Category: Struggle for African American equality

Texas Supreme Court thwarts Democrat effort to overturn governor’s veto that blocked legislative funding

worker | August 12, 2021 | 5:58 pm | Local/State, struggle against fascism, Struggle for African American equality, struggle for democracy | Comments closed

https://www.rt.com/usa/531595-texas-court-democrats-funding/

Texas Supreme Court thwarts Democrat effort to overturn governor’s veto that blocked legislative funding

10 Aug, 2021 04:14 / Updated 2 days ago

Get short URL

Texas Supreme Court thwarts Democrat effort to overturn governor’s veto that blocked legislative funding

The Texas Supreme Court has blocked a challenge by state Democrats seeking to overturn a move by Governor Greg Abbott that could deprive the legislature of funds for the next two years as part of a standoff over voting laws.

The all-Republican state Supreme Court ruled in Abbott’s favor on Monday, denying Democrats’ request to overturn a veto of a legislative funding measure, which would leave lawmakers without cash for the next two-year session.

The judges argued that the funding issue “continues to exist not because of a dispute between the Governor and the Legislature, nor even because of one between the Governor and a minority of House members,” adding the dispute is primarily between lawmakers and that it cannot intervene.

This political dispute within the legislative branch is not an issue of separation of powers that we can decide.

ALSO ON RT.COMFederal judge sides with Biden administration, blocks Texas measure to stop transportation of illegal immigrantsIn their challenge, state Democrats argued that Abbott had overstepped his authority as governor and violated the constitutional separation of powers between lawmakers and the executive by vetoing the funding. The court did not accept that rationale, saying the matter could have been settled if the Democrats had worked with other lawmakers, but declined to do so.

The judges also observed that if a total loss of funds were truly “imminent,” they would expect other lawmakers “besides members of the House Democratic Caucus” to object, noting that no Republicans had joined the complaint.

With the funds set to run dry, Abbott has announced a special legislative session that will extend into September, and has allocated some stop-gap funding to allow proceedings to continue during that time. Unless the dispute can be resolved during the special session, the funding will remain in limbo.

The controversy erupted after a number of Democratic lawmakers left the state in order to prevent the lower chamber from having quorum during a May vote on a controversial election bill. Democrats obstructing the legislation insist it would violate voting rights and limit access to the ballot box for marginalized groups, but Republican opponents have put the measure high on their agenda, arguing it is needed to combat voter fraud in the state.

Both the voting bill as well as the funding measure are on the agenda for the current special session.

Following the walk-out, Abbot blasted the lawmakers involved, vetoing their appropriations proposal while stating that “Funding should not be provided for those who quit their job early, leaving their state with unfinished business and exposing taxpayers to higher costs for an additional legislative session.”

While opponents have vowed to continue fighting Abbott on the issue, with legal pressure group Democracy Forward insisting it would “review the court’s decision” as it determined the next steps on Monday night, the governor’s office cheered the ruling, saying Democrats had “run out of excuses.”

“The Texas Supreme Court has again recognized that ‘the Governor has power to disapprove any bill and upheld the governor’s veto power granted under the Texas Constitution,” Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said in a statement.

It’s time to stop the charades and get back to work doing the job they were elected to do – voting on critical legislation on behalf of their constituents.

ALSO ON RT.COMTexas lawmaker claims fugitive Dems were ‘exempt’ from mask rules when they flew to DC and they ‘didn’t know’ about Covid-19 surgeThink your friends would be interested? Share this story!

A year after George Floyd’s death, pent-up rage remains as Louisiana faces its own policing issues

worker | May 26, 2021 | 9:15 pm | African American history, Fascist terrorism, struggle against fascism, struggle against racism, struggle against torture, Struggle for African American equality | Comments closed

https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_7f9b0e84-bdac-11eb-a7a3-637858ff7f44.html

1 of 2

Protesters gather around Jackson Square in New Orleans, La. Friday, June 5, 2020, demonstrating the racial tensions stemming from the death of George Floyd and similar racially charged acts of violence around the country. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)

STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD

On the one year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin New Orleans resident take a knee in support of the Black Live Matter movement at the corner of Oak St. and Carrollton Ave. in New Orleans, La. Tuesday, May 25, 2021. (Photo by Max Becherer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)

STAFF PHOTO BY MAX BECHERER

John Simerman

Matt Sledge

It began with a few dozen protesters shouting into traffic on North Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans, four days after George Floyd was killed last May under a police officer’s knee in Minnesota.

Hours later, a wave of rage over Floyd’s death and the policing of Black people in America began spilling across the state.

Thousands of protesters poured into the streets in Lafayette and hundreds more in Lake Charles, Shreveport and the state Capitol in Baton Rouge. Smaller groups took to the courthouse in Houma, the civic center in Monroe, a gritty corner in the West End of New Iberia.

NO.protests.060620.246.jpg — Protesters gather around a Henry Lipkis mural in Jackson Square depicting the slain George Floyd.

STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD

In New Orleans the protests ran for weeks into the summer, including a clash on the Crescent City Connection in which police lobbed tear gas and fired projectiles.

The cry that echoed loudest at those protests was Floyd’s: “I can’t breathe.”

The pent-up outrage that was unleashed over the Floyd killing one year ago remains, fueled most recently by Louisiana’s own horrific contribution: police body cam footage unearthed by the Associated Press last week showing Black motorist Ronald Greene dying in a brutal, long-hidden 2019 encounter with White Louisiana State Police troopers.

In death of Ronald Greene, State Police officer misled investigators, documents say

How much Floyd’s death, or that of Greene, has altered attitudes in Louisiana over police accountability is uncertain — though there are indications of a shift.

Lawmakers this week are debating a host of policing reforms, including tight limits on chokeholds and no-knock warrants. Advocates also are pushing for legislation to end the “qualified immunity” that shields misbehaving police officers from state lawsuits seeking damages.

82059257-c90b-57bb-8f2d-66c3783dd9ef — This undated handout photo provided by Christopher Harris shows George Floyd. (Christopher Harris via AP)

Christopher Harris

The bills came out of a task force the Legislature set up a month after Floyd’s killing, as a debate over the use of excessive force by law enforcement roiled nationally.

“This is really about being who we say we are as a country,” said Judy Reese Morse, president and CEO of the Urban League of Louisiana. “Quite honestly, the proof is in the pudding, and the pudding just doesn’t taste good right now.”

A survey released in April by LSU’s Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs found a wide gap between how Black and White respondents viewed racial discrimination in various contexts. But on one point the majority agreed: Black people are treated less fairly by police.

Ted Quant, a longtime civil rights activist in New Orleans, said the video of Floyd’s final moments provided evidence that couldn’t be explained away.

“People witnessed George Floyd being murdered. They could see it. And it couldn’t be covered up, it couldn’t be lied about,” Quant said. “I think it was an education for the people of America.”

The nonprofit E Pluribus Unum, founded by former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, released its own survey this week. It found similar divisions across the Southern states.

While a large majority of Black respondents said Floyd’s killing and others prove there is a systemic problem, “Whites have a tendency to want to say it’s a few bad apples,” Landrieu said of the survey results.

Still, Landrieu pointed to a broader agreement for the notion that Floyd was wrongfully killed and that more reforms need to happen, as well as support for getting rid of total civil immunity for offending police officers.

“One of the things the public is demanding now, across racial and party lines, is transparency — before you can get to accountability,” Landrieu said. “People do not think we have done enough. Everyone wants the police to treat people with great respect and great dignity. That’s a pretty high line of common ground.”

The family of African American George Floyd appealed on Tuesday for sweeping police reform on the anniversary of his murder by a white officer as they met President Joe Biden at the White House.

worker | May 26, 2021 | 8:59 pm | African American history, Fascist terrorism, struggle against fascism, struggle against racism, struggle against torture, Struggle for African American equality | Comments closed

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-26/George-Floyd-family-urges-police-reform-on-anniversary-of-murder-10zjgzSuFfG/index.html

Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, talks to reporters alongside other family members and lawyers after meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House, May 25, 2021. /CFP

The family of African American George Floyd appealed on Tuesday for sweeping police reform on the anniversary of his murder by a white officer as they met President Joe Biden at the White House.

The president and Vice President Kamala Harris hosted several of Floyd’s relatives in the Oval Office after the family spoke to top lawmakers hoping for progress on police reform.

“If you can make federal laws to protect the bird, the bald eagle, you can make federal laws to protect people of color,” said Philonise Floyd, George’s younger brother, after a private meeting in the Oval Office.

Floyd’s mother, siblings and his daughter Gianna, along with family lawyers, had earlier gathered at the U.S. Capitol with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic members of Congress.

A mural reading “I Can’t Breathe” at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 25, 2021. /CFP

“We have to act. We face an inflection point,” said Biden in a statement issued by the White House after meeting the family nearly a year after their first encounter ahead of Floyd’s funeral.

Biden said he was “hopeful” that a deal could be struck on the police reforms after the Memorial Day holiday this weekend, though the president reportedly had set Tuesday as a deadline for passing police reform legislation.

Floyd, 46, who died in handcuffs with his neck pinned to a Minneapolis street under the knee of Derek Chauvin – a white policeman, has become the face of a national reckoning with racial injustice and police brutality in the U.S.

Chauvin, 45, faces up to 40 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 25. The three other officers at the scene have pleaded not guilty to aiding and abetting Chauvin, and will go on trial next year.

Local leaders and politicians, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, seventh from left, kneel for more than nine minutes to remember the murder of George Floyd in New York, May 25, 2021. /CFP

How the U.S. remembered Floyd

In Minneapolis, a foundation created in Floyd’s memory by some in his family organized an afternoon of music and food in a park near the downtown courtroom where Chauvin was convicted last month of murdering Floyd.

Later on Tuesday, mourners gathered for a candlelight vigil at the stretch of road where Floyd passed away.

By the afternoon, small crowds were gathering at the intersection for a festive, sunny afternoon of music and children’s activities. A man set out paint ready to create a fresh mural in the square, which has been closed to most vehicle traffic for a year and is filled with flowers and art commemorating Floyd and other Black victims of police violence.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were due to join activists in a city park for a silence of nine minutes and 29 seconds – the time that Chauvin knelt on Floyd, in memory of Floyd’s murder.

Demonstrations were planned in New York City and Mayor Bill de Blasio joined activists in kneeling in silence for nine minutes and 29 seconds. Earlier on Tuesday, Shaun Donovan, a Democratic candidate for mayor, was among a group of five protesters arrested for blocking traffic near a major tunnel into Manhattan.

A bullet casing is seen after shots were fired in George Floyd Square on the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, May 25, 2021. /CFP

Events at George Floyd Square were briefly interrupted by gunfire on Tuesday. One person was reported injured as at least 20 rounds were fired. Police said the incident remains under investigation, and it is unclear if the shooting is connected to events in the area commemorating the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death.

Legislation has been pursued in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia to increase the accountability or oversight of police, and 24 states have enacted new laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The laws have included the mandating of body-worn cameras for officers, banning neck restraints or making it easier for the public to see police officers’ disciplinary records.

U.S. House approves police reform bill named after George Floyd

(With input from agencies)

Black US doctor dies of Covid alleging racist hospital care

worker | December 24, 2020 | 7:59 pm | COVID-19, struggle against racism, Struggle for African American equality | Comments closed

Black US doctor dies of Covid alleging racist hospital care

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55443339

Published4 hours ago

‘This is how black people get killed’

Dr Moore tested positive for Covid-19 on 29 November and was admitted with a high fever while she coughed up blood and struggled to breathe. But even as a physician herself, she said she had struggled with getting care.

Dr Moore said she had had to plead for antiviral Remdesivir doses and request a scan of her chest. The doctor at one point reportedly told her she did not qualify for the drug and that she should go home.

“He made me feel like I was a drug addict,” Dr Moore said in a Facebook video. “And he knew I was a physician. I don’t take narcotics. I was hurting.”

Dr Moore wrote she had requested a medical advocate and had asked to be transferred elsewhere. She was eventually discharged but had to return hours later after experiencing a drop in blood pressure and fever.

“This is how black people get killed,” Dr Moore said. “When you send them home and they don’t know how to fight for themselves.”

Her post later included an update saying the hospital’s chief medical officer had said staff would receive diversity training. But a promise for an apology from the doctor she accused of discrimination fell through.

“I put forward and I maintain, if I was white, I wouldn’t have to go through that,” she said.

Dr Moore’s experience and death has sparked an outcry over US healthcare disparities faced by black Americans.

The virus has disproportionately affected black and other minority communities in the US. Black Americans are three times more likely to die from the virus than white Americans.

An analysis by the Brookings Institution reported “in every age category, black people are dying from Covid at roughly the same rate as white people more than a decade older”.

Is everyone racist?

A 2015 paper published in the American Journal of Public Health found “most health care providers appear to have implicit bias in terms of positive attitudes toward Whites and negative attitudes toward people of colour”.

Capitalism Means I Can’t Breathe

worker | June 1, 2020 | 8:54 pm | Communist Party Greece (KKE), Fascist terrorism, struggle against racism, Struggle for African American equality | Comments closed

The Incomplete List of US Companies & Universities That Benefited From Black Slavery â€“ Abagond

worker | April 30, 2018 | 7:17 pm | African American history, Struggle for African American equality | Comments closed

https://abagond.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/the-incomplete-list-of-us-companies-and-universities-that-benefited-from-black-slavery/amp/

The Incomplete List of US Companies & Universities That Benefited From Black Slavery

abagond

4 years ago

University Hall in Brown University. Providence, Rhode Island, December 27th 2003.

Americans tend to think that only the South or only slave traders and slave owners benefited from slavery.

But it was not that simple.Â Slaves and land were the main forms of wealth in the US before 1860. Therefore slaves figured in insurance policies and bank loans. Therefore universities turned to slave owners and slave traders to raise money. Industry in the North and in Britain made money processing slave-grown tobacco, cotton and sugar from the South and the Caribbean. Railway companies used slave labour. The most profitable activity on Wall Street was â€“ the slave trade.

For example:

AIG â€“ bought American General Financial which owns US Life Insurance Company. US LifeÂ used to insure the lives of slaves.

Aetna â€“ insured the lives of slaves in the 1850s.

Bank of America â€“ grew in part out of the Bank of Metropolis, which accepted slaves as collateral.

Brooks Brothers â€“ got its start making clothes for slaves!

Brown Brothers Harriman â€“ a Wall StreetÂ bank that owned hundreds of slaves and lent millions to Southern planters, merchants and cotton traders.

Brown University â€“ named for the Brown brothers who gave money to the university. Two wereÂ slave traders, another ranÂ a factory that used slave-grown cotton. University Hall was built in part byÂ slave labour.

CSX â€“ rented slaves to build rail lines.

Fleet Boston â€“ grew out of Providence Bank, founded by one of the Brown brothers (see Brown University above), a slave trader who owned slave ships. The bank made money fromÂ the slave trade. Providence, Rhode Island was the home port for many slave ships.

Harvard Law School â€“ endowed with money from Isaac Royall, an Antiguan slave owner and sugar grower.

JP Morgan Chase â€“ made a fortune from the slave trade. Predecessor banks (Citizens Bank, Canal Bank in Louisiana) accepted slaves as collateral, taking possession of 1,250 slavesÂ from owners who defaulted on loans.

New York Life â€“ insured slaves. Of its first 1,000 insurance polices, 339 were policies on slaves.

Norfolk Southern â€“ the Mobile & Girard, now part of Norfolk Southern, rented slaves to work on the railroad. Central of Georgia, also now part of the company, owned slaves.

Princeton â€“ raised money and recruited students from rich, slave-owning families in the South and the Caribbean. Princeton was not alone in hitting up slave owners and traders for money and students. So did:

Harvard,
Yale,
Penn,
Columbia,
Rutgers,
Brown,
Dartmouth and the
University of Delaware.

By the middle 1700s, most Princeton students were the sons of slave owners. Many of Columbiaâ€™s students were sons of slave traders.

Tiffanyâ€™s â€“ founded with profits from a cotton mill in Connecticut that processed slave-grown cotton.

USA Today â€“ its parent company, Gannett, had links to slavery.

Wells FargoÂ â€“ Georgia Railroad & Banking Company and the Bank of Charleston owned or accepted slaves as collateral. They later became part of Wells Fargo by way of Wachovia. (In the 2000s Wells Fargo targeted blacksÂ for predatory lending.)

Yale University â€“ money from slave trading went to its first endowed scholarships, professorship and library.

Universities not only sought and accepted money from slave owners and traders, they helped to create scientific racism.

Sources:Â Craig Steven Wilder, â€œEbony & Ivyâ€ (2013), Atlanta Black Star (2013), Nell Irvin Painter, â€œCreating Black Americansâ€ (2006), The Harvard Crimson (2006), NewÂ York Times (2001).