Category: Racial Equality

Rep. Eliot Engels Slams Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Comments on Israel

~ mcequality

No one who pays attention to how racism in this country works should be surprised at the continuing freak out over Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women to ever serve in Congress. After February’s overblown scandal over Omar’s tweets regarding the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC’s influence on Congress, Omar’s opponents have found a smear that they know will stick on her—anti-Semitism—and they aren’t going to let it go until she’s out of office.

The latest attempt in this vein comes from Rep. Eliot Engel, the Democratic chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Today, Engel demanded another apology from Omar over comments she made about American politicians’ support for Israel, according to the Washington Post.

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In a town hall meeting at a bookstore in Washington, D.C. this Wednesday, Omar discussed lobbying groups influence on U.S. politicians in their views on Israel.

via Rep. Eliot Engels Slams Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Comments on Israel

Boy ‘scared’ after finding racist graffiti at Salford flats – BBC News

~ mcequality

A 10-year-old boy says he is “too scared” to walk to school after racist graffiti was daubed outside his home.
David Yamba found “No Blacks” painted on three doors in his block of flats in Salford on 8 February, five days after his family had moved in.
His father Jackson reported it to Greater Manchester Police on the same day but said on Saturday they “still haven’t been here to investigate”.
The force has since apologised and said it would review its approach.

via Boy ‘scared’ after finding racist graffiti at Salford flats – BBC News

Journalists Recycle Racist Talking Points in Shutdown Stories

~ mcequality

As Donald Trump holds the government—and the salaries of some 800,000 federal workers—hostage for one of the longest shutdowns in history, three separate national news outlets each ran pieces about how unpaid prison guards were disgruntled that incarcerated people were eating nice meals on New Year’s Day.

Though each had different bylines, stories from USA Today, The Washington Post, and NBC News (the story was also picked up by the New York Daily News and a number of local news outlets) had the same implied framework: namely, that it was despicable for people in prison to have a decent meal during the holidays when prison guards were working without pay because of the shutdown.

via Journalists Recycle Racist Talking Points in Shutdown Stories

Videos Show Southwest Key Staff Dragging, Shoving Migrant Kids

~ mcequality

Using state public-records laws, The Arizona Republic has obtained video from surveillance cameras showing staff at a now-shuttered Southwest Key shelter for migrant children in Arizona physically dragging and pushing children in their care. But authorities determined that the physical aggression used against the children last September does not constitute a crime.

This week, Splinter’s Samantha Grasso reported that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office closed three cases of child abuse reported at the Hacienda Del Sol children’s shelter, operated by Southwest Key in Youngtown, Arizona, after only reviewing security camera footage and without interviewing the Southwest Key employees allegedly involved or the minors reported to have been abused.

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In the videos obtained by the Republic, incidents that occurred on Sept. 14, 17, and 21 involved shelter staff dragging, pulling, and slapping a young boy, and dragging another child against their will. The videos are blurred to protect the identities of the children.

via Videos Show Southwest Key Staff Dragging, Shoving Migrant Kids

Steve King Isn’t the Only Elected Official Pursuing a White Supremacist Vision for America | American Civil Liberties Union

~ mcequality

Last week, U.S. Rep. Steve King, Republican from Iowa, posed a question to a New York Times reporter that laid bare his racist ideology: “White nationalist, white supremacist, western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” He didn’t stop there. In the same interview, he expressed resentment toward the record-breaking gender and racial diversity of the 116th Congress: “You could look over there and think the Democratic Party is no country for white men.”

His words were not taken out of context, as he now argues. Nor is such racism new for him. During the Republican National Convention in 2016, King responded to a critique about older white men dominating the Republican Party by questioning the contributions that people of color have made to civilization. “I’d ask you to go back through history, and figure out where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you are talking about – where did any other sub group of people contribute more to civilization?” he said on an MSNBC panel.

via Steve King Isn’t the Only Elected Official Pursuing a White Supremacist Vision for America | American Civil Liberties Union

Racist White Woman Verbally Attacks Family for Speaking Spanish in Virginia Restaurant

~ mcequality

The woman’s choice of words, “get the fuck out, back to your fucking country,” is quite ironic given the U.S.’ history of meddling in Guatemala’s affairs. In 1954, the CIA led a coup that overthrew Guatemala’s democratically elected president, Jacobo Árbenz, replacing him with a military dictatorship. That led to a brutal civil war six years later that lasted 36 years and claimed the lives of over 200,000 people—roughly 100 times the population of Lovettsville.

Since then, tens of thousands of Guatemalans have fled economic misery and gang violence, from gangs imported in the 1980s from the United States, and from drug cartel violence, created by the U.S.’ insatiable demand for cocaine.

via Racist White Woman Verbally Attacks Family for Speaking Spanish in Virginia Restaurant

Voter Suppression Is Real and It Really Affects Black People

~ mcequality

I think we all can agree that the 2018 midterm elections are critical. This means that our votes matter more now than ever. But what happens when you’ve registered and are ready to participate in this good ol’ democracy but can’t?

Let’s talk about voter suppression.

Voter suppression is simple—it’s a set of tactics used to block voters from exercising their right to vote. And there’s a long, long history of voter suppression in the United States.

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Black men were allowed to vote after the Civil War thanks to the 15th Amendment, which was ratified in 1870. Because of Jim Crow laws, black folks were forced to take literacy tests and pay poll taxes, among other barriers to voting.

via Voter Suppression Is Real and It Really Affects Black People

Federal inspectors find nooses, “serious violations” at ICE facility

~ mcequality

Federal inspectors conducted an unannounced visit of an immigration detention center in southern California and found “serious violations” throughout the facility, where guards improperly placed adult inmates in disciplinary segregation and ignored more than a dozen “nooses” fashioned out of bedsheets.

The report, conducted by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, also showed that medical staff at the Adelanto, Calif., facility disregarded federal regulations governing the treatment of inmates by doing only cursory checks of inmates and making them wait months, sometimes years, to receive basic dental care, leading to tooth loss and “unnecessary extractions.”

via Federal inspectors find nooses, “serious violations” at ICE facility

Jeff Sessions Considering Indefinite Detention of Asylum Seekers

~ mcequality

Jeff Sessions, a racist bloodhound, is considering indefinite detention of people who cross the U.S. border seeking asylum.

Over the past several months, Sessions has instructed judges to deny victims of domestic and gang-violence asylum, and now he is reportedly considering to deny bond hearings to asylum seekers, even if they have passed the credible fear interview. This means that anyone seeking safe haven in the U.S. could be detained indefinitely.

A decision set by a case called Matter of X-K, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) allows asylum seekers to be released on bond if they pass a “credible fear” interview, in which officials assess whether the asylum seeker is at risk of persecution in their home country. Sessions is reportedly trying to find a way to overturn the BIA’s decision.

via Jeff Sessions Considering Indefinite Detention of Asylum Seekers

Lee Francis Cissna, the Head of USCIS, Is Making Life Increasingly Tough for Immigrants

~ mcequality

It’s often the architects of our nation’s monstrous immigration policies (cough Stephen Miller cough) who are the subject of dramatic news headlines and the target of our much-deserved vitriol. But, as a new Politico profile of Lee Francis Cissna, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, reminds us, the bureaucrats who willingly and happily follow the dictates that come from above are equally as appalling (if not more so in their unthinking devotion to carrying out orders).

Politico describes how Cissna, the son of an immigrant from Peru and husband to the daughter of a Palestinian refugee who has steadily worked his way up the ranks of different federal agencies, has been dramatically—and quietly—reshaping immigration policy:

via Lee Francis Cissna, the Head of USCIS, Is Making Life Increasingly Tough for Immigrants