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Tag: racism

  • Civil rights icon James Meredith turns 90, urges people to fight crime by obeying Ten Commandments

    Civil rights icon James Meredith turns 90, urges people to fight crime by obeying Ten Commandments

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    JACKSON, Miss. — JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — James Meredith knew he was putting his life in danger in the 1960s by pursuing what he believes was his divine mission: conquering white supremacy in the deeply, and often violently, segregated state of Mississippi.

    A half-century later, the civil rights leader is still talking about his mission from God. In recent weeks, he made several appearances around his home state, urging people to obey the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule in order to reduce crime. On his 90th birthday on Sunday, Meredith said older generations should lead the way.

    “Old folks not only can control it — it’s their job to control it,” Meredith told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday after an event honoring him at the Mississippi Capitol.

    Meredith is a civil rights icon who has long resisted that label because he believes it sets issues such as voting rights and equal access to education apart from other human rights.

    During the event, Meredith fell while trying to stand and speak. He leaned on an unsecured lectern, and it crashed forward with Meredith on top. People nearby scrambled to return him to a wheelchair.

    Meredith suffered no visible injuries. An ambulance crew checked him later, and then Meredith went to his home in Jackson to have a birthday celebration with his family. His wife, Judy Alsobrooks Meredith, said Monday that he was spending time with grandchildren and showing no signs of pain.

    In October 1962, federal marshals escorted Meredith as he enrolled as the first Black student at the University of Mississippi, while white people rioted on the Oxford campus. Mississippi’s governor at the time, Ross Barnett, had stirred mobs into a frenzy by declaring that Ole Miss would not be integrated under his watch.

    Meredith was a 29-year-old Air Force veteran who had already taken classes at one of Mississippi’s historically Black colleges, Jackson State. NAACP attorneys represented him as he obtained a federal court order to enter the state’s flagship public university. After a largely solitary existence at Ole Miss, Meredith graduated in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

    After graduating, Meredith set out to promote Black voter registration and show that a Black man could walk through Mississippi without fear. In June 1966, a white man with a shotgun wounded Meredith on the second day of a march from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. With Meredith hospitalized, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael and other civil rights leaders continued the march, often followed by long lines of activists and local people.

    Less than three weeks after he was shot, Meredith had recovered enough to join the final stretch of what became known as the March Against Fear. It ended at the state Capitol, where an estimated 15,000 people gathered for Mississippi’s largest civil rights rally.

    This year, Meredith had planned to walk 200 miles (322 kilometers) in Mississippi to spread his anti-crime message — roughly the same distance as the March Against Fear. Instead, he made a series of appearances in recent weeks, often using a rolling walker, a wheelchair or a golf cart.

    On Sunday, Meredith rode in a golf cart for the final quarter-mile (0.40 kilometers) from Jackson City Hall to the Mississippi Capitol, led by a high school marching band and accompanied by dozens of people on foot. A racially diverse group of about 200 people sought shade under magnolia and oak trees while listening to songs, speeches and a child’s poem praising Meredith.

    Flonzie BrownWright, a longtime Mississippi civil rights activist who participated in the 1966 March Against Fear, said she believes Meredith is a genius at creating strategies for social change.

    “He is a very smart man, endowed with a lot of old-fashioned wisdom. He has been able to use that for the greater good of his people,” BrownWright said Sunday. “I love him like a big brother.”

    In the decades since Meredith integrated Ole Miss, the university has erected a statue of him on campus and has held several events to honor him and his legacy.

    John Meredith said Sunday that his father had a profound effect on higher education, but the March Against Fear had a greater impact on him as a son because it demonstrated the importance of elections.

    “The silent gift of voting is the ability to help shape the laws under which you live. It is the beauty and the curse of America,” said John Meredith, the current city council president in Huntsville, Alabama. “Participation in voting yields inclusion, diversity and opportunity. Failure to vote results in the loss of freedom … and government oppression.”

    At the Capitol birthday celebration, Iyanu B. Carson, a 5th grade student from Jackson, read her poem titled “90 Years of History,” saying she aspires to be like Meredith.

    “You made the choice to use your voice, you were strong and made them believe you belonged,” Iyanu said. “Today we celebrate history, and Mr. Meredith, history is you! We’re proud of your accomplishments and all that you have been through.”

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  • A Teacher Used A Popular Book About Systemic Racism — Then Students Started Complaining

    A Teacher Used A Popular Book About Systemic Racism — Then Students Started Complaining

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    In February, as part of Black History Month, a high school teacher in South Carolina had to stop using Ta-Nehisi Coates’ memoir “Between the World and Me” in a lesson plan about systemic racism — because teachers are prohibited from making students feel uncomfortable about their race or gender in the state.

    Students complained after Mary Wood, who teaches Advanced Placement Language Arts at Chapin High School in Chapin, South Carolina, included the book in a lesson intended to guide students through participating in civil debate, local news outlet The State first reported.

    Wood’s lesson plan was a part of preparing for Advanced Placement tests and involved watching two videos about systemic racism, reading Coates’ memoir and doing research with a variety of sources. Then, students were meant to write essays on their understanding of the book and make an argument about whether they agreed with Coates that systemic racism is a problem in the U.S.

    “This wasn’t one side or the other,” Wood, who has been teaching for 14 years, told HuffPost. “I wanted them to develop their own understanding.”

    Students complained that the lesson made them feel ashamed to be white and were successful in blocking the section on systemic racism entirely.

    “Hearing (Wood’s) opinion and watching these videos made me feel uncomfortable,” one student said in their complaint. “I actually felt ashamed to be Caucasian. These videos portrayed an inaccurate description of life from past centuries that she is trying to resurface.”

    In 2021, South Carolina Republicans included a provision in the state budget stipulating that taxpayer dollars may not be used to teach lessons suggesting that any race or sex is inherently “racist, sexist, or oppressive whether consciously or unconsciously” or that cause anyone to feel “guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his race or sex.”

    “If the goal is to undermine public education, they’re doing a good job of it,” Wood said of the lawmakers who passed the policy. “You cannot talk about glitter and rainbows and still get students to engage with differing viewpoints.”

    Once the lesson, which Wood had taught the previous year without issue, was axed, she said she kept her head down and proceeded with an improvised lesson plan using AP tests from the past.

    “I was mortified professionally and I felt my hands were tied,” she said. “I certainly didn’t want to use anything self-selected.”

    “If the goal is to undermine public education, they’re doing a good job of it.”

    – Mary Wood, high school teacher in South Carolina

    South Carolina’s policy that essentially bars teachers from teaching about certain topics is a disservice to students, Wood said, especially those who are supposed to be preparing for college.

    “I don’t want my kid to go into a college classroom thinking a professor isn’t allowed to speak about a topic because he came from a high school that limited instruction,” Wood said.

    But schools nationwide have moved to limit what teachers can teach in their classrooms. Republicans have made critical race theory a boogeyman for conservative parents.

    In reality, it’s a college-level academic theory that studies the way racism has influenced policy-making in the United States, but the GOP has perverted it to mean any discussion of racism or inequality. Lawmakers in Florida, Texas and Oklahoma are among those who have restricted what teachers can say in their own classrooms. Meanwhile, educators are on edge, fearing that saying the wrong thing could cost them their jobs.

    And South Carolina, like many states, is in the throes of a teacher shortage. The state had nearly 1,500 teacher vacancies when the 2022-23 school year started, according to an annual report — an increase of approximately 500 from the prior academic year.

    South Carolina educators cite the same issues that are plaguing their colleagues in other states, including low pay, funding cuts and limited support from administrators. But the culture wars are wearing on them, too, as routine lessons about racism and history have been turned into just another political talking point. Educators who try to teach full and accurate history are labeled radicals who are out to indoctrinate children.

    And South Carolina Republicans do not plan on stopping at the current provision, which will remain in effect unless the legislature removes it.

    A bill requiring “fact-based” discussion on lessons about race is pending in the legislature. It does not specifically mention critical race theory, but, like the budget provision, it does bar educators from teaching their students that any race is inherently oppressive and outlines steps for parents to object to lessons being taught at school. However, it does not include the restriction that bans making a student uncomfortable.

    “The First Amendment protects freedom of speech,” Wood said. “And if the state government is intentionally limiting freedom of speech, then they are the ones supporting the indoctrination that teachers are always being accused of.”

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  • Q&A: Canada’s anti-Islamophobia representative vows to fight hate

    Q&A: Canada’s anti-Islamophobia representative vows to fight hate

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    Montreal, Canada – It was a Sunday evening two years ago when an act “rooted in unspeakable hatred” changed one family forever and shook Muslim communities across Canada in the process.

    The Afzaals were taking a walk in the city of London, Ontario on June 6, 2021, when a man ran them over with his truck in what authorities said was an intentional attack. Four members of the family were killed, and a young boy was seriously injured.

    The deadly assault sent shock waves throughout the country, where Muslims were still reeling from a series of fatal attacks at mosques and a rise of Islamophobic rhetoric.

    It also fuelled calls for action and pushed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to first establish a summit on Islamophobia and then earlier this year to name a special representative to tackle the problem.

    The appointment of Amira Elghawaby in January as Canada’s first special representative on combatting Islamophobia was welcomed by Muslim community advocates. But it faced fierce criticism in the province of Quebec, where politicians called for her removal for past criticism of a law banning religious garb in the public sector that has drawn widespread accusations of racism.

    Here, Al Jazeera speaks to Elghawaby about the two-year anniversary of the London attack, the state of Islamophobia in Canada today, and what her job entails.

    Al Jazeera: What impact did the London attack have on Muslims in Canada?

    Amira Elghawaby: I think it’s really important to note that London’s Muslim communities are still carrying the weight of what happened two years ago. It’s still quite heavy on people’s minds.

    [I have been] meeting with some of the young people, in particular, who have been organising for the past two years, trying to ensure that not only the city of London, but Canadians, don’t forget what happened to this beautiful, intergenerational family that was targeted for no other reason than their Muslim faith.

    There is still a lot of pain and anxiety and fear that hate is still in our communities. Especially women who are visibly Muslim, who wear the hijab [headscarf], are sometimes a little more worried about being singled out. And so I think that those sentiments are held in other communities, as well.

    In the first 100 days of my office, I’ve had an opportunity to have community engagements in the top provinces where Muslims reside, so Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. While I consistently hear that Canadian Muslims are proud to be in Canada and contributing … at the same time, there are concerns about Islamophobia.

    And there is hope that the Afzaal attack hopefully really galvanised people to understand that this is a type of hatred that we have to work collectively to address.

    Al Jazeera: There was strong criticism of your appointment, notably from politicians from Quebec. Do you feel that you can speak out against Islamophobia in that province specifically?

    Elghawaby: I have been quite clear in speaking out against Islamophobia right across Canada as a phenomenon that all of us have to come together to address.

    Muslims living in different provinces experience discrimination and Islamophobia in different ways, and so I think what’s critical is for this office to continue to engage, to continue to listen, to the lived experiences of Muslims in every single part of this country.

    The role is to bring those experiences forward to fellow Canadians, to the federal government, in helping to support legislation and policies that are helping to ensure the inclusion of all people in this country.

    Al Jazeera: What is the state of Islamophobia in Canada right now?

    Elghawaby: I think it’s very important to emphasise that many, many fellow Canadians are very committed to inclusive, warm, welcoming societies. Overall, we have values in this country, we have a democratic tradition, [and] we have a sense of pluralism and inclusion that really is part of our identity as Canadians.

    But the reality is as well that, for instance, Islam is the most negatively viewed religion in Canada, according to a recent poll (PDF) by Angus Reid. Or another poll by Leger a few months ago showed that while 46 percent of Canadians do see themselves as allies to Muslim communities, there’s still a significant number who don’t.

    Unfortunately for 2020 to 2021 – the most recent statistics – we’ve seen a 71-percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes, according to Statistics Canada. That only tells a partial story though, too, because a majority of people don’t report the hate that they experience.

    We’re able to sort of piece together these statistics and these lived experiences to know that again, we certainly do have our work cut out for us.

    Al Jazeera: What can be done to address and end Islamophobia in the country?

    Elghawaby: I think acknowledging that this phenomenon is real and impacts peoples’ lives has been a very important and hard-fought step. It did take the Quebec City mosque massacre and then the attack on the Afzaal family for there to be this wide consensus across Canada that this is clearly a phenomenon.

    The good news is that various levels of government have taken concrete action. Here in London, there is an action plan to disrupt Islamophobia … They have hired a Muslim liaison officer to work with communities and to look for ways to address this, to raise awareness and education.

    We have this office that I now sit in … that communities asked for. So we are taking positive steps forward. There is acknowledgement that this is a phenomenon that we need to address – as we need to address any form of racism in our country. What’s so critical I think for all Canadians to understand of course is that hate against one community is really hatred against all of us.

    Al Jazeera: What would you say is your mission as Canada’s special representative? What are you focusing on?

    Elghawaby: Number one is to provide the policy advice to the government: to provide guidance, as outlined in the mandate, around how policies and legislation are impacting on Muslim communities, as well as to provide guidance and support to national security agencies on training.

    Number two is about raising awareness about Islamophobia and its impacts, and working with community partners to look for ways to address the various issues that not only impact on Canadian Muslims, but impact on other minorities. For example, I touched upon issues of online safety, the rise of hate in Canada.

    Then the third level of work is really around that community engagement, to constantly be meeting and hearing from Canada’s Muslim communities on the experiences that people are having, not just with regards to hate but even discrimination, whether in the workplace, whether in other aspects of life – and to bring forward community-informed solutions.

    Al Jazeera: What would you want people to know about why there needs to be a special representative for combatting Islamophobia in Canada?

    Elghawaby: I think it’s extremely important that Canada has taken this step to appoint a special representative on combatting Islamophobia because it signals the importance of addressing a phenomenon that has led to deadly violence in this country.

    And we know that along the continuum of hate, deadly violence is sort of the very pinnacle and the worst of what hate can lead to. And so we have reached that pinnacle several times in this country – more than any other G7 [Group of Seven] country.

    But beyond even that, the day-to-day discrimination and Islamophobia and the systemic forms of Islamophobia that do exist are also impacting on people’s lives. And so the federal government has signalled that this is an issue that needs to be addressed.

    And it sends a reassurance to communities that this is being taken seriously. I’m very committed to working with all government partners, as well as civil society, as well as all minority communities, to address hate and of course specifically to address Islamophobia.

    Al Jazeera: How important is it to be able to freely speak out against policies that Muslim community members say are affecting them negatively – especially amid fears that these policies can lead to violence?

    Elghawaby: I think that policymakers, as [those] having to be responsive to the needs of the community that they serve, will only be able to do that job if their basis for decision-making is reliant on the actual impact of those policies on people’s lives.

    It’s not just an intention of what a law is meant to do, but it’s the impacts of policies and laws that are important to understand. So that if there are negative impacts of policies or legislation anywhere, there can be a course correction to ensure that everyone living in Canada is treated with dignity and respect, in their full rights as members of the society.

    This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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  • Romania recalls ambassador to Kenya after racist monkey slur

    Romania recalls ambassador to Kenya after racist monkey slur

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    Romania is recalling its ambassador to Kenya after the diplomat allegedly made a comment equating Africans to monkeys at a meeting in Nairobi.

    “Any racist behavior or comments are absolutely unacceptable,” the Romanian Foreign Ministry in Bucharest said in a statement Saturday. The ministry has “initiated the procedure of recalling” Ambassador Dragos Viorel Tigau from his post in Kenya, according to the statement.

    The ministry “deeply regrets this situation, apologizes to all those affected and strongly rejects and condemns any behavior and any attitude incompatible with mutual respect,” the statement reads further.

    The move came in reaction to allegations that Tigau said “the African group has joined us” after a black monkey appeared at the window of the conference room ahead of a meeting. The incident took place at a UN building in the Kenyan capital on April 26.

    The Romanian Foreign Ministry said it had only been informed of the incident last week and Tigau was recalled as soon as the government found out. The ambassador has apologized after the incident, including in writing, according to the ministry.

    Kenyan diplomat Macharia Kamau said in a tweet that the remarks “appalled and disgusted” him. “This intolerable and unacceptable,” he added.

    The Romanian government “hopes that the incident will not affect the relationship with the countries of the African continent,” the Foreign Ministry said in its statement.

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  • Germany detains 2nd man over fatal arson attack on refugee shelter in 1991

    Germany detains 2nd man over fatal arson attack on refugee shelter in 1991

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    German authorities detained a second man Tuesday in connection with a racist arson attack on a shelter for asylum-seekers 32 years ago in which a Ghanaian man was killed

    BERLIN — German authorities detained a second man Tuesday in connection with a racist arson attack on a shelter for asylum-seekers 32 years ago in which a Ghanaian man was killed.

    Federal prosecutors said Peter St., whose full surname wasn’t released due to privacy rules, was detained by police in the western state of Saarland on suspicion of being an accessory to murder and accessory to attempted murder.

    Prosecutors said the suspect, who holds neo-Nazi and racist views, is alleged to have met with other far-right extremists at a bar in the town of Saarlouis on Sept. 18, 1991, and called for attacks on migrant homes.

    Peter St., who had a prominent role in the regional skinhead scene, is alleged to have praised attacks occurring in eastern Germany at the time and said that “something should burn or happen here too,” prosecutors claim.

    Another man who was present in the bar, identified only as Peter S., is then alleged to have gone to a nearby building housing asylum-seekers, poured gasoline on the staircase and set it alight. A 27-year-old Ghanaian resident, Samuel Kofi Yeboah, died after suffering smoke inhalation and severe burns. Two other residents suffered broken bones after jumping out of windows, while 18 people escaped unhurt.

    Peter S. was arrested last year and is currently on trial for murder, attempted murder and fatal arson.

    Authorities in Saarland have apologized for police failures in the immediate aftermath of the attack that allowed the suspects to remain free for decades.

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  • Andrea Motley Crabtree, Army’s first female deep-sea diver, reflects on her accomplishments

    Andrea Motley Crabtree, Army’s first female deep-sea diver, reflects on her accomplishments

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    New York City — In 1982, now retired Master Sgt. Andrea Motley Crabtree became the U.S. Army’s first female deep-sea diver, and the first Black female deep-sea diver across all U.S. military branches. 

    It was a remarkable moment in her remarkable life.

    “I was happy to be there, happy to be in that suit,” said Crabtree, who told CBS News she was inspired by her father and grandfather, both veterans.

    At the time she earned her Army diver badge, she posed for a photo that later became the basis for a 2017 portrait by artist Henry Taylor that was featured in the U.S. Army Women’s Museum in Fort Gregg-Adams in Virginia. 

    “I always wanted to be in the military, but a lot of people didn’t think the military was a good thing for women,” Crabtree said.   

    And recently, the portrait was included in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. 

    “It’s incredible,” Crabtree said of seeing the portrait in the Met this week, the first time she has seen it in person. “I’m almost speechless.”  

    She battled racism and sexism throughout her journey. 

    “I was Army, going to a predominantly Navy environment,” Crabtree said. “I’m female to a predominantly male environment. I’m Black, to a predominantly White environment.”

    She served in the Army from 1977 until her retirement in 1998, and spent four of those years as a deep-sea diver.  

    “And this guy, he looked at me and he says, ‘You shouldn’t be here. You should be home, barefoot and pregnant,'” Crabtree said.

    “And I’m thinking, ‘Why am I here?'” she added.

    Others told her she wouldn’t make it.

    “I stayed in Army diving — and put up with everything that I put up with — for one reason: I loved it. I loved diving,” Crabtree said.

    Diving is a love she now shares with her three sons. 

    “There is no real reason why any woman who was able to do the job shouldn’t have been able to do it,” Crabtree said. “Or any reason why I should have been the first in 1982 to be a female diver for the Army. There were women who had tried, but they didn’t succeed.”  

    “And I’d do it all over again.” 

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  • Diverse Republican presidential primary field sees an opening in 2024 with voters of color

    Diverse Republican presidential primary field sees an opening in 2024 with voters of color

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    CHICAGO — During Donald Trump‘s first visit as president to Chicago, a frequent target in his attacks on urban violence, he disparaged the nation’s third largest city as a haven for criminals and a national embarrassment.

    At a recent town hall, Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy sat alongside ex-convicts on the city’s South Side and promised to defend Trump’s “America First” agenda. In return, the little-known White House hopeful, a child of Indian immigrants, found a flicker of acceptance in a room full of Black and brown voters.

    The audience nodded when Ramaswamy said that “anti-Black racism is on the rise,” even if they took issue with his promise to eliminate affirmative action and fight “woke” policies.

    “Yes, we criticize the Democratic Party, and for good reason, for talking a big game about helping Black Americans without doing very much to actually show up and help on the ground,” he said later. “But we on our side also talk a big game about America First without actually bringing all of America along with us.”

    Race has emerged as a central issue — and a delicate one — in the 2024 presidential contest as the GOP’s primary field so far features four candidates of color, making it among the most racially diverse ever.

    South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the first Black senator in the South since Reconstruction, entered the contest earlier in the month. He joined Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador who is of Indian descent, and Larry Elder, an African American raised in Los Angeles’ South Central neighborhood who came to national attention as a candidate in the failed effort two years ago to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who is of Cuban descent, says he may enter the race in the coming days.

    Most of the candidates of color are considered underdogs in a field currently dominated by Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

    Yet the party’s increasingly diverse leadership, backed by evolving politics on issues such as immigration, suggest the GOP may have a real opportunity in 2024 to further weaken the Democrats’ grip on African Americans and Latinos. Those groups have been among the most loyal segments of the Democratic coalition since Republican leaders fought against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

    The Republican presidential contenders of 2024 walk a fine line when addressing race with the GOP’s overwhelmingly white primary electorate.

    In most cases, the diverse candidates in the Republican field play down the significance of their racial heritage. They all deny the existence of systemic racism in the United States even while discussing their own personal experience with racial discrimination. They oppose policies around policing, voting rights and education that are specifically designed to benefit disadvantaged communities and combat structural racism.

    The NAACP recently issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida under DeSantis’ leadership, warning of open hostility “toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.” The notice calls out new policies enacted by the governor that include blocking public schools from teaching students about systemic racism and defunding programs aimed at diversity, equity and inclusion.

    The Republican presidential candidates of color largely support DeSantis’ positions.

    Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said the GOP’s policies are far more important than the racial and ethnic diversity of their presidential candidates. He noted there also were four Republican candidates of color in 2016, the year Trump won the White House after exploiting tensions over race and immigration.

    “White nationalists, insurrectionists and white supremacists seem to find comfort in the (Republican) Party,” Morial said. “I think we’re beyond the politics of just the face of a person of color by itself appealing to people of color. What do you stand for?”

    With few exceptions, the Republican candidates who have entered the presidential primary field have embraced the GOP’s “anti-woke” agenda, which is based on the notion that policies designed to address systemic inequities related to race, gender or sexuality are inherently unfair or even dangerous.

    DeSantis this past week described such policies as “cultural Marxism.”

    Still, the GOP’s diverse field is not ignoring race. Indeed, some candidates are making their race a central theme in their appeal to Republican primary voters even as they deny that people of color face systemic challenges.

    Scott insisted that America is not a racist country in his recent announcement speech.

    “We are not defined by the color of our skin. We are defined by the content of our character. And if anyone tells you anything different, they’re lying,” he said.

    In her announcement video, Haley noted that she was raised in a small town in South Carolina as “the proud daughter of Indian immigrants — not black, not white, I was different.” Like Scott, she has defended the GOP against charges of racism.

    “Some think our ideas are not just wrong, but racist and evil,” Haley said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

    Elder is quick to criticize the Democrats’ “woke” agenda, Black Lives Matter and the notion of systemic racism.

    Critics say such messages are actually designed to win over suburban white voters more than to attract voters of color. But on the South Side of Chicago on a recent Friday afternoon, there were signs that some Black voters were open to the GOP’s new messengers, given their frustration with both political parties.

    One attendee at Ramaswamy’s town hall waved a flyer for a “Biden boycott” because the Democratic president has not signaled whether he supports reparations for the descendants of slaves, although Biden did back a congressional effort to study the issue. None of the GOP’s presidential candidates supports reparations, either.

    Others condemned Democrats, in Chicago and in Washington, for working harder to help immigrants who are in the country illegally than struggling African American citizens.

    Federal officials were preparing to relocate hundreds of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to the South Side, even as many local residents struggled with violence and difficult economic conditions.

    “It is certainly true that there are multiple shades of melanin in this Republican race,” Ramaswamy said in an interview before the event. “I think that in some ways dispels the myth that much of the left will perpetuate that this is somehow you know, a racist party or whatever drivel.”

    He added: “But personally, I could care less what someone’s skin color is. I think what matters is, what are they going to accomplish? What’s their vision?”

    As of now, the GOP does not have any Hispanic candidates in the 2024 contest. But Suarez, the Miami mayor, said he may change that in the coming days.

    “I think it’s important the field does have candidates that can connect with and motivate Hispanics to continue a trend that’s already happening,” he said in an interview, noting that he’s “very strongly” considering a White House bid. “Democrats have failed miserably to connect with Hispanics.”

    A majority of Latino voters supported Biden in the 2020 presidential contest, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive national survey of the electorate. But Trump cut into that support in some competitive states, including Florida and Nevada, revealing important shifts among Latinos from many different cultural backgrounds.

    In last fall’s midterm elections, support grew for Republican candidates among Black voters, although they remained overwhelmingly supportive of Democrats, AP Votecast found. Overall, Republican candidates were backed by 14% of Black voters, compared with 8% in the midterm elections four years earlier.

    While the shifts may be relatively small, strategists in both parties acknowledge that any shift is significant given how close some elections may be in 2024.

    In Chicago, Tyrone Muhammad, who leads Ex-Cons for Social Change, lashed out at Republicans for being “losers” for not seizing a very real opportunity to win over more African Americans. While sitting next to Ramaswamy on stage, he also declared that the Republican Party is racist.

    Later, he said he actually voted for Trump in 2020 because Trump enacted a criminal justice bill that aimed to shorten prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders and address racial inequalities in the justice system. While the GOP has since embraced tough-on-crime rhetoric, Muhammed noted that Biden as a senator helped pass the 1994 crime bill that led to the mass incarceration of Black people.

    Muhammad said he might vote Republican again in 2024, despite the party’s shortcomings. He pointed to the GOP’s fight against illegal immigration as a core reason for support.

    “I may not like you as an individual, but I like your issues, I like your policies,” he said.

    ___

    Fields reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Newborns are becoming victims of legalized marijuana use – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    Newborns are becoming victims of legalized marijuana use – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    Original Author Link click here to read complete story..

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    MMP News Author

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  • We Need to Talk About Black Vernacular and Dialect Bias in The Workplace | Entrepreneur

    We Need to Talk About Black Vernacular and Dialect Bias in The Workplace | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), also known as Black Vernacular English (BVA) or ebonics, is a historic American English dialect that millions of people speak. It’s a part of our cultural DNA and is a blend of words and ways of speaking rooted in various African cultures as well as the English spoken in Southern U.S. states, with additional contributions from Creole.

    This way of speaking has long had negative connotations associated with it. People who speak AAVE are often seen as uneducated and not a cultural fit in workplaces managed by the dominant culture. Many Black people are penalized for a way of speaking that’s deeply rooted in this country and yet, despite their education, accomplishments and accolades, speaking AAVE can significantly diminish their professional prospects.

    This shouldn’t be the case. Speaking a different dialect should not negate the professional impact, skills and value that a worker brings. Companies that claim to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) while simultaneously discriminating against language or dialect should reconsider their stance on the topic.

    I am working to change that. I help organizations break barriers and integrate DEIB into their business frameworks with a human-centered approach. I will share how organizations like yours can be more conscious about language and dialect bias to do better on their DEI and inclusion goals.

    Hire for a culture “add,” not a culture “fit”

    Many individuals who speak AAVE are often dismissed in the job interview process because they don’t seem like a good cultural “fit.” I’ve discussed the dangers of hiring for culture fit before, but it’s worth noting that language or dialect should not invalidate a person’s ability to contribute, add value or participate in work life.

    Instead of assuming the status quo is the ideal culture in the company, consider the very real possibility that having folks who speak AAVE or another dialect or language on the team can truly “add” to the company culture. For example, perhaps someone speaking AAVE can bring a new perspective to company projects or dialogues. Or perhaps they can connect with diverse partners and stakeholders in a way that the dominant culture hasn’t previously found successful. Think outside the box about how someone’s language or dialect can actually enhance your company culture instead of “fit” into it.

    Related: Avoiding the Sea of Sameness: How Hiring for Culture Improves DEI

    Never judge a book by its cover

    Although people who speak AAVE are often described as “ghetto,” “loud,” or “aggressive,” it’s often a misconception. A prime example is Angel Reese, a Louisiana State University basketball player who has skyrocketed in popularity in recent weeks. She’s had to face dialect and gender bias in the public eye.

    Angel said, “I’m too hood. I’m too ghetto. I don’t fit the narrative and I’m ok with that. I’m from Baltimore where you hoop and talk trash. If I was a boy, y’all wouldn’t be saying nun at all.” Angel was referring to a culture of basketball that has a double standard for women, specifically for women who speak like her. While some are considered “ladylike” in the sport, others are called something very different.

    Apply this same logic to the workplace. If a worker doesn’t speak exactly like another colleague who represents the norm of the workplace culture, will they still be accepted and feel a sense of belonging? Why should language or dialect stand in the way of someone belonging in the workplace or prevent them from getting hired at all?

    DEI extends beyond skin and gender. Dialect and language should not create a hostile atmosphere where Black workers are undervalued, demeaned or held down at lower rungs in the organization because of the way they speak.

    Related: Hire Like a Diversity Expert: 5 Key Qualities of Inclusive Employees

    Bias against people who speak AAVE hurts organizations, too

    Did you know the fastest-growing entrepreneurial demographic in the United States is Black women? Black women aren’t waiting for organizations that exhibit bias in their company culture to accept them — they’ve moved on to building their own empires.

    Organizations that consciously or unconsciously bias their employee pool based on the dialect of English the applicant speaks are losing out in the end. As mentioned, dialect does not equate to intelligence, talent or value. Choosing not to hire a qualified candidate because they speak AAVE only pushes them to take their talents elsewhere which can often leave organizations at a deficit in terms of intellect, innovation and growth.

    In this sense, bias not only hurts the person who experiences it, but it hurts organizations, too. This type of bias holds everyone back. So, why not remove the barrier to access, create more empathy and understanding of the various cultures that live within the United States, and see candidates through the lens of value, character and contribution?

    Related: 5 Qualities of Black Excellence Overlooked in the Workplace

    Final thoughts

    Organizations are losing out every time they pass over a candidate that speaks a dialect of English that is not the cultural norm. Race, gender, ability and other identifiers are all seen as important parts of DEI that add to organizational growth and innovation. But why are dialect and language left out?

    The people who experience some of the most bias are those who don’t look or speak like those in the dominant culture. Sticking to the norm is not always the best or only way. I invite organizations to expand their definition of belonging and value and to create increased awareness around dialect bias.

    Human Resources and other groups involved in the hiring process and people management functions should put into place bias guardrails that push on hiring managers who may be discriminating against potential employees based on their dialect of English. The financial and cultural costs are too high to ignore. AAVE is English and should be valued and seen as such within institutions.

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  • Spain takes action against racism after Vinícius case but punishing fans remains a challenge

    Spain takes action against racism after Vinícius case but punishing fans remains a challenge

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    MADRID — The attention brought by the latest case of abuse against Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior has taken Spain to what could be a turning point in the fight against racism in soccer.

    Never before had local authorities acted so quickly to take action against fans who insulted players, and never before had soccer officials sanctioned a club so harshly for their fans’ racist behavior.

    Things have clearly changed since Vinícius threw the spotlight on Spain by pointing a finger, literally, at those who racially abused him last weekend in Valencia. But some of the challenges that existed before Vinícius’ case stirred Spain into action are still in place, especially when it comes to punishing fans criminally for their abuse.

    No one has ever gone to trial in Spain for racially abusing a player, and despite the unprecedented attention prompted by the recent Vinícius case, it may not be easy to get fans to start paying for their actions in court.

    Similar cases of abuse like the one faced by Vinícius on Sunday have been shelved by prosecutors in the past, including a few others involving the Brazilian player.

    Spain created a specific law against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sports in 2007, but not all cases of racism can be punished criminally, only those in which there is an additional intent to harm the victim physically or morally. There is a lot of leeway for interpretation and most cases, including “monkey” chants like the ones made against Vinícius, end up falling into a category in which punishment only includes fines and bans from stadiums.

    “What is it going to take to criminalize these people?” Vinícius said this week in one of his many posts on Twitter criticizing the lack of action against racism in Spain.

    The prosecutor who shelved one Vinícius case said the “unpleasant” racist chants against him came within the context of a soccer rivalry, and although they were “inappropriate” and “disrespectful,” they came inserted within the normal mockery by fans in a soccer game. He also said the racist insults only “lasted only a few seconds,” and when “contextualized,” they “did not constitute a crime against the dignity of the affected person.”

    Not being able to fully identify the perpetrators also played a role in the decision to shelve the case, according to the prosecutor.

    Another prosecutor who analyzed racist chants against Athletic Bilbao forward Nico Williams last year shelved the case with the argument that the fan’s social media accounts didn’t seem to show that he was racist.

    The Spanish league, which has been acting to denounce these cases, decided to avoid making the formal complaints to the prosecutors’ office specialized on hate crimes, instead going directly to the courts.

    “We were forced to change strategies,” Spanish league president Javier Tebas said in an interview with The Associated Press before the latest case against Vinícius happened. “We don’t want to have to face these interpretations by prosecutors. We are going straight to the courts and the results have been different.”

    Tebas also called for more sanctioning powers for the league because he says his body can only denounce the cases. He said the league could end racism in six month if given more authority.

    Before the case in Valencia, only one of the fans who racially abused Vinícius was facing the possibility of a criminal trial — a man accused of calling the player a monkey during a league game in Mallorca. Both the fan and Vinícius spoke before a judge earlier this year.

    The first trial against a fan accused of racial abuse in Spanish professional soccer is expected to happen at some point this year in a case involving Athletic Bilbao forward Iñaki Williams, the older brother of Nico Williams. He was insulted by an Espanyol supporter in a match in 2020.

    “The fact that a criminal procedure was archived doesn’t mean that there won’t be punishment,” Rafael Carlos de Vega, a prosecutor with Spain’s Attorney General’s Office, told the AP. “The economic sanctions are severe, and these people are being kept from the stadiums.”

    Nine Valladolid fans were fined in 4,000 euros ($4,300) each and were banned by the club for more than three years for racially insulting Vinícius in a match last year. Valencia also banned the three fans arrested this week from its stadium.

    “The main thing we have to learn from all of this is that we are bringing visibility to a problem and everyone has been having to react to it to try to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” De Vega said. “The moment we have sanctions and clubs react and perpetrators are banned from stadiums and people start denouncing these acts, then we will have made great progress in eradicating this problem.”

    All seven people arrested shortly after the uproar caused by the Vinícius case in Valencia have been released pending more investigation. The four detained in Madrid accused of hanging an effigy of Vinícius off a highway bridge in January have a temporary restraining order banning them from a 1-kilometer (0.62-mile) area around Madrid’s stadium and training facilities and from coming within the same distance of any soccer stadium between four hours before and four hours after a Spanish league game.

    Hate crimes in Spain are typically punished with one-to-four years of prison time, while crimes against a person’s moral integrity are punished with six-to-24 months behind bars.

    Valencia was fined in 45,000 euros ($48,200) and had part of is stadium closed for the next five games in what was the biggest sanction ever for a club in Spain in cases involving racism.

    Esteban Ibarra, president of the Madrid-based Movement Against Intolerance, Racism and Xenophobia, was optimistic that the uproar caused by the latest case of abuse against Vinícius would help change how prosecutors have been handling cases of racism and similar crimes.

    “With the visibility of this case nationally and internationally, I think that the attitude of prosecutors may start to change,” he told the AP. “Maybe it will help change the perception of the prosecutors in these cases.”

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  • 4 people accused of hanging Vinícius Júnior effigy released from custody

    4 people accused of hanging Vinícius Júnior effigy released from custody

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    Four people accused of hanging an effigy of Real Madrid player Vinícius Júnior off a highway bridge have been released from custody while still under investigation for perpetrating a hate crime

    ByJOSEPH WILSON Associated Press

    Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior applauds to spectators prior to a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

    The Associated Press

    BARCELONA, Spain — Four people accused of hanging an effigy of Real Madrid player Vinícius Júnior off a highway bridge were released from custody Thursday while still under investigation for perpetrating a hate crime.

    A Spanish judge in Madrid prohibited the four people from attempting to communicate with Vinícius. They also have a temporary restraining order banning them from a 1-kilometer (0.62-mile) area around Madrid’s stadium and training facilities and from coming within the same distance of any soccer stadium between four hours before and four hours after a Spanish league game.

    The court statement said the four people are also being investigated for trying to damage the moral integrity of Vinícius. It added that the four opted not to answer the judge’s questions in their first court appearance, in line with their constitutional rights.

    The incident of the effigy occurred on Jan. 26 in the buildup to a derby match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

    But it wasn’t until Tuesday when police made the arrests amid a public uproar that has engulfed Spain following the latest episode of racial abuse being targeted at Vinícius.

    Police on Tuesday also detained three people accused of verbally abusing Vinícius with racist slurs during a match on Saturday in Valencia at Mestalla Stadium, which will have parts of stands closed for the next five games. Those three were also released from custody.

    The 22-year-old Vinícius, who is Black, has been subjected to repeated racist taunts since he arrived in Spain five years ago from his native Brazil.

    In Spain, hate crimes are typically punished with one-to-four years of prison time, while crimes against a person’s moral integrity are punished with six-to-24 months behind bars.

    Also Thursday, Spain’s Ombudsman Office asked the country’s Higher Sports Council, the government’s authority for sports, for more information about the racist abuse targeted at Vinícius during the game in Valencia. The office said it had received complaints from “two Brazilian civil society organizations” regarding the abuse and that it was in contact with its counterpart in the South American country.

    In a statement, the Ombudsman Office stated that Spanish law prohibits any acts of racism, xenophobia or intolerance during sports events.

    ___

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  • 4 men arrested on suspicion of hanging Vinícius Júnior effigy off bridge

    4 men arrested on suspicion of hanging Vinícius Júnior effigy off bridge

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    MADRID — Four men suspected of hanging an effigy of Real Madrid player Vinícius Júnior off a highway bridge in Madrid in January have been arrested, Spanish police said Tuesday.

    The arrests come two days after the latest case of racial abuse against the Brazil forward in a Spanish league game against Valencia.

    The effigy was hanged by the neck the morning of a derby between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey. Along with it was a banner with the words “Madrid hates Real.”

    The perpetrators used a black figure with Vinícius’ name on it, tied a rope around its neck and hanged it from an overpass while still dark in the Spanish capital.

    Police said three of those arrested belonged to one of Atletico’s fan groups, and the other was a follower of the group. Some had prior bookings with police for other crimes.

    The hate message on the banner is often used by Atletico’s ultras, though at the time they denied being responsible for the display.

    The men arrested are between the ages of 19 and 24. Authorities said some were previously identified during matches considered at high risk of violence. Police showed images of them arriving in handcuffs and escorted by agents on Tuesday.

    Spanish media said police had used security cameras to identify the perpetrators but no action had been taken until now. Police did not say if the timing of the arrests had to do with the widespread attention being received by the latest abuse against Vinícius on Sunday.

    Spain has been criticized worldwide for its lack of action in racism cases in soccer. Brazilian government officials, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had publicly expressed their concerns.

    Vinícius, who is Black, has been subjected to repeated racist taunts in Spain, especially this season after he began celebrating his goals by dancing.

    The match against Valencia was temporarily stopped after Vinícius said a fan behind one of the goals called him a monkey and made monkey gestures toward him. Vinícius considered leaving the field but eventually continued playing.

    The Brazilian received support from officials and athletes around the world and heavily criticized Spanish soccer for not doing more to stop racism.

    The lights at the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro were turned off Monday night in a show of solidarity for Vinícius.

    “It’s an action of solidarity that is moving,” Vinícius said on Twitter. “But more than everything, what I want is to inspire and bring more light to our fight.”

    Vinícius thanked all the support he has received in the last months in Brazil and abroad.

    “I know who you are,” he said. “Count on me, because the good ones are the majority and I’m not going to give up. I have a purpose in life, and if I have to keep suffering so that future generations won’t have to go through these types of situations, I’m ready and prepared.”

    Valencia banned for life a fan identified of insulting Vinícius during the game. Real Madrid took the case to prosecutors as a hate crime.

    The Spanish league has filed nine criminal complaints of cases of racial abuse against Vinícius in the last two seasons, with most of them being shelved by prosecutors.

    The league said Tuesday it will seek to increase its authority to issue sanctions in cases of hate crimes during games. It had been saying it can only detect and denounce incidents to authorities and the country’s soccer federation.

    Supporters have been fined and banned from stadiums for their abuse against Vinícius, but so far only a Mallorca fan may end up going on trial for allegedly racially insulting the Brazilian during a game.

    The first trial against a fan accused of racial abuse in Spanish professional soccer is expected to happen at some point this year; the case involved Athletic Bilbao forward Iñaki Williams, who was insulted by an Espanyol supporter in a match in 2020.

    ___

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  • Brazil statue’s lights out to support Vinicius Jr racism claim

    Brazil statue’s lights out to support Vinicius Jr racism claim

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    Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer statue switched off its lights in a show of antiracism solidarity with Vinicius Jr.

    Brazil’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue has switched off its lights in a show of support for Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr following racial slurs from Valencia fans at the Mestalla Stadium in Spain over the weekend.

    The lights of the national landmark in Rio de Janeiro, the same state where Vinicius Jr was born, were switched off at 6pm local time (15:00 GMT) on Monday for an hour to cap a day where the Brazilian government and the world of football united to condemn the racist acts that took place at the Spanish league match on Sunday.

    The Archdiocesan Sanctuary that manages the monument turned off the lights in cooperation with the Brazilian FA and the Observatory of Racial Discrimination in Football.

    “[This action] is a symbol of the collective fight against racism and in solidarity with the player and all those who suffer prejudice around the world,” the groups said, according to Brazilian media outlet Globo.

    The Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has its lights turned off on May 22, 2023, to condemn “racist attacks” on Brazilian football star Vinicius Jr in Spain [Pilar Olivares/Reuters]

     

    Vinicius Jr later wrote on Twitter: “Black and imposing. Christ the Redeemer was like this just now. An action of solidarity that moves me. But I want, above all, to inspire and bring more light to our struggle.”

    His tweet had received more than half a million likes within a few hours of posting.

     

    [Translation: “Black and imposing. Christ the Redeemer was like this just now. An action of solidarity that moves me. But I want, above all, to inspire and bring more light to our struggle. I am very grateful for all the current of affection and support I have received in recent months. Both in Brazil and around the world. I know exactly who is who. Count on me because the good ones are the majority and I will not give up. I have a purpose in life, and if I have to suffer more and more so that future generations don’t go through similar situations, I’m ready and prepared.]

    Vinicius Jr has highlighted what he described as “continuous episodes spread across several cities in Spain” after he was the subject of the racist chants during Real’s 1-0 LaLiga defeat at Valencia on Sunday. The game was paused after the break as Vinicius Jr pointed out to the referee those who were allegedly abusing him in the stands.

    Valencia say police have identified a fan who made racist gestures, and that individual faces a lifetime stadium ban from the Mestalla.

    The Brazilian government called on Spanish and sports authorities earlier on Monday to punish those responsible, while the president of world football’s governing body FIFA, Gianni Infantino, expressed his solidarity.

    Real Madrid said the racism directed at Vinicius Jr constituted a “hate crime” and had filed a complaint with the Spanish State Attorney General’s Office.

    In a strongly-worded statement, his club said: “Real Madrid CF shows its strongest revulsion and condemns the events that took place yesterday against our player Vinicius Junior.”

    “Real Madrid considers that such attacks also constitute a hate crime, for which reason it has filed the corresponding complaint with the state attorney general’s office, specifically with the prosecutor’s office against hate crimes and discrimination, so that the facts can be investigated and clear responsibilities.”

    Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, meanwhile, tweeted: “Zero tolerance for racism in football. Sport is based on the values of tolerance and respect. Hate and xenophobia should have no place in our football or in our society.”

     

    Other sporting figures such as Kylian Mbappe, Rio Ferdinand, and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton also voiced their support for the 22-year-old Vinicius Jr.

    Spanish Football Federation head Luis Rubiales admitted there is a real problem of racism in the country’s football, where “press releases don’t work anymore”.

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  • Vinícius Júnior gains more support as Spanish soccer again embroiled in racism

    Vinícius Júnior gains more support as Spanish soccer again embroiled in racism

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    MADRID — Spanish soccer is again embroiled in racism, with the support for Vinícius Júnior growing rapidly after yet another case of abuse against the Brazil forward this weekend.

    Officials, players and former players showed solidarity with Vinícius, who on Sunday considered leaving the field after being insulted by fans during Real Madrid’s 1-0 loss at Valencia in the Spanish league.

    Vinícius said after the match the Spanish league “now belongs to racists” and that Spain “is seen as a racist country.”

    Real Madrid asked authorities to investigate the abusive behavior, saying the club believed the incident to be a hate crime.

    “Full solidarity to Vinicius,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said. “There is no place for racism in football or in society and FIFA stands by all players who have found themselves in such a situation. Events during the match between Valencia and Real Madrid show that this needs to be the case.”

    The support for Vinícius, who is Black and as been subjected to racist abuse since he arrived to play in Spain five years ago, came from former players and current stars.

    “You’re not alone,” France forward Kylian Mbappé said on Instagram. “We are with you and we support you.”

    At least one fan was banned for life by Valencia because of Sunday’s incident.

    “From the moment that the unfortunate events occurred, the club have analyzed all the available footage, working alongside the authorities as rapidly as possible to clarify what happened in order to be able to act quickly and forcefully,” Valencia said in a statement, adding it is working with police to identify more culprits.

    Vinícius isn’t the only player in Spain, or in European soccer, to face racist abuse. But the Brazilian has been the focus of much of the hate in recent years, particularly this season. In January, an effigy of the player was hung off a highway bridge in Madrid.

    Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and several of his cabinet ministers backed Vinicius and were critical of Spanish soccer.

    “It is not fair that a poor boy who is winning in his life, becoming one of the best in the world, certainly the best at Real Madrid, is insulted in every stadium he goes to,” Lula said.

    Many were calling for solutions after the repeated racist attacks against Vinícius.

    “Another case of racism against Vinícius in the Spanish league,” said former Brazil striker Ronaldo, who spent five seasons playing for Real Madrid in the 2000s. “Until when? As long as there is impunity, there will be racism.”

    Real Madrid said it “strongly” condemned the abuse against Vinícius.

    “These events represent a direct attack on the social and democratic model of coexistence of our State based on the rule of law,” the club said.

    The Spanish league has made nine similar formal complaints for racist abuse against Vinícius over the last two seasons, but most of the cases have been shelved by prosecutors. Another complaint was expected to be made after an investigation into what happened in Valencia was completed.

    Fans have been fined and banned from stadiums for their abuse, but so far only a Mallorca fan may end up going on trial for allegedly racially insulting the Brazilian during a game.

    “It wasn’t the first time, or the second or the third. Racism is normal in LaLiga. The competition thinks it’s normal, as does the federation, and the opponents encourage it,” Vinícius said on Instagram and Twitter on Sunday. “The league that once belonged to Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano (Ronaldo) and (Lionel) Messi now belongs to racists … But I’m strong and I will fight until the end against the racists. Even if far from here.”

    Spanish league president Javier Tebas criticized Vinícius for attacking the league, saying the player didn’t show up for talks on the subject of racism that he had requested himself.

    The league claims it only has authority to denounce cases, and that it’s up to local authorities to take action against the perpetrators and the soccer federation to punish clubs and referees. But the Spanish league does have control over the sporting sanctions in its own competitions. FIFA, the sport’s governing body, updated its own disciplinary code in 2013 — with options for point deductions and mandatory relegation for teams in the most serious cases — and asked competition organizers worldwide to follow.

    Vinícius wasn’t happy with Tebas’ stance.

    “Instead of criticizing racists, the league president shows up on social media to attack me,” Vinícius said. “Although you may say otherwise or pretend not to notice, the image of your championship is shaken. Omitting yourself only makes you equal to the racists. I’m not your friend to talk about racism with you. I want actions and punishment.”

    Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said he was “curious to see what happens” now, but didn’t expect much.

    “Nothing will happen, because this has already taken place several times in other stadiums and nothing has been done. Nothing,” Ancelotti said. “We have to evaluate this situation, because it is very serious.”

    ___

    AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.

    ___

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  • Vinicius Junior says Spanish league ‘now belongs to racists’ after enduring more abuse

    Vinicius Junior says Spanish league ‘now belongs to racists’ after enduring more abuse

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    MADRID — Vinícius Júnior was subjected to racist abuse yet again on Sunday with the Brazil star saying the Spanish league “now belongs to racists.”

    The latest abuse against Vinícius came in Real Madrid’s 1-0 loss at Valencia, a match that had to be temporarily stopped after the Brazil forward said he was insulted by a fan behind one of the goals at Mestalla Stadium.

    “It wasn’t the first time, or the second or the third. Racism is normal in LaLiga. The competition thinks it’s normal, as does the federation, and the opponents encourage it,” Vinícius said on Instagram and Twitter. “The league that once belonged to Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano (Ronaldo) and (Lionel) Messi now belongs to racists … But I’m strong and I will fight until the end against the racists. Even if far from here.”

    The 22-year-old Vinícius, who is is Black, has been subjected to racist abuse since moving to Spain five years ago.

    Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti considered replacing the star forward after Vinícius said fans at Mestalla chanted “monkey” toward him. He said Vinícius initially didn’t want to continue playing.

    “What happened today shouldn’t happen,” Ancelotti said. “When a stadium yells ‘monkey’ to a player, and the coach considers taking him out of the field because of that, it means that there is something bad in this league.”

    The veteran coach refused to talk about the game after what happened, saying his team’s loss meant nothing.

    “The game should have been stopped,” Ancelotti said. “This shouldn’t happen. It wasn’t only one person, as it has happened in several stadiums. Here, it was a stadium racially insulting a player, the game had to stop. I would have said the same thing if it was 3-0 for us. You have to stop the game, there was no way around it.”

    Ancelotti said he asked the referee to stop the match, but was told that the protocol was to first make an announcement to fans, then take other action if the problem continued.

    Ancelotti said Vinícius didn’t want to keep playing but he told the player that he wasn’t guilty of anything and that he was the victim. Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said he would have left the field with Vinicius if his teammate had decided to stop playing.

    “Vinícius is upset, obviously, but more than upset, he is sad,” Ancelotti said.

    According to Spanish media reports, Valencia has identified two fans who allegedly insulted Vinícius behind one of the goals.

    Some comments on social media claimed fans were saying the Spanish word “tonto” (silly) instead of “mono” (monkey).

    Valencia later said it expected Ancelotti to apologize to Valencia fans for accusing them of racism after misunderstanding what was said. The coach told a news conference that the referee wouldn’t have started the racism protocol if he didn’t think there was racism in the stadium.

    Vinícius was later sent off after an altercation with Valencia players, and gestured to home fans about their team’s fight against relegation as he left the field. Valencia took a huge step toward avoiding the drop with the 1-0 victory opening a five-point gap to the bottom three teams entering the final three rounds.

    “The reward for the racists was my ejection!” Vinícius said on Instagram, along with the Spanish league’s slogan “It’s not soccer, it’s LaLiga.”

    Vinícius had called the referee around the 70th minute and started pointing to a person sitting among the Valencia supporters. The player went near the stands and confronted the fans while players from both teams tried to restore calm.

    Police eventually arrived in the stands to deal with the supporters. An announcement was made asking fans to behave.

    The match at Mestalla was stopped for about seven minutes, and not long after it resumed Vinícius clashed with Valencia players and was sent off for pushing one of his opponents away with a hand to his face.

    After the decision of his ejection was made following a video review, Vinícius started applauding ironically. As he was leaving the field, he made a “going down” gesture over relegation. That upset players on the Valencia bench and some charged toward Vinícius as he left the field, causing the game to be temporarily stopped again.

    Valencia coach Rubén Baraja condemned the behavior of Valencia fans but also criticized Vinícius, saying he should have respected the club and its supporters.

    Vinícius’ teammate Dani Ceballos criticized the fans but said he also expected Vinícius to apologize for his gestures after being sent off.

    Ancelotti said Vinícius’ reaction was normal considering what he had gone through moments earlier.

    The Spanish league said it has requested images from the game to investigate what happened. It will also probe possible insults against Vinícius outside Mestalla, when a large group of fans also allegedly called the player a monkey as the Madrid bus arrived.

    League president Javier Tebas criticized Vinícius for attacking the league without fully understanding what it has done recently to combat racism, and saying the player didn’t show up for talks on the subject that he had requested himself.

    The league has made nine formal complaints over racist abuse against Vinícius over the last two seasons, with many of the cases being shelved. A Mallorca fan may end up going on trial after allegedly racially insulting the Brazilian during a game.

    President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva joined a wave of Brazilian politicians, players and clubs coming out to support Vinícius and criticize racism in the Spanish league.

    Lula told a news conference in Japan on the sidelines of a G7 meeting that he hopes FIFA, the Spanish League and other soccer bodies “take measures so we don’t allow racism and fascism to take over” in the sport.

    The first trial against a fan accused of racial abuse in Spanish professional soccer is expected to happen at some point this year in a case involving Athletic Bilbao forward Iñaki Williams, who was insulted by an Espanyol supporter in a match in 2020.

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    Tales Azzoni on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni

    ___

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  • Brazil’s president, players support Vinícius Júnior, criticize racism in Spanish league

    Brazil’s president, players support Vinícius Júnior, criticize racism in Spanish league

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    SAO PAULO — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has joined soccer clubs and players in coming out to support star striker Vinícius Júnior after he once more faced racist abuse in a Spanish league match on Sunday.

    The latest incident took place in Real Madrid’s 1-0 loss at Valencia, a match that had to be temporarily stopped after the Brazil forward said he was insulted by a fan behind one of the goals at Mestalla Stadium.

    Valencia fans were filmed making monkey chants toward Vinícius, who is Black.

    Lula told a news conference in Japan on the sidelines of a G7 meeting that he hopes FIFA, the Spanish League and other soccer bodies “take measures so we don’t allow racism and fascism to take over” in the sport.

    “It is not fair that a poor boy who is winning in his life, becoming one of the best in the world, certainly the best at Real Madrid, is insulted in every stadium he goes to,” Lula said. Several of his cabinet ministers also backed Vinicius and were critical of the Spanish league.

    Brazil’s Human Rights Minister Silvio Almeida, who is Black, said on Twitter: “The behavior of Spanish authorities and of the entities that govern its soccer is criminal.”

    “It shows undeniable acceptance of racism,” Almeida said. “(Vinicius) I will be on your side to hold those that attack you accountable, but also those who omit themselves.”

    Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes used expletives on Twitter to insult Spanish league president Javier Tebas, who criticized Vinicius following the incident for his comments on the lack of action of the sport’s national authorities every time he is racially abused during matches.

    “You want to blame the victim, you idiot?” Paes posted.

    Ednaldo Rodrigues, the first Black president of the Brazilian soccer confederation, said he is troubled by the lack of action in Spain after another racist incident against Vinicius.

    “Until when will we have to see episodes like the one we just witnessed, yet again in La Liga?” Rodrigues said. “Until when will we have to fight for concrete and efficient measures on and off the pitch? There is no joy where there is racism.”

    Flamengo, the club where Vinicius started his career, issued a statement saying “it is even more shocking to know that it is not the first time and that so little has been done to fight (racism in the Spanish league) and stop it from happening again.” Other Brazilian clubs made similar comments.

    Many of Vinicius’ teammates in the national team also showed their support for the 22-year-old forward, who has been subject to racist abuse since moving to Spain five years ago.

    “They always did whatever they could to stop Blacks from coming near the top,” striker Richarlison said. “They enslaved, marginalized and killed. But they will never knock down those who were born to be big. History forgets the rats and makes those fighting these bad people much bigger. I am with you always, Vini.”

    Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti considered replacing Vinícius after he said fans at the Mestalla Stadium chanted “monkey” toward him. He said Vinícius initially didn’t want to continue playing.

    He was later sent off after an altercation with Valencia players, and gestured to home fans about their team’s fight against relegation as he left the field.

    ___

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  • What should I do on the death anniversary? More are asking as US mass killings rise

    What should I do on the death anniversary? More are asking as US mass killings rise

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    ST. PAUL, Minn. — On a September day that he knew would be hard, 51-year-old Damone Presley marked the occasion with barbecue and balloons.

    He was commemorating the one-year anniversary of the day in 2021 that his daughter and her three friends were fatally shot in Minnesota by a man who left their bodies in an abandoned SUV in a Wisconsin cornfield. Presley gathered 50 friends to celebrate the life of his daughter, Nitosha Flug-Presley, who was 30 when she died. He went big on the anniversary because he felt sure that’s what his daughter would have wanted.

    “She would always do stuff big,” Presley told The Associated Press.

    There have been 553 mass killings in the United States since 2006, and at least 2,880 people have died, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Those include killings where four or more died, not including the assailant, within a 24-hour period. So far in 2023, the nation has witnessed the highest number on record of mass killings and deaths to this point in a single year.

    As the number of people who die in mass killings in the U.S. continues to rise, thousands more are left to handle the trauma of losing someone they love to a senseless act of violence. They struggle with a special kind of grief, haunted both by the loss and by how it happened.

    One of the hardest days they confront each year is the anniversary of the killing.

    This Wednesday, families in Uvalde, Texas, will have to face that one-year anniversary — transporting them back to the day when a gunman entered Robb Elementary School and fatally shot 19 children and two teachers as they gathered to celebrate the end of the school year. And last week, families of 10 people in Buffalo, New York, crossed the one-year mark from the day a white supremacist shot and killed them in a supermarket.

    People cope with these anniversaries in different ways. Some throw a party to get through the pain. Others prefer to be completely alone. Many fall somewhere in the middle, adopting little rituals to help get them through the day.

    But they all grapple with the same question, sometimes after many years have passed:

    What do I do with myself on the date that changed everything?

    ___

    On the same day Presley gathered with friends and family at his home, Angela Sturm — whose children, Jasmine Sturm and Matthew Pettus, were killed in the same attack — chose to spend the day alone.

    “I turn down invites to ‘celebrate’ because it’s not a celebration to me,” she said.

    Instead, she honors her children privately by looking at their photos and remembering how their life together used to be. She writes, cries and practices self-care by reading a good book or taking a hot bath. She hopes people will understand that she wants to be alone, and that they shouldn’t worry or be upset if she turns down invitations or doesn’t respond to texts.

    Everyone deals with grief differently, said Jeffrey Shahidullah, a pediatric psychologist at UT-Austin Dell Children’s Medical Center.

    Shahidullah was part of a team that stayed in Uvalde for months after the shooting to operate a crisis walk-in clinic for first responders, community members, family and friends of victims.

    In the short and long term, mass shootings can traumatize entire communities, Shahidullah said. That can lead people — even those who didn’t know the victims personally — to avoid situations that remind them of the event, feel constantly unsafe and experience intrusive flashbacks to when they first heard about the killing.

    “A lot of these symptoms could be exacerbated or worsened around the time of these anniversaries,” Shahidullah said. “Over time, those symptoms do tend to subside. But everyone has their own timeline.”

    ___

    By cruel coincidence, the first anniversary of the Buffalo supermarket shooting fell on Mother’s Day. That made things especially hard for Wayne Jones, whose mother, Celestine Chaney, was among the 10 people killed by a white supremacist that day.

    Jones said some friends came over on the anniversary, and they talked about other things.

    “5/14 is every day to me still,” he said. “I watched my mother get killed on video.”

    The video and a photo of the shooter — standing with the gun he used, a vulgar racial slur scrawled on its barrel — are “ingrained in my brain,” he said.

    Tirzah Patterson and her 13-year-old son, Jaques “Jake” Patterson — who lost his father, church deacon Heyward Patterson, in the supermarket shooting — left town altogether for the anniversary. They have not set foot in Tops Friendly Market since it reopened last summer and did not attend the memorial events in Buffalo for her ex-husband and the others who were killed.

    “We don’t want to go through that again,” Tirzah Patterson said before the weekend. “We’re going to be gone.”

    They spent Mother’s Day weekend in Detroit and attended a church service there.

    ___

    While some are just crossing the one-year mark, others have been dealing with these anniversaries for years.

    Topaz Cooks marked the 10-year anniversary of her father’s death last September. She was a month shy of her 21st birthday in 2012 when her dad and several others were shot and killed at work by a man who was fired from the company in Minneapolis.

    “I still cannot believe that happened to my family,” she said.

    On the anniversaries, she likes to do things her dad, Rami Cooks, enjoyed. Last year, she went on a hike and ate dessert — because her dad loved rugelach, birds and wind. She loves that her friends send her photos of their dessert that day each year with the caption: “For your dad!”

    She also has a journal she writes in once a year on that day, filling her dad in on the highlights, challenges and thoughts from the year that she wishes she could share with him.

    Seven years after the killing, Topaz Cooks said she experienced PTSD while working as a theater stage manager. She was surprised because she didn’t expect it to hit so late. The production’s plot may have triggered it — the play was about a woman avenging her father’s death.

    She said she would get exhausted at the end of rehearsals, lie down on the floor of her office and feel like she couldn’t get up. At times, she felt like her skin was vibrating or that she was outside of her own body. It took months of therapy to feel like she was back in control.

    Talking about the loss isn’t for everybody, but Cooks said it’s important to her.

    “I wish that people talked about it more and normalized it,” she said. “Grief is just so lonely.”

    ___

    A hint of fall hung in the air on Sept. 12, the day Presley threw a party to mark the day his daughter and her three friends were killed and left abandoned. He said he wanted to think about who his daughter was rather than how she died.

    She loved to throw exciting and glamorous birthday parties for her kids, friends and family.

    Presley placed a life-size cardboard cut-out of his daughter smiling in a pink outfit by the door. Guests wore T-shirts with photos of her and phrases like “Never Forgotten” and “Daddy’s #1 Angel.” At Presley’s request, guests gave speeches about the funniest things they remembered his daughter doing.

    Late in the afternoon, they gathered around the front steps of his home, clutching red, yellow, pink and white balloons, some embossed with words like “Forever in Our Hearts.”

    Wide-eyed children, following the lead of the adults around them, listened quietly as a woman sang the gospel song “Take Me to the King.” Presley recited a poem his father had written years before, words Presley’s daughter had adored.

    “I meet the sunrise daily on the way to get mine,” he recited. “I don’t play myself ’cause I don’t got time.”

    When he finished the poem, Presley gave the signal to release the balloons. They soared straight up, gently rising above the rooftops and disappearing into a clear blue sky.

    ___

    Aaron Morrison and Carolyn Thompson contributed from Buffalo, N.Y.

    Trisha Ahmed is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Trisha Ahmed on Twitter: @TrishaAhmed15

    ___

    Ahmed’s father, Avijit Roy, was killed on Feb. 26, 2015, by religious militants in Bangladesh. Each year on that date, she throws a party — because he loved celebrations — and surrounds herself with people she loves. This February, they played games and gave a toast in his honor.

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  • US Supreme Court agrees to hear case on alleged voting map biases

    US Supreme Court agrees to hear case on alleged voting map biases

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    Case centres on allegation that Republican lawmakers in South Carolina drew district maps to dilute share of Black votes.

    The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a bid by South Carolina officials to revive a Republican-crafted voting map that a lower court said had unconstitutionally “exiled” 30,000 Black voters from a closely contested congressional district.

    The justices took up an appeal by South Carolina officials of a federal judicial panel’s ruling that found the Republican-drawn map had deliberately split up Black neighbourhoods in Charleston County in a “stark racial gerrymander” and ordered the district to be redrawn.

    Gerrymandering is a practice involving the manipulation of electoral district boundaries to marginalise a certain set of voters and increase the influence of others. In this case, the Republican legislators were accused of racial gerrymandering to reduce the influence of Black voters.

    Legislative districts across the United States are redrawn to reflect population changes documented in the nationwide census conducted by the federal government every decade. South Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature adopted a new voting map last year following the 2020 US census.

    In a major blow to election reformers, the Supreme Court in 2019 rejected efforts to rein in gerrymandering done for partisan advantage, finding that federal judges do not have the authority to curb the practice. Alleged race-based gerrymandering can be challenged in federal courts but the Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority, has rolled back protections over the past decade.

    In the South Carolina case, the map at issue set new boundaries for the state’s 1st Congressional District, which for almost four decades had consistently elected a Republican to the House until 2018, when a Democrat secured what was widely seen as an upset victory. In 2020, Republican Nancy Mace won the district by just over one percentage point.

    In redrawing the district last year, Republicans moved more than 30,000 Black residents in Charleston County to the neighbouring majority-Black 6th Congressional District, which for more than 30 years has been represented in the House by Representative James Clyburn, a Black Democratic legislator.

    The Republican map resulted in a 1st District with a larger percentage of white, Republican-leaning voters. Mace, who is white, won re-election by 14 percentage points last November under the district’s new configuration.

    The state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) civil rights group sued in 2022, arguing that several House districts created under the map were designed at least in part with “a racially discriminatory intent to discriminate against Black voters in violation of the US Constitution”.

    Is gerrymandering destroying US democracy?

    A federal three-judge panel in January ruled that the way the 1st District was drawn violated the rights of Black voters under the Constitution’s 14th and 15th Amendments, which guarantee equal protection under the law and prohibit race-based voting discrimination.

    The strategies employed in drawing the district boundaries, the panel wrote, “ultimately exiled over 30,000 African American citizens from their previous district and created a stark racial gerrymander of Charleston County and the City of Charleston”.

    The judges – all three appointed by Democratic presidents – ruled that no elections could take place in the 1st District until it has been redrawn, prompting the South Carolina Republican officials to appeal to the Supreme Court.

    The South Carolina chapter of the NAACP and Taiwan Scott, a Black voter who lives in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, on Monday urged the justices to uphold the lower court’s ruling.

    “South Carolina’s congressional map is the latest instance in our state’s long, painful history of racial discrimination that must be remedied,” they said in a statement. “As the case moves to oral argument, we implore the court to uphold the panel’s decision and protect Black South Carolina voters from this egregious form of discrimination.”

    The case will be heard during the Supreme Court’s next term, which begins in October.

    Redistricting in most states is carried out by the party in power, though some states assign the task to independent commissions to ensure fairness. Gerrymandering typically involves packing voters who tend to favour a particular party into a small number of districts to diminish their statewide voting power while dispersing others in districts in numbers too small to be a majority.

    In another case involving redistricting and race, the Supreme Court is weighing Alabama’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling that a Republican-drawn electoral map setting the boundaries of the state’s seven US House districts unlawfully diluted the influence of Black voters. A decision in the case is expected by late June.

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  • How Buffalo Is Coping One Year After The Racist Mass Shooting

    How Buffalo Is Coping One Year After The Racist Mass Shooting

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    One year ago, Brooklyn Hough was a cashier at Tops Friendly Market, located on Buffalo’s east side. She was 22 years old and working to support her two children. Hough was just going out for her lunch break on a typical, quiet Saturday.

    Then Payton Gendron arrived at the store. He carried out a racist shooting spree that would shock the nation and traumatize the city.

    Hough heard gunshots and then screaming. At first, she thought the store was getting robbed. She fled through the back of the store.

    “I did not see the killing, but I did see the bodies,” Hough told HuffPost.

    She tried to call her boyfriend but his phone was dead, so she called her mother. Her mother could hear other people screaming, too.

    Gendron murdered 10 Black people and injured three others. In his 180-page manifesto, the 18-year-old said he was fighting back against the “Great Replacement,” a dangerous white supremacist ideology that claims the government and Democrats are deliberately replacing ethnic Europeans with non-Europeans to gain political and cultural advantage.

    Brooklyn Hough, 23, is pictured in Buffalo, N.Y., Saturday, May 13, 2023. Hough was a cashier at the Tops Supermarket when the massacre that killed 10 people happened last year, and survived.

    Heather Ainsworth for HuffPost

    In February, a state judge gave Gendron 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Right before the judge handed down his sentence, a family member of one victim berated the shooter and another man lunged at him, which temporarily halted the proceedings.

    For Hough and others in Buffalo, the shooter’s calculated acts of violence caused pain that will exist for generations in the community. The May 14 shooting is remembered by local activists as “514.”

    The grocery store shut down after the killings, though it’s now open. Hough had to find other ways to pay her bills and support her young children, so she took another job working as a cashier elsewhere. Along the way, she became a part of a support group with local activist Myles Carter and others that discusses demands on behalf of the massacre survivors and help for their predominantly Black community.

    Hough and Carter both remember when President Joe Biden came to town in the days after the tragedy. He talked with the family members who lost loved ones and the people who were injured, though Hough wishes he had met with other people who were in the store, too.

    Ten days after the shooting, another 18-year-old went to Uvalde, Texas, and fatally shot 19 children and two teachers inside a school. Seventeen others were injured but survived the attack. National attention quickly turned to Texas.

    President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visit a memorial near a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on May 17, 2022.
    President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visit a memorial near a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on May 17, 2022.

    NICHOLAS KAMM via Getty Images

    Carter says that Black people and Black communities have been terrorized for years — and that locking up the killers, while necessary, isn’t enough.

    “For us, Peyton Gendron is the person who injured us. But Peyton Gendron is a foot soldier in the sea of white supremacy. We don’t have any real justice here because he is one of many. And you can see it happening in history over and over again,” he said.

    Racism existed in Buffalo long before Gendron — he wasn’t even the first killer to target the city’s Black population.

    Four decades ago, a serial killer preyed on Black men in the city, despite residents’ pleas for police to connect the dots and stop the violence. Beginning in 1980, a man named Joseph Christopher slayed men with a .22 caliber pistol, seemingly at random except with regard to their race — they were all Black men.

    Local Black leaders called on city officials to investigate the killings as a conspiracy, but members of law enforcement were still working to draw connections between them.

    The killings caught the attention of national civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson at the time, who was working with his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Jackson came to Buffalo to meet with more than 600 Black residents in the area.

    During the funeral for one of the victims, a carload of white people drove by showing a mannequin with red-painted head wounds and threw red paint on the victim’s funeral hearse.

    Christopher was ultimately arrested for killing a 14-year-old Black boy and three men, though he was suspected of many other murders, including those of some Black men who were mutilated or even had their hearts ripped out.

    A chalk figure shows where the body of Ernest Jones was found in Tonawanda, New York, on Oct. 9, 1980. Jones, 40, was the second black male killed and mutilated in the Buffalo suburb in two days and the sixth murdered in the prior month.
    A chalk figure shows where the body of Ernest Jones was found in Tonawanda, New York, on Oct. 9, 1980. Jones, 40, was the second black male killed and mutilated in the Buffalo suburb in two days and the sixth murdered in the prior month.

    Dennis Floss/Associated Press

    To this day, the city is plagued by instances of racism, including some emanating from the Buffalo police. In 2006, a Black officer named Cariol Horne was fired from the department and lost her pension after she stopped a fellow officer from choking a Black man while he was handcuffed.

    Fourteen years later, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, Buffalo would adopt what would become known as “Cariol’s Law,” which requires officers to intervene if another officer is using excessive force.

    More recently, Buffalo Police Capt. Amber Beyer was named in a lawsuit and reassigned within the department after Black staff said she went on a racist tirade. The suit describes Beyer launching into a 20-minute rant and saying that Black men were all unfaithful to their wives and that Black people commit more crime than white people.

    “White officers get PTSD from working in Black neighborhoods — like the East Side of Buffalo — but Black officers do not because they are used to violence and Black people commit more violent crime than White people,” Beyer allegedly said, according to the lawsuit.

    The lawsuit also alleged that Beyer discriminated against Black employees by offering overtime hours to white officers with the least seniority to attend conferences and events.

    Beyer was reassigned within the department and admitted to violating its rules and regulations after she received a 30-day unpaid suspension. She took implicit bias training following an internal affairs review.

    Buffalo, N.Y., local activist, Myles Carter, stands in front of a memorial wall dedicated to the victims of the Tops supermarket massacre, located across the street from the supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., Saturday, May 13, 2023.
    Buffalo, N.Y., local activist, Myles Carter, stands in front of a memorial wall dedicated to the victims of the Tops supermarket massacre, located across the street from the supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., Saturday, May 13, 2023.

    Heather Ainsworth for HuffPost

    Carter himself is suing the city’s police department after police tackled and arrested him while he was being interviewed by a local television station in June 2020 amid protests following the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The video went viral and Carter was charged with obstruction of governmental administration and disorderly conduct, though those charges were dropped the following month.

    Carter does not believe there was any change in his city after the mass shooting. “The people who are dealing with the tragedy of 514 are still locked in their houses and not working,” he said.

    Carter and Hough want financial and mental support for survivors, reimbursement for purchases made at Tops on the day of the shooting and support for self-defense training.

    While Hough was working at Tops, the state increased the minimum wage to $13.20, but it still was not enough to make ends meet. She would like Buffalo Public Schools, the school district from which she graduated, to get much more attention and money.

    Five city schools were recently included on a list of underfunded and high-needs schools in the state, according to a report from the New York State Education Department. (In March 2021, Democratic New York Rep. Brian Higgins announced Buffalo schools would receive $814 million plus an additional $232 million from the American Rescue Plan.)

    From left, Brooklyn Hough, 23, and Myles Carter, are pictured in Buffalo, N.Y., Saturday, May 13, 2023.Hough was a cashier at the Tops supermarket when the massacre that killed 10 people happened, and survived.
    From left, Brooklyn Hough, 23, and Myles Carter, are pictured in Buffalo, N.Y., Saturday, May 13, 2023.Hough was a cashier at the Tops supermarket when the massacre that killed 10 people happened, and survived.

    Heather Ainsworth for HuffPost

    Meanwhile, Hough harbors a deep worry that more young white males are being influenced by racist mass murders.

    “These kids are getting these ideas that they don’t like Black people. There are evil people in this world waking up and wanting to kill people. Taking mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and uncles from their family. And it is happening too much,” Hough said.

    She said that if people make it out of Buffalo, that is an accomplishment. She and other survivors and activists are calling for more work opportunities for Black people.

    “If you get out of Buffalo and you are successful, kudos to you,” Hough said. “I feel like the state and government designed Buffalo to be like this; no one is motivated to try to make it.”

    And she is still waiting for the government to do something about gun violence in the country.

    “This is America, this is what they do. Before this, there was another one and another one. And it is the same cycle, nothing being done for people and nothing being done for gun violence.”

    A memorial stands in front of the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., Saturday, May 13, 2023.
    A memorial stands in front of the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., Saturday, May 13, 2023.

    Heather Ainsworth for HuffPost

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  • A year after Buffalo supermarket massacre, city’s Black youth still shaken

    A year after Buffalo supermarket massacre, city’s Black youth still shaken

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    BUFFALO, N.Y. — It’s hard for Jamari Shaw, 16, to have fun at the park with his younger brothers in their East Buffalo neighborhood. He’s too busy scanning for danger, an aftereffect of a gunman’s attack that killed 10 Black people at a local grocery store.

    Sometimes, 17-year-old Alanna Littleton stays in the car when her family drives to that supermarket from their home just down the street.

    “It’s such a level of tension,” Alanna said.

    As the city on Sunday marks one year since the racist massacre, many young Black people in Buffalo are grappling with a shaken sense of personal security and complicated feelings about how their community was targeted.

    While the white supremacist got life in prison for the killings, others face a lifetime of healing.

    “I’m definitely gonna carry this with me,” Jamari said after school last week.

    On May 14, 2022, an 18-year-old emerged from his car and began shooting people at the Tops Family Market, with the stated goal of killing as many Black people as possible. He wore body armor and livestreamed as he fired on shoppers and workers, killing 10 and wounding three more.

    The killer from Conklin, New York, a small town about 200 miles from Buffalo, wrote online that his motivation was preserving white power in the U.S., and he chose to target Buffalo’s East Side because it had a large percentage of Black residents.

    Since the mass shooting, Jamari notices emptier basketball courts in his neighborhood. People seem to stay inside more. He feels a hesitancy to drop into Tops now to get water or Gatorade before sports practice like he used to — a gnawing feeling of danger anywhere, from anyone.

    “The fact that he (the shooter) wasn’t that much older, it’s really taken a toll,” said Jamari, who feels especially protective of his four siblings, the youngest of whom is 5. “You get to thinking, ‘Who’s going to do what?’ It could be your best friend. You just never know.”

    It’s on 17-year-old Abijah Johnson’s mind when he walks near the store.

    “I get the sense of like, ‘What am I doing here? Didn’t 10 people die over here with my skin color from a racist person?’” he said at a recent conference put together by the family of shooting victim Ruth Whitfield, who was 86.

    The oldest of those killed, Whitfield died buying seeds for her garden after spending time with her husband at a nursing home. Among the other victims was a man getting a birthday cake for his 3-year-old son, a church deacon helping people get home with their groceries, a popular community activist, and a retired Buffalo police officer who was working as a security guard.

    “It was really hard to watch my family grieve like this, also to understand Black people anywhere are just under constant threat. It’s so sad,” Whitfield’s great-granddaughter, Nia Funderburg, 19, said at the conference. “I hate carrying this pain for us.”

    Wayne Jones’ mother, Celestine Chaney, was among those killed. A youth coach, he said the discussions Black families often have with their sons about how to interact with law enforcement have broadened.

    “That conversation that you have with young Black males about police? Now, it’s watch everybody,” he said, describing how even grocery shopping, an activity he enjoyed with his mother, puts him on high alert.

    Jamari holds out hope that the community’s lingering pain will eventually lessen, but he can’t fathom ever understanding what motivated the shooter.

    “We come together, we rejoice, we feast together, all that,” he said. “And then to have somebody — it doesn’t matter that he’s white — he just he did it out of spite.

    “It’s bigger than race,” Jamari said, “it’s more like a mentality.”

    As for the feelings of trauma experienced by people in the community over the attack, they could last for many years, ready to surface on anniversaries or when a similar mass shooting is in the news.

    “A lot of times it diminishes over time, but these triggering things can last life-long,” said Dr. Anita Everett, director of the Center for Mental Health Services at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The agency has provided the city with grant funding to address the trauma.

    “In one way or another,” she said, “it affects almost everyone that’s in and around a community.”

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