Archive for the ‘Black Lives Matter’ Category

Ten years on, the ‘Occupy’ movement is mainstream – wgbh.org

Ten years ago, a group of mostly young activists took to the streets the expensive streets of New Yorks Wall Street. One of the worlds top financial centers, headquarters to the titans of finance and the companies they headed. The activists raised their voices to speak back to the 1% of the super wealthy who own most of the nations resources. We are the 99% was their rallying cry. The 99% of Americans who lived at the other end of the economic ladder. This was Occupy Wall Street that went from street demonstrations to a makeshift squatters settlement in Zuccotti Park.

Occupy Wall Streets message and movement found eager supporters around the country and the world. Occupy Boston set up tents in Bostons Dewey Square, inspired by the energy and spirit of the movement. The encampment grew to include a kitchen to feed the hungry, and even a library named for social justice legends Audre Lorde and Howard Zinn. Here, many first-time organizers received an on-the-ground education about grassroots actions from veteran activists who had lived through the civil, voting and womens rights movements. The intergenerational mix of protestors expanded as more Boston-area residents, and others, joined the protest as did the groups list of issues, eventually embracing anti-war efforts, health care access gaps and environmental concerns. On a visit to Dewey Square, then-Governor Deval Patrick observed to WBZ radio, Im just trying to understand, theres such a range of issues and interests.

All of the Occupy groups refused an organized structure and designated leaders, insisting their movement could be steered by any among them they were not leaderless but leaderful. They may not have been traditionally organized, but they were laser focused on the central mantra of the 99% vs. the 1%. They helped concretize and humanize the economic inequities, their frustration addressing the widening gap they felt between the haves and have-nots. At Dewey Square, 27-year-old Amy Fisher told WBZ, Im really sick of nothing happening to reduce income disparity. Its just going to get worse and worse and worse until violence takes over.

Her words seem prescient considering the ongoing street protests about living wages and low-income workers fight for a $15 minimum wage. And the economic pain and suffering levied by the impact of COVID, which has swelled the ranks of the unemployed.

Ironic that the 10th anniversary of 'Occupy' arrives as the super wealthy literally cant stop making money. As I noted recently, billionaire MacKenzie Scott, who founded Amazon with her ex-husband Jeff Bezos, has acted on her pledge to give away most of her fortune $8.5 billion so far to various institutions and causes addressing public health, climate change, pandemic assistance and more. But because of the way the wealthy are invested, she earned back all the money she gave away. (Ill point out that her ex-husband is spending some of his billions flying into space.)

Occupy Boston only lasted two and half months, before Boston police razed the encampment on Dec. 10, 10 years ago this week. But the mantra the 99 vs. 1% is now part of the lexicon. And the economic inequalities the mantra reflects are now generally understood. Whats more, many of the Occupy activists were forever changed by their experience and have gone on to work for the cause of the 99% in nonprofits, politics and, yes, other protests. Occupy lives through the marchers in last summers George Floyd protests for racial justice. Seeds of Occupy fueled #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. Perhaps the late professor and activist David Graeber said it best. Back in 2011, he foresaw Occupys fundamental lesson, telling Time magazine, the system is not going to save us, were going to have to save ourselves.

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Ten years on, the 'Occupy' movement is mainstream - wgbh.org

District Tells Students To Cast Spells On People Who Say ‘All Lives Matter’ – The Federalist

While documenting my former high schools attempt to indoctrinate me with critical race theory six years ago, I remarked that now, several years later, the situation has undoubtedly worsened. Worsened it has. Now,Campbell Union High School District has promoted more than 100 equity resources to students and staff, including a document that taught students how to put a curse on those who say all lives matter.

The page serves as a vast library for CRT resources and features 60 different links, including a Google Drive folder with 45 different documents.The list made sure to include the full range of CRT buzzwords, with links like Raising Race Conscious Children, the infamous 1619 Project, Anti-Racism for Beginners, andSocial Identities and Systems of Oppression, among others.

One link takes you to anAnti-Racism Resource List, which teaches about white fragility and claims that racism can only be perpetrated by white people. One of the resources provided was a Trevor Noah speech labeled Why rioting makes sense, followed by an unhinged anti-white rant from Sonya Renee Taylor, demanding that white people throw your white body on police officers and put their bodies on the line for the purpose of justice.

The list also addresses white people when it says, We are socialized into white supremacy from the moment we are born before going on to sayIt is about completely dismantling how you see yourself and how you see the world, so that you can dismantle white supremacy.

Samuel Martin graduated from CUHSDs Branham High School in 2019 and was appalled by the districts actions. He told The Federalist, The idea that white students must dismantle themselves in the context of their personality is cultish. Not only is it cultish, but it is deliberate in that this school system wants its white students to hate themselves. Do these people honestly think that drilling racial identitarianism into childrens heads from a young age is going to make them less racist?

CUHSD also links to theBlack Lives Matter Resource Guide, specifically their section labeled high school, which itself includes 45 different texts. Amid a wide variety of CRT inspired assignments is a document that includes writing prompts on police brutality and racist violence.

One section titled Hex tells the reader, Hexing people is an important way to get out anger and frustration. It becomes increasingly deranged, suggesting that those who say all lives matter or commit microaggressions, should be targeted. Write your own hex poem, cursing that person, it instructs.

When asked her thoughts on the document that instructed K-12 students to use witchcraft on political opponents, Branham teacher Meredith Allen told The Federalist she hasnt read the documents her district recommends, so she cant comment, but that she is generally opposed to the all lives matter message.

Another section labeled A World With No Police cites police and military as systems or institutions that contribute to oppression. It asks What would the world be like without them? before telling the reader to write a poem discussing a world without these institutions.

The Black Radical Tradition, is a 565-page e-book that includes articles from the Communist League and Noel Ignatiev under the pen name Noel Ignatin. Ignatiev was a Marxist whoargued that abolishing the white race is so desirable that some may find it hard to believe that it could incur any opposition other than from committed white supremacists.

Then theres a slide show entitled What is the Black Lives Matter Movement? which is made for children and was produced in part by teachers at LAUSD.It includes a glossary of terms like white supremacy, the definition of which includes the line, systems, like schools and jails, have white supremacy built into them because white people have had so much power for so long.

The ADLs linked document George Floyd, Racism, and Law Enforcement defines racism as the oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people, a definition that reinforces the malicious lie that white people cant be the victims of anti-white racism.

Another ADL resourcecondemns colorblindness and provides carefully crafted methods to indoctrinate white students with the idea that they have privilege without incurring backlash while a Racial Equity Resource Guide advertises the White Privilege Conference.

The districts equity resources page is just the most visible result of a series of steps in support of CRT that started long ago. In fact, the district was a testing ground for CRT before it spread throughout the nation. The book Research Studies on Educating for Diversity and Social Justice was published in 2018 and describes the process. An entire chapter, written in part by my former teacher, is dedicated to discussing how CRT was used at my high school so it could be replicated.

The book noted the use of the theory, saying, CRT is used here to centralize the discussion of race and racism at Branham High School. It went on to describe an equity advisory class that I was placed in as a sophomore, where Students learn about the different types of oppression along with the privilege it affords the oppressors.The authors hoped their tactics would spread, writing, the intent behind sharing the process Branham underwent is to provide a model that could be followed by other schools across the nation.

The districts Board of Trustees supports this agenda, recently offering unanimous support for a resolutionresolving to dismantle institutionalized racism in our society and our school district and is committed to implicit bias training, Ethnic Studies, and resources that foster dialogue around the guiding principles of #BlackLivesMatter.

Note the districts adoption of the term equity rather than equality. Heressuperintendent Robert Bravotwo hours and 39 minutes into a board meeting saying he believes equity is about equity of outcomes.

CUHSD even established an Anti-Racism Team, which is divided into eight Equity Teams that include teachers, principals, administrators, and even two students who must be BIPOC. That means white students are banned from the Equity Teams. Theyre tasked with challenging imbalances of power and privilege, among other roles.

Michael Espinoza is a member of one such Equity Team and a teacher at Branham High School who won the districts teacher of the year award. Here he is calling a Native American tribe the rightful stewards of the lands our schools and district offices stand on and telling teachers to recognize the power of critical race theory and use it in our lesson plans.

He also gave a speech to the class of 2021, where he levied leftwing complaints against America and quoted Huey Newton, imploring students to engage in revolution instead of conforming to the machine that is the United States. On his Instagram account, Espinoza celebrates mandates for ethnic studies classes and complains of living under white supremacist, heteropatriarchal rule in a plea to his co-conspirators.

If this is CUHSDs model teacher, what does their model student look like?Espinozas students created a variety of leftwing postersin his ethnic literature class.One poster demanded Dear White PPL: Start Listening, Stop Talking and others that said Wear UR F-cking Mask and Give us back our land.Principal Lawton took down the posters amid outcry before caving in and apologizing to the leftwing agitators.

The full ramifications of our education systems descent into leftwing radicalism is yet to be fully realized, although we can be certain that many of the students it doesnt lose to homeschooling will be successfully transformed into co-conspirators. But as the rhetoric of revolution becomes standard for stodgy school administrators, its appeal to youth might wane.

Conversely, they run the risk of creating a small but clever cadre of conservative youth who understand from firsthand childhood experiences the consequences of toxic racial grievance politics.Dont be surprised if the propagandizers who intend to give permanency to left-wing hegemony instead give rise to a nascent conservative political force that will uproot it.

Update: After publication, CUHSD removed the Black Lives Matter Resource Guide. CUHSDs original equity resources list can be viewed here.

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District Tells Students To Cast Spells On People Who Say 'All Lives Matter' - The Federalist

All in the name: UK school to end 311-year slave trader link – ABC News

A 311-year-old school in southwest England named after the slave trader Edward Colston is to change its name following a wide-ranging consultation

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press

December 6, 2021, 6:40 PM

4 min read

LONDON -- First his statue met a watery end during last year's Black Lives Matter protests. Now another school in southwest England that bears the name of slave trader Edward Colston is changing its name.

The governors of Colstons School, which was set up in 1710 in Bristol, said Monday that the private school will be renamed next summer, and that current and former students, parents and staff will all have a say in the choice.

They said the events that took place during the protests in Bristol in June 2020, which saw the toppling of Colston's statue in the city, prompted renewed questions about keeping his name at locations across the city.

"What became clear is that the name Colston has become a symbol of the citys extensive links to slavery and will forever be associated with the enslavement and deaths of African men, women and children," it said.

Colston, who was born in 1636 to a wealthy merchant family, became prominently involved in Englands sole official slaving company at the time, the Royal African Company, and Bristol was at the heart of it.

The company transported tens of thousands of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean, mainly to work the sugar plantations in the Caribbean and to cultivate the tobacco fields burgeoning in the new colony of Virginia.

Bristol, as an international port, was at the center of the slave trade and benefited hugely financially not just by shipbuilders and slavers, but also investors like Colston, who would buy a stake in the triangular slave voyage between England, West Africa and the Caribbean.

Colston gave a lot of money to local charities, which explains why his name has donned so many public buildings in the city.

This school was not named after Colston, rather it was named by Colston, the governors said.

Colston has been a figure of huge controversy in Bristol for years and last November, Colstons Girls School in Bristol announced it would become Montpelier High School after a vote by current students and staff.

Many residents of the city, which has a big community hailing from the Caribbean, are ashamed of what Colston represents. That shame came to the fore during last years Black Lives Matter protests when his statue was pulled down and rolled into the nearby harbor. It was later recovered and placed in a museum.

Britain formally abolished the slave trade in 1807 but slavery itself was only formally outlawed in British territories in 1834. Overall, more than 12 million Africans are estimated to have been sent to the New World, of whom around 2 million are believed to have perished en route.

The decision by the school follows a survey, which received more than 2,500 responses, including 1,096 from the general public. Though more than 80% of the members of the public who took part said Colston's name should be retained, the school said the vast majority of responses from people with links to the school backed the name change.

The governors said they didn't want to "erase the schools history and insisted that the slave trade and Colston's role in Bristols history will remain a key part of the schools curriculum.

However, it is hoped that a new identity will do more to reflect the character of this diverse and inclusive school and to make it even more welcoming to the local community it is proud to serve, the governors said.

Across the world, protests have raised questions about many monuments and statues connected to people with links to slavery and racism.

Follow all AP stories about racial injustice at https://apnews.com/hub/Racialinjustice.

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All in the name: UK school to end 311-year slave trader link - ABC News

Theodore Roosevelt statue in NYC covered ahead of move to North Dakota museum – New York Post

The American Museum of Natural History has covered up a monument to the past.

A statue of Theodore Roosevelt that has stood on the front steps of the Manhattan museum for more than 80 years is now blocked from view, photos taken by The Post show Monday.

The bronze effigy to the nations 26th president, criticized for glorifying colonialism and racism, is being sent to North Dakota on a long-term loan to the upcoming Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.

Just two weeks after the move was announced, the statue is already completely hidden from view, covered by scaffolding and a tarp, The Posts pics show.

The removal, being carried out by the museum with help from the city, is expected to take several months to complete, officials said when announcing the deal.

Opposition to the statue mounted in recent years, especially after the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests sparked by George Floyds murder by a Minneapolis cop in May 2020.

In June 2020, officials at the museum which is privately run but sits on public land proposed removing the statue amid a nationwide movement to remove public works honoring Confederate leaders.

The New York City Public Design Commission voted unanimously that month to relocate it.

One of the ex-presidents descendants, Theodore Roosevelt V, supported removing the statue, which he conceded is problematic in its hierarchical depiction of its subjects.

Rather than burying a troubling work of art, we ought to learn from it.

It is fitting that the statue is being relocated to a place where its composition can be recontextualized to facilitate difficult, complex, and inclusive discussions, he said of the North Dakota librarys plans.

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Theodore Roosevelt statue in NYC covered ahead of move to North Dakota museum - New York Post

Black Lives Matter claims America is ‘stolen land’ in Thanksgiving tweet – Fox News

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Black Lives Matter raised eyebrows with a Thanksgiving post that characterized America as "stolen land."

"You are eating dry turkey and overcooked stuffing on stolen land," BLM's national arm wrote on Twitter Thursday. The post included a graphic repeating the "stolen land" claim.

"You are on stolen land. Colonization never ended, it just became normalized," the graphic said, instructing Americans to learn "which ancestral homeland" they are "currently occupying."

BLM DISSES KYLE RITTENHOUSE AFTER HE SAYS HE SUPPORTS MOVEMENT: I DONT F--- WITH YOU'

The tweet quickly sparked backlash on social media.

BLM, which supports defunding the police, has been a constant source of controversy.

Co-founder Patrisse Cullors announced her departure from BLM earlier this year, amid scrutiny of the group's finances. Cullors had garnered scrutiny by purchasing several homes worth millions of dollars.

BLM sparked backlash in July after releasing a statement that appeared to side with Cuba's communist regime over freedom-seeking protesters.

A Black Lives Matter banner is displayed on the building of the U.S. Embassy in Spain, on May 25, 2021 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Oscar Caas/Europa Press via Getty Images)

The statement originally posted on Instagram and later tweeted and retweeted blamed the U.S. embargo for the country's instability and credited the Cuban government for historically granting "Black revolutionaries" asylum.

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Cuba is being "punished by the U.S. government because the country has maintained its commitment to sovereignty and self-determination," the statement read. The group said Cuba has been an ally with "oppressed peoples of African descent" and praised the countrys effort to protect "Black revolutionaries like Assata Shakur."

Shakur, also known as JoAnne Chesimard, was convicted of being an accomplice in the 1973 slaying of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster, who left behind a wife and 3-year-old son. Shakur later escaped prison and fled to Cuba, where former Cuban leader Fidel Castro granted her asylum.

Fox News' Edmund DeMarche contributed reporting

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Black Lives Matter claims America is 'stolen land' in Thanksgiving tweet - Fox News