#justice for ahmaud arbery

[queenvlion]

[goodblacknews]

Apple Adds $25 Million to Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, Increasing Financial Commitment to over $200M since 2020

This week, Apple announced its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI), a long-term global effort to advance equity and expand opportunities for Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous communities, has more than doubled its initial financial commitment to total more than $200 million over the last three years. Since launching REJI in June 2020, Apple has supported education, economic…

[streetartguy]

[whenweallvote]

Four years ago today, Ahmaud Arbery was chased and killed by three white men while jogging in a Georgia residential neighborhood.

Ahmaud’s killers were convicted of murder and federal hate crimes one year later after Georgia passed a hate crime bill with bipartisan support.

While this legislation was a step in the right direction, true justice would be Ahmaud still living today. His life mattered.

[ausetkmt]

Freedmen Seek Their Fair Share of Billions of Dollars in Federal Aid and Why We Should Care/Rise UP and Support Them

By Eli Grayson Eagle Guest Writer

Eli Grayson is a Creek Citizen and unabashed supporter of the Freedmen descendants of the 5 Civilized Tribes and the 1866 Reconstruction Treaties.

This past week, we celebrated our Nation’s 244th year of Independence with family and friends over BBQ and fireworks, we should all stop to reflect on its significance, particularly in light of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

The protests that have swept the country by those outraged over the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and far too many others, most of whose names have not garnered national attention, has sparked a long-overdue National dialogue about the treatment of Black Americans in the United States, a reckoning with this country’s past, the many vestiges of slavery that continue today, and what we as a country can and must do to address racism. [It also reminds ALL of us that we have a long way to go.]

Not only have the egregious deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery led to a growing chorus of voices calling for criminal justice reform, it has prompted many to reflect upon racism in both its subtle and overt forms today. It has prompted many to learn about events long celebrated by Black Americans such as Juneteenth (even the NFL recently recognized Juneteenth as an official holiday). And it has prompted many to consider what steps we as individuals, and as a society, can take to affirmatively address it. Here in Oklahoma, attention has focused on Black Wall Street and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Well known is the U.S. Government’s abhorrent treatment of Native Americans, which included abrogation of countless treaties, appropriation of land, and forced removal to Western territories, including what is today Oklahoma.

Less well known, however, is the fact that the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole Nations – collectively known today as the Five Civilized Tribes – enslaved Africans. Like Southern plantation owners, they bought and sold slaves and treated them as chattel property. Indeed, slaveholding was such an integral part of the daily life of these tribal nations that each entered treaties with the Confederate States of America in 1861 to ensure its continuance.

Many Americans recently learned for the first time about the meaning and significance of Juneteenth, when nearly all remaining slaves in the United States and its territories were freed – a full 71 days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, 1865 to Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant.

Enslaved Africans of Indian Territory

This was not the case for the enslaved Africans of Indian Territory. Even after Lee’s surrender, and even after General Granger read his Orders, the enslaved Africans of Indian Territory were kept in bondage.

Sadly, it was not until the Five Tribes of Indian Territory entered Treaties with the U.S. Government on March 21, with the Seminole Nation, on April 28, with the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations, on June 14, with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and on July 19, with the Cherokee Nation in 1866 – more than a year after Lee’s surrender – were these slaves granted freedom, tribal citizenship, and equal interest in the soil and national funds.

Each of these treaties (collectively known as the Treaties of 1866) contained provisions freeing the slaves and an express acknowledgement that the U.S. Constitution was, and shall remain, the Supreme Law of the land. Notably, there was no mention of tribal law or sovereignty insulating these slave holding tribes from full compliance with the U.S. Constitution, which includes all the Civil War reconstruction amendments.

Today, we find ourselves at a turning point in society. Similar to the country as a whole, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole Nations must take this seminal moment to carefully examine their slaveholding past, their prior allegiance with the Confederacy, enshrined through Treaties entered in 1861, and how they can make amends by fully adhering to both the letter and spirit of the 1866 Reconstruction Peace Treaties.

Congressional legislation

The three House bills are H.R. 2, the Invest in America Act, which includes $1 billion for the Native American Housing Block Grant Program to create or rehabilitate over 8,000 affordable homes for Native Americans on tribal lands; H.R. 6800, the HEROES Act, which includes $6 billion for housing and community development to respond to the Coronavirus; and H.R. 5319, the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Reauthorization Act (NAHASDA), which would authorize $680 million in grants to tribes in the first year and grow to $824 million in the fifth and final year.

Why is this important and why should you care? NAHASDA was originally passed by Congress in 1996 to address poor housing conditions in Indian country and last re-authorized in 2008. It is a flagship Federal law for Native American tribes and the vehicle through which approximately $650 million flows annually to the tribes. In Oklahoma, the Five Civilized Tribes receive more than $62 million annually in direct grants for housing and community development projects. These grants are based on a formula that takes into account various factors including the number of tribal members. Notably, these grants are supported by taxpayers.

For the 2021 Fiscal Year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which is responsible for administering NAHASDA, has informed the Five Civilized Tribes that they can expect to receive $62,223,462. Thus, nearly 10 percent of all NAHASDA grant funds will go to just these five tribes. By any measure, this is a significant sum, particularly when you consider that there are approximately 573 federally recognized tribes in the United States today, according to data from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. And, the final amount will be even greater as Congress has (appropriately) increased the amount of funds for NAHASDA far above the amounts requested by this Administration, including an appropriation of $825 million for this Fiscal Year.

Oklahoma Tribes receive millions in housing aid

Native American Tribes also receive other competitively awarded grants from HUD through a program known as the Indian Community Development Block Grant program. The Choctaw Nation was recently awarded $900,000 to rehabilitate 60 single-family homes while the Cherokee Nation received the same sum to construct a community building, which will house the Early Head Start program. The Chickasaw Nation was awarded $900,000 to construct a youth center in Ardmore, Oklahoma that will provide a safe and clean place for activities and services for Chickasaw tribal youth while the Muscogee (Creek) Nation will use its $900,000 award to construct a facility on the campus of the College of Muscogee Nation. The facility will include space for exhibitions and a lecture hall. These are worthy projects and it is vital that all those in need, including Freedmen descendants, can benefit.

Why Freedmen are concerned

Now if you have read this far, you must be thinking this is great news for these five tribes. And indeed, it is. However, for the Freedmen who are de facto members of the tribe, they may never see a dime of these funds if history is any guide.

Steps such as conditioning or denying the issuance of Citizenship Cards to Freedmen descendants, as well the disenrollment of Freedmen as tribal citizens, is what first led Congress in 2008 to include language in the NAHASDA re-authorization bill to link the receipt of NAHASDA housing grants to compliance with the treaty rights and benefits conferred on the Freedmen through the 1866 treaties.

That is why the efforts of House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-California, to fight on behalf of the Freedmen of all Five Civilized Tribes is so vital.

The committee she chairs oversees HUD and is responsible for periodically re-authorizing NAHASDA. A bi-partisan bill introduced in Congress last December would re-authorize NAHASDA. However, unlike the 2008 legislation, which contained language to prevent the Cherokee Nation from denying Cherokee Freedmen under the Act, the bill introduced by Rep. Denny Heck and co-sponsored by Reps. Scott Tipton (R-Colorado), Ben Ray Lujan (D-New Mexico), Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), Deb Haaland (D- New Mexico), Don Young (R-Arkansas), Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin), and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), does not contain any protections for the Cherokee Freedmen nor the Freedmen of the other Civilized Tribes. Similarly, the version introduced in the Senate last week is devoid of such protections for the Freedmen.

Disturbed by the pattern of denying benefits to Freedmen, Chairwoman Waters is seeking assurance that descendants of Freedmen are not denied NAHASDA funds received by the Tribes. The Descendants of the Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes have been working to include language that would ensure that the Freedmen of all Five Civilized Tribes receive taxpayer funded NAHASDA benefits. A similar effort advanced by former House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank was successful and helped to ensure that Cherokee Freedmen received NAHASDA benefits. And in case, any question whether such protections were needed, one look only to the fact that HUD held up NAHASDA funds to the Cherokee Nation for noncompliance.

Native Americans keep fight against Freedmen

Given the harsh treatment of Native Americans at the hands of whites, one naturally would expect these Five Tribes and their supporters and defenders to be more sensitive to the plight of Freedmen who today make up more than 200,000 descendants.

The reality has been quite the opposite.

Despite knowing all this, tribal leaders and their supporters and defenders continue to maintain that such language is not needed and further argue that such language infringes upon the sovereign rights of ALL Native American tribes.

Both arguments could not be further from the truth.

Language ensuring that the Freedmen have access to federal housing benefits is urgently needed for the very reason that Freedmen have routinely been denied NAHASDA benefits for years. And let’s be clear – language we are seeking does not apply to ALL tribes, but rather only to the Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes.

And it does not stop at NAHASDA benefits. Freedmen have been denied tribal citizenship, benefits, and the right to vote as well. Regarding sovereignty, these are federal taxpayer dollars – as such, the federal government and, by extension, its American citizens, have a vested interest in ensuring that all tribal members, including Freedmen, benefit from the funds appropriated pursuant to NAHASDA.

If tribes feel so strongly about their sovereign right to continue to discriminate against Freedmen through denial of federally funded benefits, they can opt to refuse the funding, which would then be redistributed to other tribes. Indeed, it is the height of hypocrisy for any of the Five Civilized Tribes or their supporters to makes these arguments as they count the Freedmen when it comes to the allocation of federal housing grants from HUD yet turn around and deny those very same Freedmen from receiving such benefits.

Freedmen are equal, lawful Tribal citizens

And don’t be mistaken. While Freedmen should be treated as equal citizens under the respective 1866 Treaties, the language we are seeking to include in each of these three bills carefully avoids this ensuring Freedmen receive taxpayer housing and community development benefits on the same terms and conditions as their Native American sisters and brothers.

Indeed, in many instances, these truly are their sisters and brothers given the extensive intermixing of Freedmen and By Blood tribal members over the years. Ironically, this has resulted in some members of a family being considered by the Five Tribes as Indian and therefore citizens of the Tribe while other family members being considered by the tribe as non-Indian and therefore like black sheep.

Yet every time we make a further legislative concession and are led to believe that we are close to a final agreement on language, the Tribes and their supporters and defenders move the goalposts. Sound familiar? Yes, a sensitive issue. The Freedmen only seek to ensure that the Five Civilized Tribes comply with the Treaties of 1866.

Tribal Nations’ actions throw shade on BLM

Lastly, the Five Civilized tribes cannot have it both ways. They cannot on the one hand claim they are victims of discrimination and participate in BLM rallies yet discriminate against Freedmen by denying them suffrage and other rights of tribal citizenship under the guise of sovereignty.

And we are under no illusion that fighting this battle for justice and equality will not remain a challenge. The Five Civilized Tribes have wielded their extensive influence amongst the Nation’s 573 tribes to frame the debate and shape the position of the National tribal organizations in Washington, whom the Members of Congress look to when writing laws that affect the tribes. Adding to the challenge is the fact that the Five Civilized tribes have deployed their sizable resources to contribute to key Members of Congress with the dual purpose of keeping Americans in the dark about their slaveholding past and ensuring that these legal protections for Freedmen never see the light of day in Congress.

But just like our Nation, it is time for the Five Civilized Tribes to stand up and confront their past by taking immediate and affirmative steps to ensure that all descendants of Freedmen receive the federal housing benefits.

This they can do by supporting legislation being courageously advanced by Chairwoman Waters that would require the Five Civilized Tribes to both comply with their Treaty obligations of ensuring access to benefits for Freedmen and report on their compliance to Congress.

Featured Image (Top), Buck C. Franklin, Nashville, Tennessee, 1899, Calvert Brothers Studio Glass Plate Negatives Collection, The Tennessee State Library and Archives Blog

[crimethinc]

Three years have passed since Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd. While politicians encouraged protesters to seek redress through the "justice" system, nothing could bring back his life, nor the lives of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, or any of the other people murdered by police in a structurally racist system.

The conviction of the officers who murdered George Floyd was an exceptional case aimed chiefly at pacifying an outraged population. Over the past three years, police have continued to murder Black and Brown people at the same pace.

What will it take to stop the police from killing?

https://crimethinc.com/endpolice

This is the question we must all ask today.

[ptseti]

THEY MUST NOT DIE: STORY OF SCOTTSBORO

On March 25th, 1931, nine Black boys in Alabama, USA were falsely charged with r*ping a White woman. They would then be sentenced to death. Labelled a legal case of lynching, this case, known as the Scottsboro Boys case, blew up across the country and the world as a major part of the early Civil Rights Struggle.

The Scottsboro Boys case was a pivotal moment in Black history in the United States that had rippling effects that would impact generations to come. The international struggle to free the Scottsboro Boys led to the largest resistance movement against racism in the US justice system in history. The international impact of the Scottsboro case was so far reaching that a Sedition Bill was passed in Ghana (then the British colony of the Gold Coast) to prevent Africans from agitating in support of the Scottsboro Boys.

While the case did officially bring about certain legal reforms to the carceral system, such as mandating the presence of Black jurors in cases with Black defendants, this would often go unenforced throughout the 20th century and into the present. In one example, Black revolutionary Assata Shakur would go on to be sentenced to life in prison by an all-White jury. In 1986, a court ruled that race could not be used as a factor in the initial establishment of a jury pool. In 2021, there were two high-profile cases in which nearly all-White juries acquitted White men for shooting and killing Black men - the murders of Jake Blake and Ahmaud Arbery.

Africans in the United States and throughout the diaspora continue to struggle against a racist criminal justice system in which they are disproportionally incarcerated.

BlackBoys #Alabama #USA #False #Charge #WhiteWoman

[nerdygaymormon]

What do you think of the song 'Try That in a Small Town' by Jason Aldean?

Jason Aldean's song says if you try those "big city" things out here in small towns, there's gonna be swift justice delivered by the local populace. He means this as a good thing and at first the song sounds like it's about being anti-crime, but soon it moves to vigilante justice, which is a terrifying prospect for minority populations.

Yesterday a national monument to Emmett Till was dedicated. Fourteen-year-old Emmett was abducted, beaten, and lynched after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in small town Mississippi.

Emmett Till is far from the only one who met a violent death at the hands of small-town justice: Matthew Shepherd, Brandon Teena, Medgar Evers, James Byrd, Ahmaud Arbery, and the list goes on

————————————————————-

Small towns have a strong sense of community and togetherness, you can also find this in big cities. Big cities have people of color, allies, and queer folks, and so do small towns. Illegal drugs, domestic violence, and people being harassed and attacked for being "different" happens in both the big city and the small town. Good people live in small towns and in the big city. Urban and rural areas are in a symbiotic relationship, we need each other.

I view this song as yet one more way of saying we're a divided nation and need to view each other with suspicion. I believe we can celebrate the good people where we live without running down folks from other places. We don't have to view people who live in places different from us as enemies who have to be treated harshly.

[sirfrancisvarney]

I had been enjoying this season of True Detective so much, and I was so looking forward to the last episode and seeing how they'd wrap things up, but when it finally aired, I was left feeling so disappointed.

The explanation given of what Tsalal was up to in the beginning made absolutely no sense, to the point where I was willing to believe it was a cover story for something else. Unfortunately, the nonsense about whatever they were drilling being too hard to extract DNA from is apparently true, somehow. I don't understand it. We've been drilling into glaciers and permafrost for decades. Why would the core being too "hard" make it too difficult to extract DNA? We're talking about ice; why can't you just thaw it? Are you trying to get DNA out of literal rock, like fossilized bacteria or something? Shearing DNA is the least of your problems. And what sort of pollution is going to make your cores "softer" without destroying or contaminating your samples? Am I really supposed to believe that's the best method available?

Look, on some level, what the Tsalal scientists were doing isn't actually important, because as far as the narrative is concerned, it's just a MacGuffin, just something to get them there and give them a reason to kill Annie K. and kickstart the plot. On the other hand, what they were doing is the most important thing, because it serves as their motivation, and if I can't believe the first crime, the whole plot falls apart. For the story to succeed, I have to believe that they would all kill Annie K. over her attempted destruction of their work. And since the scientists aren't given much in the way of characterization (like at this point I still don't know if they were all completely off their rocker or if Clark was right and they did find what they were looking for), then their research has to be something I would recognize as being worth killing over. But their research makes no sense, so I don't. And this killed the story for me. 

In the companion podcast Issa López talked about listening to indigenous women and getting their input when developing the story, and I've seen people online comment on the show accurately portraying life in Alaska. I just wish the science side of things had received the same level of attention.

On a more personal and subjective note, the ending was also too happy for me. There was a time when I liked tales of badass women getting revenge on evil men as much as anyone, but those stories feel like empty wish-fulfillment nowadays. I can't believe in those kinds of endings anymore, because they only seem to exist in fiction. Was a single video from a dead man who was well-known to be mentally ill really all it took to bring down the mine? In 2020, there were video recordings of both Ahmaud Arbery's and George Floyd's murders everywhere on the internet, protests in every state in the US, people getting their eyes shot out or receiving permanent brain damage from cops shooting them in the face, and for what? After all that, as soon as 2021 rolled around, the newspapers were platforming all these bullshit liars claiming crime was now worse than it was back in the 80s.

I don't know, maybe I'm just too cynical, but I don't believe justice or change can be made so easily or quickly, and it irritates me sometimes to see it presented that way in fiction. Maybe if the Tsalal research had made more sense, I wouldn't have been as bothered by the rest.

[beardedmrbean]

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — The only Black person who served on the jury that convicted three white men of murdering Ahmaud Arbery was called to the witness stand Thursday as defense attorneys sought to make a case that their clients deserve a new trial.

The juror, identified in court only as No. 380, was questioned about whether he lied during jury selection about harboring no biases against the men, who in 2020 chased a running Arbery in pickup trucks through their neighborhood before one of them fatally shot the 25-year-old Black man in the street.

Attorneys also questioned the juror about a day he bought a hotdog at a rally promoting justice for Arbery near the Glynn County courthouse where the murder trial was held. The man insisted he took his food and left, and it was unclear whether that happened before or during the trial.

Regardless, he denied misleading the judge and attorneys about his ability to serve impartially during jury selection in October 2021.

“I felt sorry for the family. After court started, I felt sorry for both sides,” the juror said on the witness stand Thursday. He added: “I wanted to help for the truth to come out, right from wrong.”

Attorneys for Greg McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and their former neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan made their arguments for a new trial before Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley. He was the judge who presided at their 2021 murder trial and sentenced each to life in prison.

Walmsley didn't rule Thursday. Defense lawyers and prosecutors will have a month or more to file legal briefs summing up their arguments before the judge issues a decision.

Arbery's father, Marcus Arbery Sr., told reporters outside the courthouse he thought the arguments by defense lawyers for a new trial were “very weak.”

“They were throwing everything to the wall, and nothing will stick," he said.

The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and jumped in a pickup truck to chase Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, after they saw him run past their house on Feb. 23, 2020, in a subdivision outside the port city of Brunswick. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael firing shotgun blasts at close range into Arbery, who fell fatally wounded in the street.

Travis McMichael’s attorney, Pete Donaldson, told the judge that juror No. 380 had “concealed his bias in favor of the Arbery family” when he was questioned during jury selection. He based the assertion on an interview the man gave to a private investigator in June 2022.

Juror No. 380 became the only Black juror in the murder trial after defense attorneys struck eight other Black panelists as a final jury was being chosen. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that it’s unconstitutional for attorneys to reject potential jurors based solely on race or ethnicity. The defense attorneys insisted they had other reasons.

“I felt like the weight of the whole Black race was on my shoulders,” Donaldson quoted the juror as having told the investigator.

The juror was not asked about that comment during his testimony.

Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski noted the juror had told a defense attorney during jury selection three years ago about coming upon a rally supporting Arbery’s family after visiting a hardware store. The juror said he believed that was the same rally at which he’d bought a hotdog.

“Did you lie to us with any of your answers” during jury selection, Dunikoski asked No. 380.

The man answered: “No.”

No arrests were made in Arbery’s killing for more than two months, until Bryan’s cellphone video leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from police. Arbery’s death became part of a broader reckoning on racial injustice in the criminal legal system along with the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.

Defense attorneys argued during the Georgia trial that the armed pursuit was justified because the McMichaels and Bryan suspected Arbery was a thief and sought to detain him for police. Travis McMichael testified that he opened fire in self-defense when Arbery attacked with his fists. Police found no evidence Arbery had stolen anything or committed other crimes in the neighborhood.

Greg McMichael’s lawyer, Jerry Chappell, said he was supporting Donaldson’s effort to question the juror's impartiality.

Bryan’s lawyer, Rodney Zell, argued that his client’s trial attorney was ineffective, particularly for allowing Bryan to be interviewed twice by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation before his arrest. Bryan’s voluntary statements about how he and the McMichaels maneuvered their pickup trucks to cut off Arbery’s escape were used against all three defendants during the trial.

Seeking a new trial marks a first step by the three defendants in challenging their murder convictions. Walmsley sentenced both McMichaels to life in prison without parole, while giving Bryan a chance of parole.

The men were also convicted of federal hate crimes in U.S. District Court after a separate trial in February 2022. The jury concluded the trio targeted Arbery because he was Black. Prosecutors presented two dozen social media posts and text messages, as well as witness testimony, that showed all three men used racist slurs or otherwise disparaged Black people.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in March from attorneys asking the court to overturn the hate crimes verdict. A decision on the federal appeals is still pending.

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

Who was Emmet Till?

I wanted to post this because Carolyn Bryant Donham just died, and people will be seeing Emmett's name in the news. While I hope most people know his story, I know not everyone does. I remember in college the professor mentioning his story as a topic people could write an essay on, and two other students, both at least 10 years older than I, not knowing who he was.

Emmett was a 14-year-old African American boy from Chicago. In 1955, he was visiting relatives in Mississippi. He and some friends were in a grocery store.

The owner's wife, a white woman named Carolyn Bryant, alleged that he grabbed her by the waist and propositioned her. Some people say he merely wolf-whistled at her. And other say absolutely nothing happened.

Four days later, Carolyn's husband, Roy Bryant, and his brother, John Milam, drove to Emmett's relatives house and kidnapped him. They beat and mutilated him before shooting him and throwing Emmett's body in the river.

When his relatives notified his mother Emmett was missing, Bryant and Milam were questioned by police and admitted to the kidnapping...but said they had let Emmett go.

When Emmett's body was found days later, the men were put on trial for murder. Decades later, an arrest warrant for Carolyn Bryant would be found, but it was never served. The all-white male jury deliberated only a little over hour, and they admitted it only took that long because they stopped for a drink at one point. They voted to aquit both men of murder. A separate jury later voted to aquit them of kidnapping.

Jurors would later admit they believed the men to be guilty, but did not think they should be punished.

After the trial, Roy Bryant and John Milam sold their confession for $4k to a newspaper. That was a huge amount of money back then.

There was never any justice done for Emmett. They lived the rest of their lives without serving a day in jail for his murder.

In 2008, Carolyn Bryant allegedly told a writer that she had lied on the stand about what had happened. This was not caught on tape, and she later denied it happened....but I mean...multiple witnesses have said either that nothing happened or that all Emmett did was whistle. I'm inclined to believe she was a lying cunt who made it all up.

Now, Carolyn Bryant is dead, may she burn in hell.

But it's important that no one ever forget Emmett Till. You see, it's not just that he was murdered, suffering what no child should ever need to go through. But these things are still happening today.

James Craig Anderson. Trayvon Martin. Tamir Rice. Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. Elijah Mcclain.

And recently, Ralph Yarl could have very easily died.

We've come along way. Some of the murderers get convicted now. But what happened to Emmett Till could all too easily happen again.

[cyarsk52-20]

Twitter reacts to guilty convictions in Ahmaud Arbery trial

Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. were found guilty of felony murder.

Social media users are reacting to the guilty convictions of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers in the 25-year-old’s death trial. 

On Wednesday (Nov. 24), the jury ruled that Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. were guilty of felony murder and other charges in Arbery’s tragic death. Many have since taken to Twitterto share their reactions.

“Thank God. Justice has been served for Ahmaud Arbery and his classy family,” said @bridgeclip. “How sad what they have had to endure. Prayers answered.” 

@KaiBanksX shared well wishes to Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, while acknowledging the work that still needs to be done in the country. “I pray this brings you SOME peace. Because nothing can heal a broken heart or absence of a son!” she said. “This is just [a] triumph for us! WE STILL GOT FAR TO GO!”

In another tweet, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said the verdictbrought some “semblance of justice,” adding prayers for Ahmaud’s family and for an overall change in the country.

As previously reported by REVOLT, the McMichaels and Bryan were charged with nine counts in connection to the murder of Arbery, who they confronted amid his jog. Travis, who fatally shot the 25-year-old, was found guilty of malice murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit a felony in addition to his felony charge.

Gregory, who confronted Arbery alongside his son, was found guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit a felony, and Bryan, who blocked the Black man with his car and recorded the encounter, was convicted of felony murder, aggravated assault, one count of false imprisonment and one count of criminal attempt to commit a felony. 

As users rejoiced in the news and sent prayers to Arbery’s family, @newsworthy17’s tweet reminded others that the three men will go to trial again in February as they face federal hate crime charges connected to Arbery’s death.

See the reactions to the verdict in Ahmaud Arbery’s murder trial below.

I am working toward embracing abolition because I know prison isn’t working but these three men can sit in prison and think about what they did. For a long time. For about as long as Ahmaud Arbery will rest in, I hope, peace. — roxane gay (@rgay) November 24, 2021

I still haven’t watched the footage of #AhmaudArberybeing murdered. I still can’t. But today I watched some semblance of justice.  I pray for some measure of comfort for his family, and of change for the country that saw him killed for the crime of being a Black man in America. pic.twitter.com/8x9XRv9tOO — Jumaane Williams (@JumaaneWilliams) November 24, 2021

Verdict in … Guilty, but the system is still trash and needs an overhaul. — Jamira Burley (@JamiraBurley) November 24, 2021

I want to remind people that while the state trial is finished, save sentencing, the federal hate crimes trial will begin in February. #AhmadArberyhttps://t.co/Ss2mJm3QPy — Raisa, an angel among demons (@newsworthy17) November 24, 2021

Thank God. Justice has been served for Ahmaud Arbery and his classy family. How sad what they have had to endure. Prayers answered. — Liz Carter (@Bridgeclip) November 24, 2021

Ahmaud Arbery may your soul be blessed with peace. Continue to rest baby. Justice was served 🤍 #AhmaudArbery — Charity 🧘🏾‍♀️ (@___cem) November 24, 2021

Justice for Ahmaud Arbery! It won’t bring him back but I hope this helps his loved ones deal with the loss a little better. My heart aches for all of them. — Saundra Dee digs Joe (Cool) Biden! 😎💙I’m VAXXED! (@SaundraDee7) November 24, 2021

Someone still need to be held accountable for it taking 74 days before a charge. #AhmaudArbery — Andre Quarantina (@JosefAnolin) November 24, 2021

Ahmaud Arbery’s killers were ALL found GUILTY! As it should! Ahmaud mother, YOUR son mattered…HIS LIFE mattered. I pray this brings you SOME peace. Because nothing can heal a broken heart or absence of a son! This is just ☝🏾 triumph for us! ❤️🙏🏿 WE STILL GOT FAR TO GO! ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 — Kαι Bαɳƙʂ (@Kai_BanksX) November 24, 2021

Sent from my iPhone

[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.

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JUSTICE DELAYED: White father and son reach the find out phase of attempted lynching of Black delivery driver

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JUSTICE DELAYED: White father and son reach the find out phase of attempted lynching of Black delivery driver

Ty Ross

News journalist for Occupy Democrats.

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The White father and son who reportedly chased and shot at a Black FedEx delivery driver have been indicted. A Mississippi grand jury indicted the racist pair on charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and shooting into a motor vehicle.

On January 24th, Gregory Chase and his son Brandon allegedly pursued FedEx delivery driver D’Monterrio Gibson after he dropped off a package in Brookhaven, Mississippi – located about an hour outside of the state’s capital city.

According to Gibson, he believes he was targeted for being Black by people who thought that he “didn’t belong” in the neighborhood.

Mind you, Brookhaven is a pretty diverse city, with approximately 59% of its residents being Black.

Wearing a FedEx uniform, Gibson said he was working from a Hertz rental van that the package delivery giant rented – not an unusual circumstance.

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NBC News reported:

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The incident has been compared to the hunting down and killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arberyin February 2020.

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Arbery was out jogging in a Georgia neighborhood when he was chased and fatally shot by father and son, Travis and Greg McMichael. The pair were convicted on federal hate crime charges in August of this year – along with their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, who filmed the heinous murder.

The McMichaels both received life sentences, while Bryan was sentenced to 35 years.

Released after posting $500,000 bonds each earlier this year, both Greg Case and his son were arrested by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department – the father for conspiracy, and his son Brandon for “suspicion of aggravated assault.”

Those charges have since been elevated to include the attempt on Mr. Gibson’s life.

In a police report filed the day after the incident, Gibson said he swerved to avoid the men as multiple shots were fired into the van.  Damaging the vehicle and the packages inside, even as Gibron drove onto the grass to avoid hitting the son.

He immediately told his manager, who urged the driver to return to the station.

Greg and Brandon continued to pursue the deliveryman as he fled the Brookhaven neighborhood, only abandoning the attempted lynching once reaching nearby Highway I-55.

Carlos Moore, Gibson’s attorney, shared his client’s happiness with the indictment, adding:

It’s been 10 months since the incident.

After nearly a year of delays, the case will most likely be delayed until late Spring of next year, according to the plaintiff’s attorney, since a court date for the Cases has not been set.

Original reporting by Janelle Griffith at NBC News.

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[ausetkmt]

Walter Suza of Ames writes frequently on the intersections of spirituality, anti-racism and social justice.

“Racism, you choose to look for it!”

My good white friend said those words despite touting to have read countless books on racism, despite countless hours of me explaining why we must fight racism.

My friend’s words of dismissal are not new. Some go as far as to say, “No one cares about your feelings!” That’s their right to speak as such. Yet that’s also not the point.

This column does not seek emotional support nor pity. This column speaks to those people who call themselves good white people yet are silent despite the fact that racism has a negative impact on the physical and mental health of people of color.

Racism will not end until all white people recognize racism for what it is. Racism is evil. It lurks in dark crevices of the heart. In there it breathes and thrives until one day, it lunges forward, unprovoked, to penetrate and hide in the innermost core of society. When more darkness comes, when it catches a whiff of its prey, when the unsuspecting closes his eyes and falls asleep in the bedrock of denialism, that’s when racism strikes.

It’s like a bed bug.

The bed bug is not just an annoyance; it’s a stealth pest that is harder to eradicate than a roach. Amid the darkest times, the bug emerges to suck the life blood out of men, women and even children.

My white friend who fears bed bugs should have known better. When traveling, my friend does not set the luggage on the floor or sleep in a hotel bed before the room and furniture have been inspected for signs of bed bugs. After the trip, my friend intentionally leaves the travel bags in the garage to fry the bugs during summer, or to freeze the bugs during winter. This strategy helps prevent potential stowaway bed bugs from getting into my friend’s house.

It’s not just the bite that my friend is afraid of, it's also the tenacity of the insect. Bed bugs are the hardest pests to control once they have infested a home. A couple of bed bugs in love is all it takes for their kind to colonize a home.

This is why my friend should have understood why I might “look” for the racism bug. To stop racism requires diligence because it is a difficult bug to eradicate once it has infested one's home or community or nation.

We must be vocal. Bystander apathy sustains racism.

If we don’t stop racism, the United States’ vision to become a more perfect union is nothing but lip service. If we don’t stop racism, wherever there will be people who look white, Black and Brown, there will be racism. If we don’t stop racism, it will continue to be a menace like it was in the past.

From the 1500s to the 1800s, it led to the forced shipping of enslaved Africans to the Western Hemisphere to be used for labor. Close to 2 million perished while being shipped across the Atlantic in the bellies of filthy, humid, disease-infested ships. Hundreds of thousands shipped to the United States became subjected to hard labor and horrific living conditions for centuries.

Despite the struggle for civil rights, racism continues to thrive.

In 2019, the FBI released statistics that paint a dark picture of the state of race-based hate in the United States. Of the 15,588 law enforcement agencies that contributed data to the statistics, bias related to race and ethnicity topped the chart — at 58%.

In 2020, it led to people of Asian descent, Chinese in particular, to be blamed for the virus that causes COVID-19. The blame did not prevent the coronavirus from being more lethal in communities of color, Ahmaud Arbery from being gunned down by vigilantes, Breonna Taylor from being killed by police while sleeping in her home, a white woman from calling the police on a Black man watching birds in Central Park in New York City, or George Floyd from being murdered by a white police officer.  

Does this make America a racist country?

In 2021, despite admitting to having experienced racism, Sen. Tim Scott's response was “America is not a racist country.” Despite admitting a need “to speak truth about the history of racism in our country and its existence today,” Vice President Kamala Harris’ response was “No, I don’t think America is a racist country.”

Is that right?

In 2022, the FBI released more dismal statistics pointing to the more sickening truth that “hate crimes rooted in race, ethnicity or ancestry” were the most common that year.

In 2023, Americans remained polarized in their views on the existence of racism. One group representing “53% say people not seeing racial discrimination where it really does exist is the bigger problem,” according to the Pew Research Center.

In 2024, some have the audacity to suggest that bad genes predispose migrants of color to violence. The eugenicists' trope is like saying bad genes made white people kill millions of indigenous people across the Americas and lynch thousands of Black Americans. 

See racism. Hear racism. Stop racism.

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never forget: if she had done her job and prosecuted the murderers, it wouldn’t take 74 days and a nation outraged before these stone cold killers were arrested

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Jackie Johnson Trial To Begin In 2025, Judge Sets Jury Selection Date

Lock Her Up! Ex-Georgia DA Jackie Johnson To Face Trial In 2025 For Alleged Tampering In Ahmaud Arbery Case

Posted on November 8, 2024 - ByJason "Jah" Lee

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Ahmaud Arbery was murdered in cold blood by a group of racist white men, Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan, on Feb. 23, 2020, in Glynn County, Georgia. Bryan followed and filmed the McMichaels as they stalked Arbery in a pickup truck armed with a shotgun. Two months passed before an arrest was made because Glynn County was told by the District Attorney’s office that the parties involved were not flight risks and that no arrests should be made until there was “follow up.” Jackie Johnson was the District Attorney then, and Gregory McMichael once worked for her as an investigator.

Do you see the problem there?

The McMichaels and Bryan were finally arrested in May 2020, two days after Gregory purposely released the video of the fatal shooting himself thinking that it would prove self-defense and quell the talk around town about his actions.

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Get ‘Em All: Ex-Georgia DA Jackie Johnson Still Hasn’t Faced Music For Allegedly Obstructing Ahmaud Arbery Case

When the truth about the shooting finally came to light, Johnson was under intense public scrutiny about why she would decline to arrest these men and how her relationship with Gregory McMichael influenced her. She ultimately recused herself from the case, but the damage was done in the eyes of the people. In September 2021, Johnson lost her election and was subsequently indicted by a grand jury for a felony violation of her oath of office and a misdemeanor count of hindering a police officer.

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Now, according to AP, a judge has finally set a date for Johnson’s trial for her “alleged” crimes. Jury selection will begin Jan. 21, 2025, and legal proceedings will start shortly after selection.

BOSSIP has reported on this case extensively. While the McMichaels and Bryan have been sentenced to prison, according to Action News Jax, the family, specifically Ahmaud’s father, is ready for the final domino of justice to fall.

“We’re supposed to have had justice on her because she is the ring leader,” Marcus Arbery said. “It’s time for her to come to justice. It’s been a long time coming. My boy has been dead. Going on for five years now. My family is still hurting and suffering,” Marcus said.

We hope the Arbery’s get justice and that Jackie Johnson gets exactly what she deserves.

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