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In 2020, we all watched history being made in streets all across America and the globe as the Black Lives Matter movement brought thousands of people of all ages, races, genders and backgrounds together to stand up for social reform.

What first started as a hashtag in 2013 grew into a movement thats a testament to the power of protests in America and lead author Veronica Chambers along with Jennifer Harlan wanted to break it all down to teach young readers about it in their new book, Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter.

The book uses photographs, quotes and informative text to look at how a moment became a movement over the last eight years starting with looking at how Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi first came together to start Black Lives Matter.

Because this book is for young readers and their parents, teachers, and librarians, Chambers felt it was important to take a step back and look at the activist's early lives.

"It was just interesting to see how these three really disparate girls growing up in different parts of the country kind of come together from like student activism to grown-up activism, and what started as a hashtag became a movement," she says.

Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter protests hit their peak in the United States on June 6, 2020, when close to half a million people rallied in 550 locations in once day, Chambers explains. As a journalist, this moment had her asking, "How did so many people come to this moment where they literally took to the streets around this issue, and a really diverse group?" she notes.

That lead her to a bigger question why do people protest and why does it matter?

"One of the things that I found out in researching the book is that between 1900 and 2016 over 50% of peaceful protests have had significant change in government. It has become the mode of change ... and so I wanted to contextualize for people that this is really like part of a long history in America of peaceful protests coming together to make meaningful change," Chambers explains.

Chambers not only wanted to contextualize this modern movement, but use it as a way to show young readers what protest is, why it matters and how they can use your voice for whatever cause they believe in no matter how old they are.

Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter

From citizen journalism, photojournalism, murals, music, defining and addressing systemic racism to bake sales for Black Lives Matter, Chambers says showing the many ways people can protest was key. "We wanted to create a document that would keep the conversations going, and that's partly why we call the book Call and Response," she says. " ... It's about a conversation, and what we really hope is that the book is a start of some really great conversations for people."

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'Call And Response: The Story Of Black Lives Matter' Aims To Keep The Conversations About The Power Of Protest Going - WUWM

DAYTON There is a new campaign in Dayton that is working to raise vaccination awareness in the local Black community.

According to the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation less than half of the Black population in 33 states have been vaccinated. The Shot for Life campaign, started by the Black Lives Matter Dayton Organization, hopes to raise the vaccination numbers the Dayton area.

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I am frustrated because this is a preventable infection, Dr. Andre Harris, who is partnered with Shot for Life, said.

Dayton-Montgomery County Public Health provided WHIO vaccination rate numbers, which showed that 38 percent of the Black community are fully vaccinated. 48 percent of the White community were fully vaccinated.

Dr. Harris, Chief Medical Officer of Atrium Medical Center, told News Center 7s Michael Gordon that he wanted to use his 20 years of medical experience to support BLM Dayton, raise awareness and fight back against online vaccine disinformation.

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People are teetering. By getting more information and hearing from physicians it will put them in a place where they can make a solid decision to move forward with vaccination, Dr. Harris said.

While Dr. Harris knows some minds cannot be changed, he said encouraging some to get the shot can make a big difference.

The first Shot for Life event will be next Sunday, Sept. 5, at Mcintosh Park. Vaccinations and testing will be available, as well as a bookbag giveaway.

2021 Cox Media Group

The rest is here:
Dayton Gets Real: Dayton Black Lives Matter start Shot for Life vaccination campaign - WHIO Radio

The aircraft watched protests in Washington, DC, in June last year and also flew over Baltimore in 2015 after Freddie Grays death.

Last updated on August 26, 2021, at 12:07 p.m. ET

Posted on August 24, 2021, at 1:08 p.m. ET

The FBI's Cessna Citation jet

An advanced FBI spy plane that was used to watch Black Lives Matter protests in Washington, DC, last year is now up for sale.

A listing for the Cessna Citation jet has appeared on a website run by the General Services Administration to sell surplus federal government property. The aircraft carries a Wescam MX-20 camera turret, which is designed for high-altitude, persistent surveillance. With infrared sensors, it can monitor targets day and night, and in recent years has been used for some of the FBIs most important surveillance missions.

In June 2020, a BuzzFeed News review of flight tracking data provided by the website Flightradar24 linked the plane to high-profile raids including the capture of gang members on drug and weapons charges in Northern California in 2018, drug trafficking busts in Puerto Rico in 2018 and 2019, and drug, firearms, and money laundering arrests in Alabama in 2019.

And though the FBI says it does not monitor activity protected by the First Amendment, BuzzFeed News also tracked the plane circling Washington, DC, in June 2020 during Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. We also found that the plane circled Baltimore in April and May 2015 following the death of Freddie Gray from injuries sustained in police custody.

This reporting was subsequently cited by three Democratic members of Congress in a letter to the federal Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, asking it to investigate federal government surveillance of Black Lives Matter protests.

Flights by the FBI's Cessna Citation jet last year from June 1 to 6

Since 2003, the Cessna Citation aircraft has been registered to the National Aircraft Leasing Corporation, identified as a front for the FBI by Matthew Aid, a former intelligence analyst, in his 2012 book Intel Wars. The address given in its registration with the Federal Aviation Administration is a UPS store in Greenville, Delaware.

Most of the FBIs fleet of more than 120 surveillance aircraft, similarly registered to fictitious companies, are smaller propeller-driven planes that usually fly at altitudes of around 5,000 feet. The Cessna Citation jet is the only aircraft of its type registered to known FBI fronts, and it typically watched its targets from 15,000 feet or more, making it harder to spot from the ground.

The contact given for questions about the sale is Earl McEwen, an FBI special agent who testified in court about using an FBI plane to surveil the 2014 Bundy standoff, an armed encounter between federal agents and supporters of a Nevada rancher who refused to pay fees for grazing his cattle on federal land.

McEwen declined to answer any questions about the aircraft sale from BuzzFeed News.

The FBI declined to answer queries raised by BuzzFeed News, including whether there would be restrictions placed on who they would sell the surveillance aircraft to and whether the jet is being replaced. It is unclear why the agency is now selling the plane.

Although the existence of its fleet of aircraft is well known, the FBI has revealed little information about individual planes and their activities. In 2016, the agency denied a Freedom of Information Act request from BuzzFeed News for flight and evidence logs from 27 of its planes, refusing even to confirm or deny whether the records existed. In September 2018, a federal judge ruled against our attempts to overturn that decision.

At the time of publication, no bids for the aircraft had yet been recorded on GSA Auctions, the website where the plane is listed for sale. The listing indicates that the plane is being sold with the Wescam MX-20, which could complicate the sale because it is deemed a sensitive technology covered by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which requires approval from the State Department before it can be exported. It is unclear what other equipment remains on the aircraft, although a photograph of the interior suggests that controls for the camera have been removed from the cabin.

The plane could continue to be used for surveillance. But some prospective buyers may be more interested in converting it into a private jet, currently in hot demand as the COVID pandemic has driven wealthy people away from airlines. Jets of that age and model can retail for $1.2 million, according to Albert Heidinger, president of Raptor Aviation, a company in Port St. Lucie, Florida, that sells aircraft including ex-military planes. But he said it was hard to say what a buyer would offer the FBI for the plane given the high costs of refitting it for use as a private jet.

This market is crazy, so no telling what it will actually bring, Heidinger said.

Aug. 26, 2021, at 16:08 PM

This story has been updated to include that the FBI declined to comment.

Continue reading here:
The FBI Is Selling A Surveillance Plane It Used On Black Lives Matter Protests - BuzzFeed News

Candyman began life as a character in a short story, before the first film about him 1992's Candyman, moved his story along as an urban legend who terrified the residents of a Chicago housing project.

While more films followed, the upcoming 2021 movie of the same name is a direct sequel to the first film, and was written by Jordan Peele, Nia DaCosta and Win Rosenfeld.

The story follows Anthony McCoy (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) an artist who becomes obsessed with the story of Candyman after trying to learn more about him for an upcoming project.

The same is true that, if you say the name of the Candyman five times into a mirror, he will appear, which leads to frightening consequences.

For Abdul-Mateen, this story goes further than the original in that it centers around the Black experience in a new way, with Black cast and crew at the center of the storytelling.

This time, saying the name of Candyman takes on a greater meaning as it alludes not only to the horror story, but to the modern-day horrors which have fuelled the Black Lives Matter movement.

Speaking to Newsweek, Abdul-Mateen said: "What this story does by centering around the Black experience, with a Black director and Black writers, is it gives us the opportunity to humanize the Candyman figure.

"And by doing that in the way that we do, I think we also humanize or give humanity to the Trayvon Martins, to the George Floyds, to the Breonna Taylors, to the individuals who have become figures for reasons that they would have never chosen. We know their names, when we actually should not know their names."

In fact, he goes as far to say they, like Candyman and his character Anthony McCoy, become "unwilling martyrs" to a story they do not wish to tell.

This is a "specific type of tragedy" which need not exist for these people, but the narrative is forced upon them.

Abdul Mateen said: "He [Anthony] did not choose to be put in that position, which makes it a different type of horror, a specific type of tragedy, you know, for a person like Anthony, who had nothing but his whole life ahead of him. Very ambitious, and as he's searching for himself, he steps into another version of himself that he would never have chosen to be willfully."

In the 1992 movie, Candyman (Tony Todd) appears to Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) because she doubted his existence, wanting his legend to be maintained by those still living.

In one climactic scene in the 2021 movie, he tells another character to "tell everyone" what they have seen, still desiring for his story to remain alive.

This time the motivation seems to have switched. The new version, rather than maintaining the legend of Candyman, suggests his legend keeps alive the stories of those who were brutalized unfairly, bringing to light a systemic issue that goes beyond a horror movie.

Abdul-Mateen suggests this allows the Black community to take control of a narrative forced upon them, where they have been made into "monsters" by those oppressing them.

He continued: "In each of those individuals and individuals like them, they were turned into monsters, and they had their humanity taken away from them. So Candyman and the way that we are telling the story allows us to humanize their experiences, give them as well as Candyman more dignity in his death than he was given in the final moments of his life, I believe...

"I think it's important as creators to decide how we deal with our trauma, the stories of our trauma. So I think this, this film gives us the control over our narrative, over the story that's being told about us. Our history, our pains, our bodies."

For him, the seed of those thoughts is what he hopes will be taken away from the movie, as well as a conversation on what happens next.

Those conversations about Candyman is what he is most interested now, he says, rather than attempting to start a franchise, allowing this story to evolve.

He added: "I'm more interested in this moment and having the conversation go forward. That's what I'm interested in doing right now is, you know, letting the movie come out first and letting the movie do what it's gonna do.

"And then be a part of letting Candyman take a life of its own outside of the theatre, outside of myself and our creative team, being the people who are controlling the narrative. I think that is what I'm more interested in, to see the conversation while Candyman takes a life of its own."

Candyman is out in movie theaters on August 27

Continued here:
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II On How 'Candyman' Humanizes 'Unwilling Martyrs' of Black Lives Matter - Newsweek

An Ohio home of Black Lives Matter supporters was spray-painted on Aug. 20 with the words "All Lives Matter," according to security footage.

The house belongs to Mary and Ralph Piunno, who said this isn't the first time they have experienced negative reactions to their beliefs. The couple has multiple Black Lives Matter signs and flies a pride flag.

Primarily because I live in a diverse neighborhood, and I want people to know where I stand, Mary Piunno said.

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The couple removed the graffiti and called those responsible "very small-minded."

"I think that theyre people who have a very narrow view of what equality means in this country," Mary Piunno said. "Frankly, I think theyre losers. Theyre hurting their cause more than theyre hurting mine."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The couple said they respect everyone's right to free speech and expect more negative reactions to come from their signs.

Link:
Black Lives Matter supporters' house spray-painted with the words 'All Lives Matter' - Washington Examiner