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Photo: Jason Redmond (Getty Images)Give me liberty or give me death A slaveowner

What is America?

Is it a plot of dirt littered with the discarded bones of those who stood in the way of white manifest destiny or is it a Constitution? Is it an assemblage of huddled masses yearning to breathe free or is it simply a series of borders on a map? Is the idea of liberty and justice even a real thing or is it an apparition that only white people can see?

If you are black, these are not rhetorical questions. In the real America, rhetoric, liberty and justice are concepts afforded to the people whose birthright and skin color give them the freedom to contemplate theoretical abstractions. The rest of us are simply speed bumps and potholes along the path of white privilege treasure hunters. We are bodies meant for sacrifice...

And they are liars.

Somehow, their idea of liberty and justice for all excludes mass incarceration or the war on drugs black people. When small-government conservatives advocate for states rights, they are not talking about the black and brown people who live in Republican-controlled Southern states. The evangelical Christian, pro-life propaganda does not include the people awaiting execution on death row who are 55 percent black. When they insist that All Lives Matter, they are not even referring to us.

Life is for white people.

They hold one truth to be self-evident: That all men are not created equal. That only they are endowed with the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Thats why a legion of entitled, right-wing sycophants are now demanding that their governors open up the country.

But their America isnt real.

It is a beautiful but self-serving fantasy they made up. It is not that they dont know about inequality and the murderous history of whiteness in America. It is not even that they dont care. They truly believe in a white-centric nation that values their bodies above all elseblack lives be damned.

And so whiteness damns us...

Again.

As the number of confirmed U.S. COVID-19 cases approaches 800,000 and the national death toll has eclipsed 42,000, an overwhelmingly white protest movement is taking to the coronavirus-infected streets demanding that governors and state health authorities go against the advice of doctors, scientists and that lady whose scarf game is unmatched and rescind the only effective method of fighting the spread of this global pandemic. Undeterred by widespread death and disease, protesters in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland, New Hampshire, Idaho, Texas and California are pressuring states to remove stay-at-home restrictions because theyd rather see people die than watch their 401Ks decrease in value. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump tweeted his support for the civil rights protesters:

The president and his MAGA lynch mobs argue that America is on the cusp of a crippling recession and widespread unemployment and, according to their calculations, there is only one way to prevent this impending economic crisis:

Kill more black people.

Lets be clear: every bit of available data shows that black and brown people are the ones who are suffering the most from COVID-19. And its not just in urban areas like New York and Chicago. Its doing the same thing in rural black communities like Allendale, S.C., St. John the Baptist Parish, La. and Albany, Ga. Black residents outnumber whites in eight of the 10 cities with the highest coronavirus death rates per capita. Only one, Greensburg, Ind. is majority white. Even in Vermont, the whitest state in the union, the percentage of black people infected with COVID-19 is 10 times the black population percentage.

The suffering is not restricted to those infected. According to CBS News, black workers are less likely to be able to work from home and The Guardian reports that black employees are more likely to be employed as essential workers. As the unemployment rate skyrockets, the percentage of black people losing jobs nearly doubles the white unemployment rate. There is no doubt that black people are bearing the brunt of this pathogens deadly attack.

Lest one think this is a rudderless, organic movement of misguided privileged citizens, think again. The rallies were organized and funded by wealthy, right-wing political groups like the Tea Party Patriots, the Devos-backed Michigan Freedom Fund and the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a GOP-supporting, gun-rights organization. Wisconsins much-publicized protest didnt take place in Milwaukee, where the black population has been ravaged by COVID-19. Instead, it took place in nearby Waukesha County, which is 89.5 percent white and only 1.4 percent black.

There is one other interesting fact about the Waukesha County, home to the downtrodden, huddled masses who are desperate to open up their decimated local economy:

Waukesha County is the wealthiest county in Wisconsin.

No, its not that Trump, his conservative acolytes and the Republican Party value money over lives. Knowing the facts, anyone pushing the open the economy narrative is sending a clear signal. This particular decision is not a choice between the lesser of two evils. Instead, they are openly stating their willingness to sacrifice black lives for white prosperity. In their desperate search for a political and economic get-out-of-pandemic-free card, the president and his minions are staring black and brown people in the face while channeling the words of Marie Antionette:

Let them eat death.

They want us to die.

America is blood.

It was, it is and it always will be.

This recent example isnt particularly different from All Lives Matter advocates refusal to acknowledge the racial data behind police killings or the value of black lives. Its no different than Alabamas pro-life Gov. Kay Ivey signing a bill to ban abortions while assassinating Nathan Woods for not killing someone. Its Americas story of slaughter and slavery and genocide and Jim Crow and Japanese-American internment camps and Charlottesville, Va., and child detention centers and Tuskegee and Tulsa and Bombingham and Both Sides and Trayvon and Trump

And us.

Its always us.

We believe our lives matter and they just say they do. They are chomping at the bits to sacrifice our lives and open up their country because their statement and actions clearly show that, for them, our bodies hold no value. Whiteness is their most precious commodity.

...And blood.

But only our blood.

Whatever this thing called America may be, they have made it abundantly clear that they do not believe in it. They wave the flags and pretend that they love America, but if the bloody fingerprints embedded in this nations neverending pain have taught us anything, it is this:

They are liars.

They wont even try to wash their hands.

Follow this link:
'Open the Economy' Protesters Only Care About White Lives - The Root

SundayApr26,2020at3:01AM

Monday, April 27 at 7 p.m.

"Journey of Words," hosted by author and poet Catherine Reed: Catherine interviews poet Irma Frey Stevens.

Tuesday, April 28 at 8 a.m.

"Democracy Now!," hosted by Amy Goodman: An independent news program featuring international journalists and grassroots leaders affected by world events.

Wednesday, April 29 at 7 p.m.

"What It's Worth," hosted by Tom Colletta: Tom welcomes Kim Kerrigan, author of "Making Civility Great Again."

Thursday, April 30 at 8 p.m.

"Hidden Treasures," hosted by Bill Safer: Bill and his guest, auctioneer Wayne Tuiskula, talk about the world of auctions.

Friday, May 1 at 9:30 p.m.

"League of Women Voters Presentation": Stephanie Shonekan, co-author of "Black Lives Matter & Music," discusses the intersection where identity, history, culture and music meet.

Read more:
WCCA TV picks of the week, Sunday, April 26 - Worcester Telegram

The claim that COVID-19 and its associated medical and social responses do not discriminate belies the history of how pandemics work and who is most impacted by them. States of emergency show that citizenship privileges some, is partial for others and disappears others.

In our early analysis of national media coverage, those experts sharing the grim statistics of infections and deaths, those front-line workers seen as risking their lives and those who have lost loved ones are predominantly white. Black, Indigenous and racialized people, and many whose lives have been further imperilled by this pandemic, remain virtually disappeared from the Canadian landscape.

That makes collective care for members across our communities untenable. We take pause and reflect on how this will impact Black people across economy, health and policing, to name three areas of concern.

Black people tend to be employed in low-paying and highly feminized jobs: these include clerical jobs, janitorial staff, orderlies and nursing assistants who are now determined as essential services. Black people are also more likely to work in the grey and underground economy, which are forms of labour that might involve payments outside the regular labour force and taxation system, and not counted in GDP.

Effectively, anti-Black racism has already ensured that Black people and undocumented residents are less than citizens in late modern capitalist Canada. Yet, the people who are likely most at risk are the ones who are being asked to sacrifice their lives. Collectively, Black people in Canada find themselves among the most disadvantaged in all indicators of what is considered a good life.

The attempt to interrupt the spread of the virus has brought together policing and public health. Since at least the post-emancipation period in the Americas and this period includes Canada public health and policing have been launched against Black communities. Both public health and policing depend on assessing Black people as wayward.

In the post-emancipation Americas, early public health campaigns sought to train Black women on child rearing, cleanliness of homes and food preparation. Indeed, as late as the 1960s, one of the justifications for the destruction of Africville, N.S., was the public health claim that the community was at a health risk as there was no sewage system. Instead of providing necessary services, the community was forcibly removed.

Public health has historically been an extension of policing for Black people that has positioned us as suspicious and nefarious in our actions and movements. In our current state of emergency, this union of policing and public health has led to more Black people being arrested, detained and physically restrained in the name of public health protection.

The current rules around movement put Black people at risk, more vulnerable to intensified policing (including carding and street checks) when in public and potentially exposed to the virus at work.

On CBC radios The Current, Simon Fraser University marketing professor June Francis recapped a conversation she had with a senior federal official in which she raised concerns regarding Black peoples health. Instead of acknowledging this need for data, Francis said the senior federal official told her: Canada is a colour-blind society and [she] shouldnt expect that race-based data is necessary.

On April 9, during a public conversation with the Preston Community COVID-19 Response team and African Nova Scotian communities, Nova Scotias Chief Medical Officer, Robert Strang, said now was not the time to focus on how the social determinants of health and longstanding issues are impacting Black communities during this pandemic. He said: We can focus on these issues later.

On April 10, Ontarios Chief Medical Health officer, David Williams, said as the province fights to contain the coronavirus, disaggregated race-based data is not necessary.

We know differently. The HIV and AIDS responses in Canada show that public health and policing result in criminalization and incarceration for Black people. To ask us to suspend our understanding of these intimate links is to ask us to contend with the possibility of our own demise.

Claims of colour-blind health care and approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic are concerning. The data from elsewhere, including the United States and the United Kingdom, sounds an alarm for Canada.

Emerging American data reveal that Black people are contracting the virus at higher rates and also are dying in higher numbers.

Dr. Chaand Nagpaul, head of the British Medical Association, called on the U.K. government to urgently investigate why Black, Asian and minority ethnic people are more vulnerable to COVID-19.

While some provincial public health officers in Canada claim to be concerned about all citizens and committed to everyones health, they simultaneously declare that now is not the time to address the social determinants of health nor to begin the collection of disaggregated race-based data. In other words, they refuse to address how racial discrimination negatively impacts the health of Black people.

The absence of such plans, however, are indeed evidence of Black peoples partial citizenship and not-yet-quite citizenship.

In fact, our health officials must meet these demands for data. Accounting for how the virus impacts Black communities differently would actually demonstrate care.

Since the pandemic, we have heard of many Black women and their families in Toronto being evicted and made homeless. We have come to know that many are dealing with increased violence in the narrowly confined spaces they now live in, and are unable to access income support. Despite successful efforts to open health care to all, regardless of immigration status, the Toronto Star reported that some people in Toronto seeking emergency treatment had to pay $500 or risk not being treated.

Racism, poverty, incarceration, limited literacy, over-crowded living conditions, lack of social supports and limited access to health services are chronic conditions that must be considered during this pandemic.

Black lives are further in peril in a time of COVID-19. Subject to death on both the public health and policing fronts, we will not be silent. Even as state public officials choose to ignore our lives and livability by insisting that race and class do not matter, the historical and contemporary evidence in this country demonstrates more than otherwise.

Read more:
Coronavirus discriminates against Black lives through surveillance, policing and the absence of health data - The Conversation CA

As small groups of demonstrators gathered in cities nationwide to protest the ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns, one set of images in particular have been widely shared online. Taken by Colorado-based photographer Alyson McClaran in Denver on April 19, they show what she believes to be healthcare workers blocking the path of the demonstrators, who want the state and country reopened despite public health officials warnings that doing so would invite more cases and more death.

TIME reached out to McClaran to learn more about the photographs and her experience at the Denver protest. Her answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

TIME: How did your day start out, were you on assignment?

McClaran: Because of the coronavirus, I hadnt picked up my camera in over a month, which is unheard of for me. Im typically shooting five to six days a week. Yesterday I decided to go out and document the protest. I wasnt on assignment for anyone.

What precautions did you take?

I started out at the state Capitol in downtown Denver. It was very crowded. I had my mask on and did my best to social distance from people, but didnt feel safe, so I decided to leave and walk around the neighborhood. I saw two nurses in the middle of the street. I took off running towards them and started firing away my camera, because they were blocking the road at a green light and everyone was screaming and honking at them, and those are the images that you see.

I was at the right place at the right time. One thing I remember is the lady in the truck was yelling at the health worker to go back to China.

A health care worker blocks the street to counter-protest the hundreds of people who gathered at the State Capitol to demand the stay-at-home order be lifted in Denver, Colorado, on April 19, 2020.

Alyson McClaranReuters

How do you weigh the risk of covering a gathering in a time like this?

My gut was telling me this is history, and I wanted to document what is happening in my city right now and show what was going on. I had tears in my eyes half the day because I was in shock at how many people were out, and how much anger there was, so I had to protect myself by leaving. I didnt feel safe health-wise, and thats when I stumbled upon the nurses.

Are we sure the people in your photographs are health care workers, or could they have been counter-protesters dressed as healthcare workers?

I dont have any information on that unfortunately, but I never got the feeling that they werent. I believe they were health care workers.

A man yells at a health care worker counter-protesting the hundreds of people who gathered at the State Capitol to demand the stay-at-home order be lifted in Denver, Colorado, on April 19, 2020.

Alyson McClaranReuters

Whats it like for your work to spread far and wide online, often without credit? What do you want people to know before sharing your work online without credit?

I appreciate how many people have given me photo credit. For those who have not, what happened yesterday took years of experience and I have worked my way to this moment, I was able to get everything I needed quickly, it wasnt just me grabbing a camera and shooting. It would be nice as a photographer and artist that people acknowledge that.

How was this different from other protests youve covered?

I understand people are stressed, and they want to get back to work, but it just showed how much anger there was. Unlike other protests Id covered, like gun violence, Black Lives Matter, this is a global issue. Everywhere is experiencing this right now at the same time, thats why it felt different.

A health care worker stands in the street in counter-protest to hundreds of people who gathered at the State Capitol to demand the stay-at-home order be lifted in Denver, Colorado, on April 19, 2020.

Alyson McClaranReuters

Is there anything youd like to add?

I hope that everyone can come together. I understand that people are stressed and scared and sad and angry. But I just hope we can all come together and get through this so we can get back to normal.

Alyson McClaran is a freelance photojournalist based in Denver, CO.

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Write to Maa Booker at maia.booker@time.com.

More here:
'Everyone Was Screaming at Them.' The Story Behind Those Photos of the Counter-Protesting Health Care Workers - TIME

The "Scottsboro Boys" with then-General Secretary of the Communist Party USA Earl Browder (holding hat) and other unnamed visitors. | People's World Archives

There have been a number of good books recently written about the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and about individual Communists from a number of different and interesting angles. However, not since Robin Kelleys classic Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression, written 30 years ago, has the work of Alabamas Communists been so vividly renderedtheir lives, struggles, trials, and tribulations brought to life.

Mary Stantons Red, Black, White: The Alabama Communist Party, 1930-1950 is a concise, readable overview, a welcome contribution to the history of the CPUSA in District 17 (Alabama) and to the struggles it led against racism.

Stanton is correct when she writes: The seeds of Black liberation, of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Black Power, the Black Panthers, and Black Lives Matter can all be traced directly to the legacy of the Southern Negro Youth Congressthe ILD [International Labor Defense]the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the National Negro Congress, and the Civil Rights Congress, all organizations led by Communists.

While many Alabama whites tended to either detest the Reds or to dismiss them as integration-preaching atheists, African Americans were more likely to accept them, she adds. Additionally, Alabamas Black population, even those who never officially joined the party admired the Reds for their courage and their commitment to social justice.

The CPUSAs record fighting for African American equality and Black liberation is largely unquestioned today, at least among honest historians. However, even if that fact is largely acknowledged, many peoplesincere activists, union members, students, and othersarent fully aware of the various struggles Communists often initiated and led, especially in the South, an area of the country still harboring many of the most racist, most reactionary, most anti-democratic elements in our society.

A central component of the CPUSAs work in Alabama was the fight against lynching, both legal and vigilante lynching. Of course, the legal defense of and mass protests for the freedom of the Scottsboro Nine is but one prominent example; the defendants were nine Black youths falsely accused of raping two white women. It is now indisputable that without the aid of the CPUSAs legal defense arm, the International Labor Defense led by the Black Communist William L. Patterson, the Scottsboro Nine would have been killed, legally lynched by an all-white jury.

Less well known, however, are the Angelo Herndon case, the Camp Hill Massacre, the Shades Mountain Rape and Murder, the lynching, beating, flogging and jailing of Sharecroppers Union leaders, among numerous other examples. Also less well known is the role of Communists in publicizing and organizing legal defense, protection, and relief for both Black and white Alabama workers. Stanton weaves all of these disparate events and movements together into one cohesive and readily digestible narrative.

Stanton also does a good job describing the racist backlash against African Americans and Communists as they fought for equality. She highlights the collusion between local police, sheriffs, prosecutors, judges, and plantation owners, many of whom also happened to be members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Citizens Protective League, and other white supremacist groups.

Stanton also briefly discusses the shifts in CPUSA policy as Communists transitioned from the establishment of Red Unions, to Popular Front organizing, to the MolotovRibbentrop Pact, to World War II, and how these shifts impacted comrades in District 17. The CPUSAs role in establishing and leading the Southern Conference for Human Welfarewhich included Communists like Joe Gelders, Rob Hall and Hosea Hudson, among othersis a prime example of the Partys ability to utilize diverse tactics, build alliances and put aside overly revolutionary rhetoric with the goal of winning immediate demands as part of broad coalitions.

I have two qualms with an otherwise excellent book. Throughout the narrative Stanton could have done more to let the participants speak for themselves by utilizing more direct quotations; and a quick glance at the source notes reveals that Stanton cited little documentation, though archival collections, oral histories, and other bibliographic sources are listed elsewhere. For those interested in diving a little deeper into this history, Stanton would have done well to provide more information in the notes section.

Despite these minor quibbles, Stanton has done a masterful job of presenting a highly important and largely forgotten history. Readers eager for a compact and well-written overview of the history of the subject should pick up Red, Black, White: The Alabama Communist Party, 1930-1950.

Red, Black, White: The Alabama Communist Party, 1930-1950By Mary StantonUniversity of Georgia Press, 2019, 240 pagesISBN: 9-780-8203-5617-4List Price: $29.95

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Red, Black, White: The Communist Party in Alabama - People's World