the most influential organizers in the country and scholars whose research wrestles with social and racial justice themes.”
Minnesota police shooting of Daunte Wright sparks protests
By Rachel Elbaum and Caroline Radnofsky
Read the full article from NBCBLK here.
“The Minnesota branch of the American Civil Liberties Union called in a statement for an ‘immediate, transparent and independent investigation by an outside agency’ and for the quick release of any body camera video. It said it has ‘deep concerns that police here appear to have used dangling air fresheners as an excuse for making a pretextual stop, something police do all too often to target Black people.’”
‘White Lives Matter’ rallies flop as hardly anyone shows up
By Brandy Zadrozny
Read the full article from NBC News, here.
The poor showing underscores how the country’s unpopular and disorganized extremist movements have been driven underground by increased scrutiny from the media, law enforcement agencies and far-left activists who infiltrate their private online spaces and disrupt their attempts to communicate and organize.
Police in California city declare unlawful assembly amid ‘white lives matter’ protest
By Marina Pitofsky
Read the full article from The Hill, here.
Law enforcement declared the unlawful assembly shortly before 3 p.m. “in order to disperse an unruly crowd,” the Huntington Beach Police Department confirmed in a statement on Sunday asking residents to vacate the area around the demonstration.
Bills stadium deal makes Highmark brand memorable. But in what way?
By Rod Watson
Read the full article from The Buffalo News here.
“The Rev. George Nicholas, chair of the African American Health Equity Task Force – who also signed the letter – pointed to the health disparities and wondered aloud if people are OK with that, adding, ‘We need to have a real conversation about what’s important in this region…We’re burying too many people,’ he said. ‘I get too many funerals of people who are not old.’ But Nicholas also took a more encouraging tack, saying, ‘The potential to do a much bigger thing is right there.’”
Baseball Says No to Jim Crow 2.0
By Dave Zirin
Read the full story from The Nation here.
“[T]he state passed a set of Jim Crow laws buttressed by a set of Jim Crow lies. It’s brazen as hell. Instead of competing for votes, the GOP has gone full white authoritarian in a manner that would make Bull Connor blush. Kemp is serving up these oppressive laws with a hearty helping of slop-Orwellian disinformation: It’s Orwell for people who didn’t do the reading.”
Corporations gave over $50M to voting restriction backers
By Brian Slodysko
Read the full article from AP News, here.
State legislators across the country who have pushed for new voting restrictions, and also seized on former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud, have reaped more than $50 million in corporate donations in recent years, according to a new report by Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group.
Iowa governor signs bill allowing permitless purchase, carry of handguns
By Mychael Schnell
Read the full article from The Hill, here.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) on Friday signed a bill that allows people to purchase and carry handguns in the state without a permit.
The Enduring Fiction of Affordable Housing
By Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal
Read the full article from The New Republic here.
“The strategic myopia of offering technical solutions to political problems, valorizing the expertise of financiers and economists over that of residents, and situating the private real estate market as the cure rather than cause of the housing crisis, is baked into the Affordable Housing project.”
Robin D.G. Kelley: Amazon Union Drive Builds on Decades of Black Radical Labor Activism in Alabama
From Democracy Now!
Watch the full interview from Democracy Now! here.
“I want to really emphasize that what makes the history of Alabama unionization important was the role of the left. You know, the fact is, the reason why we have anti-labor legislation, we have violence against labor in Alabama, what appears to be conservatives, the reason we have Jim Crow and the disenfranchisement of Black people, the most draconian anti-immigration laws, is precisely because those who rule the South know the potential of an interracial labor movement, because they’ve seen it.”
Exploring the future of higher education
By Kristina García
Read the full article from Penn Today here.
“Ira Harkavy, associate vice president at Penn and the Netter Center for Community Partnerships’ founding director, is the book’s co-editor. Harkavy contributed three chapters, one of which, ‘Chapter 7: Past, present, future: Re-thinking the social responsibility of U.S. higher education in light of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter,’ was co-written with Rita A. Hodges, Netter Center associate director. Penn Today talked with Harkavy to discuss social responsibility at Penn, the democratic purpose of higher education, and the role of universities in a post-pandemic world moving forward into the ‘next normal.’”
The Diversity and Inclusion Industry Has Lost Its Way
By Kim Tran
Read the full article from Harper’s Bazaar here.
“The people who populate DEI are who theorists call the national bourgeoisie, an entrepreneurial class of people of color interested in economic development (and personal enrichment) instead of liberation. Frantz Fanon said that the purview of the national bourgeoisie was “not to transform the nation but prosaically serve as a conveyor belt for capitalism.” The diversity, equity, and inclusion industry is distressingly close to getting caught in the assembly line of its own making, but another word for crossroads is choice.”
Need Amid Plenty: Richest U.S. Counties Are Overwhelmed by Surge in Child Hunger
By Laura Ungar
Read the full article from Route Fifty, here.
Data from the anti-hunger advocacy group Feeding America and the U.S. Census Bureau shows that counties seeing the largest estimated increases in child food insecurity in 2020 compared with 2018 generally have much higher median household incomes than counties with the smallest increases. In Bergen, where the median household income is $101,144, child hunger is estimated to have risen by 136%, compared with 47% nationally.
Evanston is the first U.S. city to issue slavery reparations. Experts say it’s a noble start
By Char Adams
Read the full article from NBC News, here.
The historic plan by Evanston, Illinois, to make reparations to its Black residents — including housing grants for a fraction of the city’s families — has prompted questions about whether funding such programs, as opposed to direct payments, can be considered reparations for slavery and racial discrimination at all. The first phase involves giving 16 residents $25,000 each, for home repairs or property costs. This plan, however, is far from the direct payments that have come to characterize reparations — redress for slavery and the subsequent racial discrimination in the United States. But experts say Evanston’s plan is a noble start to a complicated process.
The Amazon Union Drive and the Changing Politics of Labor
By Benjamin Wallace-Wells
Read the full article from The Atlantic here.
“Amazon’s influence is so vast—touching on issues from wealth and income inequality to antitrust policy, the American relationship with China, the omnipotence of workplace surveillance, and the atomizing effect of big business, in its most concentrated and powerful form, on families and communities—that it can scramble ordinary politics…The fight in Bessemer is different because it is so direct. Amazon isn’t a proxy for the future of the economy but its heart.”
Exclusive: Ohio’s Nina Turner picks up Ocasio-Cortez endorsement in U.S. House race
By Amanda Becker
Read the full article from the 19th here.
“Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement of Turner on Monday adds additional progressive energy to a race that is being seen as a contest between the Democratic Party’s establishment and its activist wing, given Ohio’s 11th Congressional District is heavily gerrymandered and strongly favors Democrats.”
Last Week in Boulder, the NRA Struck Down an Assault Weapons Ban. This Week in Boulder, a Massacre.
By David Sirota, Andrew Perez, Joel Warner
Read the full article from Jacobin, here.
Last week, the National Rifle Association successfully struck down an assault weapons ban in Boulder, Colorado. Five days later, Boulder was the scene of a mass shooting — reportedly with the same kind of weapon the city tried and failed to ban.
Your Home’s Value Is Based on Racism
By Dorothy A. Brown
Read the full article from The New York Times here.
“Black Americans are often unable to build wealth from homeownership in the same way their white peers are, in large part because home prices are generally set by the people who make up the majority of buyers: white Americans. White families typically prefer to live in predominantly white neighborhoods with very few or no Black neighbors. Homes in these neighborhoods tend to have the highest market values because most prospective purchasers — who happen to be white — find them most desirable.”
The Democratic Party’s Real War in 2020 Was Against Bernie Sanders
By Branko Marcetic
Read the full article from Jacobin here.
“Like Mr Magoo stepping on a sewer lid or a construction beam at just the right moment, Biden was propped up and rescued by a series of twists of fate he’d barely noticed, and came out the other side convinced it had all been his doing.”
Cities with more black residents rely more on traffic tickets and fines for revenue
By Akheil Singla
Read the full article from The Conversation here.
“In our study, we looked at a representative sample of 93 California cities from 2009 to 2014 to determine what affects how much cities fine residents and rely on fines for revenue…All else equal, our results showed that a 1% increase in black population is associated with a 5% increase in per capita revenue from fines and a 1% increase in share of total revenue from fines.”
France’s Alternative to Gentrification
By Owen Hatherley
Read the full article from Tribune, here.
This year’s Pritzker Prize, the highest award in architecture, went to Lacaton and Vassal: French architects who rejected estate demolition and instead renovated public housing – keeping residents in place.
Did the Comprehensive Community Initiatives of the 1990s, early 2000s Bring About Change?
By Meir Rinde
Read the full article from Shelterforce here.
“While their methods and specific goals varied, the CCIs all sought to bring focused resources and the lessons of past revitalization initiatives to poor, urban neighborhoods in order to effect broad change at the individual, neighborhood, and systems levels. They aimed to help local groups organize their communities, develop leaders, improve the physical infrastructure, boost their economies, enhance access to human services, and strengthen social bonds.”
Now and Then: Rent Control, Rental Assistance, and Universal Vouchers
By Miriam Axel-Lute
Read the full article from Shelterforce here.
“Although the backdrop of a crisis that requires major federal intervention and economic stimulus is similar to that of 2011, the political landscape is clearly very different right now. The dominant conversation is not about how to eke out positive interest in our work along the margins, and convince Republicans to consider housing, but how to make the most of the opportunity of a country ready to talk about housing and with an appetite for bold proposals that actually make meaningful differences in people’s lives.”
‘Couldn’t possibly be silent’: These women are carrying the torch for Breonna Taylor
By Chloe Atkins
Read the full article from NBCBLK here.
“‘It has given a lot of women a voice who didn’t realize they had one or didn’t know how to use it,’ said Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother. ‘To see so many women become part of something and stand up and not feel ashamed or powerless because they’re women — that’s a blessing, and Breonna would’ve loved to see it.’”
To celebrate resilience after the traumas of the past year, UB medical student launches a company
By Ellen Goldbaum
Read the full article from UB News Center here.
“You don’t get to be a physician of color and not engage in these conversations,” Collier said. “The paucity of diversity has made us, the medical students, the ones that our community goes to on so many issues. For example, to mitigate vaccine hesitancy. We play so many different roles.”
From Brooklyn to Buffalo, Socialists are Organizing to Tax the Rich
By Rob Katz
Read the full article from The Indypendent, here.
When a coalition of 40 organizations wrote to Krueger in February 2020 to propose a package of income taxes on wealthy individuals and large corporations, she told the Daily News that she supports a “robust progressive tax system” but insisted that only the governor, who has spent his decade-long tenure slashing taxes and social spending, could grow total spending for new or expanded programs. In the pre-pandemic world, Krueger made clear that while she supported the sentiment, she believed her hands were tied.
It’s Past Time for Congress to Permanently Demilitarize Our Police
By Representative Hank Johnson and Yasmine Taeb
Read the full article from The Nation, here.
In the last few years, the transfer of surplus military-grade weaponry from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to the streets of America has flourished. The militarization of domestic law enforcement perpetuates institutionalized racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia and contributes to the maintenance of a society where the lives of Black and brown people don’t matter. Moreover, studies have shown that the militarization of police departments is not only unsafe for communities but also ineffective in reducing crime or improving police safety. Not surprisingly, evidence has shown that law enforcement agencies that receive military equipment are more prone to violence against the communities they are sworn to protect.
White supremacists’ fake bomb threats net 3 years in prison
By Associated Press
Read the full article from the Grio, here.
A former Old Dominion University student who joined up with white supremacists in a swatting conspiracy that targeted a Black church, his own university and a Cabinet officer, among others, was sentenced to nearly three years in prison Monday.
Renting Is Terrible. Owning Is Worse.
By Shane Phillips
Read the full article from The Atlantic here.
“The housing situation is only getting worse—more expensive, more inequitable, more precarious. As prices have continued their climb in the country’s most economically dynamic regions, it’s no longer feasible for working-class residents to seek out the best opportunities there. Instead, younger and lower-income residents are being pushed out to places where jobs are less plentiful and lucrative, but where housing, at least, is relatively affordable.”
Speakers make case for giving financial reparations to descendants of slavery
By Barbara Branning
Read the full article from UBNow here.
“Darity pointed out that wealth is equated with a family’s well-being, and that a person’s financial agency leads to greater opportunity — for homeownership and building savings, for example. Currently, he said, Black people represent 13% of the population but hold only 2% of the nation’s wealth. Darity and Mullen ended their presentation with a synopsis of their detailed plan for providing substantial financial compensation to all eligible descendants of documented slaves.”
How Can Blackness Construct America?
By Michael Kimmelman
Read the full article from The New York Times here.
“The MoMA show was organized by Sean Anderson, an associate curator at the museum, and Mabel O. Wilson, an architect, Columbia University professor and author, among much else, of ‘White by Design,’ which describes the Modern’s failure to display and collect works by Black architects and designers. ‘Reconstructions’ proceeds from a question: ‘How do we construct Blackness?’ The architects enlisted to answer this question are a multigenerational mix, including some familiar names. Nearly all run small or solo practices.”
U.S. Pedestrian Deaths Soar In ‘Total Failure’ As States Prioritize Vehicle Speed, Traffic Flow
By Nina Golgowski
Read the full article from HuffPost here.
“Black people were found to have been struck and killed by drivers at an 82% higher rate than white non-Hispanic people during the years 2010 to 2019. The fatality rate in the lowest-income neighborhoods was nearly twice that of middle-income neighborhoods. ‘Low-income communities are significantly less likely to have sidewalks, marked crosswalks, and street design to support safer, slower speeds,’ the report states. ‘It is likely that many of the people walking in these lower-income census tracts are also lower-income themselves.’ People in lower-income communities are less likely to have cars, the report adds.”
Legislating the Gig Worker Economy
By Liz Farmer
Read the series on the gig economy from the Rockefeller Institute here.
“Part One of this series will address the legislative approach to protecting gig workers’ rights in California and other states. Part Two looks at efforts to protect gig companies. Part Three will look at how the COVID-19 economic crisis might influence the gig economy and labor policy going forward.”
‘Support Black Women Leaders’ Is Key Message In National Ad—And We Agree
By Donna M. Owens
Read the full article from Essence, here.
In a full-page ad in The New York Times, the group is celebrating nearly 100 current and former Black women political leaders. They run the gamut from Vice President Kamala Harris to the late Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. Higher Heights is also challenging what they called “the shameless absence of Black women” in certain offices at the federal level and beyond.
A Florida Lawmaker Introduced Legislation to Remove Traffic Enforcement From Police
By Meg O’Connor
Read the full article from The Appeal, here.
Under Hardy’s proposal, each city and county in Florida would be required to create a Public Safety Department by July 1, 2023. The department would have distinct operational divisions with different public safety functions, including law enforcement, traffic enforcement, crisis response and intervention, and emergency call answering and dispatch. The bill also seeks to hire civilian crisis responders.
Iowa governor signs Republican bill restricting voting access into law
By The Associated Press
Read the full article from NBC News, here.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday signed into law a Republican-backed bill that makes it harder to vote early, potentially eroding a key aspect of Democratic campaigns. Republicans in the House and Senate quickly approved the voting changes over the opposition of all Democratic legislators. Republicans said the new rules were needed to guard against voting fraud, though they noted Iowa has no history of election irregularities and that November’s election saw record turnout with no hint of problems in the state.
Racial disparities plague vaccine rollout in WNY and across U.S.
By Caitlin Dewey
Read the full article from The Buffalo News here.
“In New York, white residents have received a disproportionate share of vaccines in each of the state’s 10 regions and in all five counties of Western New York. That disparity is especially dramatic in Erie County: While white residents make up just over 81% of the population, they account for almost 91% of the newly vaccinated. Black residents, on the other hand, represent 5.7% of all vaccinated people (compared to 13.1% of the population), while Asian residents make up 2.5% of those vaccinated (3.6% of the population) and Hispanic residents make up 2.2% (4.5% of the population).”
Why Cornel West’s Tenure Fight Matters
By Robin D.G. Kelley
Read the full article from Boston Review here.
“So when Harvard’s administrators tell Professor West that they cannot bring him up for tenure because it’s ‘too risky’ and he’s ‘too controversial,’ they completely undermine the point of tenure: to preserve and protect his freedom to speak truth to power, to expose injustice anywhere, to bring to bear his enormous critical faculties and prophetic voice to say those things we need to hear in order to advance knowledge and create a more just world. After all, neither his generous salary, nor the name on his endowed chair, nor all the effusive assurances from the administration will protect him from dismissal if, in the course of ‘offering ideas, views and analyses,’ he offends the powers that be or their donors.”
Buffalo police don’t belong in traffic enforcement
By Jalonda Hill
Read the full article from The Buffalo News here.
“The BPD’s history of disproportionately stopping Black drivers also counters the argument that police improve community safety. Stop receipt data from 2020 shows that 68% of receipts were issued to Black motorists, despite Black people making up roughly 37% of the city’s population. This apparent racism also drives the disproportionate and unjustified use of police force against unarmed people of color.”
Right 2 The City 