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      Carrie Meek, daughter of Black sharecroppers who blazed path to Congress, dies aged 95

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      Carrie Meek, daughter of Black sharecroppers who blazed path to Congress, dies aged 95Tributes note her dedication to Miami’s Haitian community, to economic opportunity for the poor and affirmative action Carrie Meek, who died on Sunday, was remembered as a trailblazer, a descendent of enslaved people who became one of the first Black Floridians elected to Congress since Reconstruction.Lee Elder, golfer who broke colour barrier at the Masters, dies at age of 87Read moreThe late congressman John Lewis had another way of describing her.“We see showboats and we see tugboats. She’s a tugboat. I never want to be on the side of issues against her,” Lewis said of Meek in 1999.Politicians and public figures recalled a pioneering career, with many noting Meek’s devotion to working-class families in her Miami district as well as her powerful oratory, in an outpouring of support after her death at 95 after a long illness.“Throughout her decades of public service, she was a champion for opportunity and progress, including following her retirement, as she worked to ensure that every Floridian had a roof over his or her head and access to a quality education,” said the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.“On the appropriations committee where we both served, she was a force, bringing to bear the special power of her soft accent and strong will for her community and country. Indeed, she was formidable in meeting the needs of her community, including by advocating for Haitian immigrants and refugees and creating economic opportunities for working families in her district.”Meek was 66 when she won the 1992 Democratic primary in her Miami-Dade county district, later winning the seat in an unopposed general election. On her first day in Congress, Meek reflected that while her grandmother, enslaved on a Georgia farm, could never have dreamed of such an accomplishment, her parents told her anything was possible.“They always said the day would come when we would be recognized for our character,” Meek said.In Congress she was a champion of affirmative action, economic opportunities for the poor and efforts to bolster democracy in and ease immigration restrictions on Haiti, the birthplace of many of her constituents.As a member of the powerful appropriations committee she worked to secure $100m in aid to rebuild Dade county after Hurricane Andrew.In a statement, Congresswoman Frederica S Wilson called Meek an “exemplary role model for elected officials like me who broke down barriers so that we could follow the path she paved and succeed”.“Congresswoman Meek was the granddaughter of slaves who likely never have imagined how far she would go, but to the benefit of generations yet unborn, her parents encouraged her to believe that she could achieve anything she set her mind on – and she did,” Wilson said.Even before Meek’s death, lawmakers lauded her work.“Only in America can the granddaughter of a slave and the daughter of a former sharecropper believe that she can achieve and conquer all that presents itself in opposition to her dreams,” the congressman Alcee Hastings, who died in April, said of Meek in 2003.“Carrie Meek has set the stage and perpetuated the legacy of political astuteness for all of us, but particularly for African American women everywhere.”TopicsRaceUS CongressUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Ilhan Omar: Boebert is a ‘buffoon’ and ‘bigot’ for ‘made up’ anti-Muslim story

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      Ilhan Omar: Boebert is a ‘buffoon’ and ‘bigot’ for ‘made up’ anti-Muslim story‘Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout,’ says Omar after Boebert claims to have joked about terrorism when sharing elevator The Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar called the Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert a buffoon, a bigot and a liar for claiming to have joked about terrorism when sharing an elevator in Congress.Trump photo with Rittenhouse reveals ‘Mount Trumpmore’ sculptureRead more“Fact,” Omar wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “This buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up. Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.“Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny and shouldn’t be normalised. Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslims tropes get no condemnation.”One of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, Omar is also a member of a prominent “Squad” of House progressives.Boebert is a first-term far-right Trump ally who consistently seeks controversy. Her connections to the deadly attack on the Capitol on 6 January remain under investigation.She made the comments about Omar in her home district over the Thanksgiving break.“Actually I have an Ilhan story for you,” Boebert told an audience, to laughter. “So, the other night on the House floor was not my first ‘Jihad Squad’ moment.“So I was getting into an elevator with one of my staffers. You know, we’re leaving the Capitol and we’re going back to my office and we get an elevator and I see a Capitol police officer running to the elevator. I see fret all over his face, and he’s reaching, and the door’s shutting, like I can’t open it, like what’s happening. I look to my left, and there she is. Ilhan Omar.“And I said, ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack, we should be fine.’The audience laughed and applauded.“We only had one floor to go,” Boebert continued. “I said, ‘Oh look, the Jihad Squad decided show up for work today.’”The audience whooped and applauded again.“Don’t worry,” said Boebert, “it’s just her staffers on Twitter that talk for her, she’s not tough in person. So … there’s a little bit of interactions with these folks.”The remarks raised calls for Boebert to face formal censure – as recently did Paul Gosar of Arizona, for tweeting a video which depicted him killing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, another prominent progressive, and threatening Joe Biden.Boebert’s reference to “the other night on the House floor” was to remarks in support of Gosar in which she called Omar “the Jihad Squad member from Minnesota” and repeated rightwing conspiracy theories about her.In response to those remarks, Omar called Boebert an “insurrectionist who sleeps with a pervert”, a reference to Boebert’s husband, who in 2004 pleaded guilty to public indecency and lewd exposure and spent time in jail. Omar also said Boebert “shamefully defecates and defiles the House”.In a statement on Friday, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (Cair), called Boebert’s remarks “digusting” and “merely the latest symptom of the anti-Muslim bigotry that has plagued the Republican caucus in the House for years”.“Leader [Kevin] McCarthy should repudiate Representative Boebert’s remarks,” Mitchell said, “and call on all Republican members of Congress to treat their American Muslim colleagues and constituents with the respect and decency everyone deserves.”‘Inciting violence begets violence’: Paul Gosar censured over video aimed at AOCRead moreBoebert later tweeted an apology “to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Representative Omar”.She also said she had “reached out to her office to speak with her directly. There are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction.”Omar retweeted support from another member of the “Squad”, Cori Bush of Missouri.“Capitol Hill is a toxic work environment for Muslim members and staff,” Bush wrote, “when bigots routinely spew racist, Islamophobic vitriol unchecked and with no consequence.“Congresswoman Omar, we love you, and we pray for your well-being and protection from this despicable abuse.”TopicsIlhan OmarUS politicsRacenewsReuse this content More

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      Justice prevailed in the trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers. In America, that’s a shock | Moustafa Bayoumi

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      Justice prevailed in the trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers. In America, that’s a shockMoustafa BayoumiThe jury reached the right verdict – even as the criminal justice system did everything it could to exonerate the three men It’s shocking that Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan were found guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia. Yet the shock doesn’t stem out of any miscarriage of justice. On the contrary, the jury in Glynn county deliberated and reached the correct decision. Stalking an innocent Black man, chasing him, cornering him, and then killing him must come with criminal consequences in this country, and each of the three murderers now faces the possibility of a life sentence.But the shock is that justice was served in a case where it seemed the criminal justice system and substantial portions of media coverage were doing all they could to exonerate these men. In fact, everything about this case illustrates how difficult it is to get justice for Black people in this country, starting with how often Fox News and other media outlets referred to the case as “the Arbery trial”, as if Ahmaud Arbery were the perpetrator here and not the victim.Kyle Rittenhouse wasn’t convicted because, in America, white reasoning rules | Michael HarriotRead moreThe facts of the case have never been in dispute, and yet they were also often distorted or ignored to aid the defense. The McMichaels claimed they were trying to make a citizen’s arrest of Arbery, an avid athlete who had been out jogging a mere three miles from his home that day. Father and son McMichael found Arbery suspicious, they told police, because there had been “several break-ins in the neighborhood”. This statement has been repeated so often in the last year that it has assumed the status of fact.And yet, according to the local Brunswick News, there had been just one burglary reported to county police between 1 January and 23 February 2020, the day of Arbery’s murder. That singular incident referred to property taken from a Satilla Shores vehicle – Travis McMichael’s truck. (McMichael reported a theft because, after he left his truck unlocked, his gun had been taken, he said at trial.) While surveillance video also captured an unidentified white couple possibly taking some property belonging to Larry English, a man building a home in the area, English testified that nothing had been stolen from the construction site of his second home, where Arbery stopped directly before being chased by the McMichaels. And during the trial, we heard that in all of 2019, there had been only four reported car break-ins. So, yeah, hardly a runaway crime spree.Then why did it keep getting reported this way?There’s more, of course. It took almost three months for the Georgia bureau of investigation, which took over the case, to arrest Travis and Gregory McMichael. (Bryan was arrested months later.) The elder McMichael had been a police officer and investigator for the district attorney’s office. The favoritism shown the men ran deep, so deep that the Brunswick district attorney, Jackie Johnson, who first oversaw the case, was later indicted on charges of violating her oath as a public officer and obstructing a police officer, as she was accused of “showing favor and affection to Greg McMichael during the investigation”, according to the indictment.Like Johnson, the next prosecutor, George E Barnhill, was also forced to recuse himself from the case. His son had previously worked with McMichael in what again was a clear conflict of interest. Barnhill wrote a letter to the police department explaining his recusal. “It appears Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and Bryan William [sic] were following, in ‘hot pursuit’, a burglary suspect, with solid first-hand probable cause, in their neighborhood,” he wrote. We now know just how completely and utterly false this account of events was. By the time the trial began, jury selection was also looking highly problematic. The population of Glynn county is over a quarter Black, and yet the seated jury for the trial was overwhelmingly white, with only one Black juror selected. Even the judge acknowledged the appearance of “intentional discrimination” in this outcome, as defense attorneys struck virtually every Black potential juror from serving on the jury.Defense attorneys also used every tool at their disposal to dehumanize Ahmaud Arbery. Laura Hogue, lawyer for Greg McMichael, characterized Arbery as a “recurring night-time intruder” whose presence was “frightening and unsettling”, as if adopting every stereotype of “the dangerous young Black man” she could find. It got even worse when she told the jury that Arbery had “long, dirty toenails”.What a morally bankrupt and shameless statement, but such are the lengths that this system will go to preserve its ill-gotten power. Any honest student of the history of this country will recognize what was happening in this case and in this trial. On display was nothing short of an American fear in all its guises.First, there is the irrational and racist fear of Black people that has motivated so much white vigilantism. It’s no mere coincidence that Georgia’s (now-defunct) self-defense statute dates to the civil war era. As Carol Anderson, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, and many others have shown, the violence at the heart of the American system begins with a fundamental fear of Black and Indigenous people.Then there’s the establishment’s fear that its power will be exposed for what it too often is, a precarious system that serves and protects not the public but its own interests through its prejudices and favoritisms. And finally, there’s the fear that those who don’t look like us will stand in judgment. Thus a system of power built on racial hierarchy will seek its own self-preservation.The good news, heard in the courtroom, is that the rest of us are not afraid. The mostly white jury was not afraid to return the proper verdict. The assistant district attorney Linda Dunikoski was not afraid (and was completely convincing) in her prosecution. The attorney S Lee Merritt was fearless and eloquent in his advocacy for justice. But the bravest, most fearless, most admirable person in this saga has to be Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother.It’s hard to believe that justice would have prevailed here were it not for Cooper-Jones’ indefatigable efforts to push and challenge prosecutors like Johnson and Barnhill and the whole damn system at every turn. She pushed Georgia’s legislature to pass a hate crimes bill. She filed the federal lawsuit against the men now convicted of killing her son. She even met with the then president Donald Trump to discuss police reform.Cooper-Jones is a real hero, both for her son and in the fight for a truly just society. She was willing and able to fight a system that, if the past be a guide, was more than willing to exonerate itself.But here’s the problem: what happens when there is no Cooper-Jones? Why should our rights depend on grieving mothers fighting for the rights of their murdered children? What kind of justice system is that?I’m thankful that people like Wanda Cooper-Jones exist, but what we really need is more than that. We need a justice system that isn’t afraid of power. We need a justice system that isn’t afraid of doing what’s right. What we really need is a justice system that doesn’t depend on grieving mothers at all.
      Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror. He is Professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York
      TopicsAhmaud ArberyOpinionUS justice systemGeorgiaRaceUS politicscommentReuse this content More

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      This is justice of a kind. But don’t forget Ahmaud Arbery’s killers almost got away | Akin Olla

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      This is justice of a kind. But don’t forget Ahmaud Arbery’s killers almost got awayAkin OllaThe verdict is welcome, but it rings hollow given the underlying systems of white supremacy that have long justified the vigilante actions of Arbery’s attackers The three white men who hunted down Ahmaud Arbery in a neighborhood in Glynn county, Georgia, have been found guilty in court. The US held its breath as the jury deliberations entered their second day this Wednesday. Travis McMichael, who fired the shots that killed the 25-year-old Black man, his father, Greg, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan were all convicted of the 23 February 2020 murder. While the verdict is a welcome one, it rings somewhat hollow given the recent not guilty verdict in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse and the underlying systems of white supremacy that have long justified the vigilante actions of Arbery’s attackers.How the murder of Ahmaud Arbery further exposes America’s broken and racist legal systemRead moreDespite the trial’s outcome, the actual process of the case was steeped in various justifications of the killers’ actions, from the racially-tinged fearmongering of the defense attorneys to the fact that the killers were arrested 74 days after Arbery’s murder. Justice cannot be served as long as the current system remains, and it seems unlikely that even this verdict will dissuade future vigilantes.A defense attorney must, of course, make the best case for their client. It speaks volumes about our country that much of what could be mustered during this trial were attempts to attack Arbery as a person – a tactic commonly deployed to justify the murders of Black Americans. The judge dismissed attempts by the defense to introduce prior acts by Arbery into evidence, and a move to include the fact that trace amounts of THC were found in his system when he was killed. After those failed efforts, the defense moved to disparage the young man’s body, telling jurors that Arbery had “long, dirty toenails”, and criticizing the shorts that he wore the day he was shot – as if Arbery had called this crime on to himself for the way he dressed; as if the McMichaels and Bryan were aware of anything about him before they decided to chase him down and execute him; as if it was Arbery’s toenails that caused Travis McMichael to exclaim “fucking nigger” above the dying man.Though many of the defense’s attempts to use racist dog-whistles were defeated in pre-trial decisions by the presiding judge, they were still successful in ensuring that the jury would be nearly all white, despite the county itself being about 27% Black. This effort is not uncommon among attorneys and is seeped in a larger system of racism that leads to underrepresentation of people of color on juries.There were many others who participated in the process of justifying the vigilante behavior of the father-and-son duo and their neighbor, who captured it all on video. The police who arrived at the scene took the word of the murderers and did not place them under arrest. The officer accepted their story of self-defense, that these men were simply defending the neighborhood from a Black burglar. Greg Michael had, luckily for their little lynch mob, served as a county police officer for seven years and 30 as an investigator for the local district attorney’s office. The same district attorney’s office was later accused by county commissioners of preventing the arrests of the killers. According to Allen Booker, commissioner: “The police at the scene went to [district attorney Jackie Johnson], saying they were ready to arrest both of them … [s]he shut them down to protect her friend McMichael.” The district attorney shifted blame to police and claimed that they could have used their own discretion to make the arrest.After the video of Arbery’s death went viral and fueled protests demanding action, it still took two months for police to arrest his killers. This bias in favor of police officers and former police officers is all too common in the US, and definitely not rare in Glynn county, known for allegations of officers being shielded from consequences.While crimes like this allow us to focus on the individual white vigilantes, it is important to zoom out and see the many others – from the defense, to the district attorney, to the arresting officers and the institutions they influence and control – who are implicated. Arbery’s murder was of a pattern with a history. It is rooted in the segregation and violent racism that shaped the borders of towns and countries across the US. It is rooted in the legacies of the mobs that killed 14-year-old Emmett Till and overthrew the government of Wilmington, North Carolina, in a white supremacist coup. It is also reflected in other modern examples, like the “Karens” who unleash police officers onto their Black neighbors, or Rittenhouse, who was recently found not guilty of a crime not so different from that committed by the McMichaels and Bryan.Like Rittenhouse, this was a case of white Americans taking up arms to protect what they perceived as Black threats against property. Although the people whom Rittenhouse shot were white, he chose to arm himself during an uprising following the shooting of a Black man, and it is difficult to believe that stereotypes about violent Black looters and killers did not play a role in his perceptions of the uprising – the same kinds of stereotypes that fueled the attack on Arbery.Much like Rittenhouse’s case, the defense lawyers of Arbery’s three assailants claimed their clients engaged in self-defense. Despite showing up to the scene with weapons, Rittenhouse and the men who killed Arbery thought they were the ones under threat. The verdict against the McMichaels and Bryan may feel like a victory, but Rittenhouse’s verdict has done more than enough to justify future vigilantism by white men deeply fearful that somewhere out there Black people might be disrupting the status quo.The verdict here matters for the family. Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, reacted to the verdict saying: “We conquered that lynch mob.” This case exposed the various layers of the justice system that work in tandem to justify murders committed by white men on a political mission. But justice cannot be truly served until this entire system is ripped down and built anew. Rittenhouse’s claims of protecting property are already being used by the defense attorney of a member of the far-right Proud Boys group. And despite the scrutiny the Proud Boys received for participating in the 6 January riot in Washington DC, the organization has begun showing up at rightwing marches and protests claiming to be there for security purposes.While the desire to celebrate the Arbery verdict is understandable, the decision will not stop white men from murdering Black people and others they deem to be a threat to property or the political order. It will take a movement to do that, a movement that will have to overcome the violence of white vigilantes and an entire system held up by their atrocities.
      Akin Olla is a contributing opinion writer at the Guardian
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      Kyle Rittenhouse verdict declares open hunting season on progressive protesters | Cas Mudde

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      Kyle Rittenhouse has walked free. Now it’s open season on protestersCas MuddeDemonstrators in the US must fear not only police brutality but also rightwing vigilantes

      Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal: follow the latest
      Kyle Rittenhouse – the armed white teenager whose mother drove him from Illinois to Wisconsin to allegedly “protect” local businesses from anti-racism protesters in Kenosha, whereupon he shot and killed two people and injured another – has been acquitted of all charges. I don’t think anyone who has followed the trial even casually will be surprised by this verdict. After the various antics by the elected judge, which seemed to indicate where his sympathies lay, and the fact that the prosecution asked the jurors to consider charges lesser than murder, the writing was on the wall.I do not want to discuss the legal particulars of the verdict. It is clear that the prosecution made many mistakes and got little to no leeway from the judge, unlike the defense team. Moreover, we know that “self-defense” – often better known as vigilantism – is legally protected and highly racialized in this country. Think of the acquittal of George Zimmerman of the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2013.In essence, the Rittenhouse ruling has created a kind of “stand your ground” law for the whole country. White people now have the apparent right to travel around the country, heavily armed, and use violence to protect the country from whatever and whoever they believe to be threatening to it. Given the feverish paranoia and racism that has captured a sizeable minority of white people in the US these days, this is a recipe for disaster.In the coming hours and days, many media outlets will eagerly await riots or other potentially violent reactions from the other side – from the anti-racists and progressives of all colors and races who are disturbed by this verdict – and use the existence of those riots, if they occur, to push a misguided “both sides” frame. If there is protest or rioting, don’t expect the police to be as courteous and supportive as they were towards Rittenhouse and his far-right buddies.The most worrying effect of this verdict may be this: giving rightwing vigilantes a legal precedent to take up arms against anyone they consider a threat – which pretty much runs from anti-fascists to so-called Rinos (Republicans in Name Only) and includes almost all people of color – means it is now open hunting season on progressive protesters.‘A travesty’: reaction to Kyle Rittenhouse verdict marks divided USRead moreDon’t get me wrong; this ruling alone did not start this kind of lopsided law and order. It is just the latest in a centuries-old American tradition of protecting white terror and vigilantism. Civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s, particularly but not exclusively in the south, were not just denied police protection; the demonstrators were attacked and abused by the police. That was also the case at many Black Lives Matter demonstrations last year.A Boston Globe investigation found that “between [George] Floyd’s death on 25 May 2020 and 30 September 2021, vehicles drove into protests at least 139 times”, injuring at least 100 people. In fewer than half of the cases the driver was charged, and only four drivers have been convicted of a felony. Moreover, in response to these attacks, Republican legislators have proposed laws to protect the drivers from legal action in case they hit a protester. Florida, Iowa, and Oklahoma have already passed such laws.It takes courage to publicly protest in any situation, particularly when protesting state powers. Now protesters in the US will have to fear not only police brutality but an emboldened and violent far right, fired up by the Republican party and the broader rightwing media and protected by the local legal system.All of this comes at a crucial point in US democracy. From Georgia to Wisconsin, the Republican party is attacking the electoral system, while their supporters are terrorizing poll workers and those signing up to be poll workers in the next elections. In the event that Democrats win important elections in conservative states in 2022 – think Stacey Abrams in Georgia or Beto O’Rourke in Texas – there is a big chance that these results will be contested and judged by highly partisan forces protected by state politicians.Similarly, should President Biden or another Democrat win the 2024 presidential election, the result will again be challenged in conservative states, but this time independent poll workers could be absent or outnumbered and the few Republicans who withstood Donald Trump’s pressure in 2020 will have been replaced or have fallen in line.At that point, Democrats, and indeed all democratic-minded citizens, will have to go into the streets to protest. They will confront an alliance of heavily armed civilians and police and national guard, who can attack protesters with effective immunity. Remember: Kyle Rittenhouse has just been acquitted after killing two people and injuring a third at a protest.In my home country, the Netherlands, we have a saying that is used regularly in political discussions: “Democracy is not for scared people.” Most of the time when it is used, we mean that democracy is not for people who are afraid of change or of critique. In the US, in the wake of today’s verdict, this saying has become both more real and more sinister.
      Cas Mudde is Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, the author of The Far Right Today (2019), and host of the podcast Radikaal. He is a Guardian US columnist
      TopicsKyle RittenhouseOpinionWisconsinUS politicsProtestActivismRacecommentReuse this content More

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      The fake news sites pushing Republicans’ critical race theory scare

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      The fake news sites pushing Republicans’ critical race theory scare Local sites in Virginia published tens of thousands of conservative-skewed articles, many of them misleading or wrong, in the past 11 months Rightwing operatives in the US are using a huge network of fake local news sites to target crucial state elections, with the sites publishing tens of thousands of conservative-skewed articles on politically charged subjects, many of them misleading or wrong, over the past 11 months.An investigation by Popular Information, an online newsletter founded by journalist Judd Legum, found that in Virginia 28 sites, each purporting to be local news outlets and all owned by the same company, published almost 5,000 articles about critical race theory in schools.CRT is an academic discipline that examines the ways in which racism operates in US laws and society. It is not taught in Virginia schools. But the idea of CRT has become an inflammatory call to arms, or at least to the ballot box, among the right wing.The Virginia sites published the articles, many of which addressed spurious Republican claims about CRT threatening to dominate school curriculums, as the gubernatorial race in the state loomed.Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, triumphed over Terry McAuliffe in the 3 November election, after he exploited concerns over teaching about race and promised to ban CRT from classrooms.The Virginia “local news” sites, which include the Central Virginia Times and the Fredericksburg Leader, are run by Metric Media, an organization that operates more than 1,300 “community news sites” across the US and is linked to Locality Labs, both of which are overseen by Brian Timpone.In 2020 the New York Times revealed that the two companies, along with others involved in publishing the sites, “have received at least $1.7m from Republican political campaigns and conservative groups”. The Times reported that conservative organizations were able to “order” articles from news websites owned by Metric Media and its affiliates attacking Democratic political candidates.Metric Media and Brian Timpone did not respond to requests for comment. Between January and November 2021, the 28 Virginia Metric Media sites published 4,657 articles about critical race theory in schools, Popular Information found.Many of those stories were automated, referencing an online pledge to “refuse to lie to young people about US history and current events” – described by Metric Media as a pledge by educators to teach CRT. But there is no evidence on the website for the pledge that the people who have signed it are teachers.Signees must list their city and state, and Metric Media appears to use an automated system to generate articles based on whether anyone has signed from a town or city covered by a Metric Media news outlet.That system enables the Central Shenandoah News, which theoretically covers the area in north-west of Virginia, to run regular articles based on the same source. Last week, it ran the following two pieces:No new teachers in Harrisonburg sign pledge on Nov. 2 to teach Critical Race TheoryNo new teachers in Harrisonburg sign pledge on Nov. 1 to teach Critical Race TheoryThe Central Shenandoah News has run the same version of the Harrisonburg article since August, including almost daily since the beginning of October. It has also regurgitated the format for nearby Staunton.Timpone is an ex-journalist with a track record of operating dubious news organizations. Timpone’s predecessor to Locality Labs was a company called Journatic, which saw a licensing contract with the Chicago Tribune torn up after it published plagiarized articles and made up quotes and fake names for its writers.Popular Information found that as well as targeting Virginia with anti-CRT articles, Metric Media has also ramped up the tactic in other states with looming governor elections.News sites owned by the company have published 11,988 anti-CRT articles in Florida over the past 11 months, 10,096 articles in Texas, and 6,262 in Ohio. Sites claiming to represent New Hampshire have published 2,162 anti-CRT articles.Legum said he found no evidence that any of the Media Metric sites have significant traffic or readership: “But I don’t really think that’s the purpose,” he said.“I think that it’s more the idea of injecting something into the political conversation and giving it a more credible sheen than if you were just to put it out as an advocacy group or something like that.”After one of the “news sites” covers a candidate or political group, that person or organization can use quotes or cite favorable coverage from the related article. Quotes from an outlet like the Central Shenandoah News could be used for online ads, tv ads, or political mail-outs.In Virginia, Youngkin won the governorship by a little more than 60,000 votes. The fake news sites might not win an election by themselves, but in a tight race, every little bit helps.“I think that they could have a meaningful impact. Not because necessarily they’re going to influence that many voters, but because elections are decided at the margins,” Legum said.“So I don’t think it necessarily will reach that many people, but I do think it can make a meaningful difference, and it’s one of the things in the toolkit that could make a difference.”TopicsVirginiaRaceUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Fox News edits video of Biden to make it seem he was being racially insensitive

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      Fox News edits video of Biden to make it seem he was being racially insensitiveFox & Friends host played edited clip before claiming the US president was ‘facing backlash’ for his remarks Fox News edited video of Joe Biden to remove context from remarks some could judge as racially insensitive.In Veterans Day comments at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday, Biden told an anecdote that referenced the baseball player Satchel Paige, who pitched in the Negro Leagues before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball.Biden’s remarks were featured on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on Thursday night, when the primetime host said the president had “one of his most disturbing, troubling moments to date”.Then, on the Fox & Friends morning show on Friday, host Rachel Campos Duffy said Biden was “facing backlash”.Biden said he had “adopted the attitude of the great Negro, at the time pitcher in the Negro Leagues, went on to become a great pitcher in the pros in Major League Baseball after Jackie Robinson, his name was Satchel Paige”.But when Duffy played the clip, it was edited so Biden was heard saying he had “adopted the attitude of the great Negro at the time, pitcher, name was Satchel Paige”.Duffy said Biden’s remarks were “landing him in hot water”.While “Negro” was once a common way to refer to Black people and still appears in organization names, the terms “Black” and “African American” are more widely used.Philip Bump, national correspondent for the Washington Post, wrote: “The hashtag #RacistJoeBiden was trending on Twitter by early Friday afternoon.“Some commenters on social media described Biden’s speech as having used the ‘n-word’, suggesting that a term once commonly used to refer to Black Americans – a descriptor that was in use in the Census Bureau’s racial categories as recently as 2010 – was equivalent to a historically racist slur.“By pretending that Biden was calling Paige a ‘Negro’, though, they could pretend that Biden was revealing a secret bias against Black Americans, both for him and his party.”Bump also wrote that it was “useful to consider why [Fox News] and others on the right are investing in this particular narrative. It comes down to one of the central debates in politics at the moment, the interplay of partisanship and race”.“There is a sense among many conservatives that the political left is constantly attacking them as racist. The reasons for this are myriad and complicated, rooted to some extent in the overlap of race and partisanship (most Black Americans are Democrats) and in a sense that reevaluations of America’s history through the lens of race are implicitly (or explicitly) about criticizing White Americans.”Al Tompkins, a faculty member at Poynter Institute, a journalism thinktank, told the Associated Press that when editing video, journalists have an obligation to keep statements in the context they were delivered or explain to viewers why a change was made. In the video presented by Fox & Friends, he said, the edit was not at all clear.A Fox News spokesperson said Biden’s full remark was used when the story was repeated twice on Fox & Friends, and said the one-time edit was made because of time constraints.TopicsFox NewsJoe BidenUS politicsRaceDemocratsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘I am an American’: how a city official stood firm against an anti-Asian attack

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      ‘I am an American’: how a city official stood firm against an anti-Asian attack After a xenophobic rant was directed at Irvine’s vice-mayor, originally from South Korea, her response drew attentionTammy Kim, the vice-mayor of Irvine, California, won her seat with more votes than any candidate in the city’s history. But that hasn’t stopped the racist attacks.Kim, originally from South Korea, is one of three Asian American members of the southern California city’s council, which gained an Asian majority with Kim’s election. During a recent public discussion about a proposed veterans cemetery, she faced a xenophobic rant from a man who asked how she felt about the “36,574 Americans who died trying to save your country for freedom” during the Korean war.“I am an American,” she responded emphatically. “This is my country. And I am an American.”Tammy Kim reps Irvine, CA’s fastest-growing large city, thanks in large part to influx of Asian households. Its all-white council went Asian-majority in 2020.But its Asian Am members’ American bona fides are regularly challenged as seen happening here to Kim: pic.twitter.com/Q0eHWpMHCi— Josie Huang (@josie_huang) October 28, 2021
      The exchange has drawn widespread attention, and turned a spotlight once again on the rise in anti-Asian hate during the Covid-19 pandemic and the vitriol that Asian American lawmakers face while doing their jobs. Hate crimes in Orange county, where Irvine is located, are on the rise too, while a new study found they increased in nearby Los Angeles county by 20% in 2020.The Guardian spoke to Kim, a non-profit leader, about the experience, the racism she’s faced as a lawmaker and changing demographics in Orange county.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.What happened at the 26 October meeting?This particular gentleman who spoke, it wasn’t the first time. During public comment you’re supposed to just listen and let everyone have their first amendment.He talked about the fact that I’m from Korea and they saved “my country” so therefore I should feel a certain way. That happened before, I didn’t say anything. That’s why, when it happened again, I just said: “This is my country. I’m an American, and this is my country.” I didn’t need to say anything more.The Korean war was 17 years before I was born and we did not come here as war refugees. His comments were based on ignorance and the white savior complex of thinking they went to Asia to save us … and that I owe him something. At every level that is the core of white supremacy.Had you thought about how you might respond or was it just an immediate reaction?It just came out the way it came out. As an immigrant, you are constantly challenged to prove how American [you are]. This is land that was stolen from Indigenous tribes and built on the backs of slaves and everyone here except those who are native to these lands are immigrants. People of European descent are not questioned about their loyalty or patriotism.After you responded to his comments and he finished speaking, what happened next?The small group of his supporters applauded and patted him on the back. The camera didn’t pick up on [that]. It’s infuriating when you see that being encouraged.It’s exhausting being the perpetual foreigner and it’s exhausting to have to prove my loyalty and my right to be here. You think you get to a certain point where this doesn’t matter any more but then it does. I’ve experienced more direct xenophobia as a candidate and a person in elected office than I have in my civilian life. It always exists, it just comes out because they’re thinking those thoughts anyway. That’s why you have anti-Asian hate. It’s very easy when you’re already viewed as the other. This is all part of a bigger systemic issue in this country. This is just a small manifestation of what’s under the surface.What response have you received?People were so glad I said something. Other communities have had these issues. In Orange county something similar happened to a supervisor who is Vietnamese and [was] told [in a meeting] to go back to Vietnam. This has happened before. I’m not the first person.Orange county has a history of rightwing extremism and white supremacy. How has the region changed in your time there?Orange county has long been a bastion and a safe haven for extremist white nationalists, the Klan. In Santa Ana they had lynchings of Chinese people in the early 1900s. Orange county has a long history of overt racism toward people of color, but demographics are changing. Irvine in particular has changed a lot. Orange county has changed a lot.Asians are the fastest growing population in Irvine by far. The demographics are changing, the stores are changing. When the Albertsons closed and then it was announced that H-mart would occupy the space, there were residents who were not happy. When I came here there wasn’t a boba place and now there’s about 40.What has your tenure been like on the Irvine city council?There were 14 candidates I ran against. I ended up being the highest vote-getter in the history of Irvine. It felt great that I could be me and true to who I am and that resonated.I’ve been able to move a lot of progressive items forward. The first thing I did was work with the police department to establish an anti-hate incident and hate crime portal in multiple languages. When we were working with the rental relief program during Covid, I insisted that the applications be in all the threshold languages [Farsi, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese], as a result we had people that had never been able to access rental relief before. This is what we talk about when we talk about equity and access. That’s what I wake up in the morning to try to accomplish.The flipside is that being a public figure people think they can do or say whatever they want, including that I’m a reverse racist. Everything I do, I’m fighting for all citizens. When you’re fighting for clean air, you’re fighting for clean air for everyone; when you’re fighting for equity, you’re fighting for equity for everyone.Across the US, the tenor of city council meetings and other other meetings has intensified with public officials facing increased vitriol. What do you think is driving that?We live in a very polarized society right now where it’s like good versus evil and everything is very black or its white. I think unfortunately these are the times we’re living in. Everyone’s in their bubble, their echo chamber, whether it’s social media or the news they watch. I also think just not seeing people, it’s very easy to be a keyboard warrior. It’s not just one thing.TopicsCaliforniaRaceUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More