Category: Racial Equality

Study Shows Black Girls Feel the Impact of 'Adultification'

~ mcequality

Research has already shown that black girls are seen by adults as less childlike than white girls. This phenomenon, known as “adultification,” was first documented two years ago by researchers at Georgetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality. Now, a followup study reveals that, not surprisingly, black girls and women sharply feel the impact of “adultification.” As one study participant put it, “[T]o society, we’re not innocent. And white girls are always innocent.”

In an earlier 2017 study, Georgetown Law researchers found that black girls, even those as young as 5 years old, were seen by adults as less needing of comfort, nurturing, protection, and support than white girls. The researchers also found that black girls were perceived as more independent and knowledgeable about sex. In this latest study, researchers set out to understand how black girls and women experienced this “adultification” through a series of national focus groups.

via Study Shows Black Girls Feel the Impact of 'Adultification'

Muhlaysia Booker, a Black Trans Woman Who Was Brutally Attacked in April, Has Been Killed

~ mcequality

In April, Muhlaysia Booker, a black trans woman, was brutally beaten in broad daylight in an attack that was captured on video. This past weekend, she was shot and killed in Dallas. Booker was 23 years old.

According to the Dallas Police Department’s Vincent Weddington, officers responded to a 911 call early Saturday morning and found Booker “lying facedown in the street, deceased from homicidal violence.” She was identified a day later. Booker is at least the fourth black trans woman to be shot and killed in 2019, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

via Muhlaysia Booker, a Black Trans Woman Who Was Brutally Attacked in April, Has Been Killed

How the Healthcare System Fails People Who Don't Speak English

~ mcequality

When Samia Ali worked as a medical scribe in Rhode Island—assisting doctors by writing down what happened during patient visits—she saw everything there is to see about the intimacies of a patient-physician relationship.

Many times, Ali told Splinter in an interview, she saw efficient and thoughtful care. But there was also neglect, mismanagement and, in some cases, open xenophobia.

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“One dynamic that struck me was working with providers who did two things: express impatience when [patients were] not understanding English and [ignore] that most elder immigrants like bringing another person, usually one of their kids, to talk to the provider directly as a translator,” she said.

via How the Healthcare System Fails People Who Don't Speak English

New Homeland Security Secretary, Same Anti-Immigrant Agenda | American Civil Liberties Union

~ mcequality

Don’t be fooled, McAleenan does not represent a new leaf. He is deeply implicated in many horrors over the last two and a half years. He recommended, and refuses to apologize for, family separations. He led Customs and Border Protection during the Muslim ban and oversaw the agency when two children died in its custody, toddlers were teargassed, and families were held for days in the dirt under a bridge. He stayed silent when Border Patrol abetted militias. No matter his job title, he serves and leads in an administration ideologically committed to dehumanizing immigrants — and that regrettably remains unchanged.

via New Homeland Security Secretary, Same Anti-Immigrant Agenda | American Civil Liberties Union

‘In our culture, you shut up and put up’ – BBC News

~ mcequality

Male survivors of childhood sexual abuse within the black community are being let down by the government, the head of a group of MPs has said. BBC reporter Ben Hunte – who was sexually abused himself – hears from men who say their needs have been overlooked.
“I tried to bury it. I tried to move on, but it stays there,” says Chris – not his real name.
Chris was speaking after the publication of a government report looking into how adult survivors are supported in the UK.

via ‘In our culture, you shut up and put up’ – BBC News

Kamala Harris at NAACP Rally: Midwest Isn’t Just White People

~ mcequality

Many of the 2020 Democratic primary candidates are obsessed with winning the Midwest—and in particular the storied white working-class voter, without whom, the conventional logic goes, they have no chance of taking back the White House. This logic is partly to explain for the front-runner status of Joe Biden, whose central campaign promise is that he can win over blue-collar white voters, as well as the rise of Pete Buttigieg, who regularly emphasizes his Midwestern credentials.

But on Sunday, speaking before a crowd gathered by the NAACP in Detroit, Senator Kamala Harris correctly noted that the Midwest has a sizable population of black voters and voters of color, and argued that winning the heartland will require appealing to these voters as well.

via Kamala Harris at NAACP Rally: Midwest Isn't Just White People

The Racist Roots of Denying Incarcerated People Their Right to Vote | American Civil Liberties Union

~ mcequality

In the 15 years between 1865 and 1880, at least 13 states — more than a third of the country’s 38 states — enacted broad felony disenfranchisement laws. The theory was simple — convict them of crimes, strip away the right to vote, imprison them, and lease them out as convict labor and Blacks would be returned to a condition as close to slavery as possible.

No one tried to hide the intent of these laws.

In 1894, a white South Carolina newspaper argued that amendments to the voting laws were necessary to avoid whites being swept away at the polls by the Black vote. In 1901, Alabama amended its Constitution to expand disenfranchisement to all crimes involving “moral turpitude” — a vague term that was applied to felonies and misdemeanors. The president of that constitutional convention argued that manipulating the ballot to exclude Blacks was justified because of the need to avoid the “menace of Negro domination,” especially since Blacks were inferior to whites.

via The Racist Roots of Denying Incarcerated People Their Right to Vote | American Civil Liberties Union

What Officer Noor’s Conviction Says About Racism in America | American Civil Liberties Union

~ mcequality

The racial aspect of this case speaks volumes about criminal justice and criminal injustice in America today. Noor, who is Black, Muslim, and a Somali immigrant, is believed to be the only police officer in Minnesota ever to have been convicted for killing someone while on duty.

At a crucial moment in the trial, Noor testified that he reacted to Damond as “the threat.” Prosecutors responded by asking him, “The whole blonde hair, pink t-shirt is a threat to you?” This line of questioning was in part about the legal standard required to convict. Under Graham v. Connor, a police officer can use force – including lethal force — if a reasonable officer on the scene would consider the level of force to be “objectively reasonable,” not whether the use of force was actually necessary in light of the various tactics and alternatives available to the officer at the time. Because this standard is so elastic, it is often very difficult to show that an officer violated it.

via What Officer Noor’s Conviction Says About Racism in America | American Civil Liberties Union

Stephen Moore Awkwardly Tries to Defend Racist Obama Joke

~ mcequality

Once upon a time in 2016, in the wake of President Trump’s election, conservative writer and policy advisor Stephen Moore decided to share a little joke.

“There’s that great cartoon going along that [shows] the New York Times headline ‘First Thing Donald Trump Does As President Is Kick a Black Family Out of Public Housing,’ and it has Obama leaving the White House,” Moore said, eliciting a chorus of groans and laughter from the audience. “I mean, I just love that one!”

Moore is now one of Trump’s nominees for the Federal Reserve Board. On Tuesday, PBS’s Margaret Hoover gave Moore an opportunity to address the racist joke, and Moore’s attempts at clarity quickly turned into a sputtering mess:

via Stephen Moore Awkwardly Tries to Defend Racist Obama Joke

Homeland Security to Start DNA Testing Asylum Seekers as It Tries to Back Up ‘Fake Families’ Scare Tactic

~ mcequality

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will start using Rapid DNA tests on some asylum seekers at the U.S.–Mexico border next week, according to a new report from CNN. The tests are intended to determine whether adults and children who are traveling together are actually family members.

The Rapid DNA tests involve a cheek swab and will be deployed at two ports of entry starting the week of May 6. Results from the test take about 90 minutes.

These new Rapid DNA tests are supposed to catch immigrants who are lying about being related, but it’s unclear how DHS can establish familial ties through DNA alone. Obviously, DNA relations aren’t the only thing that define a family.

via Homeland Security to Start DNA Testing Asylum Seekers as It Tries to Back Up ‘Fake Families’ Scare Tactic