Category: Race,

Boulder City Council to hold special meeting Monday in response to police incident – Boulder Daily Camera

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,, Race,Leave a comment

Last Sunday, more than 600 converged at the March for Boulder Police Oversight to walk from Naropa University to the police station and to call for a civilian oversight board, as well as the removal of rifles from all police cars and the allowance for people to submit anonymous complaints to the department. 

…At the conclusion of the investigation, which is expected to take 60 to 90 days, the police department will publicly release all body camera video and an executive summary of the investigation.

Boulder City Council to hold special meeting Monday in response to police incident – Boulder Daily Camera

An investigation is a good thing but the only thing taht matter is the department’s actions after it is concluded. If those actions do not included publicly making an example out of officers who cross the line, the department has no claim on contributing to law and order.

Culturally Competent Messaging

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

Our research also shows that Latinos are not voting for a specific candidate or party, but are instead voting for what is best for their families and the greater Latino community. They may be putting a check next to a name, but it isn’t the name on the ballot that is moving Latinos to the voting booths. It’s the ICE raids in their communities, the Planned Parenthoods closing their doors down the street, and their hopes of making a living wage that moves them to vote. So when thinking about how we engage young Latinos, we need organizations, political parties, and candidates to understand the importance of focusing on issue-based messages that move Latinos to action.

…For Latinos, the messenger often matters just as much as the message itself. When it comes to civic engagement, groups that have a deep and extensive understanding of the community itself are among the most trusted voices. 

…The major political parties live and die on the 50 percent-plus-one strategy, where the desired outcome is not to achieve maximum participation, but instead to register and persuade just enough voters to put them over the top. This flawed strategy may bring out a voter for one election, but fails to build lifelong voters.

Latino voters are not a monolith, but there is major potential for investment when it comes to effective and culturally competent messaging.

Culturally Competent Messaging : Democracy Journal

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Reaching White Women

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

Simple mathematics dictates that if we care about Democratic majorities, we should start by winning back white women. If white women are moved either to vote or switch party affiliation by 8 percent in some places, that could secure victory when combined with an already reliable multiethnic coalition.

…First, let’s examine some truths about all women. From food to health care to cars, women make up 85 percent of purchasing decisions in the United States. Most women with kids under the age of 18 are in the workforce. Moms are twice as likely as dads to handle the cooking, and working mothers handle most of the childcare, even women who are primary breadwinners. 

…Anecdotes from this demographic show that most political jargon makes them feel alienated, and even phrases like “economic security” can invoke a sense of insecurity—that they need to be policy experts to participate in the conversation—when nothing could be further from the truth. Women are usually the ones who can calculate to the penny what they need to run the household, and they know intimately what one missed paycheck means in terms of family sacrifice. Until we acknowledge this as valued expertise, we will never be able to set up effective dialogue that draws these women into engaged progressive politics.

…White women report a desire to study and make well-researched decisions about their politics. Our job is to provide easily accessible and digestible information that fits into their daily lives, that they don’t have to venture too far to find.

Reaching White Women : Democracy Journal

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‘Moment of reckoning’: US cities burn recyclables after China bans imports

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Until recently, China had been taking about 40% of US paper, plastics and other recyclables. 

…Since January 2018, China hasn’t accepted two dozen different recycling materials, such as plastic and mixed paper, unless they meet strict rules around contamination. The imported recycling has to be clean and unmixed – a standard too hard to meet for most American cities.

…The conscientious citizens of Philadelphia continue to put their pizza boxes, plastic bottles, yoghurt containers and other items into recycling bins.

But in the past three months, half of these recyclables have been loaded on to trucks, taken to a hulking incineration facility and burned, according to the city’s government.

…. Nearly four in 10 children in the city have asthma, while the rate of ovarian cancer is 64% higher than the rest of Pennsylvania and lung cancer rates are 24% higher, according to state health statistics.

…The industry that remains emits a cocktail of soot and chemicals upon a population of 34,000 residents, 70% of them black. There’s a waste water treatment plant, a nearby Kimberly-Clark paper mill and a medical waste facility. And then there’s Covanta’s incinerator, one of the largest of its kind in the US.

…The burning of trash releases a host of pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides and particulate matter, which are tiny fragments of debris that, once inhaled, cause an array of health problems.

…A host of studies have identified possible links between air pollution and ovarian and breast cancers, which are unusually prevalent in Chester. A 1995 report by the EPA found that air pollution from local industry provides a “large component of the cancer and non-cancer risk to the citizens of Chester”.

“There are higher than normal rates of heart disease, stroke and asthma in Chester, which are all endpoints for poor air.” 

…It’s a situation being replicated across the US as cities struggle to adapt to a recent ban by China on the import of items intended for reuse.

The loss of this overseas dumping ground means that plastics, paper and glass set aside for recycling by Americans is being stuffed into domestic landfills or is simply burned in vast volumes. This new reality risks an increase of plumes of toxic pollution that threaten the largely black and Latino communities who live near heavy industry and dumping sites in the US.

…Just 9% of plastic is recycled in the US, with campaigns to push up recycling rates obscuring broader concerns about the environmental impact of mass consumption, whether derived from recycled materials or not.

…The country generates more than 250m tons of waste a year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with about a third of this recycled and composted.

‘Moment of reckoning’: US cities burn recyclables after China bans imports | Cities | The Guardian

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Whites Contribute More To Air Pollution — Minorities Bear The Burden

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Scientists and policymakers have long known that black and Hispanic Americans tend to live in neighborhoods with more pollution of all kinds, than white Americans. …A driver of unequal health outcomes across the U.S.

…The researchers found that air pollution is disproportionately caused by white Americans’ consumption of goods and services, but disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic Americans.

…The most relevant air pollutant metric for human health is “particulate matter 2.5” or PM2.5. It represents the largest environmental health risk factor in the United States with higher levels linked to more cardiovascular problems, respiratory illness, diabetes and even birth defects. PM2.5 pollution is mostly caused by human activities, like burning fossil fuels or agriculture.

…The researchers generated maps of where different emitters, like agriculture or construction, caused PM2.5 pollution. Coal plants produced pockets of pollution in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, while agricultural emissions were concentrated in the Midwest and California’s central valley. “We then tied in census data to understand where different racial-ethnic groups live to understand exposure patterns,” says Hill.

…After accounting for population size differences, whites experience about 17 percent less air pollution than they produce, through consumption, while blacks and Hispanics bear 56 and 63 percent more air pollution, respectively, than they cause by their consumption, according to the study.

“These patterns didn’t seem to be driven by different kinds of consumption,” says Tessum, “but different overall levels.” In other words, whites were just consuming disproportionately more of the same kinds of goods and services resulting in air pollution than minority communities.

…PM2.5 exposure by all groups has fallen by about 50 percent from 2002 to 2015, driven in part by regulation and population movement away from polluted areas. But the inequity remains mostly unchanged.

Whites Contribute More To Air Pollution — Minorities Bear The Burden : Shots – Health News : NPR

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DNA reveals that local men were replaced in Iberian gene pool thousands of years ago

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Race,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Iberia was also relatively warm during the last Ice Age, between 18,000 and 24,000 years ago, presenting a more welcoming climate for animals and people who retreated from the rest of Europe.

…The researchers also discovered that between 8000 BC and 5500 BC, Iberia’s hunter-gatherers were genetically different from each other. This suggests that they interacted with a different group of hunter-gatherers during the Mesolithic era before Anatolian farmers, or those from what is presently Turkey, moved to Iberia and transformed the area yet again. The farmers also mixed with hunter-gatherers, according to their DNA

…Beginning in 2500 BC, the researchers discovered, Iberians were joined by people from central Europe whose showed genetic ancestry from the Russian steppe. And over a few hundred years, the locals and the central Europeans interbred.

Before this, there is no evidence that locals came into contact with anyone from outside the area. But that changed after 2000 BC, when 40% of Iberian ancestry and 100% of the fathers in the study could be traced back to central Europe.

…The research also sheds light on why the language and culture of present-day Basques are so distinct from those of Iberians. The modern people of Basque Country, in northern Spain, are genetically similar to the Iberian Iron Age people with ancestry from the Russian steppe. While people around them mixed with different groups and changed, the Basques held on to their heritage.

…Genetic data will need a boost from what anthropology and archaeology can show about the underlying causes for why this Y chromosome shift happened, the researchers said.

DNA reveals that local men were replaced in Iberian gene pool thousands of years ago – CNN

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Men who lived in Spain 4500 years ago left almost no male genetic legacy today

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Race,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Men who lived on the Iberian Peninsula 4500 years ago …were replaced as new farming cultures swept into the region and drove them out of the gene pool. …The findings suggest that far from being an isolated cul-de-sac of Europe, Iberia experienced massive changes in ancestry, as waves of hunter-gatherers, farmers, Romans, and others mixed with the local population over the course of thousands of years.

…Central Europeans who were descendants of herders from the grasslands of Eastern Europe and Russia, appeared in Iberia, starting in the early Bronze Age 4500 years ago. They probably introduced an early Indo-European language. …At first, the European farmers lived alongside the farmers already in Spain. ….But within a few hundred years, nearly all the Y chromosomes from Iberian farmers were gone—and replaced by the central Europeans farmers’ DNA.

This meant that somehow, the new migrants replaced 40% of genetic heritage of the Spanish and Portuguese. …”The archaeological record gives no clear evidence of a burst of violence in this period.” 

…Still more immigrants came in historical times: first Romans and then Muslim North Africans. At one point 500 years ago, far more people of North African ancestry lived in Spain than today, before Christian kingdoms pushed the Muslim states south and eventually expelled them.

Men who lived in Spain 4500 years ago left almost no male genetic legacy today | Science | AAAS

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Why the college admissions scandal brings up affirmative action

On By peanutgallerynhIn Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

Factors such as donations, athletics and legacy status are baked into the admissions process, which has traditionally benefitted wealthy families. Yet affirmative action, which is intended to help underrepresented minorities, gets intense scrutiny and legal challenges.

…There is little discussion about underqualified white students who benefit from preferences in the admissions process such as sports, family influence and legacies. …Legacies are applicants who are regarded preferentially because they are the children of alumni. They also tend to be white and wealthy.

…Athletes of patrician sports, such as sailing or water polo, are recruited to college athletics. These types of sports aren’t accessible for students from inner-city schools.

…It is not affirmative action that threatens the fairness in the college admissions process, its supporters say, but rather the advantages of the rich and powerful.

…Americans are “not entirely wrong” to think “that elites are rigging the system for their own benefit and for the benefit of their families,” he said.

Why the college admissions scandal brings up affirmative action – CNN

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Texas migrant charity boss steps down amid questions over finances

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

A non-profit that detains thousands of migrant children on behalf of the Trump administration… …Southwest Key Programs announced on Monday that Juan Sanchez, who built a business empire that has boomed on the back of a hardline government policy, will retire.

…Federal prosecutors have been examining Southwest Key’s finances, according to reports in the New York Times, amid questions about whether the company misappropriated government funds.

The company has also been involved in allegations of sexual and physical abuse of minors in its custody.

Texas migrant charity boss steps down amid questions over finances | US news | The Guardian

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Tucker Carlson fantasized about a racist presidential candidate in 2006 clips from Bubba the Love Sponge’s show.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

Carlson credited white men for “creating civilization,” argued immigrants need to be either “hot or really smart” to be worthwhile, and called Iraqis “semiliterate primitive monkeys” who “aren’t civilized” because they “don’t use toilet paper or forks.”

…” You know, I’m not defending the [Iraq] war in any way, but I just have zero sympathy for them or their culture. A culture where people just don’t use toilet paper or forks.

…[Iraqis] can just shut the fuck up and obey, is my view. And, you know, the second we leave, they’re going to be calling for us to return because they can’t govern themselves.

Tucker Carlson fantasized about a racist presidential candidate in 2006 clips from Bubba the Love Sponge’s show.

oy…..

“Egg Boy”: Teen eggs Australian Senator Fraser Anning who blamed Muslims for Christchurch massacre

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Pacific Basin,, Race,Leave a comment

A teenage boy cracked an egg on the head of a far-right Australian politician as he spoke to reporters in Melbourne on Saturday. In the footage, Queensland Sen. Fraser Anning is shown immediately turning and striking the boy in the face before taking another swing.

…Victoria Police said they arrested the boy but later released him without charge.

…Anning was also criticized for tweets he posted following the shooting. “Does anyone still dispute the link between Muslim immigration and violence?” he wrote.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison quickly condemned Anning’s comments on Friday.

“Egg Boy”: Teen eggs Australian Senator Fraser Anning who blamed Muslims for Christchurch massacre – CBS News

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The Tucker Carlson drama, explained

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Media and Culture,, Race,, Religion,Leave a comment

“Iraq is a crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semiliterate primitive monkeys,” Carlson said in one clip from October 7, 2008.

…Carlson said of Iraqis in 2006. “A culture where people just don’t use toilet paper or forks … they can just shut the fuck up and obey, is my view.”

…Carlson questioned whether Barack Obama is really black, mused about a presidential candidate running on a platform of protecting the country from “Muslim lunatics,” and used a homophobic slur.

…NowThis News published a third tranche of Carlson clips — audio of him alternately mocking and joking about having sex with underaged beauty pageant contestants.

…Last December, Carlson — who took over Bill O’Reilly’s primetime time slot after O’Reilly was forced out amid a sexual harassment scandal in May 2017 — was widely denounced after he said during his Fox News that immigrants make America “poorer and dirtier and more divided.”

Carlson’s comments resulted in 14 companies pulling their advertising. AstraZeneca followed suit on Monday, on the heels of Media Matters publishing the first set of clips from Bubba the Love Sponge’s show.

The Tucker Carlson drama, explained – Vox

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Black Lawmakers to Block Legalized Marijuana in N.Y. if Their Communities Don’t Benefit

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Drugs & Drink,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

The lawmakers say that unless people of color are guaranteed a share of the potentially $3 billion industry, there may be no legalization this year. They want to be assured that some of that money will go toward job training programs, and that minority entrepreneurs will receive licenses to cultivate or sell the marijuana.

…They say one misstep, in particular, stands out: None of the 10 states or Washington ensured that minority communities would share in any economic windfall of legalization — missing out on an opportunity to redress years of having a disproportionate number of African-Americans arrested on marijuana charges.

…Critics say marijuana legalization has fostered an inequitable system in which wealthy, white investors often reap the profits of the fledgling industry.

In Colorado, black entrepreneurs said they were banned from winning licenses because of marijuana-related convictions. Black people make up just a handful of the thousands of cultivation or dispensary license holders there, and continue to be arrested on marijuana-related charges at almost three times the rate of white people.

In California, several cities introduced equity programs retroactively. Oakland now requires at least half of licenses to go to people with a cannabis-related conviction and who fell below an income threshold.

…Ms. Peoples-Stokes, a Democrat who represents a district that includes Buffalo. She has introduced her own bill, which directs half of all marijuana revenue to a community fund supporting job training, and prioritizes licenses for people from communities most affected by criminalization.

…That concern has made itself so clear that the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association, worried that legislators might seek to shut them out of the new industry, sent a letter to Mr. Cuomo and legislative leaders on Monday promising to set up a $25 million “Cannabis Economic Opportunity Fund” to provide zero-interest loans to companies led by women and people of color.

…The City Council’s Progressive Caucus and the Black Latino and Asian Caucus recently introduced laws and resolutions calling for the city to have local control over home delivery and cultivation of marijuana, potentially allowing smaller businesses to share in the sales.

“Not arresting people is not good enough,” Donovan Richards, a city councilman from Queens, said. “Economic justice must be served.”

Black Lawmakers to Block Legalized Marijuana in N.Y. if Their Communities Don’t Benefit – The New York Times

 

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Gal Gadot hits out at Netanyahu over ‘Jewish people’ comment

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,, Race,, Religion,Leave a comment

…”Israel is not a state for all its citizens. According to the nation-state law that we passed, Israel is the state of the Jewish people — and belongs to them alone,” Netanyahu wrote.

…”Love thy neighbor,” the Israeli actress said Sunday on Instagram, where she has 28.3 million followers.

“It is not a matter of right or left, Arabs or Jews, secular or religious,” she added. “It is a matter of dialogue, of dialogue for peace, and of our tolerance for each other. It is our responsibility to shine hope and light for a better future for our children.”

…On Monday, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin weighed in on the issue, condemning recent “unacceptable discourse” about Arab citizens of Israel.

“There will be no second-class citizens and second-class voters,” he said during a speech. “All of us will all be equal, all of us, Jews and Arabs, all citizens of Israel.”

…Israel’s approval of a “nation-state” law, which declares that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country and downgrades Arabic as an official language, dismayed the country’s minorities last year.

…The [Arab Israeli] minority makes up around 20 percent of the country’s population.

Gal Gadot hits out at Netanyahu over ‘Jewish people’ comment

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WV House Democrats condemn anti-Muslim speech, signs

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Local Interest,, Media and Culture,, Race,, Religion,Leave a comment

Part of a display for “WV GOP Day” at the Legislature, the signs and pamphlets included statements connecting the religious faith of a U.S. congresswoman from Minnesota to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

The House sergeant-at-arms, Anne Lieberman, resigned Friday after one delegate alleged she said that “all Muslims are terrorists.”

…“It’s ugly; it’s hateful; and there’s absolutely no place for it in American politics,” said Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha. “Not in the country that I love. Not in the state that I love. We all give up our time during this time of year to come up here and serve our constituents because we love this state. Well, I love everybody in the state, no matter what they look like, who they pray to, who they love. I’m tired of it. It disgusts me.”

…Del. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, said doorkeepers and Lieberman went “nose-to-nose with members.” …He said he kicked open the door into the chamber, suggesting a doorkeeper would not let him inside.

…Belinda Biafore, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, also released a statement. She condemned the signs and said, “This isn’t about freedom of speech; this is about hate speech.”

WV House Democrats condemn anti-Muslim speech, signs | WV News | wvnews.com

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