#george floyd petition

[pwurrz]

i can only hope the senseless, state sanctioned lynching of yet another innocent black man inspires protests worldwide like it did with george floyd. i can only hope marcellus williams murder will inspire change, and will not have been completely in vain. i want to see protests, petitions, murals, phone calls, emails, handwritten letters, anything and everything that could possibly force change upon the horrific country we ironically call the united states of america.

i can only hope..

until then, say his name.

marcellus williams.

marcellus williams.

marcellus williams.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Toronto city council voted Thursday to rename Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square and recommended a host of other landmarks be stripped of the Dundas name over connections to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The move comes more than three years after council first received a petition raising concerns about the name at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in the United States. In a late council session Thursday night, councillors voted 19-2 to rename Yonge-Dundas Square. Coun. Jaye Robinson, who represents Ward 15, and Coun. Stephen Holyday, who represents Ward 2, voted against the move. 

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[rubberduckearrings]

i never post anything serious on here but the results of the election have genuinely thrown me for a loop!

as someone living in the uk i cant even begin to imagine how scary this is for all the women, lgbtq, poc, disabled, and so many other people that trump's policies target. if you are living in the usa or are just scared, please talk to someone because you are not alone.

HOWEVER!!

if you are reading this and you did vote for trump or support his policies, here is the type of person you've elected to be your president:

said he wanted to "restore germany to its former glory"

said he would be dating ivanka trump if she wasnt his daughter

was walking behind a TEN YEAR OLD GIRL on an escalator and said "i'm gonna be dating her in ten years"

had sex with a porn star and paid her $130 million in hush money while his wife was pregnant

has been found guilty of falsifying business records, conspiracy to defraud the usa, and conspiracy AGAINST the rights of citizens

been accused of sexual misconduct in at least 26 cases, including minors, and has been found liable in court for sexual abuse

is the only president to have been impeached twice (abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in 2019, incitement of insurrection in 2021)

reversed majority of obama's action taken to fight climate change

after george floyd's murder, he ordered the police to clear a crowd of blm protestors with tear gas and stun grenades so he could take a photo in lafayette square

held an INDOOR rally just months after the country shut down due to covid

if that doesn't say enough about him as a person, please take a good look at the project 2025 manifesto, or if you can't be bothered to do that then have a look at some articles like this one:

i mentioned earlier that i live in the uk and at first i thought about how i probably have no reason to be worried. his policies dont affect me. but then i thought a little more about the domino effect this could have. trump's reelection sets a precedent for other countries to follow suit, and this will only get stronger once he starts making the changes he's promised. im scared for my own future, i cant even imagine how the minorities living in america feel right now.

if you wanna help, share the articles, donate to the charities, sign the petitions, attend the protests, just be loud!!! be as persistent as possible about it and people will be forced to listen.

i would also like to add that if you support donald trump please get the fuck off my page i dont want you here. okay bye :3

[azspot]

I believe what this avant-garde is doing is attempting to usher in a post-managerial capitalism: it is first and foremost an attack on the ideology, employment structures, and political organizations of the professional-managerial class., those you might shoehorn into an orthodox framework as “the progressive petit bourgeoisie” or, when they lack property, “knowledge workers.” The tech-capitalist avant-garde are taking back control over the means of production and the systems of communication and knowledge production. They don’t share their more pragmatic-minded tech colleagues’ worries that immigration restrictions will lower their ability to staff complex organizations, because they want a post-labor future or, at least, want labor not cossetted but more subordinated. They take their inspiration from openly authoritarian models of capitalist development, like Singapore and apartheid South Africa. One obvious model is turning Twitter into X: lay off the managerial layer, replace things with AI wherever you can, and ensure management domination of content. “DOGE’s imagined attack on the civil service and bureaucracy in government is a similar offensive on the “PMC.” This is clear-eyed class war on the part of the capitalists. There were signs of radicalization in the steadily proletarianized section of the “cognitive elite:” increased pace of white-collar workplace unionization, a growing interest among college-educated young people in socialism and the labor movement, “wokeness” causing workplace problems, the multi-racial uprising during the George Floyd protests, the Bernie Sanders movement, etc. In this class war, the Silicon Valley capitalist class has forged an alliance with the reactionary mob also facing the prospect of (relative) pauperization under current conditions: lumpen elements unable or unwilling to form any class consciousness and who instead turn to crypto schemes and ideologies like racism, nostalgia for unalloyed male chauvinism, and religious obscurantism. On an ideological level, the reactionary tech avant-garde shares these anti-solidaristic visions of social domination. (Notice how this mob shrieks with delight when it sees glimpses AI destroying both the employment and standards of taste of the educated middle class.) The tech capitalists also have a natural set of allies in the family-owned capitalist class that has always struggled against both organized labor and the onus of federal regulations.

Big Tech's Class War Politics

[beardedmrbean]

A UCLA professor was suspended for not providing special treatment to black students in the light of George Floyd's death. The professor is suing the University of California Los Angeles for more than $19 million over the well-publicized incident that garnered national notoriety.

Gordon Klein – a lecturer of accounting at the Anderson School of Management – made headlines in June 2020 when he refused to give preferential treatment to black students.

As Blaze News previously reported, Klein was asked by a student if black students would be given special accommodations because of George Floyd's death and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests.

"The student requested a no-harm and shortened final exam, and extended deadlines for final assignments and projects in consideration of black students' well-being in light of nationwide protests against police brutality," the Daily Bruin reported.

Klein responded by writing:

Thanks for your suggestion in your email below that I give black students special treatment, given the tragedy in Minnesota. Do you know the names of the classmates that are black? How can I identify them since we've been having online classes only? Are there any students that may be of mixed parentage, such as half black-half Asian? What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half?

Klein asked the student if "a white student" from Minneapolis "might be possibly even more devastated" by the death of George Floyd.

Klein then quoted Martin Luther King Jr., and asked, "Remember that MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the 'color of their skin.' Do you think that your request would run afoul of MLK's admonition?"

A student took a screenshot of the email conversation, and it quickly circulated online.

UCLA students claimed Klein's email was "backhandedly racist" and that it undermined the Black Lives Matter movement.

The same day as Klein wrote the email, a Change.org petition was launched, and it demanded Klein be "terminated for his extremely insensitive, dismissive, and woefully racist response to his students’ request for empathy and compassion during a time of civil unrest."

The petition — with more than 21,000 signatures — read, "His behavior is not reflective of the equity, respect, and justice that UCLA stands for as an institution."

Two days later, Anderson School Dean Antonio Bernardo announced that Klein was suspended and an investigation was initiated into the "troubling conduct."

"Providing a safe, respectful and equitable environment in which students can effectively learn is fundamental to UCLA’s mission," Bernardo declared. "We share common principles across the university of integrity, excellence, accountability, respect, and service. Conduct that demonstrates a disregard for our core principles, including an abuse of power, is not acceptable."

"I deeply regret the increased pain and anger that our community has experienced at this very difficult time," Bernardo added. "We must and will hold each other to higher standards."

Klein was reinstated less than a month after the incident.

However, Klein alleges that the public backlash had caused irreparable damage.

Klein derives significant income from his expert witness practice.

The College Fix reported, "He has testified, for example, in several high-profile court cases, including Michael Jackson’s wrongful death, Apple’s acquisition of Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones, and the valuation of General Motors’ assets in bankruptcy."

Klein’s attorney – Steve Goldberg – told the College Fix this week, "He was one of the top damages experts in the country who was historically bringing in well over $1 million dollars a year and trending upwards when it happened."

"That practice went to ashes right after he was suspended," said Goldberg, a member of the Markun, Zusman & Compton law firm.

Klein, who continues to teach as a full-time lecturer at UCLA, is suing the university for "well over $19 million in damages."

Klein's lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial on March 4 at the Santa Monica Courthouse.

Klein, who joined the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1981, first filed a lawsuit against the school in September 2021.

UCLA did not respond to repeated requests for comment by The College Fix.

[angrybell]

At our most prestigious universities there is silence from administrations that leapt to speak out on George Floyd’s killing and on the war in Ukraine. Meantime, the social justice crowd offers explanations for the massacre—a massacre that, in part, targeted a group of progressive Israelis at a music festival. Terrorists came to that festival on paragliders carrying machine guns to start their slaughter. They raped women there next to the dead bodies of their friends.

Now those same groups that demanded justice for Floyd are celebrating savages who murdered and raped their victims before parading their naked bodies through the streets, broadcasting their crimes through the internet. And our “great and good” at Harvard and Yale and Columbia sign petitions in favor of these terrorists. The Social Justice movement holds rallies to support them.

What the hell is wrong with these people? Is it so hard to support a Jewish state instead of death cult?

[politics-project]

Hi guys!

In this blog, I’ll give talk about the positives and negatives of online activism in regards to the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements. And what change has been achieved from it.

Positives:

It helped with organising protests

It helps give voices to people who were victims of police brutality and sexual assault

It created a wider awareness to those who are normally apolitical

It helped grow system of support for victims of assault or made them aware that they were also a victim of assault

It helped destigmatise sexual assault

It made people more informed on the history and the systems that enabled rape culture and systemic racism

It can put elected officials under more pressure to make change

Petitions can be widely shared to make the views of people known to officials

Negatives:

People treat serious movements as trends

People often don’t put in the effort to actually help these movements and unpack their unconscious bias such as the performative ‘black square’ people posted in 2020 to show solidarity with the BLM movement

‘# Activism’ often drowns out the voices of those most affected and in most need of being heard

Not knowing the people you’re protesting with can lead to distrust and disjointed protest (You can see this with the protests for BLM in 2020)

Fake news can be spread rapidly to sow distrust in the movement and fear monger about those fighting for their rights

Achievements from Online Activism:

It helped hold some police officers accountable and got them to actually be charged with the crime they committed after much online pressure.Rev Wheeler Parker, a cousin of Emmett Till credited the Black Lives Matter movement with finally making lynching a federal hate crime. Derek Chauvin convicted of murdering George Floyd which was the spark from the 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests.

It helped pass The Times Up Act of 2018, which aimed to strengthen anti harassment and anti discrimination laws. It also helped to pass the Survivors Bill of Rights act of 2016 although the movement had not skyrocketed notoriety. It helped to convince Harvey Weinstein in 2020 and Larry Nassar in 2018. It also helped start the Times Up Legal defense Fund be established in 2018 which provided legal support for survivors of harassment assault and abuse. It helped to pass many other laws and put predators behind bars.

[follow-up-news]

The school board in Shenandoah County, Virginia, early Friday approved a proposal that will restore the names of Confederate military leaders to two public schools. The measure, which passed 5-1, reverses a previous board’s decision in 2020 to change the names of schools that had been linked to Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby, three men who led the pro-slavery Southern states during the Civil War.  Mountain View High School will go back to the name Stonewall Jackson High School. Honey Run Elementary School will go back to the name Ashby-Lee Elementary School. The board stripped their names after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, fueling a national racial reckoning. The calls for racial justice and equity inspired some communities to remove Confederate symbolism and statues of Confederate generals. But in Shenandoah County, the conservative group Coalition for Better Schools petitioned school officials to reinstate the names of Jackson, Lee and Ashby. “We believe that revisiting this decision is essential to honor our community’s heritage and respect the wishes of the majority,” the coalition wrote in an April 3 letter to the board, according to a copy posted online. The board considered a similar motion in 2022, but it failed because of a tie vote. Four years ago, a previous incarnation of the board moved to change the names in a 5-1 vote, according to minutes from a meeting held July 9, 2020. The minutes say that the goal of the resolution was "condemning racism and affirming the division’s commitment to an inclusive school environment for all." The current members said the 2020 board's decision was made hastily and without appropriate community input. About 80 people spoke Thursday before the board's vote — more than 50 of them against restoring the old names.

[ausetkmt]

While debates around reparations for the descendants of slaves often focus on costs of such action, advocates believe discussions must also address other efforts for systemic change.

Financial estimates are wide-ranging depending on how they are projected and thoughts on what exactly will, or even can be paid for are also divided.

"Reparations is not a check in the mail," Raymond Winbush, author of Should America Pay? Slavery and The Raging Debate on Reparations and Belinda's Petition: A Concise History of Reparations For The Transatlantic Slave Trade, told Newsweek.

"We've got to look at the difference between changing symbols and changing systems."

The growing dialogue surrounding racial justice following worldwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd has also brought the issue to the fore. The U.S. Conference of Mayors has got behind Democratic calls in Congress to enact a study on the matter of reparations being made to the descendants of those impacted by slavery.

House Representatives could hear a bill, H.R. 40, this summer in regards to forming a committee to discuss reparations. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he could be in favor of cash reparations to African Americans and Native Americans if studies found this to be a viable option.

"I think that Black people are saying we've had enough and I think white people are coming to grips with the fact that this country owes a debt that has been unpaid," Winbush added.

How could a cost be calculated?

If payments were to be made, the amount that would be calculated could vary dependent on how the cost is estimated, applications of factors such as interest and who would be considered eligible.

A study in The Review of the Black Political Economy journal, first published on June 19, titled "Wealth Implications of Slavery and Racial Discrimination for African American Descendants of the Enslaved," looked at the Black-white wealth gap alongside the cost of slavery and discrimination to descendants of the enslaved.

Among its estimates for the costs were around $12-$13 trillion in 2018 dollars, based upon estimates looking at land-based, stemming from the promise made to freed slaves, and price-based, considering what slave prices were.

This amount, divided by 40,909,233 Black non-Hispanic descendants of the enslaved, could result in a total reparations payment per descendant of $151.63 million. This figure on the number of descendants may be overstated, as it likely includes some Black U.S. Residents who do not trace their ancestry back to slavery, the researchers note.

Another estimate, based upon wealth disparity, is around $14 trillion. Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, suggested this sum, which would amount to around $350,000 each for the estimated 40 million African Americans in the United States, giving them an amount signifying the wealth disparity between African Americans and white Americans.

This amount echoes that of a previous study, from University of Connecticut researcher Thomas Craemer, who was involved in the aforementioned study published June 19, that suggested an amount of up to $14.2 trillion.

This was calculated by tabulating the hours slaves worked between 1776 and 1865, multiplying the time they worked by the average wage at the time, then accounting for 3 percent annual interest, as previously reported by Newsweek.

As well as reparations based upon earnings, others suggest payment to backdate the failed promise of "40 acres" promised to slaves by Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman. Land was set aside though the order was reversed by President Andrew Johnson.

The June 19 study suggests based upon these parameters, the reparations could amount to around $11.9 trillion, estimating around $291,186 per descendant, based on an estimate for 2018.

The case for reparations now

A Brookings Institution report, titled Why we need reparations for Black Americans by Rashawn Ray and Andre M. Perry refers to the value assigned to slaves in 1860 of $3 billion dollars as another point backing calls for reparations.

"Slavery enriched white slave owners and their descendants, and it fueled the country's economy while suppressing wealth building for the enslaved. The United States has yet to compensate descendants of enslaved Black Americans for their labor," the report said.

The report suggests payments to the descendants of slaves, as well as programs such as student loan forgiveness and down payment grants.

Speaking with Newsweek, Ray said Congress should have looked into reparations long before now.

"There should not be any blocks to simply forming a committee. It should be a no brainer and should have occurred long ago," said Ray, a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution.

On what should be done, he said "wealth-building opportunities" might also be an option.

"While direct payments are one option, we might also think about wealth-building opportunities in the form of tuition payments, housing grants, and small business grants," he said.

Winbush echoed that the time for reparations had come.

"The reparations movement is old. I think that people think it's very young," he told Newsweek, suggesting people linking it to Black Lives Matter makes them think it does not go as far back as it does.

"It goes back well over 200 years in this country," said Winbush, also a research professor and the Director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University, commenting on how social media in recent years has brought it to the fore.

More than just money

Winbush also suggested that while handing out money is an option, other methods of reparations, focusing on systemic change, could be implemented.

"If we were to say, 'just give everybody a check,' that's only a partial solution. I think reparations has been narrowly defined as it's related to money," he said.

"It's acknowledgement by a nation that they did something wrong. One way of atoning for that is money. But it's a variety of solutions."

Roy L. Brooks, author of Atonement and Forgiveness: A New Model for Black Reparations and Sorry Isn't Enough: The Controversy Over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice suggested that reparations must look at factors other than simply money.

"One of the most important responsibilities of the commission would be to educate the American people, including African-Americans, not only about slavery and its lingering effects, but also about the fact that reparations come in many forms and are not the only way to redress slavery," he told Newsweek.

"Apologies, truth commissions, truth trials, and reparations are just a few of the ways to redress any atrocity, whether it is slavery, Japanese-American internment or the Holocaust. Calculations are complex but not impossible because they have been performed all over the world in the last 70 years."

Regarding the cost of reparations, he said African-Americans will have to work through the models and issues in the context of the commission.

"Until that happens, it is not only premature to talk about the "cost" of reparations (or more generally slave redress), it is irresponsible," said Brooks, who is also a professor at the University of San Diego.

The costs of slavery

Joe Feagin, author of The White Racial Frame and co-author of Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations, and Racial and Ethnic Relations, similarly told Newsweek that there needs to be an examination of the "many other costs of slavery."

He said: "For example, how do you calculate the costs of great pain and suffering, and lives lost or cut short?"

Stating that most reparations estimates calculate "just the labor and wealth lost," he added, "I think it is at least as important to talk about the many other costs of slavery."

In terms of a starting point for reparations being paid, he suggested beginning with people who suffered under segregation.

"Start with reparations for Jim Crow, no questions there about the white nonsense about this harm happened centuries ago and we cannot figure out who did what to whom," he said. "Start with the living folks and then work backwards to slavery."

Deciding the amount

Craemer, whose research is mentioned above, suggested the work of a commission in looking at the financial costs has largely already been done—though stated issues that are difficult to quantify need to be looked at, with the descendant community integral in choosing an outcome.

"I would say, the commission's work has largely been done. It might be more reasonable to proceed directly to reparations," he told Newsweek.

"Otherwise, the need for further study may be misused by reparations opponents to indefinitely delay implementation. This has disadvantages not only for eligible recipients, but also for the U.S. government—reparations become exponentially more expensive the longer we wait."

With regards to the sum of reparations, he said estimates only address the financial aspect of slavery, not looking at its other implications.

"These specific estimates only address the value of slavery in the United States, they do not address colonial slavery, or racial discrimination after slavery. Also, they only address lost inheritances, they do not address loss of freedom, loss of other opportunities, or withheld compensation for pain and suffering," he said.

"In my view, it is up to negotiations between the descendant community and the federal government to determine whether the entire estimate should be compensated, or only a portion, at what interest rate, and using what estimation method."

Despite the increased discussion on the matter, polling from earlier this year found that only one in five asked felt the U.S. should spend "taxpayer money to pay damages to descendants of enslaved people in the United States," according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll which asked 1,115 adults in June.

Ray said the issue of reparations happening should no longer be a point of discussion.

"If 40 acres and a Mule was actually implemented we wouldn't be having this conversation," he told Newsweek. "Time is up. This needs to happen."

[cosmicanger]

By The Anarchothoughtism Collective

There’s a lot wrong with this little rustbelt city. It’s hard to love, almost painful. Yet people here try to do it anyway, often to our own detriment. We critique this city scathingly, but we love Milwaukee too. Black Milwaukeeans work hard to carve out a cultural niche. It’s a city that’s been shit on so much that it’s developed an inferiority complex; it demands recognition, for better or worse. I joke that living here would be funny - if it wasn’t our lives. Oftentimes it is funny, in a sad, nihilistic, and absurdist way. You have to laugh to keep from crying.

The structural issues of Milwaukee are deeply enmeshed, feeding into each other and compounding the struggles its Black underclass must face. The city’s cultural undercurrent is marked by distinct apathy, conservatism, and complacency. Individualist and bourgeois aspirations are rife. Small pockets of resistance bubble up, only to be extinguished by petit-bourgeois endeavors such as the non-profit industrial complex (NPIC), “activist” grifters, or the business class. This allows for highly fascistic elements to develop without resistance. The 2016 Sherman Park uprising is a prime example of such an “extinguishing”.

Milwaukee is known as the worst place for Black people to live, the most segregated city in the United States, and as “Harvard for pimps”. Black people have been locked out of homeownership, with only 25.2% of Black Milwaukeeans actually owning homes. A culture around stolen vehicles (we call them “stolies”) holds fast. “Kia Boys” and “Kia Girls” drive throughout the city recklessly, giving MPD (Milwaukee Police Department) a run for their money. To be fair, most people in Milwaukee drive recklessly. Lives are ended or altered by gun violence. You can’t trust tap water because of the lead pipes. Out-of-state slumlords own too much property, resulting in poorly-kept homes, leading to excessive electrical fires and evictions. The homeless remain mostly unseen, systemically pushed into surrounding forests. Milwaukee Police Department takes up more than half of the city budget, their pensions are bankrupting the city. As a result, libraries will close, fire stations and ambulances will operate at reduced capacities. In two to three years, a youth prison will be built here. Conditions feel overwhelmingly grim.

Following the Murder of Syville Smith by MPD in 2016, Sherman Park erupted in flames and the uprising that ensued lasted for 3 days. Rioters looted and burned down a BP gas station. This was not senseless or random; Black community members had been frequently profiled by owners of this particular BP station, and frequently had Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) called on them. A month before the murder of Smith, an employee fired a gun in the air to intimidate a group of teenagers standing in front of the store, claiming that he feared for his life. As rioting progressed, rocks were hurled at local law enforcement, a bank was set ablaze, and a local liquor store was looted. The city of Milwaukee was transfixed, yet what followed in the wake of that moment seemed a dizzying blur: over 2-3 years, conversations shifted abruptly from police brutality, racism, and state violence to entrepreneurship. Almost as quickly as it happened, outside investors swooped in to develop what is now known as Sherman Phoenix, a collection of 30 Black-owned businesses housed within the former BMO Harris bank that was burned down during the riots.

Before this shift, Sherman Park resident and youth mentor/activist Vaun Mayes was framed by both MPD and federal agents for the attempted firebombing of the District 7 police station at the height of the riots. Though the case against him remains ambiguous in its resolution, Mayes’ case and eventual release from state custody garnered him an abundance of local media attention, alongside undue credit as a reliable community activist. Soon after that ordeal, Mayes began dubbing himself “Milwaukee’s Malcolm X”, though his politics were moderate and inconsistent. His influence would later play a role in stunting Milwaukee’s 2020 protests.

The officer who killed Sylville Smith was acquitted of the murder; however, he was discharged from MPD and spent time in prison for a series of sexual assaults. In 2020 Smith’s family was awarded a $4 million settlement from the City of Milwaukee. Over the past 10 years, Milwaukee has spent $40 million on police misconduct settlements. This is not justice, it never will be. Justice cannot exist for Black folx within this system, our own hands must forge a new path.

Non-profits: The Worst Jobs We’ve Ever Worked (CW: Rape, Sexual Assault)

Milwaukee non-profits are closely linked with MPD. More often than not, they aid in advancing the carceral state through partnerships and broad coalitional work. One member of our collective was introduced to the NPIC when they were 16 years old by members of the ACLU Wisconsin when the latter visited their high school classes to speak with students about their civil rights and electoralism. By the time our comrade hit 19, they had dropped out of college and had their first real experience working in the NPIC through an AmeriCorps program. They were paid $17,000/year and received additional food stamp benefits. For how little was paid, it could be argued that work involving social services and the NPIC is a twisted type of exploitation that normalizes the commoditization of marginalized peoples’ experiences even as it normalizes the extraction of their labor and their harassment/abuse within NPIC structures.

During their stint with this organization, our comrade worked directly with women involved in street-based prostitution. In this supposed “harm reduction-based” approach, our comrade was often forced to work directly with police to maintain the symbiotic relationship their employer held with district attorneys, the House of Correction (a county jail that falls under the Division of Adult Institutions but operates somewhat independently from them), and law enforcement organizations (LEOs) writ large. This placed our comrade and other workers in the impossible position of offering little material or social supports to trafficking victims in exchange for tracking them and discussing their cases regularly with police and community members that viewed the presence of trafficked women as a “blight.”

Our comrade remembers their time with this organization as one of the most traumatic periods of their life. As they worked to provide compassionate and appropriate care to victims of sexual violence, sometimes in emergencies, they were simultaneously experiencing violence within their org that overlapped the violence they were expected to help combat in the streets. Gender-based harassment from supervisors and assault at the hands of a co-worker some months into the job, coupled with the daily trauma absorption of the job, eventually took its toll; our comrade’s mental health declined, as did their performance, and they were let go. They recall there was relief in that moment and remained unemployed for a few months while seeking therapy to heal.

Another comrade never even made it that far. As a transplant, this comrade with years of nonprofit experience working with youth and other marginalized communities, decided to volunteer with various organizations to gain both a better map of the city and to better understand where they could apply their passion effectively. Despite becoming a dues-paying member of at least 2 supposedly radical orgs, the only jobs they were being told about were ones that would exacerbate pre-existing health problems. Through 2 different periods of homelessness, this comrade still managed to show up and organize or lend support wherever they believed good community work was being done. Eventually, our comrade’s persistence and organizing chops developed, and the local NPIC began sniffing around.

Our comrade began being flattered and specifically invited to “brainstorming sessions,” a quirky Milwaukee euphemism that essentially serves 3 functions for nonprofits: the first is crowdsourcing language and popular-if-inconsistent definitions of social problems; the second, to pull in and start cultivating so-called leadership skills in individuals who may be able to be exploited by nonprofits through low-pay positions or as uncompensated volunteers; the third function being pure extraction, wherein community members are invited to rough out projects or initiatives that grassroots formations seldom can bankroll, but pose no financial risk to NPIC orgs that regularly receive millions from the state to water down and scale up.

Catching onto the grift, however, is not always a guarantee that one’s boundaries around labor would be respected. When our comrade began politely declining invitations to these brainstorming sessions, they were eventually lured into applying for part-time positions with the same organizations that would allow them to keep their health benefits while earning an income, which made our comrade eagerly apply to all. Experience notwithstanding, our comrade found that the fishing expeditions of the brainstorming sessions were not yet done with them: though it took the better part of a year, during which our comrade filled out multiple applications, underwent numerous background checks, weirdly intensive demands for outlines of programming they had not yet been hired to facilitate, and oddly probing interviews with the occasional direct questions about their anarchist leanings, our comrade realized that these nonprofits had no intention of hiring them so much as simply extracting their labor - as well as intimate personal information - under the guise of community building. Some years after the compliments stopped, our comrade simply withdrew from the NPIC and organizing publicly, preferring to work only with those who respected their boundaries. For a disabled person who could not leave their home much, severing ties to the NPIC represented an end to the social life they badly needed for their well-being.

Abolish the NPIC, Abolish the Celebrity/Career Activist and Black Misleadership Class

NPIC culture demands much from marginalized workers while offering very little in return. Non-profits market themselves as more “just” or “equitable” workplaces for marginalized peoples, but often, they just offer the same capitalistic shit gilded in the rhetoric of false radicalism. In this way, the NPIC exploits the desires of those who wish to build a better world and change the material conditions of oppression knowing they never will be able - or inclined - to address oppression at its roots. Non-profits that portray themselves as “radical” or “revolutionary” are actively lying. The NPIC is an apparatus of an imperialistic, white supremacist, ableist, capitalistic state. It serves to redirect radical energies into neoliberal, ineffectual organizing methods. Its function is to maintain the status quo; those who disrupt or refuse to sell out are pushed out.

One of the worst byproducts of the NPIC and social media culture is the production of the “celebrity activist” or “career activist”. What we're describing is nothing new - sellouts have existed across generations. It’s become more complicated, nuanced, and insidious with the appropriation of radical aesthetics and language. When we think of this type of sellout, elements of George Jackson’s criticism against Bill Cosby and Black capitalism are applicable nearly 50 years later. “Black capitalism, black against itself. The silliest contradiction in a long train of spineless mindless contradictions…We can never learn to trust as long as we have them. They are as much a part of repression, more even than the real live, rat-informer-pig” (George Jackson, Soledad Brother, p. 237). The Black celebrity/career activists are rooted in the ideology of Black Capitalism, tainted by entrepreneurial (bourgeois) aspiration, and opportunism. Their politics are shallow and unprincipled. Coming out of the George Floyd Rebellion, one of the most prominent and glaring examples of this is Patrisse Cullors and the mishandling of donations made to the BLM (Black Lives Matter) Foundation. Despite being a “trained Marxist”, Patrisse accepted deals with Cadillac and owned several million-dollar homes while chapters of BLM struggled to organize on the ground. Patrisse profited in one of the most direct ways possible from the deaths and oppression of Black people. How many more Patrisse Cullors types do you need to see?

During protests against the police killing of Alvin Cole in Wauwatosa, Jay-Z’s Team Roc took the opportunity to generate positive press for the brand, posting bail and covering legal fees for those arrested, including Alvin Cole’s family. The celebrity also took out a full-page ad in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel calling for Alvin Cole’s murderer, Joseph Mensah, to be prosecuted. Additionally, Tamika Mallory made an appearance, offering a performative press conference. While support from celebrities like Jay-Z may appear beneficial on a surface level, the ultra-wealthy do not and will never sustain social movements or revolutionary activity: Jay-Z has repeatedly shown his allegiance to capital, and his support aims to co-opt the energy of mass movements and encourage the Black masses to buy into myths of Black Capitalism.

In Elite Capture by Olufemi O. Taiwo, the author references the work of Frantz Fanon, Jared A. Ball, and Franklin Frazier to elaborate on myths of the “Black Economy” and Black buying power. In describing African middle classes in post-colonial Algeria, Fanon postulated that this middle class would “capture, dilute and ultimately subvert the energy of anti-imperialist struggle.” Taiwo notes that Fanon’s prediction came to be, “The national independence movements supplanted formal colonial rule only to run headfirst into neocolonialism: a condition in which those young nations’ new ruling elite were either sharply constrained by or actively colluding with the corporations and governments of the former colonial powers - and the international system they dominated.”

Taiwo goes on to analyze Franklin Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie and the idea of escaping racial strife through a separate Black economy, citing Booker T. Washington’s National Negro Business League. “The combined net worth of all 115 attendees at the inaugural National Negro Business League did not amount to even $1 million. By the time Fraizer wrote his book, more than six decades later, all eleven Black-owned banks in the nation combined did not represent the amount of capital held in the average local bank in smaller white cities.” Drawing from Ball, Taiwo concludes that investing in the idea of a Black economy is politically naive, a fruitless endeavor that would need to be birthed of our current political and economic reality of white supremacy and racial capitalism. He notes that myths of Black buying power and financial literacy only serve to place the onus on the poor instead of on the exploitative nature of capitalism. We see the myth persist to this day through endeavors such as Killer Mike’s Greenwood “Bank”. “The possibility of an insulated Black economy is the myth, while the immediate interests of a few well-positioned Black Folk provide the true impetus.”

For petty bourgeoise aspirationals and the ultra-wealthy, the NPIC provides the perfect platform for the co-optation of our mass movements. Protests become photo opportunities; elements of resistance and revolution are appropriated to market an individual's brand or NGO to philanthropists, funders, and sponsors. Brand recognition is key. Locally, we’ve witnessed executive directors and NGO boards claim police abolition, only to turn around and hire ex-police officers to perform union busting on their behalf. We’ve seen blatant misogynists and homophobes win the title of “Activist of the Year” throughout a near-endless stream of self-congratulatory awards ceremonies. Milwaukee suffers an ongoing plague of micro-celebrity activists, bolstered by an NPIC culture that actively blocks opportunities for effective, revolutionary organizing. Our point is simplistic, the conclusion feels trite, but it’s a message Milwaukeeans need to hear. If any real work is to get done, the NPIC and career/celebrity activism need to be abandoned or eventually destroyed.

(A mural that recognizes “leaders” involved in Milwaukee’s 2020 protest movement…the mural depicts Frank Nitty, Sam Alford, Khalil Coleman, Jeremiah Thomas, Elle Halo, Tommy Franecki, Markasa Tucker, and Vaun Mayes.)

*Note: Some non-profits do excellent work, and are well respected within the communities in which they operate. The non-profit legal structure can be used as a tool that allows grassroots and anarchist formations to operate more freely. However, within a $2 trillion industry employing 10% of the United States population, we find the types of non-profits mentioned above represent a microcosm within a majority. Members of our collective understand the benefits and contradictions of being involved in the NPIC as we have worked within the field and received services from the NPIC. This is not a judgment of those involved within the NPIC structure, it is a call to think critically about the structure.

How Milwaukee Got a Youth Prison: Past to Present (CW: Sexual abuse, Child abuse)

Milwaukee’s NPIC is deeply connected to the carceral justice system and policing, and many violence prevention programs and non-profits are incentivized to work with the police to receive funding from the city. Unsurprisingly, local non-profits ushered in a new youth prison in Milwaukee. To explain how this all came to fruition, we’ll need to lay some ground and talk about the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lakes crises that occurred over the course of a decade. Tracking everything that occurred at these facilities could amount to a separate book on its own, so we'll only be tackling a tiny fraction of events in this section.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the problems began in 2010-2011 under Republican Governor Jim Doyle’s administration. The number of youth prisoners had steadily decreased over the years and in 2011, inmate populations dropped to half of what they were in 2004. For the Doyle Administration, it financially did not make sense to continue running three separate facilities (Lincoln Hills located in northern Wisconsin, Ethan Allen School in southeastern Wisconsin, and Southern Oaks Girls School in southeastern Wisconsin): Lincoln Hills operated at a much lower cost than the other two facilities and state law mandated that a juvenile facility must remain open in northern Wisconsin. This law did not apply to southeastern parts of the state, where most of Wisconsin’s Black and incarcerated population stemmed from. By January 2011, Republican Governor Scott Walker was instated; he moved quickly to close Ethan Allen School and Southern Oaks Girls School, consolidating 100 prisoners into Lincoln Hills and doubling the prison population. Lincoln Hills was extremely short-staffed, the sparse population of northern Wisconsin being to blame. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stated, “...juvenile justice experts around the nation were recommending smaller, more localized facilities, Wisconsin went in the opposite direction, consolidating operations in a remote setting.”

In February 2012, Racine County Circuit Judge Richard Kreul sent a memo to Scott Walker detailing a case of abuse. ”The memo Kreul sent to Walker described an incident in which an inmate from Racine was forced to perform oral sex on his roommate and then beaten unconscious. Workers learned of the assault at 4 p.m. They didn’t get the victim medical treatment for three hours.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]. In 2014, when Milwaukee-based Public Defender Robin Dorman learned that one of her clients was not receiving medical treatment or being sent to classes, she quickly learned that her client was not alone. Upon discovering additional allegations of abuse and neglect, Dorman sent a memo to Milwaukee County Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern, who forwarded it to the Department of Corrections. By January 2015, a criminal probe was launched to investigate Lincoln Hills. What the investigations would unveil was deeply disturbing.

Most of the youth held in the facility were Black children from Milwaukee, though the facility was located in Irma, WI - 215 miles away from Milwaukee (a 3.5-hour drive). Horrendous abuse and corruption plagued these facilities, ranging from physical child abuse to suicide, and sexual abuse and harassment of minors. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel details the conditions inside the facilities, describing a teen who had his foot crushed by a prison guard. “Inside his room, Evans screamed and held up his foot so the staff could see the bleeding. The Milwaukee teen had lost parts of two small toes, but it would take prison officials nearly two hours to take him to a hospital 15 miles away.” Another incident involved a psychologist commenting on a teen girl's breasts, stating that they looked "rode hard and put away wet." The investigation also revealed that the prison’s lead trainer taught staff to pin inmates by putting their knees on inmates' backs - a technique that could cause suffocation and death. This trainer did not contact nurses when inmates were injured. There were 4 incidents where inmates had broken bones. By December 2015, the facility was raided by 50 state agents and the investigation was turned over to the FBI. Over a dozen staff members quit, were fired, or retired. A $25 Million settlement was reached for those who stayed at the facilities.

In 2018, Governor Walker announced a plan to dissolve Lincoln Hills into 5 smaller prisons spread out across the state. In April 2022, Democratic Governor Tony Evers signed a law that would bring a prison to Milwaukee. By January 2023, Milwaukee Common Council approved the zoning for a new youth prison to be built on the predominantly Black northwest side of Milwaukee. The Facility will not be operational until 2026. The decision was made to put the youth prison in a district that completely lacks an alderperson at the time of this writing (the previous alderwoman, Chantia Lewis, was removed from office after pleading guilty to embezzling $20,000 in campaign funds). Residents were taken off guard by the development of the prison and a majority opposed it, citing the potential decrease in property values as their primary concern. Many non-profit leaders spoke out in support of the facility's relocation to Milwaukee’s northwest side, however, framing it as a way to bring the youth inmates from Lincoln Hills “home”. Sharlen Moore, co-founder of the non-profit Urban Underground and youth justice advocate stated, “We have to figure something out. We have to put them somewhere.” Representatives from the non-profit Ex-incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO) echoed Sharlen’s sentiment. There are currently 69 youths that remain at the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lakes facilities. Alternatives to prisons exist, we’re dealing with people, not objects to shuffle around or “put somewhere.”

George Floyd Rebellion of 2020: A Clusterfuck

During the George Floyd Rebellion, the lack of solid organizing and security culture in Milwaukee led to Black misleadership and celebrity/career activists seizing control and altering the trajectory of a radical movement into neoliberalism along a counter-revolutionary line. The People’s Revolution (TPR) was formed in the early days of the George Floyd Rebellion and was initially spearheaded by Frank Nitty, Vaun Mayes, and Khalil Coleman. These “leaders” quickly proved dysfunctional, as accusations of homophobia and misogyny bubbled to the forefront almost immediately. Throughout 2020, we talked with individuals involved in TPR’s protests and though accounts varied from person to person, what we picked up on overall was that TPR’s leadership fostered an environment that made protests feel unsafe for Black women and queer individuals. On June 12, 2020, TPR leadership was called out in a Facebook live stream regarding accusations of misogynistic and derogatory language used toward queer protestors. While Vaun Mayes showed up to the live stream for “accountability”, Frank Nitty and Khalil Coleman did not. There were repeated attempts to reach out to Frank and Khalil, which seemed to be met with hostility. The presence of misogyny and homophobia are major red flags for any group claiming to be revolutionary. The Facebook Live stream did not provide the accountability process needed to change course. In an ideal world Frank, Vaun, and Khalil would have stepped down from their leadership positions within TPR and undergone a serious accountability process that involved their removal from movement and protest work, if only until genuine efforts towards transformation had occurred.

The effects of misogyny and what we’ll call “weak link politics” have been touched on repeatedly in writings such as Why Misogynists Make Great Informants, by Courtney Desiree Morris, and Basic Politics of Movement Security by J. Sakai and Mandy Hiscocks. As Morris succinctly points out, “There are serious consequences for choosing ignorance. Misogyny and homophobia are central to the reproduction of violence in radical activist communities. Scratch a misogynist and you’ll find a homophobe. Scratch a little deeper and you might find the makings of a future informant (or someone who just destabilizes movements like informants do).” In Basic Politics of Movement Security, Sakai details the story of an FBI informant known as “Tom” who played a role in destabilizing the Black Panthers. Tom got in with the Black Panthers by appealing to patriarchal values. Sakai recounts Tom being called out by a group of local women on suspicion of being an informant, “Oh, its politics that’s so hard for me to learn, ‘cause I had no education… I wanna learn, I’m sorry, give me another chance.” Tom rebuffed in a way that is somewhat similar to the accountability dodging Mayes did during the live stream referenced above. “I am ignorant to a lot of shit, you know? …as far as being a straight male versus y’all community (the LGBTQ+ community), there's a lot of shit I don’t understand… I don’t primarily deal with y’all community.”

We don’t draw this comparison to accuse Vaun or the former TPR leadership of being outright informants. Practically speaking, there’s no way for anyone to know unless evidence explicitly demonstrates otherwise. The point is not to badjacket or drum up needless suspicion. However, we draw the comparison to accentuate that an individual's politics, actions, and consistency should be examined with a discerning, critical eye. Trust and access should not be easily given to those who consistently show up with weak link politics. Sakai states, “...Security is not about being macho vigilantes or being super suspicious… Security is about good politics. That's why it's so difficult. And it requires good politics from the movement as a whole. This is demanded of us… Bad politics covered for agents…it’s that bad politics - like opportunism, patriarchy, sexism, and class privilege - rips up the fabric of our terrain, the area of our radical culture, and weaves it instead into that terrain all their old oppressor politics, their values.”

[Defaced mural of Frank Nitty with the words “misogynistic coon” and “sexist” spray painted across it.]

TPR slowly unraveled throughout the rebellion. Despite appointing themselves revolutionaries, TPR operated in multitudes of obvious contradictions. They frequently partnered with local elected officials and pushed electoralism, lobbying, and reform as a method of “revolution”. State representatives such as David Bowen and Jonathan Brostoff publicly aligned themselves with TPR, and attended marches consistently. “They use their resources to help as many people as possible and to push the system to be accountable, especially to Black and Brown people,” said David Bowen to Milwaukee Magazine in September 2020. The excess media attention around the George Floyd Rebellion provided the perfect stage for stooges to bolster their platforms and appeal to potential voters. While electoralism and aligning oneself with the state may seem like a clear pitfall to an experienced organizer or theorist aligned with revolutionary/liberatory movements, it bears explaining to those less familiar. Aligning oneself with politicians, elements of the state, or electoralism is explicitly counter-revolutionary:

“It isn’t revolutionary or materialist to disconnect things. To disconnect revolutionary consciousness from revolutionizing activity, to build consciousness with political agitation and educational issue-making alone is idealistic rather than materialist. The effect has been reformism rather than revolution. When any election is held it will fortify rather than destroy the credibility of power brokers. When we participate in this election to win, instead of disrupt, we’re lending to its credibility, and destroying our own.” (George Jackson, Blood In My Eye, Pg. 26)

TPR’s leadership brought forth a movement of cooptation, empty symbolism, and misdirection. It is no surprise that Vaun Mayes has recently aligned himself with MPD post-rebellion, advocating for increased police surveillance through ShotSpotter technology. According to Sheperd Express, ShotSpotter is an acoustics-based technology that locates potential gunshots via impulsive sound. The contract with ShotSpotter has cost the City of Milwaukee $3.7 million over the past 13 years. “I’d like my ComForce team to get access to ShotSpotter because when we hear shootings in our neighborhoods, it is sometimes difficult to find the location...We are here to help the police and protect the residents, and we are expanding…I think we are setting a standard on how true collaboration and unity is supposed to look. We want to work with the police,” said Mayes, referring to Community Task Force (ComForce), a non-profit he helms which regularly partners with MPD.

[Photo of Frank Nitty next to a billboard advertisement of himself promoting voting, despite not being registered to vote himself.]

From a security culture standpoint, TPR’s practices were negligent and put protestors at risk. TPR’s marches often lacked street medics, leadership constantly live-streamed their whereabouts, and TPR provided little to no recourse, such as bail funds or free legal representation, for those arrested. Leadership also folded in with the likes of fascist groups such as the Bugaloo Boys, posing as street medics for TPR. The effects of this negligence culminated when the rebellion reached Wauwatosa and Kenosha. According to The Daily Montanan, Wauwatosa Police Department (WPD) managed to create a list of over 200 protestors, and a good portion of that list included members of TPR, as well as people who marched in solidarity with them. The list was created by Dominick Ratkowski, a crime analyst for WPD, and was utilized as early as mid-July 2020. The list was circulated amongst MPD, KPD (Kenosha Police Department), and the FBI office in Milwaukee. Up to 12 agencies received the list. Members of TPR were mailed tickets as high as $1300. The Daily Montanan reads, “On Aug. 28, Gibson (Milwaukee DA Investigator) asked for any lists or photographs of protesters to share with Kenosha. On Sept. 15 the list, which had been shared by Ratkowski, was sent to Kenosha PD Detective Pablo Torres, who worked for the department’s Special Investigations Unit at the time. ‘Here is an updated list of the subjects identified as members or associates of The People’s Revolution,’ Gibson’s email reads.” The screenshot below does not prove that Coleman or TPR leadership was feeding members' information to law enforcement agencies; it is mere conjecture, but we cannot dismiss it as a possibility.

[This post was made on September 1, 2020]

Regardless of whether the intent was malicious or not, a lack of security practices essentially had the same effect as an informant or wrecker: TPR members and leadership had been arrested at several points during the rebellion, and during any of these arrests, police could have confiscated their cellphones to collect intelligence on members and associates. This is why maintaining anonymity is key - never bring a cell phone to a protest, and never record yourself or others engaging in protest activity. Your identity should be your most protected asset. Cover tattoos, piercings, or other identifying features and always wear plain, unbranded clothing. Consider utilizing a pseudonym during protests. Always remember your cell phone and other pieces of technology can act as a cop, and avoid the potentiality of surveillance as much as possible.

Our advice for those participating in protests and riots is to return to analog styles of communication (written notes, utilizing walkie-talkies, communicating face-to-face, implementing coded language, etc). Detailed in episode 8 of the Alphabet Boys podcast, an FBI program known as “Social Media Exploitation” was utilized during the George Floyd Rebellion. This program allowed the FBI and local law enforcement agencies to mine social media accounts and create files on individuals without probable cause. The host of Alphabet Boys, Trevor Aaronson, goes on to detail the story of a woman charged with a crime for throwing her bike down near a police officer. She was captured on a police body camera and identified by law enforcement through social media posts, specifically by matching photos of her biking gear with her attire in the video. Police were able to attain a warrant to search her home and she was charged with attempted aggravated assault of a police officer, a second-degree felony. Police reforms, such as body cameras, are weaponized against those who dare to resist the state. If there is a will to charge you with a crime, there is a way. People should always keep in mind that their social media presence is likely being monitored and should try to practice good digital hygiene. Intentional mass arrests are an outdated tactic of the ‘60s and ‘70s; in the present day, arrests should be avoided if possible - you do not want to be logged into any state system as it makes it easier for law enforcement to target and track you for an indeterminate length of time.

Ultimately, TPR’s influence managed to assimilate many young people into their organization, placing youth directly in harm's way. This disillusioned, traumatized, and embittered many young people. Tyrone Randall, a participant in TPR’s protests, was pinned by police, left on the ground, and struck by a car. Tyrone was left with broken ribs, a broken pelvis and thousands of dollars in medical debt. TPR’s failures fostered an environment that made many reluctant to return to grassroots organizing as a whole. Former members and youth of TPR were quickly assimilated into the NPIC once the organization grew stagnant.

Post-George Floyd Rebellion: Where are these niggas?

Post-rebellion TPR quickly dissolved, and few of the former leadership remain active. In April 2022, Khalil Coleman was found guilty in the first degree for a robbery that took place in Kentucky in February of 2021. Coleman attempted to rob a trap house with the coerced aid of a minor and was later sentenced to 10 years in prison. Coleman maintains that he is innocent via Facebook posts, and he has been soliciting support for his appeal through an online petition.

Around August 2020, Frank Nitty led a March from Milwaukee to Washington D.C. In the immediate aftermath of this commemorative journey, several scandals began to surround Nitty. Rumors of Nitty stealing and mishandling donations circulated on social media, which led to some accusing him of using the funds to take white women on dates. Additionally, a Facebook group of “sister-wives,” boasting nearly 200 members at one point, formed around Nitty. All jokes aside, around November 2020, Nitty was accused of sexually assaulting four separate women. He was arrested and held in jail for a short period before his bail was posted, and charges were never brought against him. After 17 months, prosecutors decided that there was not enough evidence against Nitty between the four women who accused him and dropped the charges completely. Based on Nitty’s history of misogyny, we believe the women who accused him. Nitty’s whereabouts and current activity remain unclear, as he has seemingly disappeared from Milwaukee altogether.

Vaun Mayes remains active in Milwaukee’s non-profit and organizing scene: He currently remains a leader of ComForce, engaging in ambulance chasing. Vaun has continuously aligned himself with the police, local politicians and even noted transphobe/huckster Dr. Umar Johnson.

Conclusion: Wrapping this shit up

2020 demonstrated that Milwaukee is not politically prepared to resist the rising tide of fascism. It is a frightening position to be in considering that the RNC (Republican National Convention) is coming to Milwaukee summer of 2024. The fascism Black people in Milwaukee have had to face has primarily been institutionalized, moderated through politicians, policing, prisons and racist state/city policy. The city has rarely had to face off directly against fascist demonstrators. There is no dedicated Black Bloc or anti-fascist presence prepared to push back against the fascists that will come to gather in Milwaukee summer of 2024. The city is seeking to import nearly 4,500 officers to Milwaukee for the convention. Frankly, we wouldn’t recommend an outright counter-demonstration against the 2024 RNC. Marginalized people should stay home the day the RNC comes to town. Those interested in preparation should get street medic training, and learn how to treat gunshot wounds. Black communities situated directly near the RNC should prepare their neighborhood or block in community self-defense tactics. Prepare for violence but do not seek it out.

Strategically there are stronger opportunities for resisting. The youth prison coming to Milwaukee’s northwest side should be resisted, and the youths that remain captive in Lincoln Hills should not be abandoned in cages of the state. A non-carceral solution is desperately needed. We're not sure what the exact solution looks like for Milwaukee, but answers have already been conceptualized in writings such as Instead of Prisons by the Prison Research Education Action Project. The text details an experiment done in Massachusetts in 1972 to decarcerate the state’s juvenile prison system. The majority of youths returned home on parole, some were sent to a local university to work with a student advocate for a month. The text continues, “The administrative system was decentralized, with seven regional offices set up to make all decisions about individual youth placements and needs. Almost all services for the juveniles were contracted from private agencies, resulting in the creation of a wide range of community programs.” It advocates cutting ties with the criminal justice system, including instances of parole and probation, releasing prisoners to community-controlled support and peer groups on a case-by-case basis instead. The writers advocate that instead of serving the rest of their sentences, former prisoners should be involved in restoration processes. The strategies mentioned above are intermediary steps towards prison abolition. The authors note:

“We caution strongly that all interim as well as long-range strategies be considered only after conferring with knowledgeable prisoner and ex-prisoner groups. Interim policies crucially affect the lives of prisoners still inside the system and many ex-prisoners on the streets. What seems a paltry and therefore unacceptable change to those outside the wall, might be a highly significant and desirable change for those who are caged or under control in the streets. If there are differences in strategies between prisoners who have experienced the day to day reality of prisons and prison changers who have not, take the time to hammer out differences and reach agreement. Strategies and tactics that are not in unity weaken the total movement toward systems change.”

People interested in building a truly revolutionary movement should study the principles and histories of anarchism, the Anarkata turn, Black radicals, and anti-state communism within groups. White organizers need to step back and follow the lead of Black radicals or get out of the way. Deprioritize the visibility of individual organizers and the mindset of individualized leadership or hierarchies. The aim should be an anonymous and autonomous mass movement of free association that centers issues of the most oppressed, the most marginalized, the problems of the lumpen/lumpen-proletariat (Black, QTGNC folks, those living with disabilities, the poor, the houseless, etc…). The organizing methodology outlined in Move Like Mycorrhizae from Afrofuturist Abolitionists of America, demonstrates best practices. Organizing in this way provides a layer of security and protection from opportunists, clout chasers, and potential informants or state agents.

We can’t tell you what to study, what to do, or how to organize. We can only suggest that anyone who reads this zine study past and present liberation movements of colonized people, both within and outside of the United States. Learn where others have failed or succeeded. If the conditions are right, repeat what has proven successful and try not to repeat mistakes. It's the principle of Sankofa; meaning “go back and fetch it” - take what is useful, leave behind what is not. Studying, organizing, and remaining principled in the liberation struggle is a lifelong commitment. We’ll never stop learning; movements will change, tactics will change. New theories and organizing methodologies will need to be established from the foundation of what previous Black radicals left behind. Studying and organizing alongside BARs (Black Anarchic Radicals) and the Anarkata turn guided us to our current political trajectory. We don’t believe in authoritarian methodologies, cults of personality, or that Black people need a “leader” to effectively organize and win. There will be no vanguard to lead the masses to revolution, nor is it the role of the political theorist.

Frantz Fanon stated,

“To educate the masses politically does not mean, cannot mean, making a political speech. What it means is to try, relentlessly and passionately, to teach the masses that everything depends on them; that if we stagnate it is their responsibility, and that if we go forward it is due to them too, that there is no such thing as a demiurge, that there is no famous man who will take responsibility for everything, but that the demiurge is the people themselves and the magic hands are finally only the hands of the people.”

As the tide of fascism rises, as climate change accelerates, as technocratic corporations advance, as living conditions under capitalism worsen - political and state repression will become more visceral. We saw it in 2020, with state agents snatching protestors off the streets in unmarked vehicles. We saw it in Kenosha when local law enforcement stood in league with fascist armed militias. We’re seeing it in motion with the development of Cop City in Atlanta, a project with international implications to further militarize the police, preparing them for urban warfare with citizens. If there is any time to gain urgency, to connect and organize within your community, it’s now. The politics of capitalism, of fascism, is ultimately a politic of slow death and suffering for the many in exchange for short-term gain and excess for a few. We hope to see the end of this fetid, vile system in this lifetime or the next.

[reasoningdaily]

Can slavery reparations dismantle systemic racism? | The Stream

The UN's human rights chief is urging countries to issue reparations as one method of addressing racial injustices against Black people. The recommendation was part of a wide-ranging report on modern-day legacies of slavery and colonialism for people of African descent. 

The study was prompted by the May 2020 killing of George Floyd in the United States. “I am calling on all states to stop denying — and start dismantling — racism; to end impunity and build trust; to listen to the voices of people of African descent; and to confront past legacies and deliver redress,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a video statement. 

One nation seeking reparatory justice for the abuses of slavery is Jamaica. In a petition to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, Jamaica will seek reparations from Britain for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, where millions of enslaved African men, women and children were taken to the Caribbean and forced into unpaid plantation work in the 17th and 18th centuries. According to Reuters, the petition is related to a motion seeking more than $10 billion - an amount equivalent to the estimated value of payments former enslavers received from the British government following the abolition of slavery.

 In this episode of The Stream, we ask: To what degree could slavery reparations address the injustices faced by many Black populations?

[venusstadt]

Black Women And Black LGBTQ+ Lives Matter, Too.

(DISCLAIMER: This article was originally published 6/12/20 on Medium.com, prior to the creation of venustadt.com. As such, my opinions may or may not have altered since the text below was originally written. This article has been re-published here to track my growth as a writer.)

George Floyd was murdered May 25 in Minneapolis. His murderers were Tou Thao, who jeered at concerned bystanders; Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Keung, who helped restrain him, though he was already in handcuffs; and Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, despite Floyd’s pleas for breath.

Since then, unprecedented protests have emerged in all 50 states and even places as far as the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and France. Protestors of all races, religions, and ages experiencing police brutality firsthand, being exposed to teargas and losing eyes to rubber bullets. Online, people are signing petitions, circulating and donating to bail funds, and calling on brands and influencers to use their platform to speak up about black lives. And, though it may be too early to tell, we may be on the verge of revolutionary change: statues and other symbols of white supremacy and oppression are being destroyed all over the world, and with calls to defund the police, the concept of police abolition is entering the public sphere. Minneapolis City Council announced their plan to vote on disbanding their police force June 9. 

While some less astute observers may think that George Floyd’s death was the sole catalyst for these fervent protests, it was, in reality, the final straw. Just weeks prior, the murder of Ahmaud Arbery by Gregory and Travis McMichael drew national attention when the video of Arbery’s death went viral, drawing comparisons to Trayvon Martin’s 2012 death. Floyd himself joins a long list of black men and boys murdered by law enforcement, such as Philando Castile, Mike Brown and Eric Garner, who also died of asphyxiation in 2014. These names, and many more, have been rightfully plastered on posters and chanted at protests. 

Other names, however, aren’t drawing enough attention. Officers killed Breonna Taylor as she slept in her home on March 13. Though her death has led to Louisville’s banning of no-knock warrants, no arrests have been made, leading many to feel as if her case has taken a backseat to other police brutality victims. Likewise, the name of Tony McDade, a black trans man killed by police just two days after George Floyd, has so far been left out of wider media coverage. 

Though black women and girls are statistically killed less by law enforcement than black men--2.4 to 5.4 in 100,000 versus 1 in 1,000 for the latter, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences--it is still important for those killed by police to receive justice. Consider the deaths of Sandra Bland and Aiyana Jones, or the gender- and race-based sexual violence perpetrated against the 13 victims of former officer Daniel Holtzclaw, who, according to Buzzfeed News, “deliberately chose women he thought were unlikely to be believed -- black women with criminal records from an impoverished neighborhood.” 

Unfortunately, there seem to be no specific statistics addressing interactions between black LGBTQ persons and law enforcement. However, it is worth noting that the 1969 Stonewall riots, often dubbed the first Pride, came about due to months of police violence against the LGBTQ community, culminating in the police raid of Stonewall Inn. A year later, similar protests broke out in LA after the death of black trans sex worker Laverne Turner. With the intersecting identities of blackness and queerness, it’s not a stretch to believe that black LGBTQ persons face unique challenges when it comes to police violence and navigating the judicial system. 

It’s intersecting identities like these -- blackness and girlhood/womanhood, blackness and queerness, sometimes all three -- that explain why violence against black women and black LGBTQ persons is often overlooked. These two groups are a minority within a minority, and the black community, like any community, has a long way to go in terms of misogyny and homophobia/transphobia (see the reactions to Gayle King’s Lisa Leslie interview or Zaya Wade coming out as trans). 

Recently, amid the George Floyd protests, black trans woman Iyanna Dior was verbally and physically assaulted by around 30 cis black men (and some cis black women) in a Minnesota convenience store. Around the same time, black women on Twitter held honest discussions about rape and childhood sexual assault, only to be met with backlash and crude jokes. One user even accused the women of trying to divide black people during a critical time. 

There lies another tissue. Black LGBTQ persons and black women are often forced to choose between their identities, even though these identities often combine to create a unique experience of oppression. Look no further than the recent insistence that black gay people are “black before they are gay,” or, as stated previously, the accusation that black women discussing their assault divides the race.

I’m not arguing that we shouldn’t focus on the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and other black men who have been made victims of police brutality. In a world where many more victims are silenced due to the lack of video evidence, we must amplify Floyd and Arbery’s stories so that they may receive justice. But as we fight for black men and boys, we must also remember the Breonna Taylors, the Tony McDades and victims of intracommunity violence like Iyanna Dior to reach the ultimate goal of black liberation. 

All lives don’t matter until black lives matter. Likewise, black lives won’t matter until all black lives -- black women’s lives, black trans lives, black gay lives -- matter as well.

[candy-floss-crazy]

This time we are looking at what was once one of the biggest chains in America. At its peak they had over 1100 outlets. Now they are down to one. A number of factors came into play with this massive decline. One of which was the hugely controversial name. Ostensibly the name was a contraction of two of the founders. Sam Battistone Sr. and Newell Bohnett. However the name is also one that was offensive to a large part of the population, especially with it being linked to a book written in 1897 called The Story of Little Black Sambo. Much of the interior decor drew on illustrations from the book. Predictably the name attracted protests, criticism and petitions for change during most of its operating life. The final remaining store changing its name after the George Lloyd protests in 2020 The first store opened in Santa Barbara, California in 1957. By 1968 it had grown to operate in 98 cities across America. It also diversified operating Red Top Hamburgers, Heidi's Pie Shop, and the Blue Ox Steak House. Jolly Tiger In the second half of the 70's the chain came under increasing pressure regarding its unacceptable name. They steadfastly refused to change it, though in a number of locations they branded their eateries as Jolly Tiger, usually in locations where local laws had been passed forbidding the Sambo brand, or where they were having trouble obtaining permits due to the name. In 1979 however the company reversed course and announced that they were dropping the Jolly Tiger brand citing poor financial performance, and would revert all restaurants to Sambo's. They also cited a study claiming that three times as many black people ate at their chain than at other restaurants. It was to be their peak. After 79 the company spiralled into decline. How much is down to the issues around the name isn't clear, as a number of other corporate decisions also hastened their demise. One major issue arose when they dropped their "Fraction of the Action" scheme. This had paid the managers 20% of the outlets profits, with other staff being allowed to bid for percentages of the remaining profits. Bankruptcy A mere two years later the chain was filing for bankruptcy. Reorganisation and a name change to "No Place Like Sam's" failed to help. And by 1982 all except the original diner had closed their doors. The restaurants were sold off to several operates, such as Denny's and Baker's square. All that now remains is the original located in Santa Barbara. Following the riots over the George Floyd case, the owner Chad Steven, grandson of one of the original founders, finally gave in to public pressure and announced a name change, finally Christening it "Chafs" in 2020. Read the full article

[ngbaodu]

TOPIC 1: Week 3: Digital Community: Tumblr Case Study

#BlackLivesMatter: Tumblr Voices and the Power of Community Even Murder Justifies Being Labeled a “Thug”

When you are born with a different skin color, you have to live with discrimination from childhood to adulthood and one day have to leave just because of your skin color and the label of a “thug”. Isn’t it unfair? And that’s exactly what George Floyd, a black worker living in Minneapolis, had to go through. This is also a major case that has stirred up the world on all social media platforms, especially Tumblr.

#BlackLivesMatter (BLM) has become one of the most prominent and influential topics on Tumblr, especially in the context of protests against police violence and racism in the United States. Tumblr has created a space where words become a double-edged sword. It has enabled individuals in certain corners of society to use their “personal opinions” as a shield for critical and offensive views. People create a fake persona or a “perfect” life (Razzaq, 2023) to provide a solid platform for their words.

The BLM movement on Tumblr was not limited to the United States but also attracted the attention of the international community, creating connection and empathy for those facing injustice all over the world. Hashtags such as #SayHerName and #DefundThePolice also emerged and became major topics of discussion. The protests over the death of George Floyd were not the first acts of brutality that Americans witnessed against black people, as to make light of this, Hollywood made movies to promote this racism by making movies that showed police brutality in the country (Wion, 2020).

Trapped in social stigma, is there a way out?

The world's leading independent rule of law data source—shows that 70% of countries saw discrimination worsen in 2021-2022. Since 2015, discrimination has increased in three-quarters of the countries studied by the WJP (World Justice Project, 2023). According to Sheikha Al-Misnad, a member of the WJP board of directors and a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, racism will continue to exist and legal solutions cannot completely eliminate it. This has existed in human thinking throughout human history, so to completely eliminate it will require more effort and time to change.

Working together for change: Half the world's support for people of color

Other celebrities including Madison Beer, Justin Bieber, Ice Cube, Lil Nas X, Ricky Martin, Doja Cat, Alicia Keys, Chris Evans, and more have all joined forces to urge their fans to sign a Change petition calling for an investigation. Many celebrities have since used their platforms to protest racial injustice, police brutality, and stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Stars like Madison Beer have become incredibly vocal, joining protesters on the front lines. Many other celebrities have put themselves at risk of arrest, as Cole Sprouse did in Santa Monica. But these celebrities are using their platforms for something that is incredibly important for the country — and the world — moving forward.

However, like other social movements, Tumblr is not immune to misinformation and hate. Because of Tumblr’s community-based nature and high engagement, these posts are often quickly criticized and dismissed. The Tumblr community actively boycotts and fights against offensive or false content.

Tumblr has been a strong contributor to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, becoming a place where the voices of the black community are amplified and heard.

Reference list

Razzaq, S 2023, The Power of Social Media Language: How it Shapes the Current Generation, Language Unlimited.

Wilson, S 2020, Celebrities Who Want To Defund The Police: Lizzo, John Legend & More, Hollywood Life, viewed 1 October 2024, <https://hollywoodlife.com/feature/celebrities-support-defund-police-4096850/>.

WION 2020, Movies that showed police brutality against Black Americans, WION, viewed 1 October 2024, <https://www.wionews.com/photos/movies-that-showed-police-brutality-against-black-americans-305623/detroit-305593>.

World Justice Project 2023, Discrimination Is Getting Worse Globally, World Justice Project.

[stevishabitat]

Michael Brown's mom pushes for justice for her son in public hearing - ABC News

The mother of Michael Brown -- who was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer in 2014 sparking protests around the county -- gave testimony to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) to review the case of her son's killing in a public hearing on Wednesday.

Lezley McSpadden, Brown's mother, joined nonprofit organization Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and Howard University on a Zoom conference to petition the IACHR to recommend for United States prosecutors to criminally litigate Brown's killing. Lawyers from the U.S. State Department and the Department of Justice also attended the hearing.

"The PTSD is overwhelming. I do have three remaining children. I was very scared and nervous to let them out of my sight for weeks after Mike was killed," McSpadden said. "I received tons and tons of threatening letters. It got so bad where my lawyers had to look through my mail before I looked through it."

The 10-year anniversary of Brown's death is Aug. 9. Legal charges were never issued for Brown's killing.

"We will undoubtedly hear from the state a litany of all the things they have done to address the scourge of racist police violence in this country over the last 10 years, some of which I commend them for doing," Kerry Kennedy, with RFK Human Rights, said at the conference. "Is it enough when more people were killed by police in 2023 than any other previously recorded year? The answer is no."

Brown, an 18-year-old Black teenager, was unarmed when Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer at the time, shot and killed him on Aug. 9, 2014. The shooting ignited weeks of protests, riots, looting and arson in Ferguson.

"We are deeply saddened by this event and by similar events across our nation, and this event serves as another reminder that we must do more to prevent such tragedies," Thomas Hastings of the State Department said during the conference. "While we do not intend to discuss or debate the details of what took place on August 9, 2014, it was a devastating event that led to the loss of life of a young man."

The incident contributed to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, as national protests over police brutality evoked Brown's name among other Black Americans who died in police encounters, such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

"Hands up, don't shoot," a reference to claims that Brown had his hands up and voiced his surrender to the officer before being shot, became a rallying cry around the nation for those advocating against police brutality. The DOJ later determined in an investigative report that it could not confirm Brown capitulated to the officer before he was shot and killed.

"Federal statutes would require the government to prove that Officer Wilson used unreasonable force when he shot Michael Brown, Jr, and that he did so willfully," Kristen Clarke of the DOJ said on Wednesday. "Willfully would mean proving that he shot Mr. Brown, knowing it was wrong and knowing it was against the law to do so. After a careful and exhaustive review of all available evidence the Justice Department in 2015 determined that the evidence did not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer violated the applicable federal criminal civil rights statute."

A St. Louis County grand jury declined to press charges against Wilson in 2014. He resigned from the police force soon after.

The U.S. Justice Department also chose not to indict the former officer in March 2015 due to witness accounts and evidence that claimed Brown attacked Wilson.

Brown's family received a $1.5 million settlement in 2017 after they filed a lawsuit against the city of Ferguson.

"He never had a job, he never learned how to drive," McSpadden said. "He was just beginning his life. So that was his first free summer to be a kid before he branched over into being a man. But he was robbed of it."

The IACHR stated a report will be published outlining its findings on the case and issuing recommendations to the U.S. government.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Un trio sanglant traverse la frontière," Le Petit Journal (Montreal). November 12, 1933. Page 3. ---- Traqués par la police américaine. D'abominables criminels. Le bandit-fantôme et ses acolytes. La police fédérale alertée. ---- La justice américaine a le bras long, puisqu'elle a fini par mettre is main sur des bandits aussi redoutables que Harvey Bailey et George Kelly Mais pour atteindre trois autres bandita notoires, objets d'actives recher chos, il lui faudra sans doute allonger encore son bras. Il lui faudra même demander l'aide des limiers canadiens. Car de nombreux indices requelllia par les détectives des Etats-Unis, en faisant jaser d'anciens com- pices des criminels, laissent supposer que ces trots hommes, terroraés par le sort qui ins attend s'ils sont arrêtés, chercheraient à traverser nos lignes (s'ils ne l'ont déjà fait) dans le but de se sauver de la chaise electrique. ---- On les surnomme "les trois mousquetaires du crime" ---- Le trio est composé de:

Charles Floyd, surnommé dans le monde interlope "Pretty Boy". Au teur de vols à main armée dans les banques, assassin, bandit-fantóme", terreur du sad-ouest, complice dans l'attentat à la mitralieuse de la gare de Kansas City, tels sont ses titres à l'attention de la police.

Verne-C. Miller, ancien sherif à Huron, dans le Dakota du Sud, qui fut le tireur à la mitrailleuse de Kansas City. Tireut adroit, puisqu'll abattit cing hommes, quatre policiers et le bandit que les conjurés riches. Il a en prend surtout aux prétendaient délivrer. Ami et complice de Bailey, ce qui laisse deviner beaucoup de choses, du chantage à la contrebande et à l'enlevement organisé.

Wilbur Undertdil, lui aussi ami de Bailey, et son complice dans l'audacieuse évasion du pénitencier de l'état de Kansas, lorsque onze detenus revoltés firent prisonniers et la emmenèrent dans les bois comme otages deux de leurs geoliers.

Bien entendu, il y a d'autres criminels recherchés par la police américaine, qui lance une grande offensive contre le banditisme. Mais ces trois-là sont les plus reluisants si l'on peut dire.

LE BANDIT-FANTOME La plus pittoresque des trois figures est celle de Floyd, le "bandit- fantome". Il affecte une certaine chevalerie.

En particulier, il ne voie que les riches. Il s'en prend surtout aux banques et aux financiers, s'indigne contre les bandits qui volent de petites gens, et donne volontiers aux pauvres. En outre, il se fait un point d'honneur de ne pas verser le sang inutilement. Il échappe toujours à la police mais ne tire que si cela lui parait absolutement indispensable.

LA MAIN QUI ETREINT La main qui étreint, cette fois, est celle de la police. Trois bandits americains, réputés les plus redoutables après Bailey, se sont sentis traqués, et ils auraient cherché refuge au Canada. Ce sont, de gauche à droite, Wilbur Underhill, Charles Floyd surnommé "Pretty Boy", et Verne Miller. Notre police fédérale recu les signalements de ces seigneurs du crime, resserrer autour d'eus les mailles du filet. On lira en page ci-contre l'étonnate série des attentats divers attribués au trio.