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Over the summer my social media feeds, and hopefully yours as well, was full of posts about how to support black writers and creators. In the process I stumbled upon Bullets Into Bells, a free eBook that contains a collection of poems about gun violence. I picked it up on Apple Books in September and have been amazed by the people of colors names Ive never heard. Maybe you have never heard of them either. With that in mind, I am writing this in hopes of memorializing the victims so you will know their names. Even more, as the Internet has echoed for the last 226 days since the murder of Breonna Taylor, I write this in hopes that you will say their names and demand justice.

Tahar Djaout

Tahar Djaout was an Algerian poet and journalist who was gunned down in the summer of 1993 in the streets of Algiers. He died a week after being shot at the age of 39. His killers, a terrorist group, admitted that they killed Djaout because he wrote of progression within minorities.

Djaouts best work to summarize his life is the statement he wrote, If you speak, you die. If you keep quiet, you die. So, speak and die. Djaouts sentiment plays on what most of us have seen throughout the Black Lives Matter movements life can end, but what was said before and after it is forever.

Tamir Rice

Tamir Rice was a 12-year-old boy walking down the sidewalk with a toy gun when he was brutally murdered by the police. An onlooker originally called the police to report someone who was probably a juvenile was wielding a gun, but then stated it probably was not a real one.

Tamirs mother Samaria Rice says that he was an all-American kid, and writes, When I lost Tamir, I lost a piece of myself. No police have been charged on the shooting that occurred November 22, 2014. As a result, neither Tamir nor Samaria Rice have received justice. Its been 2,164 days.

John D. Morant

Antonius Wiriadjaja was 30 years old when he met John D. Morant. Wiriadjaja himself had just been shot in Brooklyn, when Morant, a barber in the area, saw him on the street and applied pressure to keep Wiriadjaja alive. Wiriadjaja writes, I tried to keep in touch, but, a year after my shooting, John went away to see family and friends in the South. I called him up and got no answer.

In June 2014, Morant himself was shot to death in the back in a South Carolina trailer park. He left behind a job he loved at his brothers barbershop in New York.

Eric Garner

Eric Garner had been arrested 30 times when he was caught yet again by police. This time in July 2014 was because he had been accused of illegally selling a single cigarette. When Garner resisted arrest, New York City policeman Daniel Pantaleo held Garners head down until he died as Garner protested, he was failing to breathe.

The video, filmed by an onlooker, was shown to a jury who voted Pantaleo was innocent later that December. There has been no justice for Eric Garner. Its been 2,293 days.

Michael Brown

Michael Brown was shot in Missouri two days before starting college. It was August 9, 2014 when he and his friend allegedly stole a pack of cigarillos from a convenience store. The pair fled the scene when they were caught up to by police officer Darren Wilson. As they were running, Wilson began shooting. Brown was shot six times three times in the arm, once in the eye, once in the skull, once in the neck, and once through his chest. A grand jury voted Wilson was innocent. There has yet to be justice served for Michael Brown. Its been 2,270 days.

Philando Castile

Philando Castile was driving through a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota in July 2016. Castile was pulled over by Officer Jeronimo Yanez for a brake light that was out. Castile immediately admitted to Yanez that he had a firearm in the car, but Yanez said that he misread the statement as a threat. Yanez turned to get his license out and was shot.

The entire exchange was livestreamed by Castiles girlfriend on Facebook for ten minutes. Mr. Yanez was fired, but the jury found him not guilty. There has been no justice served for Philando Castile. Its been 1,573 days.

Stephon Clark

On March 18, 2018, a yearlong investigation was launched to understand the shooting of an unarmed black man. Stephon Clark, 22, was shot seven times in Sacramento, California in his grandmothers backyard. Police received word that a man had broken car windows, and while looking for the perpetrator, decided Clark was him.

A year later in March 2019, the investigation concluded that Clark was innocent, not guilty. Even worse, the two police officers that shot him were found not guilty, too. There has still been no justice served for Stephon Clark. Its been 995 days.

Breonna Taylor

Breonna Taylor died in her own home on March 13, 2020 when she was shot eight times by police. She was in bed around 12:30 a.m. with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker when they heard what they thought was burglars. Policemen Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove claim that they knocked on the door several times and announced their presence, but multiple neighbors stated that this was not true.

On September 23, 2020, a grand jury indicted Officer Hankison for wanton endangerment, which basically means he was only guilty for sending a bullet shot through the neighbors wall. There has been no justice, however, for the taking of Breonna Taylor. Its been 235 days.

George Floyd

In a manner that relit the flames of the Black Lives Matter movement, George Floyd was brutally killed after a police officer took a knee on his neck.

On May 25, 2020, Floyd was leaving a convenience store when the cashier believed the 20-dollar bill he used to pay with was counterfeit. The police were contacted, and upon arrival Officer Thomas Lane drew his gun immediately. Floyd was not compliant until he was put in handcuffs, in which case afterwards he did as he was told. He got on the ground, and Officer Derek Chauvin put his knee against Floyds neck. A witness began videoing as Floyd stated he couldnt breathe, and that he was going to die. The eight-minute video has been viewed billions of times. Chauvin was later arrested for second degree murder.

Justin Howell

At an Austin, Texas Black Lives Matter protest in May, Justin Howell was standing next to a protestor that threw a water bottle at a crowd of police officers. An officer fired back with beanbag rounds, one hitting Howell in the head. He suffered a fractured skull and brain damage. Howells brother Joshua has said that his recovery will be a marathon, not a sprint.

Since it is unknown which officer shot, it is rather difficult to know which is responsible. As a result, there is no justice for Justin Howell, who was simply exercising his right to protest. Its been 156 days.

Sean Monterrosa

In a small northern city of San Francisco, an unarmed 22-year-old black man named Sean Monterrosa was shot by a policeman. Monterrosa was protesting outside of a Walgreens when officers responded to a call about looting. Detective Jarrett Tonn assumed Monterrosa was looting, and shot at him through his own truck, not a city-owned police car. Monterrosa went to his knees and raised his hands.

Surveillance footage then suggests Monterrosa was shot. There has been no justice served. The June 2 killing occurred 155 days ago.

Sandra Bland

Sandra Bland had moved from the suburbs of Chicago to Prairie View, Texas to pursue a job opportunity in the summer of 2015. When she was pulled over by Officer Brian Encinia for a routine traffic violation, he asked her to put out her cigarette. Bland replied, Why do I have to put out a cigarette when Im in my own car? Encinia then commanded her to get out of the car, and following her refusal, he opened the car door, grabbed her, and attempted to pull her out. He then threatened to tase her, so she stepped out.

The two then walk around to the other side of the car. While they cannot be seen on the dash cam footage, a bystander filmed Encinia and a female officer standing over Bland. Bland is on the floor stating she cannot hear and that she is epileptic. Encinia replies, Good. Bland is said to have committed suicide in prison three days later, but rumors, as well as an HBO documentary provide context on how Encinia may have killed Bland and made it look like a suicide.

Encinia was later charged for perjury, not for the distress caused to Bland and her family. There has been no justice served for the pain brought to Sandra Bland. Its been 1,939 days.

Trayvon Martin

Trayvon Martin was an African American teen walking home from the convincing store when he was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer. George Zimmerman shot the 17-year-old on February 26, 2012. Zimmerman had called a non-emergency line of the Sanford police, which advised him not to follow Martin. He did not listen and shot the boy. Martin had been visiting his father, made a trip to buy Skittles and a bottle of juice, and was murdered. Zimmerman was prosecuted for second-degree murder on April 11, 2012.

Freddie Gray

In April of 2015, Baltimore saw the death of Freddie Carlos Gray Jr. Gray was arrested in the Gilmore Homes Housing Authority by three police officers on bike patrol. An hour later, a medic was called due to Gray being unconscious and not breathing. A week later, on April 19, Gray passed away due to a cervical spine injury.

Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez stated a week later, We have no evidence, physical or video or statements, of any use of force. Protests began on May 1, 2015. Two years later in court, the officers were found not guilty over the mysterious death of Freddie Gray. There has been no justice served for him. Its been 2,026 days.

Akai Gurley

On November 20, 2014, Akan Gurley was walking down the stairwell of his apartment complex with his girlfriend in Brooklyn when he was shot. NYPD officer Peter Liang was a rookie policeman when he was patrolling the area and was startled by Gurley walking down the stairs. Prosecutors stated that Liang was reckless and did little to help the dying victim. Liang was subsequently fired and convicted of second-degree manslaughter and official misconduct.

The names mentioned here are only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many others who havelost their lives to gun violence and police brutality. It is up to us to take care of the next generation by electing officials that will ensure police brutality and gun violenceis closer to ending. Every bit of change starts with us, the American people, and we must show up for each other and stick up for one another.

Sources

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/15/minute-minute-account-breonna-taylor-fatal-shooting-louisville-police/5196867002/.

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140613/bed-stuy/man-who-saved-bed-stuy-gun-victim-shot-death-south-carolina/.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-officials-decline-prosecution-death-freddie-gray.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/florida-teen-trayvon-martin-is-shot-and-killed.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52861726.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/08/sean-monterrosa-body-camera-video-police-killing.

http://www.cnn.com/2020/06/07/us/austin-texas-police-bean-bag-20-year-old-injured/index.html.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40357355.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30350648.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30207808.

http://www.thecut.com/2020/09/breonna-taylor-louisville-shooting-police-what-we-know.html.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47430090.

Original post:
Say Their Names - BVU The Tack Online

As the 2020 election heads into its final days, a Facebook post is claiming that President Donald Trump had replaced the American flag with an "anti-Black Lives Matter" flag at a recent Wisconsin rally.

At issue: A Thin Blue Line flag that was prominently featured behind Trump at an Oct. 24, 2020 rally in Waukesha. The flag essentially is a black-and-white version of the American flag, with a single red stripe replaced by a blue one.

That blue stripe is meant to symbolize police officers as the "thin blue line" between order and chaos.

The Facebook post featured a screenshot of a Twitter post by author and Dartmouth College English professor Jeff Sharlet, that included a photo and read: "Tonight in Wisconsin. First the anti-Black Lives Matter flag flew outside his rallies, then beside the American flag. Now it has replaced the American flag. Thats significant."

Alongside the screenshot, the Facebook post read: "Trump flew the anti-Black Lives Matter flag at his rally in Wisconsin. So much for not disrespecting the troops "

The post in question was shared by a group called "The Other 98%" -- a left-leaning nonprofit, according to its bio on Facebook -- the day after the rally. The post has been shared more than 2,500 additional times and reacted to by more than 7,200 people.

This post was flagged as a part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

So was the flag really flying behind Trump during his Waukesha rally?

And is it an "anti-Black Lives Matter" flag?

Was the flag real?

In a review of photos of the Oct. 24, 2020 Waukesha rally taken by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Thin Blue Line flag is hung prominently behind the risers behind behind the podium where Trump spoke.

The flag was featured very prominently at the rally -- a change from the last several Wisconsin rallies that Trump has held in other cities.

In Janesville on Oct. 17, 2020, the flag was featured on one side of the stage, while a larger American flag was featured on the other side of the stage, photos from the Journal Sentinel showed. In Mosinee on Sept. 17, 2020, Trump spoke in front of Air Force One and no flags were prominently displayed, according to photos by the Journal Sentinel.

So the portion of the post that says that the flag was featured prominently -- and more prominently than at earlier rallies -- is on the money.

But what about the meaning of the flag?

A controversial flag meant to support police officers

The flag has been popularized by the company "Thin Blue Line USA," which also sells clothing emblazoned with the symbol. According to the companys website, the flag is meant to be a sign for "promoting compassion and support for our nations police officers."

The company began marketing the flag in 2014 amid the Blue Lives Matter movement, which itself was launched in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Black Lives Matter movement arose in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who killed teen Trayvon Martin in Florida, according to the movements website. Black Lives Matter has been invoked around the country this year during massive protests that were launched by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

In a June 8, 2020, article by The Marshall Project headlined "The Short, Fraught History of the Thin Blue Line American Flag," Andrew Johnson, president of Thin Blue Line USA said: "The flag has no association with racism, hatred, bigotry. Its a flag to show support for law enforcementno politics involved."

According to the article:

Jacob said the flag was not a direct reaction to the first Black Lives Matter protestsan idea suggested by a previous origin story in Harpersbut he allows he may have first seen the thin blue line image after those protests spurred the circulation of pro-police imagery online. "Thats maybe why it came to my eyes," he said.

Whatever the intended meaning of the flag, it has come to carry different connotations to different people

At protests in Charlottesville in 2017, where white supremacist groups and supporters gathered to protest the removal of Confederate statues throughout the country, the blue-line flag was featured alongside Confederate flags, according to an Aug. 18, 2017 report from USA TODAY. (The company disavowed its use in Charlottesville)

A July 31, 2020 NPR report highlighted a fight between a Massachusetts fire department flying the flags in honor of fallen police officers, and community members who felt the flag was an overt display of racism.

A June 9. 2020 Politico report said even police officers have mixed reactions to the symbol, with some departments banning it outright, while others display it on government-owned vehicles.

The Politico report also noted that the flag is controversial because of its likeness to the American flag, and because of the U.S. Flag Code, which states: "The (American) flag should never have placed upon it, nor any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture or drawing of any nature."

When asked why the flag was placed behind the president, Wisconsin Trump Victory -- the states Trump campaign group -- did not respond.

To be sure, it is possible to support police officers and the Black Lives Matter movement.

But Trump himself has been harshly critical of the Black Lives Matter protests this summer, labeling them as violent and claiming they were stoked by anti-government elements.

Our ruling

A Facebook post claims an "anti-Black Lives Matter" flag replaced the American flag behind Trump during a Waukesha campaign rally.

To be sure, the flag itself violates the U.S. Flag Code, and should not be considered a legitimate U.S. flag by those standards.

In terms of the Facebook claim, The image and description -- that the flag has taken on greater prominence at the Trump rallies in Wisconsin -- is on target. And the Thin Blue Line flag has become a prominent part of the pro-police Blue Lives Matter movement -- which arose to counter the Blak Lives Matter movement.

That said, while it is possible to support both, Trump has made clear he opposes the Black Lives Matter protests -- and made that opposition, and a strong law-and-order message, a prominent part of his re-election campaign. So, those attending the rally or seeing the images could easily see the flag as an "anti Black Lives Matter flag."

We rate the claim Mostly True.

See the article here:
Yes, the Thin Blue Line flag has taken a more prominent place during Trump rallies - PolitiFact

Since public health experts recommended the use of face mask in public at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, top clothing brands and independent artisans have released a wide variety of reusable face coverings for daily use. While face masks with cute and funny designs are probably the most popular, more and more people are starting to wear face coverings that send powerful messages. An example of such is this Black Lives Matter face mask, which is especially made for people who condemn police brutality and all forms of racially motivated violence.

Featuring an image of a raised clenched fist and the text Black Lives Matter on the front, this face mask is made of 100 percent cotton and is built with a double-layer construction. Washable and reusable, this handmade face covering has soft cotton ear loops for a comfortable fit. Available for $7.95 on Etsy, this face covering currently comes in black/white style only, though more color combinations are coming soon.

The Black Lives Matter movement began in July 2013 with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin in February 2012. The movement returned to national headlines and gained further international attention earlier this year following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. An estimated 15 million to 26 million people participated in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests across the United States, making it one of the largest movements in the countrys history.

Aside from its mission to eradicate white supremacy, the movement also advocates to defund the police and invest directly into black communities and alternative emergency response initiatives.

Visit link:
This Black Lives Matter face mask lets you send a powerful message without saying a word - GEEKSPIN

Newswise This is a crucial time for each and every university to consider the role that Black studies plays in its intellectual and institutional formation, according to the conveners of theBlack Studies Project (BSP)at UC San Diego. The current political moment has not only heightened the urgency of grappling with questions of Blackness and anti-Blackness, but has underscored the critical role that Black studies scholars and scholarship must play in this ongoing dialogue. Black studies has never been more relevant.

Highlighting the importance of the Black Studies Project at UC San Diego, a recent commitment by Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla and Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Simmons increases current support for a greater impact on curriculum, research, programming, institutional structure and campus life. The BSP will receive $500,000 a year for five years, allowing the initiative to expand efforts to support, produce and disseminate scholarship and mentoring focused on racial and social justice across our university and beyond. The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion was integral in securing the commitment.

One of UC San Diegos strategic goals is to cultivate a diverse and inclusive university community that encourages respectful open dialogue, and challenges itself to take bold actions, said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. This is one such bold action.This additional financial commitment will amplify the innovative, cross-disciplinary research that the Black Studies Project produces and invite more scholars to advance racial and social justice.

Associate Professors Dayo Gore and Sara Clarke Kaplan founded the Black Studies Project at UC San Diego in fall 2012. A cross-divisional group of more than a dozen faculty members from three divisions and nearly 10 schools/departments, along with a select number of interested graduate students and staff, came together to organize a yearlong series of speakers, symposia and workshops entitled Thinking Race, Gender and Place: A Black Studies Project.

Today, the BSP fosters and supports research, community building and campus programming on African American and Diaspora studies at UC San Diego and throughout the University of California system. The three focus areas of the project include Intersectional Analysis of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality; Transnational and Diasporic Studies; and Social Justice Movements. The project provides students, faculty and staff with opportunities to examine study and contribute to important topics that have taken center stage nationally and internationally.

The Black Studies Project co-founders Gore (currently an associate professor of African American Studies at Georgetown University) and Kaplan felt Black studies was a vital area of growth for UC San Diego. It has been more than a half-century since African American studies emerged as an institutionalized field within the interdisciplinary humanities, they argue. In that time, it has evolved into a vibrant field with a global scope that provides valuable frameworks for understanding relations of power and difference.

Despite the disproportionately small population of Black-identifying students or faculty members, our university is home to a number of nationally renowned and widely published scholars and teachers of African American and Diasporic literature, history and cultural studies. More than 15 scholars working in Black studies and a number of other faculty engaging the field in their research are affiliated with the project. Their disciplines include anthropology, communication, education studies, engineering, ethnic studies, film, gender and sexuality studies, history, literature, music, public health, and sociologyall reflecting the strong and rigorous interdisciplinary scholarship that has been so foundational to Black studies.

One of the BSPs three areas of research is social justice movements, and the Black Lives Matter movement is arguably the most pressing, active and visible social movement of our time, said Jessica Graham, current director of the Black Studies Project and associate professor of History. Black Lives Matter began in 2013 after Trayvon Martins killer, George Zimmerman, was acquitted of his murder. The BSP has invoked BLM partly to help translate our mission to the campus and public for some time now. (One of the BSPs mantras has been 'Black Lives/Books/Studies Matters.') Our reference to Black Lives Matter well before 2020 exemplifies the ways in which Black Studies scholarship examines major issues, problems, and dilemmas facing our society before others realize their true importance.

Through the Office of the Dean of Social Sciences we have been in contact with one of the Black Lives Matters founders and UC San Diego alumna, Alicia Garza, and her Black Futures Lab to explore ways that we may work together, continued Graham. We also hope to expand our relationships with other campus partners who are now more invested in research questions related to anti-Blackness and racial injustice. For instance, the Halcolu Data Science Institute is one of many campus partners that has reached out to us. Finally, as we always do, the BSP seeks to make our programming relevant to current events. As such, we are in talks to host and co-host virtual events that tackle the issues raised by and relevant to BLM, particularly police violence, the prison industrial complex and abolitionism.

Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Becky Petit added, Our continued commitment to the faculty-run Black Studies Project underscores the impact and significance of this important program at UC San Diego. The program aligns with theUC San Diego Strategic Plan for Inclusive Excellenceby helping to create a pro-Black environment on our campus, through advancing scholarly work, facilitating academic success, and helping to foster a sense of belonging for Black undergraduate and graduate students.

The Black Studies Project organizes a minimum of three public events on campus each year around a common theme. In addition, the initiative provides a variety of faculty and student development opportunities including faculty and graduate student seminars, writing retreats, national research collaboratives, fellowships and travel grants.

James Crawford, a fourth-year doctoral student in Education Studies, said BSPs community-building mission was as an essential component to his sense of belonging at UC San Diego. As one of three Black Ph.D. students in Education Studies, and being among the 2.5% of Black graduates at UC San Diego, I feel the inherent challenges of graduate school are compounded by the lack of Black peers and mentors that can provide personal and academic support. During my second year at UC San Diego, I began participating in the BSP Graduate Student Seminar. The seminar helped me develop meaningful relationships with a cadre of racially/ethnically diverse interdisciplinary graduate students, he said.

During my third year, I became the BSP Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) and in this position, I was able to expand my academic knowledge and networks to connect with prominent Black scholars and researchers through various BSP keynote presentations, brown bag talks, panels, and community events.

With UC San Diegos expanded funding commitment, the largest area of growth for the Black Studies Project will be in its multi-tiered fellowships, grants, research internships and mentorships in African American and Black Diaspora studies at all levelsfrom faculty members to postdoctoral fellows to graduate students to undergraduates. This will create opportunities for senior, emergent and potential scholars to engage with and mentor each other across academic stages and professional rank.

BSPs Social Justice Fellowship will also be able to build reciprocal relationships between UC San Diego and cultural producers, public intellectuals and community-builders by bringing together our faculty and students with non-affiliated social justice innovators. Graham explained that, per the BSP founders, this approach reflects Black studies historical mission: to conduct research in pursuit of access, equity and justice for Black communities; and to serve as a lever of change within academic institutions where Black people, their experiences, and their forms of knowledge production have traditionally been underrepresented.

As scholars and teachers, we believe that current and future public conversations about race, power and society must be rooted in the rigorous interdisciplinary study and dissemination of the histories, social formations, political structures and cultural texts of communities of African descent, said Kaplan, Black Studies Project co-founder and associate professor of Ethnic Studies and Critical Gender Studies at UC San Diego. Ensuring that this knowledge is readily available for policymakers, changemakers and community stakeholders, however, requires supporting and fostering the new scholars and scholarship emerging in the field of Black studies right now. This is the work that Black Studies Project has undertaken for the last eightyears, and that we endeavor to continue through our next stage of institutional growth.

To learn, more visit theUC San Diego Black Studies Project website.

Link:
UC San Diego Commits $2.5M to the Black Studies Project - Newswise

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The criminal element is out in our community. We do see that on the news every single day. Thats Ed OCarroll talking. Hes appearing at the outset of a promotional video for the National Rifle Associations award-winning crime prevention program, Refuse to be a Victim. Geared toward helping people identify potential threats to their safetyfrom would-be burglars to rapiststhe program has offered thousands of seminars nationwide since 1993. As they tell it, Refuse to be a Victim was founded at the request of NRA members and staffers who were concerned about the uptick in violent crime in America, particularly against women. Though both men and women attend the program seminars, the gendered threat is central to the promotional video. Clips that could be ripped from the editing bays of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit show white women being trailed by shadowy figures, dressed in black and presumably looking to do them harm. The implicit suggestion of racial difference can hardly be viewed as innocent, and indeed, the overwhelming whiteness of the video is startling. When OCarroll makes repeated reference to our community, it is not a stretch to assume that few people of color reside there.

By participating in one of the hundreds of training sessions the program puts on every year, you can learn about threats that go far beyond walking alone through dark alleys: Dont keep your insurance information in your glove compartment (your valet might photograph it and burglarize your home while youre away). Make sure to cut wide corners when out walking (someone might be waiting to ambush you around the hedge). And never, ever do laundry late at night in a communal laundry room (you might get raped, murdered, and thrown into the trash compactor). Indeed, and despite FBI statistics charting the significant decline in violent crime, the program stresses just how unsafe you truly are. According to the FBI, in 2016, there were an estimated 1,248,185 violent crimes reported to law enforcement. Thats one violent crime every 25 seconds!

Refusing to be a victim requires a new mindset altogether, one that is constantly surveying situations, guarding encounters, and never trusting strangers. That was the lesson I drew from my own three-hour training seminar, which took place early one morning in a converted factory building in upstate New York. Seminar might be overshooting the mark. It was a private class with one of the programs certified instructors, a retired NYPD officer who gleefully recounted his own exodus from the metropolis to the south. He had initially started a private security contracting business after leaving the force but found his true calling in teaching for the NRA, and now here he was, in a room decorated in gun-rights slogans and 9/11 memorabilia, urging me to channel my inner mama bear.

When I asked if it would ever be advisable to hitch a ride to a gas station in the event my car broke down, my instructor indicated that the police would probably never find my body in the rural area where we live. He recommended that I keep a handgun locked in a safe in my childs bedroom, so I could run there in the event of a home invasion, never mind of course that my 12-gauge would serve me far better in such a scenarioshotguns are a lot more effective for those who dont practice regularly with a pistol. The message was one of both empowerment and fragility, security and precarity. Victimhood in such a framing is not a matter of chance but a consequence of making the wrong choice. It is the moralists position taken to its most grotesque conclusion.

While the appeal to gun ownership is never far below the surface, Refuse to be a Victim does not train students to use firearms or review the laws of open carry. It is more accurately described as a crash-course in threat assessment, in which civilians are taught to think like law enforcement personnel. As Jennifer Carson has chronicled in Citizen Protectors, the National Rifle Association has long encouraged its members to regard themselves in such terms. American gun owners like George Zimmerman clearly see themselves as sovereign agents, tasked with keeping themselves and their families safe amid the perceived absence or withdrawal of the state. The provision of security, which in the liberal political tradition forms the basis for a governments legitimacy, is here devolved to individuals instead, whoas in Zimmermans caseserve as police, judge, and executioner. In Carsons formulation, everyday people are increasingly expected to take onand are celebrated for embracingsocial functions formally or typically addressed by the state by turning, instead, to the marketplace.

In August, an everyday person named Kyle Rittenhouse, all of 17 years old, shot three protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, two of them fatally. For all the associations of American gun culture with libertarianism, the tyranny against which Americans like Rittenhouse feel they must arm themselves is certainly not the state. In a video taken shortly before the shooting, a cop tosses Rittenhouse a water bottle and thanks him for being therea partner in the effort to maintain a particular type of law and order. White vigilantism now routinely accompanies protests for racial justice, with its proponentsoften armedassuming the role of watchmen dutifully standing guard over our nations entrenched hierarchies. Its not some abstract commitment to personal liberty that drives gun owners like Rittenhouse to regard themselves as auxiliary agents of state violence. Its racism, a project on which they and the state are eager to cooperate.

After a brief period of separation, the gun industry and the government are partners once more. All it took was a global war, a manufactured border crisis, and a national uprising for Black liberation.

The largest expansion of the domestic arms market in recorded history has occurred since the turn of the 21st century. In 2002 the total number of firearm background checks clocked in at a measly 8.45 million; that figure had ballooned to over 28 million in 2019. Similarly, gun manufacturing in American has grown apace, jumping from 2.9 million total firearms produced in 2001 to a peak of 11.5 million in 2016. More recently, and against the backdrop of the uprising that began after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the FBI conducted over 3.9 million firearm background checks in June 2020 alone, an all-time high, and another 3.6 million in July. Taken together with data from March, in which COVID anxieties drove 3.7 million checks, 2020 is proving to be a most excellent year for gun manufacturers and dealers. Nearly 23 million checks were executed from January to July alone, a number that exceeds the total annual checks for all years prior to 2014.

These statistics are staggering on their own, but all the more so if you consider them alongside two other data points. The first is a landmark survey conducted in 2016 by researchers at Harvard and Northwestern, which found that 63 percent of gun owners identified protection against people as their primary rationale for ownership. Notably, fear of others far outstripped hunting or recreationa complete reversal from the last time such data was systematically collected, in 1994. Second, and perhaps more puzzling given these findings, the gun boom has taken place over a period of time in which violent crime has fallen precipitously. According to FBI statistics, the property crime rate declined 42 percent from 1998 to 2017, as did rates of burglary (down 50 percent), larceny (down 38 percent), and aggravated assault (down 31 percent). In empirical terms, we are safer than ever, though you would never know it from our gun habits.

Of course perception is not reality, and polling data has regularly shown that a majority of Americans believe that crime is getting worse nationwide. Yet the data also reveals that this has not always been the case. While 89 percent of respondents in 1992 felt this was true, this figure had fallen to 41 percent in 2001more or less tracking the contemporaneous decline in violent crimebefore shooting up again to 62 percent in 2002. Since then, the percentage of respondents who believe crime is worsening has mostly fluctuated between 65 and 70 percent, even as actual crime rates continue to fall.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the chief firearms industry trade association, this remarkable market growth has been driven by an unprecedented number of Americans choosing to exercise their fundamental right to keep and bear arms. Explanations of this kind paint a picture of people coming to the light, suddenly waking up to the sanctity of the Second Amendment. But the rapid uptick in gun sales since the turn of the century, and the documented link between gun ownership and fear, points to a darker side of an American gun boom that has emerged alongside the War on Terror. When it comes to the domestic firearms market, it turns out that fear sells better than anything else. And in a stroke of almost providential luck for the industry, Americans have become experts at selling fear.

In this context, the 2020 surge in gun sales was all-too predictable. The uprising that began after Floyds casual murder at the hands of Minneapolis police was just the latest in a string of events that underscored the salience of racial fears to the American gun market. The election of Barack Obama, for example, sent firearm sales and concealed handgun permits to an all-time high. Ferguson served as a siren song for white gun owners, as wella detail that Jonathan Metzl unearthed while doing research for Dying of Whiteness, which traces how the politics of racism exacerbate public health crises for white Americans. As he said stated in an interview: A number of people I talked to in my book basically said, Im getting this gun because of Ferguson. These were people who lived 300 miles from Ferguson, in entirely white areas of rural America. When I tried to pin them down about it, they would say, This could happen anywhere. I have to protect myself and my property.

While Black Americans have pride of place in the American racists pantheon of Feared Others, they do not reside there alone. Otherness is a capacious and ever-expanding category. For instance, when KelTec released an advertisement in 2019 for its KS7 12-gauge shotgun, MI CASA NO ES SU CASA was the chosen tagline. With its bullpup design and long pistol grip, it is marketed chiefly as a tool for home defense. The advertisements language suggests that KelTec customers have a particular type of intruder in mind when they envision themselves heroically defending their homes and families, and that he has come from south of the border. Never mind that immigrants are no more likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans, according to data assembled by the Cato Institute, or that the inverse in fact appears to be true. We like to imagine our assailants coming from without, which is why we hear few eulogies for the thousands of American women killed by their current or former romantic partners, but the tragic example of Mollie Tibbetts became a political football in the anti-immigration game.

Back at home from my Refuse to be a Victim training session and newly aware of threats that even my anxious mind could not have conjured up, I was struck by how little my course had in common with the firearm classes that have long been the bread and butter of the NRAs educational programs. Those classes offer the illusion of mastery over potential threats. This was something elsea program designed to cultivate a persistent fear of the unknown. If anything, in its insistence on a heightened watchfulness, it is a close cousin of New York Citys famed If you see something, say something campaign. Indeed, my trainer was a retired counterterrorism officer, and variations of the citys well-known tagline were everywhere.So, too, is the specter of jihad still evoked alongside the anti-Black and anti-immigrant discourses of fear. There is a particular irony here, given that mass shootings by ISIS supporterssuch as those perpetrated at a San Bernardino, California, office complex and the Pulse nightclub in Orlandohave effectively blurred the sacrosanct division between insider and outsider violence, tragedy and terrorism. This distinction helps us make sense of the otherwise contradictory fact that a country obsessed with national security regards mass shootings by homegrown, predominantly white men as the natural order of the universe about which we can do very little. Yet appeals to Islamic terrorism perform a certain type of political work in the gun world, as when President Trump said of the 2015 ISIS attacks in Paris, If there was one gun being carried by one person on the other side, it very well could have been a whole different result. The likelihood that a civilian carrying a pistol could take out numerous assailants armed with automatic rifles is extremely unlikely, of course, but fantasies of Citizen Rambo are a formidable opponent. Such invocations of heroism inevitably position gun owners as allies and auxiliaries to police and counterterrorism teams, whofrom water-boarding prisoners to shooting unarmed Black mencan seemingly do no wrong.

Thinking about American gun culture in the shadow of 9/11 offers a different way to make sense of the seemingly contradictory data points surveyed above, wherein the decline in actual crime rates has not forestalled a growing sense of insecurity. The fear that another terrorist attack could be merely a moment awaystriking anyone and anywherehas reshaped our sensibilities in profound ways. For nearly two decades Americans have been tasked with the job of constant vigilance, in which we are called upon to survey situations, assess risk, report suspicious activity, and even play the part of superheroes in stopping would-be assailantsto do, in other words, just what I was instructed to do in my Refuse to be a Victim training. We have been enlisted as soldiers in the security agenda and charged with the defense of the homeland.

The power of this sentiment has not been lost on gun marketers, who routinely create advertisements that play on the blurred lines between civilians and military personnel. Featuring combat scenes and soldiers in fatigues, the implicit suggestion is that you, too, can have a professional-grade death tool at your disposal. If its good enough for our boys in Afghanistan, its surely good enough for your front lawn.

Similarly, companies like Smith & Wesson boast that their modern sporting rifles are specifically designed to satisfy the functionality and reliability needs of global military, law enforcement, and security personnel, while Shooting Illustrated praised KelTecs KS7 as lighter and shorter than many submachine guns, noting that it delivers firepower on part [sic] with the much longer and heavier riot guns of conventional design. It is just what you need to support the forces of law and order.

Such language and imagery reveal that the war abroad and violence at home are more deeply intertwined than we usually recognize. The effects of this merger are evident not merely in the militarization of police forces as a result of the governments 1033 programwherein the War on Terrors arsenal makes a second appearance on city streetsbut in the attitudes of everyday people. Is it really that shocking that, after years of imbibing this lethal brew, individuals like Mark and Patricia McCloskey stand ready to guard their McMansions from Black Lives Matter protesters with his-and-hers firearms? That Kyle Rittenhouse felt it was his personal duty to protect the city of Kenosha? Though they may not volunteer for service in Afghanistan, it turns out that many Americans are eager to play soldier in their own backyards.

In an infamous 2017 video set against the backdrop of the protests that accompanied Donald Trumps inauguration, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch argued that guns are the only logical way to restrain the lawlessness of the resistance. They use their media to assassinate real news, she said. They use their schools to teach children that their president is another Hitler. They use their movie stars and singers and comedy shows and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again. And then they use their ex-president to endorse the resistance, all to make them march, make them protest, make them scream racism and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia, to smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law abiding, until the only option left is for the police to do their jobs and stop the madness. Loesch concluded the video by calling upon NRA supporters to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth, explicitly aligning the group with the police. The war, she argued, is already here.

Though liberals often imagine gun owners as delusional libertarians assembling arsenals to defend against government tyrannycue Wayne LaPierres rant about jack-booted government thugs out to break in our doors, seize our guns, destroy our property, and even injure or kill usLoeschs message reflected a very different message, one that the Trump administration is now playing at full blast. Our brave men and women in uniform need you, citizen soldier, to join them in protecting America from its foes domestic and foreign. It is the natural outgrowth of the War on Terrors culture of constant vigilance, turned onto the Others within. Forget guarding against government tyranny. Todays NRA is happy to serve as its midwife.

This is not, moreover, an unprecedented alliance. The seeming contradiction of libertarian gun owners joining forces with the feds dissolves if you remember that the two sides have historically worked in concert in service of white supremacyfrom the slave patrols to Westward expansion and beyond. Surely a country that deputized individuals to hunt the Dakota people, offering up to $200 per scalp to those not enrolled in government patrols, cannot be too precious about the boundary between civilians and law enforcement. Backlit by this history, the recent period of separationwhich began with the NRAs reactionary realignment in the 1970s and culminated with the 1993 Brady Bill and the 10-year ban on assault weapons enacted in 1994looks more like a brief anomaly. And the present, in which a gun market structured by racist fears and turbocharged by the War on Terror stands at the ready to protect certain people from Black liberation, likewise looks like a continuation of one of Americas oldest public-private partnerships.

This reunion has revealed something essential about the American gun experience: The oft-mentioned tyranny being opposed by gun owners is really just the sense that the wrong people, the people against whom American whiteness defines itself, are encroaching on the privileges and prerogatives of whiteness; from the start such tyranny was associated with the protection and advancement of the rights of Black Americans. This is necessary background to understand why, as Mother Jones Matt Cohen has noted, the NRA has been utterly silent as of late about a mass mobilization of militarized police and unknown federal agents in cities across the country to shut down largely peaceful mass demonstrations of people exercising their constitutional rightsin other words, the very jackboots they profess to be concerned about. Turns out the gun industry is happy to side with the feds so long as it is Black and Brown people who appear in the crosshairs.

All this suggests that when Donald Trump tweeted his infamous threat last MayWhen the looting starts, the shooting startshe was not just referencing federal or state law enforcement. Indeed, Rittenhouse would have been justified in thinking the president was speaking directly to him. During the first presidential debate that left commentators aghast, Trump did directly address the forces of white supremacy. Inviting the Proud Boyswho rolled into Portland after federal troops departedto stand by, Trump underscored just how compatible a certain brand of white vigilantism is with the current exercise of state power. Any attempt to understand this fascistic alliance requires confronting the unholy matrix of militarism aboard and racism at home, and the way that nearly two decades of constant vigilance have helped create actual vigilantes. And we better act fast. As Dana Loesch suggests, the war is already here.

A version of this essay appeared in the March+April 2020 print issue of Mother Jones.

Suzanne Schneider is deputy director and core faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. Her new book, The Apocalypse and the End of History, will be released by Verso Books in 2021.

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How Gun Culture and the Government Fell Back in Love Mother Jones - Mother Jones