#fox-news/person/george-floyd

[reasoningdaily]

The killing of Jordan Neely underscores violence facing vulnerable New Yorkers: ‘Being homeless is not a capital crime’

The Independent

The killing of Jordan Neely underscores violence facing vulnerable New Yorkers: ‘Being homeless is not a capital crime’

Alex Woodward

Thu, May 4, 2023 at 7:50 PM EDT·

On a Monday afternoon F train in Manhattan, a passenger wrestled another man to the ground and wrapped his arm around his neck for several minutes. He died moments later.

Jordan Neely’s death was recorded by another passenger and preserved in a widely shared video. The 24-year-old white man who placed Neely in a chokehold has not been identified. He was released from police custody without any charges.

His cause of death was a homicide. The 30-year-old Black man – known for his precise Michael Jackson impersonations on subway platforms while experiencing homelessness in New York City – died from the compression against his neck, according to the city’s medical examiner.

New Yorkers are no strangers to unstable or disruptive people who ride the city’s 6,500 subway cars; subway riders typically keep to themselves and ignore them.

But Neely’s death has revived volatile media narratives about New York’s homeless population, spinning an act of vigilantism to blame the person killed by it. The mayor and governor have not explicitly condemned the act of lethal violence, raising questions among New York leaders whether the city considers the life of a homeless Black man less valuable than a white stranger prepared to use deadly force.

Advocates and lawmakers told The Independent that the deliberate and explicit rhetoric surrounding people experiencing homelessness, compounded by prolonged failures of policies meant to help them, have exposed thousands of New Yorkers and vulnerable people across the country to the kind of vigilante violence that killed Neely.

“Jordan Neely’s death was a homicide, and charges must be immediately brought against his killer,” the city’s elected public advocate Jumaane Williams said in a statement shared with The Independent. “To say anything else is an equivocation that will only further a narrative that devalues the life of a Black, homeless man with mental health challenges and encourages an attitude of dehumanization of New Yorkers in greatest need.”

Elected leaders and media coverage have created an environment “that encourages fear of and violence against people who are struggling, that paints them as a threat to public safety,” he added. “But being homeless is not a capital crime. Struggling with mental health is not a capital crime. Being Black is not a capital crime.”

‘Neely, Jordan, 30-year-old male, Undomiciled’

When he walked into a subway car on 2 May, Neely complained of hunger and thirst, according to journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez, who posted a video of part of the incident on his Facebook page.

He wrote that Neely was yelling and said he was tired, didn’t care whether he went to prison, and was ready to die. He said Neely threw his jacket to the floor of the train car before another passenger slammed him to the ground in a headlock. Others grabbed at his arms.

This continued, Mr Vazquez said, for 15 minutes, until Neely’s eyes closed and his body went limp.

Officers administered CPR on arrival, according to an incident report from the New York City Police Department reviewed by The Independent. Emergency medical personnel transported Neely to Lenox Health Greenwich Village, where he was pronounced dead.

He was identified by law enforcement as “Neely, Jordan, 30-year-old male, Undomiciled”.

Coverage in The New York Post described Neely as “unhinged” and a “vagrant”. The Federalist thanked the “brave men” who “saved riders”. On 4 May, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld blamed Neely’s death on Democratic lawmakers and George Floyd, who was murdered by Minneapolis police officer in 2020. (Derek Chauvin and three other now-former officers involved in Floyd’s death have been convicted of state and federal charges.)

[sa7abnews]

Shop owner reveals heart-wrenching experience after BLM riots 'destroyed' his store on Gov Walz's watch

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/13/shop-owner-reveals-heart-wrenching-experience-after-blm-riots-destroyed-his-store-on-gov-walzs-watch/

Shop owner reveals heart-wrenching experience after BLM riots 'destroyed' his store on Gov Walz's watch

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Minnesota business owner who watched helplessly as his St. Paul establishment was destroyed during the 2020 George Floyd riots spoke to Fox News Digital about how the state, led by Gov. Tim Walz, failed to protect business owners like him.”When the rioters first came here they went and destroyed the strip mall on the left-hand side here, I was in my shop,” Long Her, owner of New Fashion Tailoring and Alteration in St. Paul, Minnesota, told Fox News Digital. “I witnessed everything and videotaped. My friend and I stayed in our shop until nightfall, and I was going to go to sleep and watch over my shop, but my friends said, ‘it’s too dangerous, let’s go home’ so we ended up going home that night.”Her, a Hmong immigrant, recalled that he was “afraid” for his livelihood when he went home that night but hoped that the destruction would be contained to the other side of the street.When Her came back the next morning to check on the store that he had owned for decades, he discovered his worst fears had come true, and the location was ransacked.MINNESOTA RIOTS CONTINUED AFTER WALZ TOOK ‘RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE’ THERE WOULDN’T BE CHAOS”The next day when I came here to find that my shop was destroyed, as a man, I couldn’t do anything but cry,” Her told Fox News Digital through translator May Lor Xiong, a Republican running for Congress in Minnesota’s 4th Congressional District.Her said rioters broke down his reinforced door and stole all the inventory in his store, which represented a dollar amount of $200,000. “They took down the front door with the metal bars, they had some pliers they used to destroy the metal bars. And they came in there and took everything, took all the clothing, all the merchandise and my store,” Her said.Her told Fox News Digital he tried to contact the police multiple times and received no response. When asked about Gov. Tim Walz’s role in the response taking several days to call in the National Guard, Her said that if Walz is to become vice president, he hopes he has learned from his mistakes in responding to the riot.MINNESOTA BUSINESS OWNER TEARS INTO WALZ FOR COVID, BLM RIOT LEADERSHIP: A ‘TOTAL AND COMPLETE FAILURE'”If he gets to become the vice president, he needs to learn how to love the people here and especially Minnesota because of the destruction that happened during his watch,” Her said. “He could be a good person, but he also needs to understand the people, the sufferings that they’re going through.”Several people who spoke to Fox News Digital said that the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul still have not fully recovered from the devastating riots that caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, and Her said it took about two years for his business to financially recover.”It took me about a year and a half to two years to recover. During that time, a lot of people were scared to go out, and so I lost a lot of customers,” Her said. “People are not coming out to shop, and so I lost a lot of money and customers from that.”He went on to say that safety was “not a big concern” for business owners in the twin cities before 2020, but after the pandemic, “there’s a lot more people that would shoplift or steal stuff from the store.” “There’s a lot of homeless people sleeping in this area. It’s making it very unsafe for business owners and even shoppers, and so we need to have more police force to help us in this area, to protect the businesses and the people here.”Minneapolis is widely considered the epicenter of the defund the police movement, and CBS News reported earlier this year that the city’s police department is understaffed by 200 officers and the police force has shrunk by 40% over the last four years.”I don’t care what party they’re from,” Her said. “It should be nonpartisan when it comes to the police force and putting more police on the street to help citizens.”Fox News Digital asked Her if he fears that a situation like the 2020 riots could happen again.”I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Her said. “I hope it won’t with the lawlessness right here. The freedom that we have here, we love that. But also, a lot of things might happen, dangerous things that might happen to us and we have already witnessed devastation in 2020.””We want to make sure that we’re prepared, that whoever is in office needs to make sure when something like that happens, they send the National Guard to protect the people, the citizens and the businesses. So that way we do not have to go through such destruction.”

[mcgravin]

Just to offer some context: during the 2020 mass protests following the murder of George Floyd calling for police abolition, Fox News had a segment where a commentator for some reason brought up the 1970s radical left militant organization the Weather Underground Organization and cited their 1974 manifesto "Prairie Fire". This was the on-screen graphic:

To a certain degree, it rekindled awareness of the Weather Underground and consideration of their manifesto, and "Attack and Dethrone God" became a meme phrase among leftists.

Personally, I purchased this t-shirt designed by artist Erica Henderson (@ericafails): https://ericafails.threadless.com/designs/attack-and-dethrone-god

"Attack and dethrone God"

Elmo poster spotted in Sydney

[lokodomains]

George Floyd mural covered up in Phoenix; drew complaint it ‘celebrates White violence’

George Floyd mural covered up in Phoenix; drew complaint it ‘celebrates White violence’

Artist Jeremie “Bacpac” Franko painted a George Floyd mural in Phoenix last year to “start a conversation” about the Minneapolis man’s death in police custody. But after complaints from residents, and an act of vandalism earlier this year, Franko painted over her mural Friday, according to a report. The mural showed Floyd’s face on a $20 bill and included the title,…

[beardedmrbean]

FIRST ON FOX: Georgia's Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for private security through her campaign since December 2021 when she launched her second bid for governor, despite being a board member of a foundation that wants to abolish police and personally backing an anti-police initiative.

Between December 2021 and April 2022, Abrams' campaign doled out over $450,000 to Executive Protection Agencies (EPA Security), an Atlanta-based private security firm. The company’s website says the group provides executive protection that comes with a "keen eye with a thorough knowledge of the venue through threat assessment" for its clients.  

The nine payments from the Abrams campaign to EPA Security ranged from $39,335 to $56,760.

This is not the first time Abrams has paid for private security. The Fair Fight PAC, a committee that is part of a network launched by Abrams, spent more than $1.2 million on security services last year with the same firm as the Abrams campaign, according to filings. 

STACEY ABRAMS GROUP PAID OVER $1.2 MILLION TO PRIVATE SECURITY FIRM LAST YEAR

Abrams recently insisted to Axios that she supports increased police funding and officer pay as her role with the Seattle-based Marguerite Casey Foundation has become a political liability. 

Over 100 sheriffs in the Peach State condemned Abrams over her ties to the foundation and her "soft-on-crime policies," which followed Gov. Brian Kemp calling on her to resign from its board. The attention follows numerous Fox News Digital reports on her involvement with the group.

The Marguerite Casey Foundation has repeatedly voiced support for defunding and abolishing the police, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

They have also awarded millions to professors and scholars who advocate anti-capitalist and prison abolitionist views. 

"I do not, and have never said, and have never supported defunding the police," Abrams told Axios while emphasizing that she has no control over the group's grants as a board member. 

However, Abrams backed an expanded anti-police initiative from the foundation shortly after joining its board in early May 2021, Fox News Digital also reported.

The board, including Abrams, unanimously approved the 'Answer the Uprising' campaign in late May 2021, which involved increasing financial support to left-wing groups working on law enforcement issues. The initiative also established a coalition with other grant-making organizations that provide backing to defund the police groups.

The Marguerite Casey Foundation in 2020 directed grants to left-wing groups that want to defund police, including the Movement for Black Lives, Black Organizing Project and Louisville Community Bail Fund.

OVER 100 GEORGIA SHERIFFS CONDEMN STACEY ABRAMS OVER 'DEFUND THE POLICE' FOUNDATION TIES 

Abrams also previously signaled support for defunding police while attempting to redefine it. 

During the George Floyd unrest of 2020, Abrams repeatedly tried to rebrand the "defund" aspect of the movement as favoring the "reformation and transformation" of law enforcement instead of abolishing policing.

"We have to have a transformation of how we view the role of law enforcement, how we view the construct of public safety, and how we invest not only in the work that we need them to do to protect us but the work that we need to do to protect and build our communities," Abrams said in June 2020. "And that's the conversation we're having: We'll use different language to describe it, but fundamentally we must have reformation and transformation."

"We have to reallocate resources, so, yes," she said in another interview that same month when asked if police budgets should be reduced. "If there is a moment where resources are so tight that we have to choose between whether we murder Black people or serve Black people, then absolutely: Our choice must be service."

Shortly after, Abrams advocated for the "redistributive allocation of dollars" from police budgets so "we are not simply investing in public safety, but we're building a safer public through education, through health care, through food security, through affordable housing, and that we not see these things as being in conflict, but they have to be part of a holistic vision of what America should look like, what law enforcement and what society should look like in the 21st century."

The Abrams campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's media inquiry.

[90363462]

Candace Owens Releases Scathing Documentary On Black Lives Matter ‘The Greatest Lie Ever Sold’

Shannon Dawson

Source: Jason Davis / Getty

On Oct. 12, Candace Owens finally released her scathing documentary that allegedly reveals some shocking details behind the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.

The controversial commentator’s new film,The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM, exposes how the organization allegedly misappropriated donation funds received following the death of George Floyd in 2020, a topic that has been a point of contention since earlier this year.

Following Wednesday’s premiere, the doc garnered a score of 97 from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes and social media users were buzzing about some of the claims “exposed” in the investigative piece.

Candace Owens dives into the claims made in her scathing doc

While chatting with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, Owens went into detail about why she has been so passionate about bringing BLM’s alleged misuse of donation money to the surface.

“It was important to pause and to reflect and to consider what happened and ask a very big question, which for whatever reason, no journalist was interested in at the time,” the controversial conservative pundit said. “We were all basically required to the purple-black square donate to Black Lives Matter or to make some you know, statement online about how black people are suffering to make sure Black Lives Matter Would receive the $80 million that it received in one year. But nobody asked the question, where’s all the money going?”

Earlier this year, BLM founder Patrisse Cullors and her co-founder Alicia Garza, and co-founder of BLM LA Melina Abdullah, were accused of buying a $6 million dollar property for personal use in 2020.  But the trio later argued that the lavish 12-bedroom property was purchased to house the organization’s Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, a space where Black filmmakers, musicians and artists could come together and “foster creativity.”

A portion of the documentary captures when Owens paid an unannounced visit to Cullors’ Laurel Canyon home in early May, to speak with her in person about the allegations. Cullors later accused the conservative star of being hostile.

A brief clip from their exchange aired during Owen’s chat with Carlson on Wednesday, which showed the 33-year-old journalist asking to speak to “someone” on Cullors’ property.

“I can’t see how this purchase helped Black Lives anywhere in America,” Owens says at one point, as she stands outside of the gigantic front gate bordering Cullors’ home. “I can’t even find a Black life on this property.”

Other claims explored in the documentary

In addition to the real estate rumor, Owens’ heated documentary also explores a few other claims about BLM’s alleged money mismanagement, one being that the organization donated millions of dollars to the “transgender movement.”

“That’s where a lot of this money went,” the Fox News correspondent alleged while speaking to Carlson. “Then there’s just a dead trail because the one thing that you’re afforded when you decide that you are transgender is you can change your name. So you don’t know who any of these people were originally but they received hundreds and thousands and millions of dollars of cash.”

The film also makes some eyebrow-raising claims about George Floyd.

“They turned me into public enemy number one, for accurately talking about George Floyd, not in the capacity of a hero but in the capacity of a person who was addicted to drugs and who had enough fentanyl in his system to kill a horse at the time that he died,” Owens said of BLM’s influence following the death of Floyd. “They robbed Americans’ emotions, they extracted emotions. They used black pain, to create confusion and to take millions of dollars from people.”

Kanye West & Ray J attend Candace Owens’ doc premiere

Owens is just falling deeper and deeper down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, and it looks like Kanye West and Ray J are joining in on the hysteria. The superstar hitmakers attended the official premiere of Owens’ doc on Wednesday night in Nashville, which was a big surprise given their previous rift over Kim Kardashian and that viral sex tape Ray J claimed he had more footage of.

According to Page Six, it looked like Ye and J put their differences aside to take a few pics with Owens during the event, “although the two kept their distance.” A close source told TMZ, that the staunch conservative intentionally invited both stars to the event “in an attempt to scorn Kim Kardashian.”

If you remember, earlier this week, Owens leaked an audio voicemail that Kim allegedly left Ray J years ago, in which she called thelate great Whitney Houston an “old hag.”

It just keeps getting weirder out here in Hollywood…

What do you think about Owens’ documentary? Will you be watching?

RELATED CONTENT: Candace Owens Reads Kris Jenner And Kim Kardashian Over Sextape Leak

[96thdayofrage]

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he is launching a criminal investigation to find out who leaked security video of an incident in which a deputy knelt on the head of a handcuffed inmate for more than three minutes.

The Times published video last month of the March 2021 incident and detailed efforts by department officials to keep it under wraps.

Department officials had worried at the time about the negative publicity that could come from a deputy kneeling on a handcuffed man’s head, “given its nature and its similarities to widely publicized George Floyd use of force,” according to an internal report by a commander critical of the cover-up.

The commander's July 2021 report indicated that sheriff's officials decided not to pursue criminal charges against the inmate, who had punched the deputy in the face, to avoid drawing attention to the incident. Sheriff’s officials waited until January — almost a year after the incident — to take the case against the inmate to prosecutors.

In an interview with Fox 11 News, Villanueva said the disclosure of the video to The Times amounted to a theft of investigative material. He did not respond to questions from The Times.

"That is still an active case — it's not supposed to see light of day until it's concluded," he told the station. "And the fact that The Times had not only the investigation, they had the videotape — that was stolen from the department, and by department members."

First Amendment experts were troubled by the move to target people for releasing police misconduct records, saying the threat of prosecution sends a chilling message to whistleblowers.

"If the sheriff really did try to prosecute somebody for theft, under these circumstances, to me [it] would be: 'Dude, you're in L.A. County. Don't you have more serious crimes to worry about than somebody leaking a video? And aren't you really doing this because it's embarrassing you?'" said Karl Olson, a lawyer who specializes in 1st Amendment and public records cases.

Olson said the individual who leaked the video would have a strong claim under laws designed to protect whistleblowers.

"The laws exist to encourage people to come forth and report illegal or fraudulent activity on the part of government," Olson said.

David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, said the records would have likely become public anyway as evidence in the prosecution of the inmate, as well as in the potential case against the deputy.

"So why the withholding, and why the saber-rattling on pursuing criminal charges against the person who disclosed them, if they were going to be public anyway?" Snyder said.

He added: "That has a real chilling effect on potential sources within the department, who for public interest reasons, may want to see records relating to misconduct disclosed, and it constricts the flow of information that the public is entitled to see and that is necessary in order to hold public agencies to account."

The incident happened on the morning of March 10, 2021, two days after jury selection had begun 1,500 miles away in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who would be convicted of murdering Floyd by kneeling on his neck.

At the San Fernando Courthouse, deputies were conducting routine searches of inmates before their court appearances when deputies told two inmates to be quiet.

As the pair continued talking and laughing, Deputy Douglas Johnson ordered one of them, Enzo Escalante, to stop and face the wall. Escalante, 24, was awaiting trial on multiple charges, including murder.

Security video obtained by The Times shows Johnson walking closely behind Escalante through a hallway before ushering him toward a wall.

Escalante turned around and punched Johnson in the face multiple times. Johnson and other deputies then took Escalante to the ground, positioning him face down.

After he was handcuffed, Johnson kept his knee on Escalante’s head for three minutes.

The sheriff denied an allegation made by Eli Vera, a former top-ranking department official who is seeking to unseat him, that he had been involved in the cover-up and had viewed the video at an aide’s desk within days of the incident.

Internal records show that top executives above the level of division chief were aware of the incident early on. That could include only Villanueva, Undersheriff Tim Murakami or one of the three assistant sheriffs. Villanueva has refused to answer questions about who was made aware of the incident and what direction they gave.

After the Times report, Villanueva said he became aware of the incident in November and launched a criminal investigation into the deputy. He also announced that he had shaken up his “senior command,” but refused to provide specifics about whose jobs had changed and why.

He has announced a new administrative investigation into the cover-up and named an acting assistant sheriff, Holly Francisco, to oversee countywide operations, including the Court Services Division, where the incident occurred. Francisco is taking over for Robin Limon, who held the position at the time of the kneeling incident.

[nostalgebraist]

Stuff I was thinking already that came to the front of my mind when reading this Matt Taibbi article:

(i.)

There really has been an upsurge in bizarre “cancellation”-like phenomena lately.  Specifically, the rationales for cancellation have gotten weird, hyper-trivial, sometimes simply unintelligible (to me). 

David Shor’s offense was retweeing a study by a prominent black political scientist who was trying to understand what parts of the civil rights movement were most effective.  Lee Fang shared a clip of an interview he did with a black BLM supporter (not a public figure) who expressed a narrow critique of one aspect of the movement.  In neither case is anyone trying to cancel the people who actually said things, only people who related to others that they said those things.  Wild!  Some seriously 2013-tumblr-level “receipts” here.

(People allude to some long history of Fang being racist, which maybe he was, but then talk about how.  It’s like tumblr in 2013 in that people offer you concrete evidence at the level of “once reblogged a ship I hate,” paired with the allegation of some larger pattern of unspecified badness, as though any concrete evidence paired with any bigger allegation are enough to convince, no matter how unrelated or disproportionate the two.)

What confuses me most about this is its supposed connection with the George Floyd protests, which were/are very pointedly material.  In the pejorative sense that right-wing culture warriors use the word “woke,” the protests aren’t actually “woke” in any meaningful sense.  Police brutality is not a symbolic offense; “defund the police” is not a demand to replace one symbol with another.  The protests have not focused on elevating or deposing specific individuals, modifying language norms, asking white people to more openly proclaim their anti-racist bona fides, or anything like that.  They’ve taken aim at a specific, dysfunctional part of American city governance (the police).  They have pursued those aims effectively, from what I can tell, without diffusing their focus, getting hijacked by personal agendas framed in related-sounding terms, or devolving into infighting.

The right-wing culture warriors would say leftists are never not “getting hijacked by personal agendas framed in related-sounding terms” and “devolving into infighting,” and TBH, on that one they have a point (echoed by no shortage of leftists since forever).  To them, it is simply another prediction confirmed to see a BLM protest one day and a bout of nonsensical left-of-center infighting the next.  But these aren’t actually the same people, or the same movement, are they?  So what’s going on?

From “stop killing us!” to “cancel culture” there is a missing step that needs some explaining.

(ii.)

The Taibbi piece helped convince me that something strange is happening inside major news outlets right now.

The Scott Alexander / NYT thing feels more intelligible (although perhaps this is a coincidence) in the context of a concurrent industry-wide upheaval which, justified or not, certainly can be expected to throw usually well-oiled machines into disarray.  Taibbi:

Beginning on Friday, June 5th, a series of controversies rocked the media. By my count, at least eight news organizations dealt with internal uprisings (it was likely more). Most involved groups of reporters and staffers demanding the firing or reprimand of colleagues who’d made politically “problematic” editorial or social media decisions.

The New York Times, the Intercept, Vox, the Philadelphia Inquirier, Variety, and others saw challenges to management.

At the Washington Post, there was that baffling choice to “cover” the “story” of a random person coming in blackface to the Washington Post’s own Halloween party two years ago, in an ill-advised reference to a then-current Fox News gaffe about blackface.  One of the most prestigious papers in the US ran this story, and somehow no one could figure out how this even occurred:

In the hours after publication, the story started to receive widespread criticism from journalists on social media on the grounds that it got its subject fired while lacking news value. (Readers had to get 85 percent of the way through the story to even learn that Schafer had lost her job when she told her employer the story would be running.) The article now has drawn over 2,000 web comments, which are overwhelmingly negative in nature. Yet aside from PR statements to outlets covering the Post’s coverage, the Post’s response to the criticism of this story has been silence.  If this is a story with “nuance and sensitivity” that the Post felt “impelled” to run, why is a spirited defense of the Post’s journalism coming only from a non-journalist spokesperson for the paper?

The answer we reached, after interviewing ten current Post journalists for this story, is that the paper’s staff generally does not consider the story to be defensible.“My reaction, like everybody, was, What the hell? Why is this a story?” a feature writer at the Post told New York. “My second reaction was, Why is this a 3,000-word feature?” The feature writer added, “This was not drawn up by the ‘Style’ section.”

Employees at “Style” — the paper’s premiere location for long-form storytelling — were confused and displeased to see the piece running on their turf, two Post employees with knowledge of the situation said. Neither Fisher nor Trent works for the “Style” desk, though as newspapers have gotten increasingly focused on digital distribution, the walls between newspaper sections have become more porous.

When things like this are happening, when one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing, when upper management is rotating out above you . . . things like the Scott Alexander episode don’t really feel surprising.

Journalism is always on a special kind of thin ice, because it has no function other than being a trustworthy source.  We understand that businessmen will lie to you to make a buck, and we may decry this, but we understand it’s not a paradox: that there is (or at least could be) some value in business itself, that must be traded off against truth-telling.

But a journalist is just a better version of your gossipy-but-trustworthy friend who hears a lot of things on the street.  That’s their purpose.  If they lose your trust, there’s nothing more there.  If they behave mysteriously, and do not explain themselves, and lean only on their august reputation (built by others, not the present speaker) for support . . . there’s nothing more left, to elevate them above your friend.  (Your friend wouldn’t do that!  Your friend would tell you what the hell is up, that’s making them all weird!)

Discussions about the prudence of “making war on the media” need to take this into account, I think.  People’s trust in the media has a certain lack of inertia.  Its role is clearly scoped, failure to serve that role is easy to document and publicize, and there is not enough built-up stock of trust, at the institution level (I’m sure you’ve seen the relevant public opinion polls), to prevent people from asking the question: “if you can’t do that, then what the hell do I need you for?”

(iii.)

Among the things that irked me about that Scott Alexander article in the New Yorker, there was this:

Additionally, it seems difficult to fathom that a professional journalist of Metz’s experience and standing would assure a subject, especially at the beginning of a process, that he planned to write a “mostly positive” story; although there often seems to be some confusion about this matter in Silicon Valley, journalism and public relations are distinct enterprises.

What does this mean?  It appears to be bald distrust of what Alexander relates about his own experience, on the basis that an experienced journalist like me wouldn’t do that.  It presents itself as something somewhere between opinion and fact.  Alexander is a character, the tone says, and I am an author.  He says his piece, and then I tell you the “real” story, with my imprimatur.

I felt the same allergy reading another, unrelated New Yorker article the same day.  Discussing Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist:

As a boy in Queens, Kendi found his life shaped by a fear of victimization. “I avoided making eye contact, as if my classmates were wolves,” he writes. “I avoided stepping on new sneakers like they were land mines.” In South Jamaica, his neighborhood, there was a local bully named Smurf, who pulled a gun on Kendi, and once, with Kendi watching, beat a boy unconscious on a city bus in order to steal his Walkman. This sounds terrifying, but Kendi now claims that his fears were delusional. [ . . . ] By the end of the section, the bully named Smurf seems less like a real person and more like a spectre: the personification of old racist ideas, come to life in the imagination of a fretful future scholar in Queens.

As it happens, there actually is a notorious tough guy named Smurf who grew up in Kendi’s neighborhood around the same time. He came to be known as Bang ’Em Smurf, a sometime rapper [ . . . ]

Is Kendi worthy of some basic modicum of trust and charity, or isn’t he?  He says he was bullied by a guy named Smurf.  The writer expresses ambiguously couched doubt (“seems less like a real person...”), but what he takes away, he then gives back -- with his special imprimatur.  “As it happens, there actually is” a Smurf.   You cannot know this from Kendi, a mere unreliable narrator, a subject of my narrative.  But you can know it by my word, for I am a priest of truth.

It might be a tasteless comparison, but there is some basic affinity between the way I feel reading these things -- right now -- and the way I feel watching the police mace civilians for no discernible reason, and then watching some functionary relate a sanctimonious yet incomprehensible “explanation” at a press conference later, saying the police department has done excellent work, we’re very proud of them.  Among the best in the country.

You are so used to my trust.  Your rhetoric, your reputation, live on that trust. I feel so oddly powerful, when I think about what it would mean to just provisionally retract it, and ask yourself to prove your worth, for once.

If you can’t do this, what are you for?

[dayanaaa2021]

Blog post: Weel 2 due 9/2

Is social media for the people or their people?

Social media is a complex network. Social media is derived from various outlets. Items that are considered social media are News channels, social networks, TV, and the Internet. Different people manage every outlet. The people that work on social media have control of everything.

Furthermore, individuals have bias opinions on every subject, Race/Ethnicity, age, and belief. In other words, social media will never be clean or truthful. In the readings, minorities dealt with racial bias, so social media struggled to maintain a professional resume. On the other hand, social media improved but is not qualified for society. For example, during the George Floyds riots, many outlets showcased what they wanted so they could protect the people they favored.

Furthermore, social media is for their people. Social media will never be for the people. In other words, social media gravitates to bias opinions and beliefs despite the facts. An example of social media projecting their ideas is when Fox News lies to the world, and no one can do anything about it. It’s a problem when Fox News’ stories begin to be more than stories, and it causes people to panic, which chaos develops. I think social media will never be for the people. It’s impossible to remove bias opinions or bribery. Social media follow the money, favors individuals/political parties, power and ratings. As long as any social media outlets have control of the things listed, they don’t care about the information distributed.

How do I overcome social media adversity?

I think I’m in a complicated relationship with social media. Sometimes I like social media because it allows me to get away from any tasks or problems I’m dealing with; however, social media is terrible for my mental health. I tend to get distracted by checking my phone 24/7 quickly. On the other hand, social media helped me become more knowledgeable about specific topics. For example, I read articles about how to detect gaslighting, help someone with an eating disorder, or apologize. The reports helped me a lot because I was oblivious to some phrases. For example, I learned to stop using the words “I don’t know what to tell you” and started using a term like “Do you mind if I take a few minutes to reflect on this.”

Furthermore, social networks are part of social media. The other social media that I struggle with is News channels. I try to watch various News channels because reporters are deceitful with malicious intentions. Every News channel has a motive behind the information presented. I compare every source possible because I can’t trust the reporter’s credibility. Living in fear or distrusting news channels made me realize that the world is evil and selfish; therefore, social media shows things they benefit from. Social media made me question everything and that every story/news is not what is display because there are more layers to that story/news. The real question is how to use social media to advantage and a friend rather than seeing it as an enemy.

Why hasn’t racial bias changed in social media/television over the years?

Social media is made up of white influencers, reporters, journalists, and actors etc. Gonzalez and Torres explained how minorities were hidden and kept away from any journalist career in the reading. To this day, minorities are isolated. For example, Tik-Tok(ers) steals dances from minorities and doesn’t give them credit. Specifically, the Renegade dance was created by Jalaiah Harmon. Jalaiah didn’t go viral for her dance but Charlie D’melio and Addison Rae. A controversy arose because it wasn’t the first time the influencer stole dances from minorities. The real question is why the white girls are getting famous and not Jalaiah.

Is it that Jaliah is not white or pretty enough? Does pretty privilege play a role in this? The answer is unknown; however, the example shows that minorities are being kept away.

Furthermore, if individuals change the News channel, they’ll see that almost every anchorman/woman is white. Why is this the case? I think the News station gravitates towards white people. I believe News station follows the “norm” to keep up with ratings and competitors. The News station is no longer about information the people but rather making money and protecting the person in charge. The BLM brought light to every situation by calling out social media. Diversity improved, but there’s plenty of progress left. I think people should be pushing these situations, so change is possible.

How does social media and capitalism interact?

Karl Marx thinks that social media and capitalism are similar. He believes that human beings are a never-ending spectrum for their interests, emotions, and activities. He realized that one’s desires drive the foundation of social media and capitalism. In other words, the only social part about the two is that human beings have the power to create change. For example, influencers and celebrities can make something trendy on social media. While capitalism’s primary focus is to make a profit, but they need help from society. Individuals have some power but not all of it since influential people control the News stations and other outlets. The only interest shared is the desire for human interaction and the motives.

 Fuchs, C. (2014).  Social Media: A Critical Introduction. SAGE Publications Ltd, https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781446270066

 Gonzalez, J., & Torres, J. (2013). News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media. European Journal of Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323113476985c

[reasoningdaily]

A framed photograph of the Cleveland Summit overlooks the desk of Allen Hopkins as he logs on at work each day. It records the 1967 meeting between Black athletes – Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar among them – and politicians to consider and eventually support Ali’s refusal to be drafted into the Vietnam war. That support sent a message – the fight for civil rights is a collective effort.

“When a Black player walks up to take a penalty, I can’t even watch,” says Hopkins, announced in July as the first executive director for Black Players for Change, a US-based collective of athletes, coaches, and staff working within Major League Soccer. “If he misses that penalty he is going to get his socials crushed. I can’t watch. I just never want a Black player to take a penalty … if he misses …”

He pauses as he tries to explain the complex balance between the hopes of the past, the reality of the present, and a collective dream for the future when it comes to fighting racism in soccer.

“But clearly, I actually do want the Black player to take the first penalty. Or the fifth penalty. Or be like Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender and take a penalty [in a shootout] and then make the save for the next one [in the Leagues Cup final] and then just walk off.”

Black Players for Change was launched during the summer of 2020: Covid lockdowns met protests over blatantly racist killings. Say their names: Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd. MLS players wanted to say the names of those killed too and make a public stand for racial justice. Black Players for Change was born that July with an eight minute 46-second silent protest – sanctioned by MLS – before an Orlando City-Inter Miami match. It was a powerful moment.

Three summers on Black Players for Change provides a voice for athletes, advocating for soccer resources in underserved communities, lobbying for restorative justice and education when racism surfaces within the game. There is also a plan to take its mission internationally.

“The world has changed,” says Hopkins. “The Black player has ascended … Even in the US, if you look at player awards for 2022, they are all Black: Tyler Adams, Sophie Smith, Alyssa Thompson, Yunus Musah.”

Hopkins has a decades-long history within US soccer. He was as match announcer on Fox Sports’ fledgling coverage of European leagues before joining ESPN. He was an adviser to Jürgen Klinsmann during the German’s reign as head coach of the US men’s national team and has had several roles within Major League Soccer.

“When I worked for US Soccer with the national team I was one of one,” he says. “I can show you pictures at the White House where – outside of the players – I am the only Black person. We won the Gold Cup and – outside of the players – I am the only Black person there. I have a photo from college where we are lifting up a trophy that we won. I am the only Black person.”

Hopkins says he is never surprised when overt racism rears its head within the sport. It is part of his lived experience. When New York Red Bulls forward Dante Vanzeir was banned for making a racist comment during an MLS match against San Jose Earthquakes, Hopkins says the gamechanger was that multiple people heard what was said and spoke up. That hasn’t always been the case.

“Often it is he said-he said,” Hopkins says. “It happened to me when I played but I don’t think I had a teammate within earshot or anyone able to support me in that moment. The first time it happened to me personally I was shocked and couldn’t believe it because soccer was the one place it didn’t happen.”

So how to respond in the moment?

“My parents grew up in the Jim Crow south – rural Mississippi,” Hopkins says. “So I was raised by folks who were completely informed by that experience. The way they raised me was to take a very conservative safety-first path. Take care of yourself. These were the rules of the road.”

The Vanzeir incident, however, was managed by MLS and the players’ association in a way that Hopkins and Black Players for Change see as a meaningful way forward.

“We are not a cancel culture organization,” Hopkins says. “We were very happy that Vanzeir was part of a restorative justice conversation. Our members are the most gracious, kind, and empathic group of athletes I have ever been around. When issues have come up within MLS, where players have said racial things, it has been about how can we restore? How can we heal? How can we educate?”

But, he adds: “Not everything is perfect.”

Hopkins is referring to former DC United player Taxi Fountas whose contract with MLS was terminated by mutual agreement in August. Fountas had been placed on administrative leave by MLS in July after the league determined that allegations he used “prohibited and discriminatory language against another player” were credible. The “other player” he made racist comments to was a teammate. Time for restorative justice? Not exactly.

That July incident was a second offense and came just nine months after Fountas was alleged to have made racist comments towards Damion Lowe, who is Black, that were overheard by his Inter Miami teammate Aimé Mabika. That allegation could not be corroborated and Fountas received no sanction.

“We had an opportunity to give our feedback to MLS and the players’ association,” Hopkins says of the Fountas case. “We were clear that, no matter who he is, a player is not above [sanctions]. Having Fountas removed from the league and having MLS say why he was removed says a lot. It is also a wake up call for everyone else in the ecosystem and the community that that is the new bar now.”skip past newsletter promotion

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Fountas now plays for Trabzonspor in Turkey’s SuperLig.

“The reality is that Fountas was able to escape severe punishment the first time,” Hopkins says. “We want to try and help people be better and if they don’t want to be better then it’s time for Maya Angelou – when people tell you who they are, believe them the first time.”

While Black Players for Change has origins in the highest level of the sport it is also conscious of its roots. The organization has partnered with the US Soccer Foundation to build fields in underserved neighborhoods across the US, and aims to support Black coaches across all levels of the game while building stronger connections with its female counterpart the Black Women’s Player Collective and the Black Players Alliance, which represents players within the United Soccer League.

“The conversation we need to have is ‘How do we really bring the game to the Black community?’ Not Afro Latino. Not Afro Caribbean. Not African. Not African European, but the Black community overall. We can do a better job of that. We also want to ensure that putting in a new field in a city is not just a real estate play and cutting ribbons [for politicians]. We need to make sure that the next wave is creating communities – making it easy for our [professional] players to turn up and hang out and nutmeg little kids or for a facility to be used as a community center where people can hold their own events and do foundational work.”

Black Players for Change also sees a big window for global leadership tackling racism within the sport. The organization is currently discussing opportunities to lead education and intercultural awareness training with top-tier leagues and clubs in Europe.

“We have a lot of ground to cover just to get to a place where our default settings are humanity and empathy and understanding,” Hopkins says. “We can do it. I know it is ambitious but I see this thread through Fifa, Uefa, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Liga MX and MLS.”

Hopkins understands you have to follow the money and for big business – which top-top tier leagues most definitely are – not all publicity is good publicity.

“There are certain things in corporate America – the Fortune 50, 100, 500 – that you can’t be,” Hopkins says. “You can’t be homophobic and you can’t be racist. There is an element of brand protection and shareholder protection that goes into how businesses approach these issues and that is OK. We have to start somewhere. But dollars also means resources and having resources means having people to educate and to lead, and having more diverse candidates in senior positions.”

With the Cleveland Summit poster looking over his shoulder as he goes about his daily work, Hopkins has set a high bar for what he thinks Black Players for Change can achieve.

“We can eradicate racism in the context of sport,” he says.

What? Really? That’s some dream, surely?

“It’s not as Pollyanna as it sounds,” he says. “You can legislate, you can regulate, you can educate, you can train. We can get racism out of soccer and that should be our goal. With intentionality, it can be like a polio vaccine. The reality is that no one does activism like African Americans because that is just what we do. And no one does sports activism like Black athletes. That should be leveraged.”

[sa7abnews]

Minnesota riots continued after Walz took ‘responsibility to ensure’ there wouldn’t be chaos

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/09/minnesota-riots-continued-after-walz-took-responsibility-to-ensure-there-wouldnt-be-chaos/

Minnesota riots continued after Walz took ‘responsibility to ensure’ there wouldn’t be chaos

Vice President Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, claimed responsibility for preventing riots in Minneapolis in the spring of 2020 as the city spiraled into chaos and destruction, recently unearthed comments show. “The responsibility to ensure it doesn’t happen falls upon me, and I will do everything in my power to do that,” Walz told the media on May 29, 2020, when asked if “we’re not going to see a repeat of the unrest last night, tonight or for the rest of the weekend.”Walz noted that he couldn’t “assure” the media that riots wouldn’t continue to unfold, but he highlighted that it was his personal responsibility to work to prevent destruction.”As I said, I spent, myself, 24 years in the National Guard. I’m surrounded by good people. We’re pulling the assets, and I’m going to need the help of Minnesotans, like we do on a lot of this. I’m going to need folks to cooperate to get this through. I want to acknowledge, again, that pain that people are feeling, the need to get justice,” he continued.TIM WALZ’S BLM RIOTS RESPONSE LEFT MINNESOTA HUSBAND, DAD OF 2 ‘DISGUSTED’: ‘CAN’T BELIEVE’ PEOPLE SUPPORT HIMMinneapolis was the epicenter of the 2020 riots, which were sparked when George Floyd, a Black man, died at the hands of a White officer during a police encounter in the city. Floyd’s death was followed by social justice protests and riots across the nation, which came at a time when COVID-19 cases and government-mandated lockdown measures meant to control the pandemic upended society in unprecedented ways ahead of the 2020 election.After Walz’s comments on May 29, 2020, Minneapolis was again rocked by riots that evening, according to local media reports. “Protesters blanketed the area near the Fifth Precinct, heavily damaging at least seven buildings – including a U.S. Post Office, a Wells Fargo branch, a staffing agency and a Subway in a nearby strip mall,” the Star Tribune reported at the time.The outlet in a separate article described the evening of May 29 into the following morning as “perhaps the worst night in [Minneapolis’] history” as residents of an apartment building recalled jumping out of bed at 4 a.m. while a neighboring building that housed an O’Reilly Auto Parts store and a Family Dollar burned.More than 1,500 buildings in the city were damaged or destroyed due to the riots, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.TRUMP PRAISED WALZ’S GEORGE FLOYD RIOT RESPONSE IN 2020, AUDIO SHOWS: ‘VERY HAPPY'”Where I live now, people are disgusted by Tim Walz. But where I live now doesn’t represent a large swath of Minnesota’s population,” Max Rymer, who moved with his wife and two children from a neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis to a suburb about 45 minutes north of the city in 2020, told Fox News Digital in a previous comment this week.Rymer is running as a Republican for the Minnesota House of Representatives and said he “still can’t believe there are people in the state who support the guy after” what residents “have been through the last four years.”Walz deployed the Minnesota National Guard on May 30, with the state’s National Guard saying at the time that it was “‘all-in’ to restore order.”The riots plaguing the Twin Cities were “no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,” said Walz at the time.WALZ SLAMMED FOR ‘HESITATING’ TO SEND IN GUARD AS HIS DAUGHTER TIPPED OFF RIOTERS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA”Our great cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are under assault,” Walz said. “The situation in Minneapolis is now about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great city.”The move earned praise from then-President Trump, who lauded Walz in a phone call with governors.”What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately,” Trump told Walz and the others on the call.His comments came as other cities, stretching from Seattle to New York City, saw riots that police departments alone were hard-pressed to handle. Portland, Oregon, for example, saw at least 100 nights of rioting and protests that summer. Though Walz did mobilize the state’s National Guard just days after the riots began, locals have said the Democrat governor acted slowly to curb the destruction.”I called the White House after [four] days of unbridled rioting with the Governor frozen on what to do,” Republican state Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka wrote on X on July 28. “I know that Gov[.] Walz and Pres[ident] Trump talked. I know Walz finally brought the Guard out in full for the next night. But Walz was [three] days too late. Pressure may have made him move.”Minnesota’s first lady, Gwen Walz, set social media ablaze this week after an unearthed clip of her describing how she handled the riots went viral.WIFE OF HARRIS’ VP PICK SETS SOCIAL MEDIA ABLAZE WITH ‘BIZARRE’ ADMISSION ABOUT 2020 RIOTS”Again we had more sleepless nights during the riots,” Walz’s wife told KSTP in July 2020. “I could smell the burning tires, and that was a very real thing. And I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening.”5 CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE TIM WALZ, FROM DUI TO COVID FRAUDCritics and conservatives slammed the remarks as “bizarre” on social media.”What might you call this? Bizarre? Abnormal? Peculiar? Eccentric? Offbeat? Quirky?” wrote Noah Rothman, a senior writer at the National Review Online. “Gotta be a word that describes reveling in the catharsis represented by the torching of other people’s property.”Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk described the comments as “weird.”Harris named Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, with the Minnesota Democrat winning the ticket spot against other reported contenders such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. Harris rose to the top of the ticket after President Biden dropped out of the race amid mounting concerns over his mental acuity and pressure from Democrats that he pass the torch to another candidate.Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

[tabloidtoc]

People, November 23

Cover: President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris -- it’s time for America to unite hallelujah! 

Page 3: Chatter -- Katie Holmes on what she’s valued during the pandemic, Jenny McCarthy on Wendy Williams accusing her of using lip fillers, Sam Smith on dreaming of living in Scotland, Nicki Minaj on her newborn son, Dave Chapelle on the country coming together, Emma Stone hinting at expanding her family on Entertainment Tonight 

Page 4: 5 Things We’re Talking About This Week -- Bruce Springsteen sets a record for the ages, Friends makeup is there for you, Wedding Crashers may get a sequel, Victoria Beckham disses David Beckham’s style, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello adopt a dog 

Page 7: Contents 

Page 8: Star Tracks -- Jason Momoa who is in Toronto filming the second season of his series See bundled up for a ride on his Harley Davidson bike before grabbing lunch with friends 

Page 9: Royals Mark Remembrance Day -- Prince William and Prince Charles wore their military uniforms to lay wreaths of poppies during the annual Remembrance Day service, Princess Kate stood on a balcony overlooking the Cenotaph in London for the ceremony, across the pond Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited the Los Angeles National Cemetery in honor of Remembrance Day laying flowers that Meghan picked from their garden at the gravesites of two Commonwealth soldiers 

Page 10: Chris Hemsworth showed off his chiseled physique after hitting the beach in Byron Bay in Australia, Ariel Winter who was reportedly house-hunting this fall lugged around a humongous roll of bubble wrap

Page 11: Orlando Bloom stepped out in Montecito with a new puppy, Mario Lopez and kids Dominic and Gia got their fight on at a jujitsu class, Rita Ora on the red carpet at MTV’s European Music Awards in London 

Page 12: Cute Couples -- Chrissy Teigen and John Legend celebrated President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in a drive-by caravan in Los Angeles, Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox held hands during a stroll in L.A., Wells Adams and fiancee Sarah Hyland 

Page 13: Hugh Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness masked up for a walk with their dogs in NYC, Saweetie and Quavo stepped out for a date night in L.A., also at the Biden victory parade Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk in a classic Mercedes-Benz convertible 

Page 15: Scoop -- Clare Crawley and Dale Moss blow up The Bachelorette

Page 16: Tayshia Adams takes over The Bachelorette 

Page 19: Priyanka Chopra Jonas -- my happy life at home with Nick Jonas, Dancing with the Stars pro Gleb Savchenko’s divorce from Elena Samodanova is getting acrimonious over rumors he had an affair with his DWTS partner Chrishell Stause 

Page 20: Heart Monitor -- Kate Moss and Nikolai von Bismarck getting serious, Erika Girardi and Tom Girardi divorcing, Susan Kelechi Watson and Jaime Lincoln Smith engagement off, Julia Michaels and JP Saxe going strong 

Page 21: Vanessa Lachey on motherhood and movies and staying sane, Al Roker reveals aggressive prostate cancer diagnosis 

Page 23: Passages, Why I Care -- inspired by her grandfather former President George H.W. Bush activist Barbara Pierce Bush is encouraging others to volunteer 

Page 25: Stories to make you smile! This lovable pup Hina brings her own special charm to the family photos

Page 27: People Picks -- The Crown 

Page 28: The Life Ahead, Big Sky, Chris Stapleton -- Starting Over, Q&A Lily Rabe 

Page 29: Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, Ammonite, I Am Greta, One to Watch -- Dash & Lily’s Austin Abrams 

Page 31: Books, Star Picks: What We’re Reading -- Alex Winter, Jane Lynch, Tamron Hall 

Page 32: Cover Story -- Decision 2020 -- it’s time to come together -- a divided nation in the grips of a pandemic turned out in historic numbers to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Page 40: Alex Trebek -- a life well-lived -- inside the extraordinary career and final days of the beloved Jeopardy! host -- a romantic and an optimist who believed kindness should always prevail 

Page 46: Kylie Minogue -- a pop queen’s private world -- the Australian pop star talks about her three decades of fame and her new love and finding joy in a time of darkness 

Page 51: COVID-19 survivor story -- I’m the luckiest person alive -- one of the first coronavirus cases in the U.S. Gregg Garfield spent 64 days fighting for his life 

Page 54: Debbie Allen -- what I know now -- after 50 years in showbiz the award-winning actor and director is still dancing her way through life 

Page 59: Author and former NFL player Emmanuel Acho -- I felt called to help people understand racism -- devastated by the death of George Floyd the sportscaster launched Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man to help heal America’s racial divide 

Page 62: Murdered mom-to-be -- fatal affair? -- pregnant Kassanndra Cantrell was having a secret relationship with an ex and now police have charged him with killing her 

Page 64: The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal -- the man behind the mask -- you can’t see his face in the hit Star Wars series but protecting Baby Yoda is a dream role for the actor who is the son of refugees from Chile 

Page 66: Country star Carly Pearce -- surviving heartbreak and finding strength -- this summer she filed for divorce from fellow country singer Michael Ray after just 8 months of marriage and now the hitmaker is opening up about the decision she never wanted to make 

Page 71: Laverne Cox -- right now the world needs empathy and love -- the actress and activist has spent years leading the fight for transgender rights and inspiring the next generation 

Page 73: The 50 best beauty products of all time 

Page 87: Second Look -- David Koechner and Jessica St. Clair on The Goldbergs 

Page 88: One Last Thing -- Stevie Nicks

[lokodomains]

George Floyd death: Prosecutors seek higher sentence for Derek Chauvin

George Floyd death: Prosecutors seek higher sentence for Derek Chauvin

Prosecutors are asking a judge to give Derek Chauvin a more severe penalty than state guidelines call for when he is sentenced in June for George Floyd’s death, arguing in court documents filed Friday that Floyd was particularly vulnerable and that Chauvin abused his authority as a police officer. Defense attorney Eric Nelson is opposing a tougher sentence, saying the state has failed to prove…

[beardedmrbean]

Leo Terrell, a civil rights attorney and Fox News contributor, called out the Black Lives Matter organization for profiting off Black Americans. He questioned what the group has accomplished to benefit the Black community while the organization’s leaders are living like "the rich and famous."

A new report claims BLM leaders spent $6 million of donor funds to purchase a mansion in California after reportedly bringing in roughly $90 million in 2020.

BOSTON BLM LEADER AND HER HUSBAND HIT WITH FEDERAL FRAUD, CONSPIRACY CHARGES

"Black people were exploited," Terrell said on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday.

Terrell told host Steve Doocy that Black Lives Matter also exploited George Floyd’s death and has used Black Americans for profit ever since.

"It is basically blood money," he said. "It’s sickening, and it’s embarrassing."

BIDEN SUPREME COURT NOMINATION ADVISER ON BLM BOARD OF DIRECTORS, DESPITE WH DISTANCING FROM ‘DEFUND’ MOVEMENT

He called out the NBA and other major corporations for taking advantage of Floyd’s death.

"They wanted to be on the so-called right side of justice," he said. "They were on the wrong side."

Terrell pointed out that the Black community hasn’t benefited from the $90 million raised in 2020 and that no Americans will benefit from BLM’s purchase of a California mansion.

Black Lives Matter's $6M California house draws scrutiny

Black Lives Matter may now face legal action in at least one state. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said his state is going to address the matter of how donor funds are being spent and "get to the bottom of it."

Terrell, however, questioned whether the Biden administration or California Democrats will take action.

"I’m looking forward to an investigation," Terrell said. "It probably won’t happen, but I’m looking for something tangible that Black Lives Matter has done for Black Americans with all that money."

"Black Americans were exploited by Black Lives Matter for the personal gain of a few."

[90363462]

The Tale of Kanye West, From Dropout to Letdown

The story has gotten so far that not even fashion can save him now.

Original photo by Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images. (Digital COMPOSITE BY SARA DELGADO)

In this op-ed, writer Shelton Boyd-Griffith examines how Kanye West’s recent behavior has affected his influence in fashion and beyond.

How did we go from this, “We shine because they hate us, floss ‘cause they degrade us/ We tryna buy back our 40 acres.”

And this, “I say f— the police, that’s how I treat ‘em/ We buy our way out of jail, but we can’t buy freedom.”

To this: “EVERYONE KNOWS THAT BLACK LIVES MATTER WAS A SCAM, NOW IT’S OVER, YOU’RE WELCOME.”

And then this: [questioning the cause of George Floyd’s death] “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”

It’s the tale of Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, from a radical artist of the people to a mouthpiece of anti-Blackness.

When I originally started this essay, the thesis centered around Ye and his recent problematic antics within the fashion industry. I wrote that, if we’re being honest, Ye feels safe and at home in fashion because, systematically, fashion has always been a safe space for anti-Blackness, misogyny, fatphobia, and all-around bigotry. More often than not, the industry has bought into the same tropes and ideologies he believes in. Brand and corporate accountability have become especially important in recent years, a welcome sign of progress — particularly after the 2020 racial justice protests — though it doesn’t always last. In my view, the success of the demand for accountability has been hit or miss.

Things may be finally taking a turn, as storied fashion house Balenciaga has said they are severing all ties with Ye, as reported in WWD on Friday. In response to a query from WWD, the parent company Kering said, “Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.”

Of course, while this is big, Ye’s antics have ballooned beyond the fashion industry recently and, well, I have some thoughts about that too.

As for those shirts from Paris Fashion Week, this kind of anti-Black trolling is relatively standard for Ye. He is addicted to attention, and the folx of the internet and the fashion industry, in particular, kept fueling him up to that point. I personally believe he’s so incredibly focused on distancing himself from the notion of average Blackness that it does not matter with whom (45) or what (white supremacy) he associates himself with. He loves to exist within the “other” space. Somehow he’s convinced himself that he’s not like the rest of us [Black people] because he is supposedly somehow “enlightened.”

It’s apparent that Ye feels safe in right-wing-adjacent spaces, which is why it was unsurprising when he appeared on Fox’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, a platform known for its controversial takes on matters around raceand misogynistic rhetoric. Ye likely felt comfortable that Carlson and his fan base would provide a haven for him to spiral out, spewing his harmful ideologies and soundbites. “We’ve rarely heard a man speak so honestly and so movingly about what he believes,” Carlson said as an introduction to the interview (?—if you can call it that). It’s likely that a viewer would see Ye’s appearance on the show as a green light for the anti-Blackness Carlson regularly churns out.

During that self-administered interview (because Ye basically spoke to himself), the rapper continued to double down, offering up even more stomach-turning hot takes. From continuing to let the masses know that Trump was his “boy” (even with the current legal, moral, ethical, and antidemocratic storm surrounding 45, Ye still doesn’t show any desire to distance himself), to weaponizing religion and going on a fatphobic tirade.

“The media wants to put out a perception that being overweight is the new goal,” he says, using Lizzo (yet another Black woman) as a target for his internalized self-hate. He then went on to say that being overweight was neither in fashion nor in vogue, and — here’s the kicker — that promoting body positivity is “demonic.” As a Black fat body in the fashion space, I know this conversation all too well, but him weaponizing religion in this way takes on a whole other meaning. It’s dangerous. But at this point, that’s his intent. He seems to want to use shock and awe and weaponize his ideologies, which contradict the inclusive steps the fashion, media, and culture spaces must continue to take.

Following his Tucker Carlson performance, Ye took to his platform (social media), going on a series of antisemitic rants based on historically dangerous tropes, which resulted in him being locked out of Twitter and Instagram. Adidas recently announced that its Yeezy partnership was “under review,” and JPMorgan Chase also severed its relationship with the rapper weeks before his most recent tirades, according to The Daily Beast. We need more of this. More action.

He continued his press run, this time on Revolt TV’s podcast Drink Champs, dishing out several antisemitic comments (again) and disparaging falsehoods about the death of George Floyd. After the show aired, and Ye’s disgusting comments reached the masses, the family of Floyd stated their intent to potentially pursue legal action against the rapper. N.O.R.E., the cohost of Drink Champs,has expressed “regret over allowing Kanye West to make controversial comments during the podcast,” and Revolt has removed the episode from streaming platforms. Though there are questions around why the episode even aired in the first place (and why Ye was left unchecked about his tasteless comments in real time), I want to reiterate that this should be the end result. There should be repercussions for his rhetoric.

If, after seeing those shirts and after witnessing him double down on his anti-Black, antisemitic hate speech, you still choose to support Ye, you are making a bold statement. As a former fan, I’ve gone through the full scope of trying to dissociate the art from the artist, making excuses/creating dissertations about his actions, etcetera, but to loosely paraphrase The Devil Wears Prada, Ye sold his soul to the devil when he put on his first MAGA hat. From then on, it was clear that this was a deeply troubled man with some internal issues with his identity. I believe it’s the same space in which Black right-wing extremists (like his co-conspirator Candace Owens) thrive.

It’s dangerous to associate his ideology with mental illness. He’s no messiah. He’s not a genius. He’s an insecure man plagued with internalized self-hate who has reached a certain station in life that he feels somehow excuses him from the realities of being a “typical” Black person.

It hurts to see the complete lack of regard for Mike Brown, Manuel Ellis, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, and the countless Black lives that systemic racism and oppression have taken from us. And what’s even more painful is that he doesn’t care. In the past, he used his platform to shine a light on the issues and injustices disproportionately affecting Black people,and now he’s willingly a mouthpiece for the very things he used to rap about. It was even announced this week that he was in talks to buy the controversial conservative platform Parler (which is quite interesting, considering Ye’s friend Candace Owens’s husband, George Farmer, is the CEO). This is who he is now. He’s all in.

I want us collectively to let him and others like him exist in their own orbit and not feel the need to engage continuously. That’s what men like him want. It’s like his life force counts on the engagement, the clicks. As we push for more inclusive, safe-affirming spaces, there’s no room for this behavior. After weeks of watching him spiral, my message is this: Let’s all agree to leave him (along with other problematic voices in the industry) to his own devices, in his own orbit, and shift our focus instead to creatives using their practices and platforms to effect change, fashion brands that represent the world we aim to see, and issues that matter.

Way to self destruct your own career. Shutting up is free for a reason