Tag: racial inequality

As NFL reopens amid altered landscape, Trump resumes attacks on players who demonstrate for racial justice

Washington Post logo

President Trump’s attempt to show that the nation is recovering from the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic will clash head-on Thursday with his denunciations of social justice demonstrations when the National Football League kicks off its season in prime time.

Trump has lobbied heavily for sports leagues to restart despite the threat of the virus, but his demands have been incongruous when it comes to the NFL, an $8.8 billion juggernaut whose television ratings dwarf all competitors’.

Ahead of the season opener between the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans, the president and his allies have resumed their long-standing bashing of NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem to call attention to police brutality affecting communities of color. Continue reading.

‘The scariest jobs chart’: Economics columnist details the troubling signs lurking beneath the positive unemployment news

AlterNet logoWhen President Donald Trump spoke at a press briefing in the White House Rose Garden on Friday, he bragged to reporters about the state of the economy.

“We’re going to have the strongest economy in the world,” he said. “We’re almost there now.”

But while there was unexpectedly good news released on Friday, columnist Catherine Rampell explained in her Washington Post column why it also came with troubling signs.  Continue reading.

How Minneapolis, One of America’s Most Liberal Cities, Struggles With Racism

New York Times logoThe Midwestern city that has been the site of unrest views itself as embracing multiculturalism. But it also struggles with segregation and racial gaps on education.

MINNEAPOLIS — Residents of Minneapolis swell with pride over their city’s sparkling lakes, glassy downtown, beautifully kept green spaces and bicycle friendliness that draws comparisons to Copenhagen. They see themselves as public spirited, embracing of multiculturalism and inspired by Minnesota’s liberal icons, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale and Paul Wellstone.

The Minneapolis City Council, made up of 12 Democrats and a member of the Green Party, includes two transgender members, both of whom are black. The city has for years held a popular community celebration and parade for Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery.

But there remains an extraordinary racial gap for Minnesotans when it comes to education outcomes and health care. Black families own their homes at far lower rates than white families, among the largest such disparity in the country. And the city’s predominantly white police force, which has been accused of racist practices for decades, rarely disciplines officers with troubled records. Continue reading.

President Obama: How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change

As millions of people across the country take to the streets and raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing problem of unequal justice, many people have reached out asking how we can sustain momentum to bring about real change.

Ultimately, it’s going to be up to a new generation of activists to shape strategies that best fit the times. But I believe there are some basic lessons to draw from past efforts that are worth remembering.

First, the waves of protests across the country represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States. The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring. They deserve our respect and support, not condemnation — something that police in cities like Camden and Flint have commendably understood. Continue reading.

Facebook staff anger over Trump post

Facebook staff have spoken out against the tech giant’s decision not to remove or flag a controversial post by US President Donald Trump last week.

Mr Trump took to Facebook to repeat a tweet about the widespread protests in Minneapolis, following the death of George Floyd in police custody.

Twitter had placed a warning over the content, which it said “glorified violence”, but Facebook said it did not violate its company policy.

Some staff said they were ‘ashamed’. Continue reading.

Their Minneapolis Restaurant Burned, but They Back the Protest

New York Times logoThough a Bangladeshi family lost their business in the uproar over the death of George Floyd, they support demonstrators and helped medics treat them.

On Friday morning, as dawn broke through the smoke hanging over Minneapolis, the Gandhi Mahal Restaurant was severely damaged by fire. Hafsa Islam, whose father owns the Bangladeshi-Indian restaurant with members of his family, woke at 6 a.m. to hear the news.

“At first, I was angry,” said Ms. Islam, 18. “This is my family’s main source of income.”

But then she overheard her father, Ruhel Islam, speaking to a friend on the phone. “Let my building burn,” he said. “Justice needs to be served.” Continue reading.

Trump envisioned ‘American carnage.’ Now, he’s got it.

Analysis: The president has met protests against state violence with calls for more of it.

WASHINGTON, DC — When President Donald Trump first addressed the nation as its president on Jan. 20, 2017, he depicted the nation’s cities as domestic combat zones and declared “this American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”

Back then, it was hyperbole at best. But it’s become reality on his watch, and he has encouraged further violence.

More than 100,000 Americans have lost their lives, and another 40 million their livelihoods, amid a coronavirus pandemic to which Trump was slow to react. Against that backdrop, cities across the country are now combustible cauldrons of fear, anger, fire and tear gas as Trump has responded to the violence with threats and little evidence of understanding its cause. Continue reading.

Trump Has Returned To His 2016 Law-And-Order Rhetoric, But It Might Not Sit So Well In 2020

When President Trump delivered his inaugural address in 2017, it was in an unfamiliar style. Gone was the jokey off-handedness of Trump-on-the-trail. In a stilted, elegiac tone the freshly-minted president spoke of “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones” and “young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge.” The content of the speech was familiar, though: Trump would bring America back from the brink. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.” President George W. Bush called it “some weird shit.”

Trump ran on law and order — “I am the law and order candidate” he helpfully explained — even if empirical evidence suggested nothing was wrong with the law and order Americans were already living under. The country’s rates of violent crime were trending downward when he ran — falling 51 percent between 1993 and 2018 — and the economy was churning along, but Trump tapped into some Americans’ dissatisfaction with the status quo. Law and order was about the restoration of a certain social configuration favorable to white Americans as much as it was a concern with crime.

As the strange election year that is 2020 marches on, Trump has returned to his 2016 rhetoric, but it may register differently. Late Thursday night, Minneapolis residents burned down a police station after the death of George Floyd, a black man in police custody. The president tweeted in response that, “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!” Continue reading.

Trump warns protesters as unrest sweeps America

In cities across the country, protests turned violent as local authorities called for calm.

President Donald Trump reacted to the protests and incidents of vandalism and violence ripping through several American cities by threatening to invoke the power of the federal government and the military, tossing the equivalent of a lighted match into a national uproar over an African-American man’s death at the hands of police.

“Crossing State lines to incite violence is a FEDERAL CRIME!” Trump tweeted on Saturday afternoon. “Liberal Governors and Mayors must get MUCH tougher or the Federal Government will step in and do what has to be done, and that includes using the unlimited power of our Military and many arrests.”

Mayors have been sharply critical of Trump’s leadership amid the burgeoning crisis that has now spread to some two dozen cities, accusing him of deepening America’s divides. “There’s been an uptick in tension and hatred and division since [Trump] came along,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news conference on Saturday. “It’s just a fact.” Continue reading.