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'Thank you for creating a positive platform to share resources. This is a link to my blog, 'Thought: Process'. I hope you can share this with others to help continue these positive conversations? - Carma Elliot, UWCSEA College President'

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For many of us, this summer will be like no other - as our ability to travel for holidays is constrained and as we face continued separation from our extended family and friends outside Singapore. I am planning a short staycation, hopefully together with both of my daughters if travel restrictions ease sufficiently.

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Thought: Process - a blog by the UWCSEA President

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For many of us, this summer will be like no other - as our ability to travel for holidays is constrained and as we face continued separation from our extended family and friends outside Singapore. I am planning a short staycation, hopefully together with both of my daughters if travel restrictions ease sufficiently.

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International education perpetuates structural racism and anti-racism is the solution

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International education perpetuates structural racism and anti-racism is the solution

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International education perpetuates structural racism and anti-racism is the solution

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Nunana's personal story provides us with a powerful starting point for what we can and will do at CIS for ourselves, the communities we serve, and the world at large. The Black Lives Matter movement is a significant catalyst for change and one that we will highlight. We can do better at CIS.

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A short text that explains the concept and suggests ways to address it.

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A microaggression is a subtle behavior - verbal or non-verbal, conscious or unconscious - directed at a member of a marginalized group that has a derogatory, harmful effect. Chester Pierce, a psychiatrist at Harvard University, first introduced the term microaggression in the 1970s.

Key Takeaways: Microaggressions

Unlike some other forms of prejudice and discrimination, the perpetrator of a microaggression may not even be aware that their behavior is hurtful. While microaggressions are sometimes conscious and intentional, on many occasions microaggressions may reflect the perpetrator's implicit biases about marginalized group members. Whether intentional or not, however, researchers have found that even these subtle acts can have effects on their recipients.

Categories of Microaggressions

Derald Wing Sue and his colleagues have organized microaggressions into three categories: microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations.

Microassaults. Microassaults are the most overt microaggressions. With microassaults, the person committing the microaggression acted intentionally and knew their behavior might be hurtful. For example, using a derogatory term to refer to a person of color would be a microassault.

Microinsults. Microinsults are more subtle than microassaults, but nevertheless have harmful effects on marginalized group members. For example, Sue and his colleagues write, a microinsult could involve a comment implying that a woman or person of color received their job due to affirmative action.

Microinvalidations. Microinvalidations are comments and behaviors that deny the experiences of marginalized group members. One common microaggression involves insisting that prejudice is no longer a problem in society: Sue and his colleagues write that a microinvalidation could involve telling a person of color that they are being "oversensitive" to a racist comment that was made.

In addition to microaggressions perpetrated by a specific person, people can also experience environmental microaggressions. Environmental microaggressions occur when something in the physical or social context communicates a negative message to members of marginalized groups. For example, Sue writes, representations of people of color in film and media (or a lack of representation) can constitute a microaggression; for example, if a television show only includes white characters, this would be an environmental microaggression.

Examples of Microaggressions

To document the types of microaggressions that people of color experience, Kiyun Kim completed a photography series in which people held up signs with examples of microaggressions they have heard. One participant held up a sign saying that someone had asked her, "No, where are you really from?" Another person reported that he'd been questioned about his racial and ethnic background: "So, like, what are you?" he wrote on his sign.

While microaggressions have often been studied in the context of race and ethnicity, microaggressions can occur towards any marginalized group. Sue points out that microaggressions can be directed towards any member of a marginalized group; for example, microaggressions can be directed towards women, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community.

Sue explains that women may receive a variety of microaggressions based on gender. He points out that a woman might be criticized for being too assertive, while a man might be praised for the same behavior. He also gives the example that a woman working in a hospital might be assumed to be a nurse, when in actuality she is a doctor (something that has indeed happened to female doctors).

To document microaggressions against the LGBTQ community, Kevin Nadal (a psychologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York) took pictures of people holding signs with microaggressions they have heard. One participant in the project reported experiencing a microinvalidation, writing that he had been told, "I'm not being homophobic, you're just being too sensitive." Other participants in the project reported being asked inappropriately personal questions or having people simply assume that they were in a heterosexual relationship.

Effects of Microaggressions on Mental Health

Although microaggressions may appear more subtle than other types of discrimination, researchers believe that microaggressions can have a cumulative effect over time, which impacts mental health. The ambiguous and subtle nature of microaggressions makes them especially frustrating for victims, since they may be unsure how to respond. Researchers have also suggested that experiencing microaggressions can lead to frustration, self-doubt, and lower mental health.

In one study, Nadal and his colleagues looked at the relationship between experiencing microaggressions and mental health. The researchers asked 506 participants to indicate whether they had experienced different microaggressions in the past six months. Additionally, participants completed a survey assessing mental health. The researchers found that participants who had experienced more microaggressions reported higher levels of depression and lower levels of positive emotions.

Importantly, Sue and his colleagues write that microaggressions may make psychotherapy more complex for members of marginalized groups. Therapists may inadvertently commit microaggressions during sessions with clients who are members of marginalized groups, which can weaken the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client. Consequently, Sue and his colleagues explain, it's important for therapists to examine their own biases in order to avoid committing microaggressions during therapy.

Microaggressions in Education

Microaggressions can contribute to a campus climate where individuals who are members of marginalized groups may feel unwelcome or doubt their place at the institution.

In one paper, Daniel Solórzano at the University of California, Los Angeles interviewed Chicano and Chicana scholars about their experiences in academia. Solórzano found that participants in the study often reported "feeling out of place," as one study participant put it. He found that the participants reported experiencing microaggressions and feeling ignored or devalued by their peers and professors.

Simba Runyowa, writing for The Atlantic, reported a similar experience. He explained that microaggressions can make students of color feel that they don't belong at universities. Runyowa suggested that experiencing microaggressions can also lead to feelings of imposter syndrome, in which students worry that they are not qualified or talented enough.

Addressing Microaggressions

Sue explained that people are often reluctant to admit that their actions may be microaggressions: because we like to think of ourselves as good people who treat others fairly, realizing that we have said or done something insensitive can be threatening to our sense of self.

Writing for the American Psychological Association, Nadal explained that it is crucial to say something when we see someone else committing a microaggression. If we don't speak out, Nadal explains, we may end up sending a message to the perpetrator and victim of the microaggression that we think that what happened was acceptable. As Sue explained, it's important to become aware of microaggressions so that we can begin "to make the invisible visible."

Sources and Further Reading

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What Is a Microaggression? Everyday Insults With Harmful Effects

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A microaggression is a subtle behavior - verbal or non-verbal, conscious or unconscious - directed at a member of a marginalized group that has a derogatory, harmful effect. Chester Pierce, a psychiatrist at Harvard University, first introduced the term microaggression in the 1970s.

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Alum shares experience with racism in Singapore

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Alum shares experience with racism in Singapore

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By a UWCSEA'17 alum

https://www.generimpact.com/post/holding-space-as-an-activist-and-a-person-of-colour-in-a-white-world

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Ayushi Angresh is a rising law-student at the University of Bristol the UK. She is a peace activist, film-maker, and passionate historian, raising awareness about decolonization and the empowerment of people of colour and refugees. Previously she has been involved with organizations such as Ashoka, Amnesty, and Initiative for Peace. Currently she is working in providing legal advice to those who cannot otherwise access it, and up until the COVID crisis, was organising her own Initiative for Peace conference to address nationalism in India. In response to our request for her to conclude our self-confidence series, Ayushi wrote this powerful piece on the importance of building self-confidence by finding a supportive community and reminding yourself of your rights, when you are an activist of colour in a white world.

I study in England, where I am one of many international students who, with the hopes of using education as a tool for empowerment, travel to the very countries which disempowered us in the first place. My degree, four years of study in the system of common law, enables me to practice in most countries that are still recovering from English colonialism, a total of 41 nations including my home nation of Singapore. Most people I speak to don't understand the extent of their country's complicity in shedding blood of black and brown people globally, and the Victoria and Albert museum is, to the majority of the white English public, simply an exhibition in which they get to explore exotic cultures.

"Activism as a person of colour in white spaces is a

draining and challenging experience"

The burden of colonialism is still borne by those who were colonised, and our generation still feels the generational trauma and impact of systemic racism, colourism, and marginalisation.

Activism as a person of colour in white spaces is a draining and challenging experience, and it can take multiple forms. Some days, the extent of effort which can be afforded is just to not laugh at a racist 'joke,' whereas other days are brazen and emboldened, filled with a want, or even a need, to question, debate, fight the status quo. On the fiery days, people of colour (POC) are met with a flurry of disapproval, especially in complacent and 'politely' ignorant cultures where inciting debate, even when in favour of basic human rights, is frowned upon. So how do you take your activism further, cause more of an impact, mobilise communities around you, and do the things you love - all when you are distinctly a minority?

#1 Find a supportive community to draw energy from

The first and most important thing is to build a foundation, find a group, a community, that is your own and that you draw empathy, connection, and confidence from. 'Confidence' is almost universally misunderstood. It is not something that is a constant, or that a person can tap into with ease at any time. It ebbs and flows, with the good days and the bad ones, just like any other state of being. Knowing you are doing the 'right thing' is only a start - surround yourself with people who recognise your worth, and you will find it very difficult to forget it, even when things get hard. This is extra important when you're a minority.

"If you're spending all your time trying to get the people in your life to understand why their actions sometimes hurt, it's unlikely you will have the required energy for activism"

The last thing any of us needs when we're trying to change the world is to feel ostracised, even unintentionally, by the ignorance of our peers. We all have experiences of otherness or feeling unwelcome, purely on features we have no control over. This obviously does not mean we should 'cancel' very real, loyal, and beautiful friendships over ignorance, especially when a range of cultures and diversity is not something most people have the privilege to be exposed to. But equally, if you're spending all your time trying to get the people in your life to understand why their actions sometimes hurt, it's unlikely you will have the required energy for activism. While ignorance is taught and may not immediately deem your friend a bad person, find your balance, and your community, and make sure you draw energy, support, and love from them.

#2 Always remember your rights

The second thing to remember is slightly more structural. Power structures which enable activism through time, funding, or resources, are the same ones which are built on oppression. And as POC, we are constantly reminded of these structures. Colonialism, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the millions of statues to colonisers, Winston Churchill, and pretty much the majority of the white world are all constant reminders of how much we lack. We don't have the same level of financial power, security, or a voice, as our white community members. The system is built to overwhelm and therefore silence us.

"How do we find the confidence and therefore motivation to continue productivity

despite the systemic and structural barriers?"

Even with a fantastic community, where our white friends and family speak up to the extent that we want them to, the reminders are still there. They are structural, and ever-present. Bureaucracy stifles POC efforts before racists even hear of them. How do we find the confidence and therefore motivation to continue productivity despite the systemic and structural barriers? This is different for everyone, and we sometimes get it wrong. I remember a day where, while I was part of a team organising a youth peace conference, I had attended a house viewing with my family. Before we even entered the house, the agent informed us that the landlord was unlikely to rent to us because of our race.

"POC are excluded from the institutions

which are built from our suffering"

This wasn't the first time it had happened, and I would find it somewhat difficult to remember a house viewing with my parents where some mention of race wasn't brought up. I spent all my energy fighting a letting agent who couldn't actually make any change to the landlord's bias and had significantly less time for what really mattered, and contributed less to the conference. This was particularly hard, because Singapore is built on the backs of brown people, and the very buildings we are 'discouraged' from living in because of our race, are the ones that our race built on atrociously low wages. This form of injustice, where POC are excluded from the institutions which are built from our suffering, is omnipresent. I have found that the most effective way I draw confidence here, is to remind myself of the entitlement I should be feeling. The Victoria and Albert museum should be emptied out, and our artifacts should rightfully be returned to us. The buildings which are built on brown labour should be open to all brown people. Reparations should be paid, and Britain owes just India 45 trillion pounds. The economic, and systemic privilege which the Northern world is built on the South, and the British crown was set in black and brown blood.

"The most effective way I draw confidence here,

is to remind myself of the entitlement I should be feeling"

Not only are we entitled to the time, intellectual capabilities, and the open minds of people, we are also entitled to their resources. If the world is ever to find systemic racial harmony, POC must demand what they need, and we are entitled to have the ruling class listen, and act accordingly. The constant reminders of lacking resources are also a constant reminder that those resources must be redistributed if we are ever to effectively decolonise.

#3 Be patient

The final thing to remember, as a young, person of colour activist, is that movements are not built overnight. As confidence ebbs and flows, so does traction. Some days it will feel like your work is going nowhere, and systemic, structural, implicit racism refuses to topple. Monuments are not dismantled with one person overnight. Mobilise a community, remember you are entitled to people's time and resources, and channel those resources into taking steps that address the source of the issue rather than symptoms.

"Treating symptoms of issues rarely solves the issue itself,

and putting a band-aid on a bruise

does not address the problem below the skin"

If your project is to address housing inequality in POC communities, trying to do so by throwing money at brown and black families and hoping that will get them somewhere is solving a symptom of the issue. Addressing the structural inequality of housing systems in a way that empowers black and brown families to advocate against postcode inequality will see long-term, sustainable change. Treating symptoms of issues rarely solves the issue itself, and putting a band-aid on a bruise does not address the problem below the skin. And as long as you are working towards long term, sustainable change, you know you are working in the right direction and can remind yourself of this every time it seems like you're going nowhere.

Ayushi Angresh is a rising law-student at the University of Bristol the UK. She is a peace activist, film-maker, and passionate historian, raising awareness about decolonization and the empowerment of people of colour and refugees. Previously she has been involved with organizations such as Ashoka, Amnesty, and Initiative for Peace. Currently she is working in providing legal advice to those who cannot otherwise access it, and up until the COVID crisis, was organising her own Initiative for Peace conference to address nationalism in India. In response to our request for her to conclude our self-confidence series, Ayushi wrote this powerful piece on the importance of building self-confidence by finding a supportive community and reminding yourself of your rights, when you are an activist of colour in a white world.
I study in England, where I am one of many international students who, with the hopes of using education as a tool for empowerment, travel to the very countries which disempowered us in the first place. My degree, four years of study in the system of common law, enables me to practice in most countries that are still recovering from English colonialism, a total of 41 nations including my home nation of Singapore. Most people I speak to don't understand the extent of their country's complicity in shedding blood of black and brown people globally, and the Victoria and Albert museum is, to the majority of the white English public, simply an exhibition in which they get to explore exotic cultures.

"Activism as a person of colour in white spaces is a

draining and challenging experience"

The burden of colonialism is still borne by those who were colonised, and our generation still feels the generational trauma and impact of systemic racism, colourism, and marginalisation.

Activism as a person of colour in white spaces is a draining and challenging experience, and it can take multiple forms. Some days, the extent of effort which can be afforded is just to not laugh at a racist 'joke,' whereas other days are brazen and emboldened, filled with a want, or even a need, to question, debate, fight the status quo. On the fiery days, people of colour (POC) are met with a flurry of disapproval, especially in complacent and 'politely' ignorant cultures where inciting debate, even when in favour of basic human rights, is frowned upon. So how do you take your activism further, cause more of an impact, mobilise communities around you, and do the things you love - all when you are distinctly a minority?

#1 Find a supportive community to draw energy from

The first and most important thing is to build a foundation, find a group, a community, that is your own and that you draw empathy, connection, and confidence from. 'Confidence' is almost universally misunderstood. It is not something that is a constant, or that a person can tap into with ease at any time. It ebbs and flows, with the good days and the bad ones, just like any other state of being. Knowing you are doing the 'right thing' is only a start - surround yourself with people who recognise your worth, and you will find it very difficult to forget it, even when things get hard. This is extra important when you're a minority.

"If you're spending all your time trying to get the people in your life to understand why their actions sometimes hurt, it's unlikely you will have the required energy for activism"

The last thing any of us needs when we're trying to change the world is to feel ostracised, even unintentionally, by the ignorance of our peers. We all have experiences of otherness or feeling unwelcome, purely on features we have no control over. This obviously does not mean we should 'cancel' very real, loyal, and beautiful friendships over ignorance, especially when a range of cultures and diversity is not something most people have the privilege to be exposed to. But equally, if you're spending all your time trying to get the people in your life to understand why their actions sometimes hurt, it's unlikely you will have the required energy for activism. While ignorance is taught and may not immediately deem your friend a bad person, find your balance, and your community, and make sure you draw energy, support, and love from them.

#2 Always remember your rights

The second thing to remember is slightly more structural. Power structures which enable activism through time, funding, or resources, are the same ones which are built on oppression. And as POC, we are constantly reminded of these structures. Colonialism, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the millions of statues to colonisers, Winston Churchill, and pretty much the majority of the white world are all constant reminders of how much we lack. We don't have the same level of financial power, security, or a voice, as our white community members. The system is built to overwhelm and therefore silence us.

"How do we find the confidence and therefore motivation to continue productivity

despite the systemic and structural barriers?"

Even with a fantastic community, where our white friends and family speak up to the extent that we want them to, the reminders are still there. They are structural, and ever-present. Bureaucracy stifles POC efforts before racists even hear of them. How do we find the confidence and therefore motivation to continue productivity despite the systemic and structural barriers? This is different for everyone, and we sometimes get it wrong. I remember a day where, while I was part of a team organising a youth peace conference, I had attended a house viewing with my family. Before we even entered the house, the agent informed us that the landlord was unlikely to rent to us because of our race.

"POC are excluded from the institutions

which are built from our suffering"

This wasn't the first time it had happened, and I would find it somewhat difficult to remember a house viewing with my parents where some mention of race wasn't brought up. I spent all my energy fighting a letting agent who couldn't actually make any change to the landlord's bias and had significantly less time for what really mattered, and contributed less to the conference. This was particularly hard, because Singapore is built on the backs of brown people, and the very buildings we are 'discouraged' from living in because of our race, are the ones that our race built on atrociously low wages. This form of injustice, where POC are excluded from the institutions which are built from our suffering, is omnipresent. I have found that the most effective way I draw confidence here, is to remind myself of the entitlement I should be feeling. The Victoria and Albert museum should be emptied out, and our artifacts should rightfully be returned to us. The buildings which are built on brown labour should be open to all brown people. Reparations should be paid, and Britain owes just India 45 trillion pounds. The economic, and systemic privilege which the Northern world is built on the South, and the British crown was set in black and brown blood.

"The most effective way I draw confidence here,

is to remind myself of the entitlement I should be feeling"

Not only are we entitled to the time, intellectual capabilities, and the open minds of people, we are also entitled to their resources. If the world is ever to find systemic racial harmony, POC must demand what they need, and we are entitled to have the ruling class listen, and act accordingly. The constant reminders of lacking resources are also a constant reminder that those resources must be redistributed if we are ever to effectively decolonise.

#3 Be patient

The final thing to remember, as a young, person of colour activist, is that movements are not built overnight. As confidence ebbs and flows, so does traction. Some days it will feel like your work is going nowhere, and systemic, structural, implicit racism refuses to topple. Monuments are not dismantled with one person overnight. Mobilise a community, remember you are entitled to people's time and resources, and channel those resources into taking steps that address the source of the issue rather than symptoms.

"Treating symptoms of issues rarely solves the issue itself,

and putting a band-aid on a bruise

does not address the problem below the skin"

If your project is to address housing inequality in POC communities, trying to do so by throwing money at brown and black families and hoping that will get them somewhere is solving a symptom of the issue. Addressing the structural inequality of housing systems in a way that empowers black and brown families to advocate against postcode inequality will see long-term, sustainable change. Treating symptoms of issues rarely solves the issue itself, and putting a band-aid on a bruise does not address the problem below the skin. And as long as you are working towards long term, sustainable change, you know you are working in the right direction and can remind yourself of this every time it seems like you're going nowhere.

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Activism in a white world - how I kept mine alive and lessons learnt

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Ayushi Angresh is a rising law-student at the University of Bristol the UK. She is a peace activist, film-maker, and passionate historian, raising awareness about decolonization and the empowerment of people of colour and refugees. Previously she has been involved with organizations such as Ashoka, Amnesty, and Initiative for Peace.

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Met the founder of this incredible organization last year at the Embrace Racism Conference. Highly recommend:
(Julia Schetelig UWCSEA'18)

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EmbraceRace supports parents to raise children who are brave, informed and thoughtful about race. Join the movement!

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Help me develop an anti-racist strategy for my startup!

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Help me develop an anti-racist strategy for my startup!

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I am Julia UWCSEA'18, founder of the youth organization Generation impact: https://www.generimpact.com.
I would like to make sure that me and my team go beyond posting on social media but actively create an organization-wide anti-racism strategy. I want to learn how to support and empower my generation to become an "anti-racist Generation Impact". If you would like to get involved/give feedback/share thoughts please reach out: generimpact@gmail.com
or Facebook: Julia Schetelig

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Generation Impact

Connecting a young generation who wants to make a change with the resources how to

Here's what you can do

Find resources

Do you want to volunteer? Are you looking for competitions and conferences? Or do you just want to explore all the options out there? Check out our resources page or browse through our blogposts.

Give Feedback

Have you found something inaccurate, offensive or ethnocentric? Have you found something that you really like?

Tell me!

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How to make a difference | Generation Impact | Changing the world

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Generation Impact Connecting a young generation who wants to make a change with the resources how to Here's what you can do Find resources Do you want to volunteer? Are you looking for competitions and conferences? Or do you just want to explore all the options out there?

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Generation Impact: Anti-racism Resource List

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Generation Impact: Anti-racism Resource List

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A list of organizations to follow, movies, books, podcasts, written by a UWCSEA alum.

https://www.generimpact.com/post/what-can-i-do-blacklivesmatter-going-beyond-posting-on-social-media

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My heart reaches out to the communities who are suffering deeply at the moment. The murder of George Floyd and the many who came before him are a violation of human rights, an abuse of power, and a symbol of institutionalized racism. I am deeply ashamed about the atrocities that have been committed and are still being committed by people who look like me. Being German, I have been educated my entire life about the horrible history of my ancestors. I was taught to face the severe mistakes we have made and learn from them. And in the light of recent events, I know: I still need to listen and learn more.

Luckily, I have been humbled to see the number of resources that have been shared on social media exactly for that purpose: educating oneself! And since this is what this website is all about, I have gathered some, here, for you:

List of anti-racist resource-lists

Questions we (may) ponder (and some answers)

I am white - what can I do for racial justice?

75 things White People Can do For Racial Justice by Corinne Shutack.

This article has a ton of resources that you can use!

How do we overcome our biases?
Walk boldly toward them! (TED talk by Verna Myers)
How can we reform the US police?

According to experts, this is how police departments can begin to reform: 1) Police need to apologize for centuries of abuse 2) Police should be trained to address their racial biases 3) Police should avoid situations that lead them to use force 4) Officers must be held accountable in a very transparent way 5) On-the-job incentives for police officers need to change 6) We need higher standards - and better pay - for police 7) Police need to focus on the few people in communities causing chaos and violence 8) We need better data to evaluate police and crime

Where to Donate

That fundraising can move mountains shows this campaign for George Floyd's family, that raised already raised 12,354,400 USD - almost 11.000 USD more than they originally asked for.

Personally, I also recommend donating to Embrace Race, whose founder I met last year at a "Preempting Racism" Conference in NYC. The organization aims to educate parents on how to talk about race to their children.

This is a great blog post on where to donate if you want to support the protesters.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund "pays criminal bails and immigration bond for those who can't afford to as we seek to end discriminatory, coercive, and oppressive jailing". They have received a ton of donations recently and therefore shared a list of other organizations that need your support too.

No money to donate? This youtube video donates 100% of the advertisement revenue to the associations that offer protester bail funds, help pay for family funerals and advocacy. Share this video, make sure to leave the ads running, repeat the video, and let people know about this easy way to help.

Organizations to follow on social media

Movies/Videos to Watch
Barbara Smith, Reina Gossett, Charlene Carruthers (50:48) "How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion"
Peggy McIntosh at TEDxTimberlaneSchools (18:26)

"How do we overcome our biases?
Walk boldly toward them!" (TED talk by Verna Myers) Watch "Just Mercy" for free
Warner Bros. made Just Mercy available for free on digital platforms across the US as education on 'systemic racism'
Explained: Racial Wealth Gap (16min)
The full 16min docuseries is available for free on Netflix

On Netflix:

13th (Ava DuVernay)

American Son (Kenny Leon)

Dear White People (Justin Simien)

See You Yesterday (Stefon Bristol)

When They See Us (Ava DuVernay)
10 documentaries to watch about race
Podcasts to listen to

Books to Read

Anti-Racist Starter Kit

by Johann Jacob

Stamped from the Beginning - Ibram X Kendi A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn (There is a "young people's" version for elementary and middle school readers) White Fragility - Robin Diangelo So you want to talk about race - Ijeoma Oluo I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness - Austin Channing Brown Me and White Supremacy - Layla F Saad Stamped - Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi

Anti-Racist Intermediate Kit

by Johann Jacob

The Burning House: Jim Crow and the Making of Modern America - Anders Walker The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander The Condemnation of Blackness - Khalil Gibran Muhammad Dying of Whiteness - Jonathan Metzl A Different Mirror - Ronald Takaki How to be an AntiRacist - Ibram X Kendi How the South Won the Civil War - Heather Cox Richardson

Anti-Racist Topic Specifics:

by Johann Jacob

Evicted - Matthew Desmond Nobody - Marc Lamont Hill Lies My Teacher Told Me - James W Loewen Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria - Berver Doniel Tatum, PhD The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein Blackballed - Darryl Pinkney Lies My Teacher Told Me - James W. Loewen

Anti-Racist Lit; Bios, Non-fiction, novels, personal narratives: The Warmth of Other Sons - Isabel Wilkerson The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin Malcolm X - Alex Haley Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates Killing Rage Ending Racism - Bell Hooks Becoming - Michelle Obama An American By Marriage - Tayari Jones A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota - The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother - James McBride Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption - Bryan Stevenson The Myth Of Race - Robert Sussman

Anti-Racist Lit - Black Feminism: How we Get Free - Keeanga-Yamhtta Taylor Black Feminist Thought - Patricia Hill Collins Ain't I a Woman Black Women and Feminism - Bell Hooks Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay Eloquent Rage - Brittney Cooper In Search of Our Mothers Gardens - Alice Walker Sister Outsider - Audre Lorde Women Race & Class - Angela Y Davis Assata: An Autobiography - Assata Shakur To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe - Akwugo Emejulu and Francesca Sobande

Anti Racist List Black LGBTQ+: Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin Zami - Audre Lorde Real Life - Brandon Taylor Unapologetic A black, queer, and feminist Mandate for Radical Movements - Charlene A Carruthers No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies - E. Patrick Johnson Since I Laid My Burden Down - Brontez Purnell The Other Side of Paradise - Staceyann Chin No Ashes in the Fire - Darnell L. Moore The Summer We Got Free - Mia McKenzie Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin Rising Out of Hatred - Eli Saslow Black On Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity - C. Riley Snorton

Thanks to Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein who created: bit.ly/ANTIRACISMRESOURCES , which is where I found many of these resources! Check out their document for more!

Also thanks to my friends who made me aware of these resources!

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What can I do #blacklivesmatter? Going beyond posting on Social Media

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My heart reaches out to the communities who are suffering deeply at the moment. The murder of George Floyd and the many who came before him are a violation of human rights, an abuse of power, and a symbol of institutionalized racism.

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Questions to consider for the upcoming academic year

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Questions to consider for the upcoming academic year

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Toolkit for doing race/undoing racism/racial perceptions

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Step 2: Get ready to lead your class, program, or event

To get ready to lead your class, program, or event, visit SPARQ's Are You Ready to Talk? toolkit.

Whether you are a seasoned teacher or facilitator looking for a refresher, or a new teacher or facilitator looking for tips and strategies, this toolkit can help you get ready to guide your students or co-workers through a learning experience about race, difference, and inequality.

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Step 2: Get ready to lead your class, program, or event To get ready to lead your class, program, or event, visit SPARQ's Are You Ready to Talk? toolkit.

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Stanford: Pushing Back on Racism and Xenophobia

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Stanford: Pushing Back on Racism and Xenophobia

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How to have more effective conversations about race.

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COVID-19 has turned college life upside down. Students and professors across the country are grappling with unprecedented challenges as their campuses shut down and classes are moved online. In times like this, when survival is paramount both physically and mentally, issues such as fostering an inclusive classroom or teaching to a diverse student body are in danger of falling by the wayside.

In our well-intentioned rush to make education both possible and more humane during these chaotic times, we cannot afford to let our commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion slip. Fifty years of research in the humanities and social sciences reveals that race is central to understanding human behavior in the United States and throughout the world. It continues to be one of the most significant issues of our time.

Race both shapes individual experience and organizes communities and societies. It is a source of bias, prejudice, discrimination and oppression even as it can also be a source of identity, motivation and pride. If the goal is educating and equipping students to live and work in our current diverse and divided society, understanding racial dynamics is a key component of a college education.

Consider the current COVID-19 outbreak. As is often the case during times of crisis, racism and xenophobia are front and center. From President Trump's initial insistence on calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus," to the rise in verbal and physical attacks against Asian Americans, to the disproportionate impact of a racially biased medical system on the survival rates of people of color, the importance of race in society and in daily life has never been clearer. While the virus does not discriminate on the basis of race, race nevertheless affects who is likely to receive treatment, who is likely to recover first and who will suffer the most.

In today's climate, race is on students' minds, and they want to talk about it. Even so, many students and professors are not comfortable discussing race or equipped to have effective conversations about it. People show up to conversations about race with different histories, opinions, feelings, misconceptions and knowledge. Talking about race exposes our vulnerabilities and blind spots: students fear being misjudged or misunderstood by their peers or their instructor while professors worry about getting called out on social media or in teaching evaluations for making mistakes. Students and professors of color also often take the brunt of the emotional labor that these conversations evoke. These experiences frequently reproduce unequal power dynamics in the university, such that those with the most privilege in a room benefit the most. Finding common ground or a shared language to communicate can sometimes feel impossible.

Done right, however, conversations about race can be effective and even empowering. To accomplish that, we need to deal with a major stumbling block: people often show up to conversations about race with different and even inaccurate understandings of what race is and what racism means. We propose that by developing a shared understanding of race as actions that people do, rather than a thing that people are, educators can facilitate more effective learning experiences and conversations. Talking about race as actions that people do helps establish common ground, foster a shared vocabulary and provide the opportunity to improve racial literacy.
Doing Race and Undoing Racism
People often think that race or an essential characteristic that people have or are. The pernicious "logic" of race as a fundamental aspect of a person's being has a deep history in the United States and has undermined race relations since the nation's founding.

Here's how it works. Race becomes racism when people -- sometimes inadvertently, sometimes not -- start referring to another group in ways that portray them as inherently deficient, inferior or lesser. Next comes the inference that "those people" are lesser because their biological or cultural makeup -- their ancestry, DNA or blood -- is fundamentally different and cannot be changed. The final inference is that these so-called essential characteristics are the reason why some groups are more moral, more intelligent or even more human than others, resulting in a hierarchy. This view of race as a "thing" then fuels institutions, laws and policies that can be used to justify the current and past oppression of so-called inferior groups. In the U.S., slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Chinese Exclusion and Indian Removal Acts, Japanese internment, and Mexican repatriation are all outcomes of this way of thinking.

A large body of interdisciplinary research built up over decades, however, shows that race is better understood : as actions that people do as they interact with one another and the institutions and practices of society. Racial differences and disparities are not caused by essential characteristics, either biological or cultural. Rather, racial differences arise because people who are situated differently in society have different kinds of experiences and social interactions with others and the world around them. Our differing experiences shape us into diverse kinds of people, with varying backgrounds, perspectives and lived experiences. People "do race" through their everyday actions and activities that are motivated by often unspoken but deeply felt assumptions about who counts, whom to trust, whom to care about, whom to include and why. This is how race is socially constructed.

Consider again COVID-19. Race is being done through how some people label the virus (as "Chinese"), how some people are treated (as in the 1,000 attacks against Asian Americans) and by who gets blamed for the virus (people perceived to be Chinese or Asian). Despite being socially constructed, race is real and impacts people's lived experiences. Even President Trump, who at one point defended calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus," recently clarified in public comments and on Twitter that Asian Americans should not be blamed or mistreated.

Race is also done in the way that some racial groups are more likely to contract and die from the virus than others. While African Americans comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population, they represent approximately half of all COVID-19 diagnoses and 60 percent of deaths in counties with higher numbers of African American residents. Similarly, Latinx people in San Francisco and Navajo people in New Mexico are dying at much higher rates than their population numbers warrant. This has nothing to do with their "essential" characteristics. The disparity arises from the experiences and treatment they share: less access to quality health care, wealth and resources and higher rates of bias and discrimination.

Our forebears must be held accountable for making race as it is today -- for having done race in so many ways that created and promoted harmful differences among groups of people. We, however, are responsible for what we do today to either maintain it or remake it. Through our actions, we have the power to do race differently and "undo racism."

Along with our colleagues at Stanford University's Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, we have created a multimedia, evidence-based tool kit called RaceWorks, turning scholarship into action to foster greater racial literacy. We believe that these five key components are key to helping students and professors effectively engage issues of race in conversation and in the classroom.
Five Ways to Cultivate Racial Literacy
Use the language of "doing." Race is not a biological or cultural essence, so avoid referring to race in any way that portrays it as a thing that people have or are. In conversations, and in learning experiences about race, use the idea of race as a doing as a starting point to create common ground and dispel misunderstandings. Reflect on what people involved in the conversation think race is, ask why and how they know that. Then compare and contrast answers that cast race as a "thing" versus race as a "doing." So, if someone says "Chinese people" or "Muslim people" or even "my people" are a certain way, follow up by unpacking where people think these so-called differences come from and why. Draw attention to the fact that answers that construct race as an essential characteristic ignore the way all people either do race -- or undo racism -- through their actions, their relationships with others and their ideas about others.

The idea that race is not a biological or cultural essence is difficult for many people to understand for the simple reason that most are used to thinking of it that way. When you teach about race, make sure to draw the contrast between ancestry (the genetic inheritance passed down from biological parents to their biological child through the process of human reproduction) and race (a complex system of ideas and practices regarding how some visible characteristics of human bodies such as skin color, facial features and hair texture relate to people's character, intellectual, physical and moral capacities, and patterns of behavior). Understanding race as a dynamic system of social distinction helps clarify for your students what race is, how it works and what we can do about it.

Learn to perceive how race and racism operate in society. Race operates across different levels of society: the individual level (people's biases, stereotypes, feelings and attitudes); the interactional level (interactions with other people like family, friends, teachers, police officers and with products like social media, TV, film, music and advertisements); the institutional level (schools, law enforcement agencies, financial institutions); and the ideological level (cultural and historical narratives about race and racial difference). These levels all influence one another in the doing of race; they can then be sites for intervention. Mapping how race is done in society empowers us to have an empirical, evidence-based perspective that can lead to scalable changes that mitigate racism.

For instance, some students might see testing police officers for bias, with the purpose of rooting out likely racists, as a viable policy solution to reducing racial disparities in law enforcement. This perspective, however, locates racism in the hearts and minds of individual police officers and often stops there. A doing-race perspective considers how institutional practices and policies, like conducting discretionary traffic stops, contribute to disparate treatment by race and can result in systemic versus individual-level biases. It's important to look beyond individuals' biases, beliefs and attitudes to see how race is done (and reinforced, reproduced and reflected) throughout the social worlds that these individuals inhabit.

Know the history of race and understand how it influences the present. Doing race does not just involve what we are doing today. Racially significant incidents and discriminatory laws continue to shape our institutions and the cultural stories we tell about why some groups are supposedly superior or inferior to others. While ideas about race may change over time, they are rooted in an ongoing history and the actions of the past. When mapping how people do race, understanding the past is necessary for understanding the present.

Some students might not realize, for example, that political "dog whistles" of today can be more fully understood and critiqued when their historical context is taken into account. Calling Mexican migrants "illegal" is not only problematic today for the biases and stereotypes that the term calls up, but also because it neglects a complex history of settlement, movement and migration between Mexico and the U.S. over several centuries.

Acknowledge that all people "do race." All people "do race" as they interact with one another and the institutions and practices of society. Cultural narratives about race are in the air we breathe -- they are part of our individual experiences, thoughts and feelings, the stories we tell, the media and art we consume, and the social institutions we participate in. They powerfully shape how we see one another and the world around us. No one is exempt.

This idea can be useful in helping people identify their assumptions, biases and blind spots. For example, consider the different perspectives involved in why Indigenous students might prefer the term "Native" to "American Indian." Or why using certain racial epithets like the N-word, even in an academic discussion, almost always derails a conversation. Similarly, discussing current events like police shootings of unarmed black and brown people can cause very different feelings and reactions depending on students' racial backgrounds and experiences. Professors and administrators addressing such issues need to consider how race is being done, both by themselves as well as others, when such topics come up.

No matter the intention, words carry certain connotations and historical weight. If you do not have the lived experience of people in those groups, you may be unaware of those connotations. Acknowledge that when we use problematic terms, we are doing race and that our actions have impacts about which we may be unaware and wish to avoid.

But also recognize that since people do race, they also have the power to "undo racism." While people are shaped by the societies they live in, they can also change or disrupt the norms, values, institutions, practices and policies that reinforce and reproduce racism. We have the power to change our world and undo racism.

By spotlighting how people do race, educators are also laying the foundation for how students can be empowered to undo racism. As historian Ibram Kendi asks in his bestselling book How to Be an Antiracist, how can each and every one of us play a role in building an antiracist society? Through increasing racial literacy by learning how to perceive when, where and how race is done, students can be empowered to be change agents in building a more equal and inclusive world.

Talking and learning about race is hard, uncomfortable and threatening. But the classroom -- physical or virtual -- should be a brave space for encouraging students and professors alike to lean into that discomfort while, at the same time, leaving room to recognize that people's fear and anxiety can be triggered by different factors and experiences. Really caring about race and fighting against racism means that we need to take responsibility, recognize the history that we all share and perpetuate, and learn how to talk about it.

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Five ways college educators can have more effective conversations about race (opinion)

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COVID-19 has turned college life upside down. Students and professors across the country are grappling with unprecedented challenges as their campuses shut down and classes are moved online. In times like this, when survival is paramount both physically and mentally, issues such as fostering an inclusive classroom or teaching to a diverse student body are in danger of falling by the wayside.

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The Plug investigates and reports on Black tech trends, stories, and analysis with the purpose of humanizing Black people's engagement in technology related markets and industries.

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Smart reporting on the Black innovation economy | Smart reporting of the Black innovation economy

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Smart reporting of the Black innovation economy on The Plug...

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"Black Lives should have always mattered - an open letter to Search Associates" 

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"Black Lives should have always mattered - an open letter to Search Associates" 

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Dear Search Associates,

During a Black Lives Matter march held in Ontario, a friend of mine Sarra Ismail carried a poster voicing her sentiments as a woman of African diaspora, "From Sudan to Canada #black lives matter". Although the struggle of being black in North America includes the diversity of people who identify or are seen as black, it manifests itself differently to each one of us. Being black is how the world sees us, but each one of us black people living on this planet is a complex palette of identities woven by ancestry, history, cultures and experiences to name a few.

Reading the statement sent by email from The Search Associates Team conjured up a strong reaction in me. Your words felt borrowed, designing and frankly, audacious. I would like to humbly decline your sentiments, as a Black-African-Muslim-Woman international teacher who was a client of Search Associates. Your words are not felt sincerely nor genuinely. They seem to be an afterthought; the reactionary stance of a traditional, predominantly white male organization that is scrambling to jump on the bandwagon.

You do not get to use the words 'shocked, outraged and heartbroken' and sign-off with 'in solidarity' as leaders in the international school circuit for over thirty years. You have consistently failed to use your privilege to advocate for teachers of colour and leadership of colour in the international school circuit. You have acted as gatekeepers, preserving a majority white institutional world. As an international organization that proudly boasts over three decades of recruitment services, you should be pioneers, promoting diversity in an authentic manner. You should be the organization that has the answers, and has the models of empowering people of colour.

Instead, for thirty years you have helped white male administrators bounce around the world exchanging headships, uninterrupted, some with heinous scandals trailing behind. You stood by watching white privileged teachers getting hired for being in the same fanbase of a football or hockey team as the head of the school, or the familiarity of shared white cultures, hometowns and cities. You have witnessed schools operate as mid-twentieth century colonial schools in order to keep their local expatriate populations happy. You have witnessed bright and promising teachers of colour, especially ones with passports like mine, from Africa or the 'less-preferred' countries in Asia, left with slim pickings and leftovers of jobs. You have witnessed teachers of colour unable to break the glass ceiling and achieve positions of paid leadership, no matter how small. You have witnessed teachers of colour unable to access job fairs because of visas and passport complications. You have witnessed nepotism and outright racism in hiring and supervising teachers, and you have stood silent all these years, all the while waving the flag of globalism and internationalism.

I am a brilliant teacher, and I will say that because few white administrators will. I have been bullied by white administrators in my own home country, Sudan, scoffed at, underpaid, brushed aside, dismissed, cornered and blatantly put down as I have continued to teach across the world. I have met teachers of colour who have worked under the same white administrators, who share similar stories and experiences. Yet these administrators have continued to reign, thrive and grow their careers. I am my mother and father's daughter; a well-educated Sudanese firecracker of a woman, so I was never silent wherever I went. I have boldly confronted racism, stood my ground, and made administrators rethink their words and behaviour around me, but fighting systemic racism with little support is exhausting.

I cannot tell you how many schools I have applied to over the years, how close I have come, and how much I have impressed. Yet I never got hired at any of the 'top tier' schools, or the tiers beneath them for that matter. I have hustled with my connections, written cold emails to administrators, and everything else under the sun, verging on compromising my self-dignity just to 'be seen and heard'. Not only is my passport underprivileged, but I also have a non-teaching spouse and child, and that just becomes "too much baggage" for schools to take on because I already do not fit the mold; too foreign, complicated and probably too black. I am one of the finest international teachers out there because I bring a skill set, a worldview, and an intelligence unique to my identities and experiences. I have worked damn hard to learn and grow as an educator. I am loved and appreciated for years after I bid farewell to my students and families, because I was that teacher, the one-of-a-kind schooling experience.

What support have I received from Search Associates? None. At one point, I was unable to attend a job fair because my four-month old baby was refused a visa to accompany me to that country. I asked my associate directly, to please connect with two competitive schools who were expecting to meet me there. I requested that he apologize for my absence and explain my situation. He flat out refused in a curt two-sentence email.

I left the international school circuit at the end of last academic year 2018-2019. I have decided that life is too short, and I have too much to give to beg for it to be received. I am thankfully privileged enough to be this brave. I am not privileged in money or connections or resources, but in conviction, belief and the power of reinvention. Do better, Search Associates, much much better. Start by being honest. Instead of writing a statement of generic support, write a reflective letter of apology, acknowledging your organization's shortcomings. Ask for feedback and answers from those who know, those who have been crippled by your lack of responsiveness towards them. Own your privilege and use it to serve those who truly deserve it.

Yours sincerely,

Safaa Abdelmagid

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Black Lives Should Have Always Mattered: An Open Letter to Search Associates

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Dear Search Associates, During a Black Lives Matter march held in Ontario, a friend of mine Sarra Ismail carried a poster voicing her sentiments as a woman of African diaspora, "From Sudan to Canada #black lives matter".

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"Here are 10 commitments that corporations can and should make that will help achieve racial equity." (HBR)

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"Here are 10 commitments that corporations can and should make that will help achieve racial equity." (HBR)

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Executive Summary

In the wake of George Floyd's tragic death in Minneapolis, major corporations have been voicing their support for racial justice in the United States. But we are way past the point when words alone suffice. Actions are needed. Corporations can and should make 10 concrete commitments to achieving racial equity in their workplaces and society.

Jorg Greuel/Getty Images

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, many major corporations are tweeting out statements of concern and support for the Black community. That's a start, but what is needed at this moment is action. We cannot pretend that most major corporations in America - and their shareholders - have not benefited from the structural racism, intentional inequality, and indifference to suffering that is behind the current protests. Corporate America and the Business Roundtable have an obligation to go beyond tweets and quotes by committing to an agenda that will advance racial equity in meaningful ways.

Some changes cost virtually nothing; others may create short-term costs. But solid research has shown that the changes that do cost money actually create shared value and lead to both greater long-term corporate profitability and a more prosperous, equitable, and sustainable society. Now is the time to reset expectations for a new and better "normal" to which we can eventually return. Here are 10 commitments that corporations can and should make that will help achieve racial equity.

1. Commit to anti-racism personnel policies and racial-equity training.

Adopt a no-tolerance-for-racism policy like Franklin Templeton's, which led to its swift, recent termination of Amy Cooper following her altercation with Christian Cooper, an African-American bird watcher, in Central Park in New York City. And to back those policies, provide racial equity training for all employees - from the CEO and board to hourly workers. White privilege has blinded so many of us to understanding the ways that racism is built into our society, our economy, and our own lives. Change, for each of us, must start with our own learning journey, and resources are plentiful.

2. Commit to pay equity.

There is no longer any excuse for disparities in the wages paid to people of color and especially to women of color whose pay is twice discounted. Conduct a wage equity audit, and make the adjustments needed to achieve fair and equitable pay. For example, PayPal makes adjustments regularly throughout the year to maintain equity. Studies have shown that closing the racial pay gap would increase U.S. GDP by 14%, or more than $2 trillion.

3. Commit to giving employees a voice.

Ensure representation of hourly employees, women, and people of color in all employment policy decisions. Consider employee representation on your board - it's a legal requirement in Germany and is one reason why its economy recovered more strongly from the Great Recession than America's and has weathered the Covid-19 pandemic with only 4% unemployment.

4. Commit to supporting full participation in democracy.

Make Election Day a paid holiday. Help your employees register to vote by registering them at work.

It is no secret that corporate lobbying shapes many of our laws. Commit at least 50% of your lobbying expenditures to drafting and supporting bills that would improve conditions for communities of color by increasing access to quality education and training, rebuilding infrastructure, protecting consumers, ending racial oppression, rebuilding the safety net, achieving criminal justice reform, and making police more accountable. Remember, always that it is the people mostly deeply affected by these deficits who can best define the problems and necessary solutions. And if your business model relies on immigrants who live, work, and pay taxes in the United States, you owe it to them to stand up for their rights and support a path to citizenship.

6. Commit to paying a living wage.

The national minimum wage hasn't been raised in a decade and has not nearly kept up with inflation. This has had a disproportionately negative impact on Black workers, who must routinely hold multiple jobs just to survive. States that have raised minimum wages to $15 an hour have seen their economies grow and thrive.

It's not as expensive as you might think. Research has shown that the companies that pay well and offer good benefits and treat their hourly employees with respect are more profitable. Walmart raised entry-level worker wages to $12 an hour and saw productivity rise while turnover fell, generating a net increase in corporate earnings.

Eliminate last-minute variable shift scheduling that denies employees a 40-hour work week and disrupts their lives. The Gap found store sales increased 7% when it instituted stable scheduling with two weeks of advance notice.

7. Commit to paid parental and sick leave.

Most women of color cannot afford to take significant periods of unpaid leave from their jobs when they have a child. Given what we know about the critically important role maternal bonding plays in shaping brain architecture and establishing childhood well-being in the first years of life, it's clear that the lack of maternal care has lifelong consequences. The absence of paid sick leave is an even larger problem and one of the reasons people of color have been disproportionately exposed to Covid-19. Providing paid parental and sick leave to all employees can help businesses support thriving and productive workforces.

8. Commit to full health care coverage for all employees and support national health care.

Corporations spend twice as much providing employees with health care as they pay in taxes. It puts U.S; businesses at a massive global competitive disadvantage, consumes money that might have gone to higher wages, and is causing employers to offload more and more of health care costs on employees. As a result, the take-home pay of people fortunate enough to have employer-sponsored coverage is much less.

Ensure that living wage actually ends up in employees' pockets by reducing their contribution and supporting national health care coverage that would reduce the burden on corporations and would ensure that those without insurance - many of them people of color - are covered. Covid-19, which has disproportionately killed Black and Latinx workers, has underscored the need for equity and universal coverage in health care.

9. Commit to an employee emergency relief fund or low-cost loan program.

Nearly 40% of Americans - disproportionately people of color - lack the savings to cover even a $400 emergency expense. And that was before Covid-19 destroyed the fragile economic balance that millions of employees struggle to maintain. Their only recourse is to turn to extortionist payday lenders or to run up high-interest, credit-card debt.

When there is an emergency, a few hundred dollars advanced by the employer can be life-changing for employees. In addition, consider paying wages weekly instead of biweekly - many employees cannot last two weeks between paychecks - or use PayActiv that enables employees to access money they have earned before payday.

10. Commit to democratize employment applications.

Eliminate the box for "felony conviction" on job application forms, which disproportionately excludes people of color. Eliminate testing for marijuana use and other drugs if not required by law or the nature of the job. Join the companies such as EY, Google, and Whole Foods that no longer require a college degree for jobs that do not actually need higher education. Develop programs to hire, train, mentor, and advance Black youth without high school degrees who face the highest rates of unemployment, yet have been proven to be productive and loyal employees when supported through effective management programs such as those documented by Talent Rewire.

These commitments won't eliminate structural racism, quell protests, or stop continued violence against the Black community, but they are changes within the power of every company that will make a profound difference. These 10 potent commitments could make our companies more profitable, grow our economy, profoundly transform millions of lives for the better, and lead us to become a more equitable, resilient, and prosperous nation. Any one of them will make a difference. How many commitments can your company make?

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The 10 Commitments Companies Must Make to Advance Racial Justice

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Executive Summary In the wake of George Floyd's tragic death in Minneapolis, major corporations have been voicing their support for racial justice in the United States. But we are way past the point when words alone suffice. Actions are needed. Corporations can and should make 10 concrete commitments to achieving racial equity in their workplaces and society.

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A great video explaining systemic racism in the USA. We have weaved it into discussion about income inequality in Economics but it would be a good video to discuss "blame" culture too.

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G11 Glopo students discuss #BLM

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Shownotes: So much has been written and said in the past two weeks about the killing of George Floyd and race relations in the US, this is just an example of what you can read and watch:

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"We must understand that our upbringing in an international school setting does not mean we are exempt from being racist, either overtly or covertly. Contrarily, our upbringing and success has been contingent on the maintenance of global White supremacy, demonstrated through our ability to assimilate in Western countries, privileging their cultures, languages, and educational systems before our own."

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"We must understand that our upbringing in an international school setting does not mean we are exempt from being racist, either overtly or covertly. Contrarily, our upbringing and success has been contingent on the maintenance of global White supremacy, demonstrated through our ability to assimilate in Western countries, privileging their cultures, languages, and educational systems before our own."

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International school communities in the Global South are connected through the curiously unique experience of attending or working at an international school. Many of us find it difficult to explain our very nuanced experiences as students or teachers in said communities, and often find friendship in other individuals who have had similar experiences, who may understand. For reference, an international school can be defined as an educational institution which adopts curricula differing from that of the host country's, with an emphasis on global citizenship.

Those who have attended international schools in the Global South may fondly recall the diversity amongst our graduating classes, as well as the days we spent celebrating cultures other than our own, like Diwali or Chinese New Year. These institutions also provided us with the ability to travel to places far and wide, generally on service trips presented as a means to aid those less fortunate than ourselves. For most, thoughts of international schools conjure up images of racial harmony and tolerance, a utopian society where matters of race simply do not exist; an example of a post-racial society, if you will.

Now, as protestors in the United States march against systemic anti-Black racism and police brutality, some international school students - particularly those living outside of the United States - might wonder what this fight has to do with them. Even more dangerous, they might conclude, "This has nothing to do with me." To that end, we must understand that our upbringing in an international school setting does not mean we are exempt from being racist, either overtly or covertly. Contrarily, our upbringing and success has been contingent on the maintenance of global White supremacy, demonstrated through our ability to assimilate in Western countries, privileging their cultures, languages, and educational systems before our own.

The birth of the international school can be traced back to the migration of European expatriates and diplomats to developing countries in the Global South. Understanding that their time - and in effect, their children's time - in said context would only be temporary, diplomats and expatriates sought to create an educational system comparable to those in their home countries, which would eventually recognize and transfer their children's educational credits when they moved back. And so, the international school was born.

Today, there are more than 11,000 international schools globally, and over 5.6 million students attend such institutions. However, they do not only cater to the children of Western diplomats and expatriates. Today, international schools also function as a pathway to Western higher education for local, wealthy families. As such, admission into Western higher education institutions is a symbol of success, and one many local students in the Global South aspire to.

Access to international schooling in the Global South, however, remains financially exclusive. Most annual international school tuition fees are comparable to annual tuition fees of universities in the United States, which are notoriously high and unaffordable. In comparison to the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in most countries in the Global South, international school tuition fees are simply not feasible for the vast majority of its citizens. Thus, international schooling in the Global South is primarily reserved for the upper class. In effect, the international school system both contributes to and exacerbates global inequality, as only a select few in the Global South are afforded what is considered to be a world-class education.

Sociologists William I. Robinson and Jerry Harris understand this phenomenon as the formation of the transnational capitalist class (TCC). Robinson and Harris contend the TCC transcends national borders. Under the transformative forces of globalization, this shift in ruling class is distinct: "global class formation has involved the accelerated division of the world into a global bourgeoisie and a global proletariat, and has brought changes in the relationship between dominant and subordinate classes" (Robinson and Harris 2000:17). As such, it is paramount that international school students and alumni acknowledge our privilege not only on a local or regional scale, but also on a global scale. We must contextualize our opportunities and achievements within a global context, as well as understand how we benefit from global systems of inequality.

For those with ties to the international school community in the Global South, we must face the reality of our curated existence in the global cities we resided in; we existed in a parallel universe to most, one completely unrepresentative of the lived experience of those less fortunate than us. We found ourselves able to enjoy the thrills of the global cities we resided in without having to acknowledge the staunch wealth inequalities, racism, and structural injustices which also characterized said cities. The gates delineating the school grounds acted as a protective barrier, leaving our campuses untouched from the issues and inequalities that plague our respective societies, which, in turn, allowed us to exist in our constructed racial paradise laden with economic privilege.

In the context of race, international schools in the Global South are often advertised as sites of racial diversity, tolerance, and acceptance. Thus, many in the community believe there is little to no work to be done in reckoning with the racism that exists on international school campuses. This, of course, is false. Worse, it engenders a culture of bystanders to racism, allowing overt and covert racism to exist and remain unchecked. As such, instead of educating a cohort of youth who are more likely to stand up against acts of racism and commit to being anti-racist, international schooling in the Global South creates a culture of complacency, of youth who believe "this doesn't pertain to me," who may fail to identify racist acts as such because it was never explicitly discussed in their educational institutions.

International schools, then, become susceptible to colorblind racism, where folks claim to "not see color." This gives way to racist behavior from those who are either consciously or unconsciously committing acts of racism. This often leads many students of color in such settings to suffer at the hand of racism by their peers, but to stay silent on such issues, as they may lack the language to identify and articulate their experiences.

Other students of color, who may not have personally suffered from racism during their years at their respective international schools, may have experienced their first racist encounters at the Western higher education institutions they attended. They may have been asked, "Why do you speak English so well?" or had racist slurs and epithets directed towards them by their peers. Sometimes, they may have been unaware of the racism directed towards them behind their backs. Regardless of how or when, many students of color have experienced racism firsthand. We should thus be aware that we do not live in a post-racial society, and that the shelter of our international school campuses can only do so much for us. Conversely, this shelter has failed us, as we were unequipped to handle acts of racism head-on, whether directed towards us personally, towards our friends, or towards a stranger, oftentimes while we watched as bystanders.

On the other hand, White students in international schools in the Global South have benefited from the celebration and prioritization of their Whiteness. Many thrived in this very niche space as they were able to draw attention to themselves for traveling to "exotic" islands and countries, the ability to hold basic conversations in their host country's language, or even for having friends of color. Many saw themselves as non-racist for these very reasons, amongst others. The fact of the matter is that the educational institutions they attended were built for them. They were able to enjoy select parts of their host country's culture while still existing in predominantly culturally White spaces. To ignore the social, cultural, and economic privilege of Whiteness in the niche space that is the international school system in the Global South would be entirely negligent, and would fail to acknowledge the structural racism and inequality embedded in such institutions.

In the same vein, many White folks might define themselves as "global citizens" or "third culture kids." However, blurring racial identities under the umbrella of vague terms, such as the aforementioned, fails to acknowledge the variegated lived experiences of international school students, especially in the context of race. It trivializes the privilege of Whiteness in the Global South. For White folks: students, administrators, and teachers, it is important to deeply interrogate what opportunities your Whiteness has afforded you and why. The same is true of half-White folks who are able to adapt and switch when they choose, who have also similarly benefited and continue to benefit. I contend it is essential to avoid using such terms in international spaces, and instead, acknowledge our varied positionalities and how they function to benefit some while harming others.

For the author, as a half-White individual and a product of international schooling in the Global South, I enter adulthood continuing to disentangle the false narratives I've been fed over my years of schooling. Instead, I am committed to acknowledging the international school system as an inherently racist and Eurocentric one. Further, I continue to actively reckon with my own racist beliefs and behaviors, and my own internalized racisms.

To those who may be reading this, we must do better. We must do the work and commit to being anti-racist, as opposed to just "not racist." As you post your graphics on social media, attend your marches, and demand justice for the many innocent Black Americans murdered by a vicious and racist police force, remember your own role in these events. Many of us have comfortably said the n-word, either while singing along to a popular song or in casual conversation. Many of us have expressed racist sentiments against Black people. Many of us didn't know why this was wrong. Some of us still don't. The fact is, the systemic oppression and brutalization of Black people is not a problem specific to the United States; it is a global one, one in which we are all complicit. Black people continue to be discriminated against in Thailand, in South Africa, in Australia, in the United Kingdom, in Germany, in South Korea, in [insert your home country here].

The question we should ask ourselves when we watch the powerful protest of a community angry, hurt, and exhausted over the news of yet another Black life stolen by an inherently corrupt and racist system is not, "What does this have to do with me?" Instead, we must ask ourselves: How am I complicit? How can I grapple with my own racist behaviors and beliefs? How can I further educate myself on this global phenomenon? How can I do better?

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An Open Letter to the International School Community: Our Role in the Black Lives Matter Movement...

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International school communities in the Global South are connected through the curiously unique experience of attending or working at an international school. Many of us find it difficult to explain our very nuanced experiences as students or teachers in said communities, and often find friendship in other individuals who have had similar experiences, who may understand.

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"9 photographers take on the challenge of depicting bigotry" - a powerful visual resource to share and unpack with students

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The Photo Issue

Top photo: Jahi Chikwendiu

Introduction by Eugene Robinson

Racism is this nation's telltale heart beating ominously in the collective subconscious. From time to time we come to believe we have expiated and silenced it once and for all. But then it is back - changed, perhaps attenuated, but unmistakable.

Eleven years ago, we were congratulating ourselves on a historic milestone: the election of Barack Obama, the first African American U.S. president. Some dreamed - foolishly, it turned out - that we had finally entered a "post-racial" era. Instead, we find ourselves at a hyperracial moment of heightened friction, a time when six in 10 Americans believe race relations are "generally bad," according to a Pew Research Center survey, and nearly two-thirds believe it is now more common for people to express racist views than when Obama left office.

More than half of us blame President Trump for making race relations worse, according to Pew. But Trump may be more of a symptom than a root cause. If he exacerbates and exploits jagged divisions for political gain, he is able to do so because those divisions were already there.

It is depressingly easy to quantify the stubborn disparities that linger from our centuries of racism. The median black family earns just 62 percent of what the median white family earns, according to the Census Bureau, and has little more than one-tenth the accumulated net worth - gaps that have barely narrowed since the 1970s. Latinos fare, on average, just slightly better.

Much harder to catalogue is how Americans feel on a personal level. Racism hurts. A growing body of research shows it negatively affects the mental and physical health of its victims. Like any burden, it wears the bearer down. Sometimes it makes you feel like lashing out. Sometimes it makes you feel as if you are drowning.

In what surely is not a coincidence, racism is rising along with diversity. The country's 10 biggest cities and two biggest states are already majority-minority, meaning non-Hispanic whites no longer constitute more than half the population. The nation as a whole will reach that tipping point around 2045. Hispanics are now such a huge minority that one could argue the nation is already functionally bilingual. Perhaps the sense that demography equals destiny has something, or maybe everything, to do with the fact that about half of white Americans, according to a poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, believe discrimination against whites is as big a problem in the United States as discrimination against minorities.

This is how the war against racism goes: progress, setback, optimism, despair - a cycle that frustratingly repeats and yet somehow inches us forward. Racism may be worse than in the recent past, but the individual and collective punishment it metes out is a shadow of what black Americans suffered a half-century ago. We have no choice but to believe that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was right when he said that the arc of the moral universe is long but bends toward justice. We have somehow taken a detour, however, and must find our way back to the true path.

This issue is devoted to photography that documents this moment - not just our external struggle with racism, but the internal struggles as well. Some of the images are beautiful and unsettling. Some are jarring. If some make us uncomfortable, that is progress. An easy conversation about racism is not a real conversation at all.
Eugene Robinson is a Washington Post columnist focusing on politics and culture.
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Law Enforcement

The photographer created his own crime scene. The infraction? Being black.

Text and photographs by Marvin Joseph

When I was tasked with creating imagery that shows what racism looks like, what came to mind were all the troubling but increasingly common ways African Americans die at the hands of law enforcement. Recently, for instance, a young African American woman, who was at home in Texas with her nephew and had been playing video games, was shot through her bedroom window by a police officer.

For further inspiration, Malon Ali and I visited the Spirit Halloween store. While we were looking for the ugliest masks we could find, we spotted the faux crime-scene tape. The epiphany took hold instantly for both of us. The tape would illustrate the message: that being black in America can be a crime. Malon's dark-skinned body would be wrapped mummy-like and consumed by this tape - which is proving impossible to shake off. His attempts as he leaps, poses, runs or even dances are in vain. He cannot escape the ever-looming presence of racism.
Marvin Joseph is a Washington Post staff photographer.
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Speak Your Mind

Talking about discrimination can require careful navigation

Text and photographs by Marvi Lacar

If the pain of overt racism is like a brutal stab wound - instant and searing - the trauma of systemic and casual racism is like the phantom pains from an amputated limb. It is the constant pinpricks of a wound that can't fully heal. It is the external reminder that you're not quite like the others, and the gnawing self-doubt that you may never be enough.

But to speak of this type of pain can be risky. You can be told, "You have such a chip on your shoulder. Get over it!" or "You're always acting like a victim!"

Most people of color play a balancing act when advocating for ourselves and our children. We straddle the line between finding a space to speak openly about injustice and trauma, and guarding ourselves so that our experiences and our grief aren't turned into racial tropes. We proceed with caution, lest our stories be stripped of empathy and subsequently used against us. There are consequences of vulnerability.

Yet some parents, like Ilka Alcantara and Alicia Volel, are cognizant of their inherited trauma and are more open to addressing the reverberations of hate around their two girls. Best friends Indiamara and Ayainna, both 11, grew up in middle-class homes in Dorchester, Mass., with two working professional parents. What is grim about their stories is the commonality of their experiences. They speak of everyday realities many children and families of color have grown inured to - realities so typical, in fact, that these daily offenses no longer possess an urgency in their hierarchy of problems.
Marvi Lacar is a documentary and commercial photographer and director. Her personal work is centered on the emotional and psychological manifestations of generational trauma.
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Toy Story

Even in dolls, our tendency to objectify black female bodies comes through

Text and photographs by Delphine Diallo

As a French Senegalese woman, I contend with the stereotype of what the black woman should represent. I've been a graphic designer, art director, video editor and now a professional photographer for the past 10 years, and yet, throughout my experience working in the industry, I was seldom given credit as the woman doing the work. People still ask me, at 42: Are you a model? In everyday professional life, I'm too often seen as an object, the fantasy of the exotic black woman. Even now I still have to answer "How did you get the job?" It diminishes not only the work I have done, but who I am.

When we are looking at the success of stars like Beyoncé, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj - and the archetype they represent - we see how over-sexualized their bodies are. That focus can bring about real pain in girls of color who don't look like them. I respect the work of those artists, but I'm sick of the perpetuation of "body first, mind after."

When I began exploring how to represent the black woman as an object, I didn't want to photograph a real woman because I wanted the focus to be the woman as a subject, not as an object. So I started to research the different types of black dolls the toy industry has created through the years. To my surprise, Mattel's Barbie had the most choices: curvy, skinny, light-skinned, dark, big hair, braids, short hair, colored hair. Despite that range, the dolls ultimately still represent preferences about the black body. Toys are for children to play with, but they can also carry their own messages.
Delphine Diallo combines artistry with activism in an effort to empower women, youth and cultural minorities through visual provocation. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Esquire, Artsy, Vice, Essence, Smithsonian Magazine, Time, Vogue Portugal and Aperture.
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Face to Face

How our skin color affects the way others see us

Text and photographs by Jana Curcio

Despite the universality of one's desire for freedom and acceptance, achieving that desire takes on a very different meaning based on one's culture, race and the tonality of our face. "Skin Tones" is an art project that examines the notion that an individual's perception of her- or himself is inherently tied to one's skin color, and this, in turn, determines one's perception of others. It influences bias on a personal level, and bias across races at a macro level. Race and racism go hand-in-hand, back-and-forth in different directions.

"Skin Tones" visualizes this idea through the use of color blocks - based on the human skin tone set. The faces are presented as fragmented forms and are intended to ask, "What is racism these days?" Do the words "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," etched at the base of the Statue of Liberty, still hold true? And as we respond to people seeking freedom and acceptance both within and outside the borders of the United States, how do matters of race come into our responses?

In combining multiple faces to form a collection of images, I wanted to look at the interconnected nature of our skin, its tonality and the perceptions we have of ourselves as well as the perceptions others have of us. In doing that, I juxtaposed many ethnicities - and also the many facets and faces of racism.
Jana Curcio uses composite digital photography and mixed media in her artwork to explore issues of interpersonal relationships and the complex struggle around one's identity. Her work has been selected for numerous international awards and has been shown in galleries across the United States.
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Unwanted Neighbors

In some areas of Chicago, the signs of environmental injustice are everywhere

Text and photographs by Carlos Javier Ortiz

For the past 15 years my work has focused on addressing injustice in black and brown communities. I target issues of structural discrimination, violence, poverty, migration, marginalization and human rights. My work in film and photography has always revolved around what I call the beautiful struggle: life after death, family stories, human resilience and bridging the spaces between these subjects.

For this issue I was compelled to address the topic of race in a different way and thought about neighborhood effects on people of color, who are the most vulnerable population when it comes to environmental injustice in urban America. Environmental racism begins in the barrios and neighborhoods where black and brown people live, go to school, work and raise their families. In the third largest American city, Chicago's black and brown people live in some of the most polluted neighborhoods, surrounded by superfund sites, toxic landscapes, illegal dumping and air pollution.

We often don't correlate racism with polluted neighborhoods in American cities. That seems like something that happens on the other side of the world. But the reality of environmental racism has been rooted in America's history, in which municipal zoning laws and restrictive policies such as Jim Crow and redlining have locked the poor into toxic neighborhoods - and today not much has changed.

To illustrate the landscape where environmental injustice takes place in contemporary Chicago, I spent most of my time driving in and around black and brown communities: neighborhoods on the South, East and West Side of the city, once populated by European immigrants considered to be the undesirables many years ago. I didn't have to look hard for the structures polluting our neighborhoods; they tower over us, hiding in plain sight behind schoolyards, between ribbons of concrete highways.

The residents in these neighborhoods have injected their culture and labor to make the city what it is today. Chicago's politicians need to step up and provide safe neighborhoods, living-wage jobs and excellent public schools with a clean and healthy environment for the people who hold the city on their shoulders.
Carlos Javier Ortiz is a director, cinematographer and documentary photographer who focuses on urban life, gun violence, racism, poverty and marginalized communities. In 2016, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for film and video, and his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and the Library of Congress.
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Chokehold

The dangers of internalizing racism

Text and photographs by Jahi Chikwendiu

I keep hope, but I have lost all faith that this country will ever appreciably cleanse itself of deeply entrenched racism. Its barrage is constant and unavoidable warfare.

Before reaching school age, I knew of only one family in our neighborhood that wasn't brown. I was mostly shielded from even the idea of racism until yellow buses transported us out of brown stomping grounds and into school hallways that flowed mostly pink. It didn't take long to recognize how we all were being primed to understand racial differences and unequal treatment. My rambunctiousness compared with that of pink classmates seemed to always bring much harsher reactions - teachers' scolds from behind stern glares. I met with the principal's paddle more than a few times. When I stopped giving him the tearful response he seemed to seek, he'd solitarily confine me all day in the office's supply closet. The only light came from a sliver under the door that would allow my eyes to adjust from seeing total blackness to seeing the room as clear as day. Outside the door, chummy adult voices greeted one another as if there wasn't a child locked away nearby.

I was still in elementary school and playing in the living room at the home of friends when their teenage brother popped from one of the back rooms wearing what must've been their father's white Ku Klux Klan outfit. As my younger brother and I instinctively lurched back, he lifted the pointed hood to reveal his laughing face. Their father was also one of our peewee football coaches.

"Why are all the niggers in the back?" It was the first time, but not the last, I heard our high school football coach launch the n-bomb. It was during warm-ups, in front of all the players, in one of my first team practices after transferring to the school. When I found myself the only one openly protesting his racial slurs, the coach told me, "Son, I could make you a star. But I'm not."

Trying to list every racist act I've shunned and overcome would be impossible. Instead, when presented with the challenge to visually depict how racism stymies the collective potential of black people, I decided to create a series of photos meant to be a "Whitest Hands" version of Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye." In that book, Pecola Breedlove - a young black girl - is convinced that her life would right itself if only she had long, blond hair, white skin and the bluest of eyes. The images here are intended to be sirens: startling alarms to wake us from internalizing the myth of white supremacy and the reality of racism, which has led us to blind, deafen, silence, even choke ourselves. To refrain from internalizing racism's offerings is to give ourselves better chances of breaking the surface of racism's murky depths, like lotus flowers blossoming skyward.
Jahi Chikwendiu is a Washington Post staff photographer.
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The Race Card

The photo industry's historical bias toward particular skin tones

Text and photographs by Marc Baptiste

In the 1950s, '60s and '70s, the Shirley Card was used by Kodak as the guide across the board to match the skin tone in photography to a white woman (the original Kodak model at the time was named Shirley). It took Kodak years to modify its film to more accurately capture tones.

I have spent my entire career testing and mastering lighting, using various films, learning early on that you cannot use the same lighting for all skin tones. I believe that the level of integrity, care and responsibility of up-and-coming photographers - and my peers - to uphold a positive and accurate cultural narrative is changing for the better. Social media has given rise to those who embrace melanin and can create their own narrative. But there's still work to be done inside the media to ensure that the level of technical lighting skills matches the assignment when it comes to our representation.

Lack of inclusion and diversity in photography continue to have an impact. Colorism! In 2015, Kerry Washington was on the cover of InStyle magazine and appeared many shades lighter than her actual skin tone. More recently, Rihanna was on the cover of American Vogue and appeared much darker then her actual skin tone. Just saying.

As a photographer, I like all skin tones. We are all different, and we need to celebrate that. We need to keep it real.
Marc Baptiste was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and moved to Brooklyn at an early age. An internationally known fashion and portrait photographer, Baptiste says love for his birthplace influences all of his work. Styling by Alexander Garcia.
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Carved in Stone

At Georgia's Stone Mountain, the state's ties to the Confederacy cast a long shadow

Text and photographs by Sheila Pree Bright
"Georgia is beautiful. Yet on its beauty rests something disturbing and strange." - W.E.B. Du Bois
This photo essay - which I've titled "Invisible Empire" - explores the tension at Stone Mountain Park outside Atlanta. These landscape images are my visual journey around this appealing mountain, which features an enormous memorial that became a symbol of the white South and the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. The stone is the largest exposed granite in the country and home to a carving depicting Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.

In 1914 the United Daughters of the Confederacy advocated for a memorial so that the memory of the Civil War would stay alive and support the making of more Confederate memorials. On Thanksgiving night in 1915, white, male, middle-class citizens met atop Stone Mountain with a flaming cross and a Bible. The carving of the memorial began in 1923 and finished in 1972.

In the early 1920s, "evangelical Protestants in particular flocked to the Klan," according to Nancy MacLean's "Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan." They were mobilized by campaigns using the movie "The Birth of a Nation" and recruited from fraternities such as the Elks and secret societies such as the Freemasons - organizations that for decades had strict laws ensuring that they were for whites only.

Today the mountain and its surrounding park are known as a recreational spot for families and visited by 4 million people a year. On a sunny day, as I walked through this serene park looking at the yellow daisies - called Confederate daisies - I asked myself: What does it mean to absorb this energy in a public space? How should I feel confronted with this symbol of the Confederacy, which has terrorized black people for generations, while enjoying the alluring beauty of the mountain 10 minutes from my house?

My mother and father grew up during the Jim Crow era. In their daily lives they endured the trauma of racial hatred. I know I have internalized the same psychological upheaval. But I try to imagine what liberation from this painful legacy of violence looks like.
Sheila Pree Bright is an acclaimed fine-art photographer known for her photographic series "Young Americans, Plastic Bodies, and Suburbia." She is the author of "#1960Now: Photographs of Civil Rights Activists and Black Lives Matter Protests."
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In Our Skin

A photojournalist depicts what it feels like to be on the receiving end of ignorance and hate

Text and photographs by André Chung

I talk about race and racism with my friends often, sometimes daily depending on the temperature of our collective anger. So when I started this project, it was vital to create something collaborative because I knew there was more to be said than I could say alone. We have all had different experiences that led to different reckonings, but it was understood that none of us were unscathed.

When I think of racism, I don't think first about the injustice; I think about how it strikes my body. Racism knocks me outside of myself. Sometimes different versions of me rush forward to inhabit my corporeal self, giving me the strength to survive the psychic and physical onslaught. This is the feeling that I wanted to infuse the project with. As a photojournalist, documenting events is intrinsic to my work. However, documentary photography is too literal to get to the emotional, extrasensory experience that I think is necessary for these images. I encouraged my friends who were involved in the project to think about how racism makes them feel and to bring those feelings with them to the photo shoot. What I'm interested in are raw, emotive images that draw on symbolism and a disruption of realistic imagery. It is important to me to capture and render this viscerally, because I don't believe that we can interpret racism entirely through our intellect alone.

We cannot escape racism any more than we can escape our skin. Post-racial America has been and will remain a myth. I'll settle for a post-racist America, because in this moment we see that the distance we have traveled isn't far enough. For this project, we took aim at a country that won't recognize our humanity, or citizenship, or even our right to take umbrage. We insist that racism is the racist's problem, that our own humanity is intact, and that the people who spew hate are the ones who have the greater problem. We took the pain and used it, and became stronger than we were.
André Chung is based in Maryland. His work has always explored the relationship of people of color to the world. Photo editing by Dudley M. Brooks. Design by Christian Font.

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Visualizing racism: A collection of photo essays

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Nine photographers take on the challenge of depicting bigotry.

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"If you think your children are too young to get it, you're wrong, say experts" 

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"If you think your children are too young to get it, you're wrong, say experts" 

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The worldwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism that began last week after the death of George Floyd are forcing many parents to address issues of race, privilege and injustice based on skin colour with their kids.

And if you think your children are too young to get it - or that you're raising kids colour-blind to race - you're wrong, say experts.

"Children are thinking about race already by the end of their first year of life," said University of British Columbia psychology professor Andrew Baron, who specializes in the origins of race bias.

"Certainly, by the time that they're three or four, they're identifying race when they look at people. When they see individuals, they're not just looking at them as a person."

Baron said his own research shows children already have "implicit bias" - unconscious thoughts and feelings about social and racial groups - by the time they're out of kindergarten.

"These are the kinds of things that predict who you're going to hire for jobs, who you're going to vote for in elections, how kind or friendly you're going to behave toward people that are different from you," said Baron, who has a nine-year-old son.

"And the fact that a five- and six-year-old already has it at adult-like levels suggests that this stuff isn't learned very slowly. It's learned very early."
WATCH | Experts Handel Wright, Andrew Baron and Rhea Boyd offer tips for parents discussing race
Approaching the subject

While people of colour often factor race into daily conversations out of necessity, many white parents might be talking to their kids about race as a result of recent protests for the first time.

And that luxury to wait, said black identity and multiculturalism expert Handel Wright, should be acknowledged as privilege.

"Inaction is not neutrality," said Wright. "Inaction is, in fact, support of the status quo."

One way to start talking about anti-black racism is to "model empathy," said San Francisco-based pediatrician Rhea Boyd, who studies the effects of policing on children's health.

"If a child expresses concern about what they've seen affecting another child or family, share how they can act in defence of that person. How they can stick up for them."

The kinds of biases that we have as adults ... are notoriously difficult to change. - Andrew Baron, UBC psychology professor

But it's rarely kids who are uncomfortable talking about it, experts say. More often, it's parents.

Baron, Boyd and others suggest diversifying home libraries for starters, and people might already be catching onto that.

The top five bestsellers on Amazon in the U.S. this week are about race, including White Fragility: Why it's so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo and So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. Canada is experiencing a similar phenomenon.
WATCH | Parents talk about preparing their children for interactions with police:
Start as early as preschool

Caryn Park, part of the education faculty at Antioch University Seattle, said many parents of young children have had "that moment": their kids ask about another's skin colour out loud or point to someone who looks different from them in the grocery line. Rather than "shush" them, she says to "acknowledge" those differences, "cultivate curiosity" and explain the benefits of plurality.

"We tend to be so alarmed by children's responses that don't follow social norms, that we want to shut it down because we think they're not ready," said Park, who gives workshops to preschool teachers about anti-bias education.

"You're there to support. You're not there to have all the answers."

Seeking out books for kids with a variety of perspectives and non-white characters can help foster discussions, according to Wright, a professor at Vancouver's Centre for Culture, Identity and Education.

"Kids love talking about similarities and differences," said Wright. "And that's a fascinating and interesting kind of opening to begin to talk about race as being just another form of difference."

For older kids, discussing their emotional reactions to unfairness can help them do the right thing when it comes to calling out discrimination.

"Encourage kids to think of themselves as change-makers," said Park.

'The talk'

Wright says black parents carry the added weight of explaining the historically discriminatory law enforcement practices that have led to the deaths of not only unarmed black adults in North America - such as Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Botham Jean - but children such as Antwon Rose and Tamir Rice.

"The talk" often involves ensuring black children know their rights, know to keep their voices calm and hands visible if stopped, and also understand they could be treated differently even if they're part of a multi-racial group of friends, said Boyd.

"It's devastating that they have to. For kids to know that they may be perceived differently and at such a young age and that they may be criminalized and subject to violence simply because of the colour of their skin or the size of their growing body," said Boyd.

"That's a lot for a child to digest, and it's unjust that they have to."

With students out of the classroom, there's no longer a forum for kids to explore these issues with their peers or a formally led discussion with teachers.

And when parents are already shouldering the burden of working from home or the stress of not knowing where their next job might be, these discussions combined with the demand for homeschooling are a lot to bear.

But Baron, whose research focuses on how to help children learn inclusivity, says this is the most important lesson you can teach your kids right now.

"Research shows that the kinds of biases that we have as adults, that affect how we treat people who look different from us, are notoriously difficult to change," said Baron. "It forms really early and it's calcified at a young age."

Wright agrees.

"We're trying to keep as long as possible the innocence of our kids when in fact kids are losing their innocence before our eyes or even when we're not watching," said Wright. "If you don't teach your kids about race and about racism, the world will."

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How to talk to kids about race, and why you should start now | CBC News

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The worldwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism that began last week after the death of George Floyd are forcing many parents to address issues of race, privilege and injustice based on skin colour with their kids. Here's how to do it effectively.

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Jstor has compiled a list of different publications from the past 5 years to share with students 

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Jstor has compiled a list of different publications from the past 5 years to share with students 

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https://daily.jstor.org/institutionalized-racism-a-syllabus/?utm_term=Read%20More&utm_campaign=jstordaily_06042020&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email

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The story behind Ahmaud Arbery's murder: he was killed in February - why did it take so long for his killers to be arrested and charged?

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The story behind Ahmaud Arbery's murder: he was killed in February - why did it take so long for his killers to be arrested and charged?

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This podcast discusses structural racism in both the American police force and the judicial system, along with considering the ways in which black American men are racially profiled by the general public
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/may/25/the-killing-of-ahmaud-arbery

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Christian Cooper talks about systemic inequality 

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Christian Cooper talks about systemic inequality 

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Christian Cooper, the man who was birdwatching in Central and got into a confrontation with a white woman who called the police saying he was 'threatening her life' because he asked her to put her dog on a leash, is in a short discussion here (see video in article) about what incidents like this reveal about systemic racism
https://abcnews.go.com/US/christian-cooper-accepts-apology-woman-center-central-park/story?id=70926679

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A documentary based on the writing of James Baldwin which contextualises the struggle for racial equality. Here's the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNUYdgIyaPM

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Breonna Taylor was an award-winning EMT and first responder in Lousiville, KY, who loved helping her patients and her community. "She was an essential worker. She had to go to work," her mother, Tamika Palmer said of her dedication to standing on the frontlines of this pandemic.

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Why #BlackLivesMatter in Your Classroom Too

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Why #BlackLivesMatter in Your Classroom Too

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I have a simple job. It has two easy mandates.

1. Love children with good teaching.

2. Love their teachers by supporting them with good stuff to teach with.

I work in classrooms all over the world. When there are pieces of your heart in far flung corners of the globe, a powerful kind of empathy grows. When communities hurt, I hurt.

When Trayvon Martin was murdered in Florida, I thought of the children I serve there. I thought of the books they like and the jokes they tell me when I get to town. I remembered his school and his teachers. I thought of his community and especially of his family that has had to find light in the traumatic void his absence creates. On some mornings, when I am particularly sensitive or tired, I can see his classroom. His empty desk haunts my dreams.

When the same thing happened with Mike Brown and Tamir Rice, a significant part of me broke. These names are not headlines or hashtags to me. These were children who read the books my colleagues and I suggested and wrote the essays we asked them to write. These are children who trusted us with their futures. Our system betrayed that trust.

I've worked in schools my entire career. The death of a student or family member is not a new occurrence to me. It is painful every single time. But I heal.

These recent wounds, however, are kept fresh not just by the regularity of these murders, but that they are carried out by agents of the state or their proxies and that they happen almost exclusively to black and brown children, to their siblings, to their mothers and to their fathers.

When educators talk about racism our conversation is often limited to individual acts of personal bias. As long as we don't know any mean or intolerant people, we are complacent in our thinking that these problems are not ours to contend with. Such a stance ignores the systemic complexities of how race is lived in America, on its streets and in our classrooms - and even when there are no people of color present.

Becoming more systemically aware means understanding the kinds of racism that shape our communities, schools, and classrooms, and where we stand in relation to those social forces.

Most people are aware of individual racism. If we choose to talk about race, it is what we spend most of our time talking about, but few understand how it works. There are two kinds of individual racism. The first kind of individual racism is internalized racism. These are all the conscious and subconscious racial biases, prejudices, and blind spots that we all have within ourselves as individuals.

The second kind of individual racism is interpersonal racism. This is what happens when we act out the biases we internalize on others. Most of us are sensitive enough to avoid acting out our internalized racism, but as humans, our biases, prejudices and blind spots are most likely to emerge when we are tired, stressed, late, scared or feel threatened. As educators we are tired quite regularly and stressed daily, so the work of avoiding interpersonal racism is real and significant, but it is not all.

There are also two kinds of systemic racism. The first kind - institutional racism - is the collection of racist policies and discriminatory practices in schools, government agencies, and workplaces that routinely produces unjust outcomes for people of color. These words may be new to us, but as teachers we are intimately familiar with this kind of racism. This is the "achievement gap." This is the testing industrial complex. This is school discipline.

Let's consider this: if there were an activity at school that resulted in the mass failure of kids with green eyes, we would not criminalize the kids with green eyes. We would ask, "What is it about this activity that excludes kids with green eyes?" and we would change the activity. Are we, as members of the education community, willing to do this for black boys who are suspended at rates that are exponentially more in comparison to their peers? What could this look like? If sitting in a desk all day listening to lectures leads to mass suspensions for a specific subset of kids, I need to get with my team and change the activity. To engage in this imaginative work - even if it is messy - is antiracist. It affirms that black lives do matter.

The second kind of systemic racism - structural racism - is the unjust patterns and practices that play out across societal institutions. It is the reality that those suspended black boys miss out on valuable instructional time and consequently miss out on opportunities that lead to college. It is the reality that this boy's earning potential over a lifetime is now a paltry percentage of his college educated peers. It is the knowledge that this reduced earning diminishes quality of life. To be antiracist is to know that all of these things are connected and to know that many of them start in school even when we express no interpersonal racism.

All of our students matter, but in a society characterized by its dogged refusal to treat all kids and their families equally, it is our moral imperative to affirm that black lives matter. If outcomes continue to be bleak for large groups of people, it diminishes the quality of all our lives. When there is massive disenfranchisement fueled by widespread failure and incarceration, the safety of all our communities is compromised.

In our search for solutions, people utter platitudes disguised as answers - we should love one another, I don't see color or race, let's talk more - and all of those things are lovely and important starts, but they alone will not change the systems that routinely produce unjust outcomes. To continue with business as usual, to do nothing, to be "neutral" is a passive declaration of racism because the system that we are most intimately connected with - school - will continue to produce unjust outcomes for people of color. To be antiracist is to be actively involved with the disruption of these systems.

What is our influence, as educators?

What can we do? We cannot reconstruct the world to reflect our views, but we are in a unique position to take action in our classrooms. We can start to disrupt the status quo by asking ourselves questions about our practice, community and curriculum. When I'm working in teams with other teachers, here are some initial questions we use to imagine what our disruption can look like.

1. Safety. In order for students to learn, they need to feel safe. How can I make sure that my classroom is a place where children feel safe and protected? Can I ensure the sustained management of the room while communicating respect (without cultivating fear, embarrassment or teacher dependence)?

2. Choice. Children read more when they feel capable and motivated. How can I create access to reading material that is high interest and appropriately challenges kids? How can I create consistent opportunities to do work that has both meaning and consequence?

3. Voice. When students have a voice, they feel empowered. When so much of childhood is about staying quiet and listening to adults, how can we give students a platform to talk, to write, to share what is important to them? How can we help them be heard by the constituencies that matter the most to them? Who are those people, can we get them to the classroom, and how can we communicate with them?

4. Growth. Learning is not an identical process for all kids; we cannot treat it as if it is. Where are my students now? Honestly. Where can they be by the end of the week? What kind of teaching and practice will it take for them to get there? How can I best facilitate progress - small groups, out of classroom activities, labs, centers, discussions, home visits? How can I measure progress? What tools might kids need in addition to what I have planned so that they may succeed? Do all kids need that tool?

5. Flexibility. Children and communities are changing all the time. What do we need to read to be more responsive to our kids and communities? Who do we need to learn from? What is the best way to share that learning with other teachers? How can we put that learning into action? Day to day, what can this kind of professional growth look like for us?

There is no right answer; rather, it's the questions that help us think about what actions or changes might lead to better outcomes for all of our students, particularly those who are underserved by traditional schooling. Being an advocate for black lives does not mean that I am an advocate against any other lives. When we make the conscious decision to address persisting injustices, this broadens access to justice for everyone.

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Why #BlackLivesMatter in Your Classroom Too

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I work in classrooms all over the world. When there are pieces of your heart in far flung corners of the globe, a powerful kind of empathy grows. When communities hurt, I hurt. When Trayvon Martin...

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Sandra Bland was a 28-year-old African American woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on July 13, 2015, three days after being arrested during a pretextual traffic stop. Her death was ruled a suicide. It was followed by protests against her arrest, disputing the cause of death and alleging racial violence against her.

Bland was pulled over for a minor traffic violation on July 10 by State Trooper Brian Encinia. The exchange escalated, resulting in Bland's arrest and a charge of assaulting a police officer. The arrest was partially recorded by Encinia's dashcam, a bystander's cell phone, and Bland's own cell phone. After authorities reviewed the dashcam footage, Encinia was placed on administrative leave for failing to follow proper traffic stop procedures.

Texas authorities and the FBI conducted an investigation into Bland's death and determined the Waller County jail did not follow required policies, including time checks on inmates and ensuring that employees had completed required mental health training.

In December 2015, a grand jury declined to indict the county sheriff and jail staff for a felony relating to Bland's death. The following month, Encinia was indicted for perjury for making false statements about the circumstances surrounding Bland's arrest, and he was subsequently fired by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). In September 2016, Bland's mother settled a wrongful death lawsuit against the county jail and police department for $1.9 million and some procedural changes. In June 2017, the perjury charge against Encinia was dropped in return for his agreement to permanently end his law enforcement career.

In 2019, Bland's cell phone video became available to the public and to Bland's family for the first time. The video was obtained and shown by Dallas news station WFAA. This video was not available during the civil trials.

Sandra Annette Bland (February 7, 1987 - July 13, 2015) was from Naperville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and was one of five sisters. She attended Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, Illinois, then Prairie View A&M University outside Hempstead in Waller County, Texas, where she was a member of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority. She graduated in 2009 with a degree in agriculture. At Prairie View, she was recruited as a summer counselor for three years, played in the marching band, and volunteered for a senior citizens advocacy group.

Bland returned to Illinois in 2009. She worked in administration for Cook's, a food-service equipment supplier, a job she left shortly before her death. She had been due to start a temporary job on August 3, 2015, with Prairie View as a summer program associate.

In January 2015, Bland began posting videos about many subjects, including police mistreatment of African Americans. In one post she wrote, "In the news that we've seen as of late, you could stand there, surrender to the cops, and still be killed." She has been described as a civil rights activist in Chicago, and a part of the Black Lives Matter movement. Bland had at least ten previous traffic-related encounters with police in Illinois and Texas, and had been charged five times for driving without insurance, four times for speeding, and once each for driving while intoxicated and drug possession. Her final conviction was for shoplifting, and she owed $7,579 in unpaid fines at the time of her death.

Brian Encinia was 30 years old at the time of the incident, and is listed in Texas voter records as Hispanic. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 2008 with a degree in agricultural leadership and development.

Encinia had a history of performing pretextual traffic stops, having issued 1,600 mostly minor tickets in less than 12 months, using the pretext of little-enforced minor infractions to then perform random searches in the hope of finding something criminal. He began following Bland in Prairie View, Texas on the afternoon of July 10, 2015, accelerating fast on her rear, closing in so near to her that she changed lanes to give him the right of way, believing he was headed to an emergency call - at which point he pulled her over on University Drive for failure to signal a lane change, though he could have still stopped her if she did signal, under a different section of the Texas Transportation Code requiring a continuous lane change signal for a minimum of 100 feet (30 m). In a series of events recorded by his dashcam, along with a bystander and Bland herself, Encinia spoke to Bland, the interaction became heated, and he pulled her from her car. After they moved out of frame, he forced her on the ground, and arrested her.

In response to controversy over Bland's arrest and death, on July 21 the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) released dashcam footage of the arrest. Parts of the video appeared to be edited, with images of cars and people appearing or vanishing on the road, while the audio of Encinia's voice proceeded without interruption. A DPS spokesperson said that irregularities in the video resulted from technical issues that occurred when the video was posted. DPS then took down the problem video and replaced it with another version.

The footage shows that Encinia's tone and attitude change after he asks if Bland is irritated and she answers affirmatively. He initially wrote a routine traffic violation warning for Bland after she moved over but did not signal to let him pass since he was tailing her closely. After he returns to her car and speaks briefly to her again, he asks her to put out her cigarette. She responds, "Why do I have to put out a cigarette when I'm in my own car?" Encinia orders her to "get out of the car", and, when she repeatedly refuses to exit, he tells her she is under arrest. Bland repeatedly asks why she is under arrest, and Encinia responds, "I am giving you a lawful order." She refuses to leave her car, stating she is not under arrest as she is unaware of the reason and not obliged to. Encinia then opens her car door and tells her more than a dozen times to get out of the car before he tries to pull her out. After struggling, he draws his Taser and points it at Bland, shouting "I will light you up! Get out! Now!", at which point she exits her vehicle.

In a video recorded by a bystander, Bland is lying on the ground with Encinia and a female police officer above her. Bland says that she cannot hear, and states that the officer has slammed her head into the ground. She tells him that she is epileptic. This is confirmed by police dashcam video footage, in which the officer responds "Good," after Bland informs him of her condition. In the video, Encinia orders the bystander to leave the area.

Sandra Bland also recorded the arrest on her own cell phone; that video became public in 2019, and was not part of the civil trial evidence.

DPS stated that Bland was arrested because she kicked Encinia. She was charged with assaulting a public servant. DPS said that she "became argumentative and uncooperative" during the arrest. Officers took her to the Waller County Jail and placed her in a cell alone because they deemed her a high risk to others.

On July 28, authorities released several hours of video showing Bland at various times during her jail stay, including arriving at the jail, having her mug shot taken, and making phone calls (see § Waller County Jail videos). They said the footage was being released to dispel rumors and conspiracy theories, including that she was dead before she arrived at the jail and that her mug shot was taken after her death. At a news conference, Waller County Judge Trey Duhon said that such rumors have resulted in death threats against county officials: "Because of some of the things that's [ ⁠ ⁠] gone out on social media, this county has been literally attacked." Duhon said the FBI was investigating the most serious threats.

Alexandria Pyle, an inmate held in the adjacent cell, later told the media that Bland seemed "sort of distraught", was very emotional, and was crying frequently. Pyle, who spoke to Bland through a tiny chute, said Bland was upset that her friend had not come to bail her out. Pyle stated that she never heard any loud noise or commotion that would indicate foul play in Bland's death.

Police stated that at 6:30 a.m. on July 13, Bland refused breakfast, and a half-hour later told a jailer "I'm fine." According to Captain Brian Cantrell, about an hour after stating that she was fine, Bland asked via intercom how to make a phone call. Cantrell stated that Bland was informed she could use the phone in her cell with a PIN, but stated there was no record Bland made any call. Police stated that at 9:00 a.m., Bland was found "in a semi-standing position" hanging in her cell.

The next day, shortly after noon, police issued a statement that Bland had been found dead in her cell, and that they believed she had hanged herself. On July 20, one week after Bland's death, authorities released video from a motion-activated camera in the hallway outside Bland's cell. The video shows no movement in and out of the cell from 7:34 to 9:07 a.m., she is discovered by a female officer after that time, which led to resuscitation procedures being performed on Bland's body.

An autopsy conducted by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Science concluded that Bland died through asphyxiation, and classified her death as a suicide. Police stated that Bland had used a plastic garbage bag to hang herself. The autopsy report showed Bland had multiple abrasions on the right side of her back, slight abrasions on her wrists, and 25 to 30 healing, parallel cuts on her left forearm that predated her arrest.

An initial toxicology report released by the Harris County medical examiner's office found "a remarkably high concentration" of THC for someone who had been in jail for three days, leading to speculation that Bland may have had access to marijuana while in jail. Waller County assistant district attorney, Warren Diepraam said that it was more likely that Bland had ingested a very large amount of marijuana prior to her arrest. A toxicologist for the Tarrant County medical examiner's office agreed, indicating a THC level as high as Bland's suggests she "either had access to the drug in jail or she was a consistent user of the drug and her body had accumulated THC to the point that it was slowly releasing it over time." But he added: "I have never seen a report in the literature or from any other source of residual THC that high three days after someone stops using the drug."

Bland's funeral was held on July 22 at DuPage African Methodist Episcopal Church in Lisle, Illinois.

In March, Bland posted a video to her Facebook page in which she said was suffering from "a little bit of depression as well as PTSD". Her sister said that Bland had no "medically diagnosed clinical depression", but had good and bad days. Cannon Lambert, the family's lawyer, stated that Bland's March post gave little indication of her mindset around the time of her death.

A friend who spoke with Bland while she was in jail said she was upbeat despite the arrest: "It just makes no sense. Sandy was a soldier; she wasn't fazed about it."

In the two days after authorities announced her death, 31,000 people tweeted using the hashtag #SandraBland, and an online petition launched calling for an investigation of Bland's death. After three days, 200,000 people had tweeted her name.

On July 17, about 150 protesters gathered outside the Hempstead jail, chanting " No justice, no peace", and "We demand answers." Protesters outside the jail where Bland died held vigils and demanded an explanation for her death.

By July 29, 2015, at least twelve protests had been held for Bland around the country.

Protesters also asked why Bland had been stopped, and alleged racial profiling. Reverend Jamal Bryant of the Empowerment Temple AME Church in Baltimore traveled to Chicago at the Bland family's request, and called Bland's death "not a case of suicide, but homicide."

Texas State Senator Royce West called Bland's death suspicious. After meeting with law enforcement and other officials to discuss the circumstances surrounding Bland's death, he said that "the kind of information disclosed on Bland's intake form should have prompted jail officials to place Bland on a suicide watch, meaning a face-to-face check on her welfare every 15 minutes instead of the hourly checks normally required."

Bland's death resulted in protests, and calls for investigation by family, friends and others including Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).

Eric Zorn, writing for the Chicago Tribune, criticized Encinia for his handling of the traffic stop, calling him a "petty tyrant" and referring to his "Are you done?" as "snippy condescension familiar to anyone experienced in the bickering arts". However, he also said Bland was unnecessarily argumentative, writing: "[Y]ou must always defer meekly to the police. Even when they're acting like bullies, goading you or issuing you preposterous orders like to put out your cigarette as you sit in your own car, don't challenge their authority. ... Comply. And if you feel your rights are being violated, take it up later with a judge."

On August 13, about 25 heavily armed members of the New Black Panther Party rallied at a Texas jail to protest Bland's death and expressed their rage at police. No arrests were made.

In late August, the Prairie View City Council renamed part of University Drive as Sandra Bland Parkway.

Bland's mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, spoke about Bland at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

On January 21, 2017, at the Women's March on Washington, singer and actress Janelle Monáe included Sandra Bland in her performance, evoking the audience to "Say [Bland's] name!" in addition to giving the Mothers of the Movement the microphone, including Bland's mother, to each say the name of their lost son or daughter.

The FBI and DPS announced on July 16 that they had launched an investigation into Bland's death. Encinia was placed on administrative duties for violating procedures for traffic stops, and was terminated by DPS following his indictment on perjury charges. Waller County Sheriff R. Glenn Smith, who runs the jail in which Bland died, has been placed in charge of Waller County's investigation into her death. Smith was suspended and fired from his previous post as chief of police of Hempstead after alleged incidents of racism and brutality.

According to CNN, a report from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, published on July 16, found that Waller County jail "guards violated policies by failing to do timely checks on inmates", which should be hourly. The report also stated that jail employees had not been adequately trained to deal with mental health problems. The staff had not all undergone the minimum of two hours of mental health training required by the state.

On July 22, county officials produced intake forms that they say indicate Bland had earlier attempted suicide. One questionnaire states that Bland took pills in 2015 after having a miscarriage. Another form filed by a different jail employee says Bland attempted suicide earlier, in 2014. One form indicates Bland had contemplated suicide within the past year, while another says she did not.

After a white male prisoner hanged himself with a bedsheet in 2012, Texas state inspectors had also cited procedural failings by Waller County Jail's staff.

R. Glenn Smith, the Waller County sheriff, stated that the jail staff may face disciplinary actions for their failures of not putting Bland on a suicide watch, not personally checking on her, and leaving the plastic bag that was fashioned into a noose. He said the actions "could range from suspensions to transfers to terminations".

An inspection in 2018, several years after Bland's death, showed that the Waller County jail was again not monitoring inmates correctly. All inmates were supposed to be monitored face-to-face at least hourly, jail staff exceeded that by two and a half hours. Certain inmates, including those who are assaultive or potentially suicidal, should be monitored every half-hour. That limit was exceeded by 74 minutes.

In August 2015, Prairie View City Council voted to rename the street Sandra was arrested on to "Sandra Bland Parkway."

In March 2016, documents obtained from the forensic lab that performed Bland's autopsy suggested that the time of death was not that which was originally reported by official investigations and that this could raise questions about the validity of the original investigation.

A report by the Harris County forensic investigator contradicted the official report of the Waller County Sheriff's Department about details of the condition of the body. In addition, the documents stating the time guards last observed Bland alive in her cell did not agree with the security video footage from the jail where Bland was detained, leaving a discrepancy of an hour. Brandon Wood, director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, said that the failure to observe inmates hourly as required by standards "could be criminal in nature." An attorney for the Bland family said that it might be just a clerical error, or might be something "more nefarious."

Bland's mother Geneva Reed-Veal is a member of the Mothers of the Movement, bringing attention to police reform, Bland's story and the grief process of losing a child.

The events surrounding Bland's death form the basis for much of Malcolm Gladwell's sixth book Talking to Strangers.

In December 2015, a county grand jury declined to issue an indictment in connection to Bland's death. A special prosecutor said that "the case is still open", and that the grand jury would meet again in January 2016 to discuss other aspects. Those aspects were widely assumed to include Encinia's actions during the traffic stop, and Bland's family urged prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against him. Reconvening the following month, the grand jury indicted Encinia for perjury, a Class A misdemeanor with a possible penalty of one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. The charge resulted from his statement in an affidavit that his reason for removing Bland from her car was "to further conduct a safe traffic investigation". The grand jury found that statement to be false, according to a special prosecutor. Hours after the indictment was announced, DPS said they had begun the process to terminate Encinia's employment as a state trooper. After an arrest warrant was issued, Encinia surrendered at the Waller County Jail and was released after posting a $2,500 bond. His attorney said that he would appeal his termination, while Bland's family called for more serious criminal charges including battery and false arrest.

On June 28, 2017, a judge granted a motion by prosecutors to dismiss the perjury charge against Encinia. In return, Encinia agreed that he would "never seek, accept or engage in employment in any capacity with law enforcement" in Texas or elsewhere. He also agreed not to seek expungement of the perjury charge.

Bland's family filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit, and a jury trial in that case was scheduled for January 2017. The family sought unspecified damages from DPS, Encinia, Waller County, and two jailers. In September 2016, Bland's family settled the lawsuit for $1.9 million, according to her mother. Details remained to be worked out and the agreement still awaited court approval.

Texas Senate Bill 1849, also known as the Sandra Bland Act, went into effect on September 1, 2017, and mandated change to corrections and police policy when dealing with those with substance abuse or mental health concerns. S.B. 1849 "requires de-escalation training for police officers and mandates county jails divert people with mental health and substance abuse issues toward treatment, makes it easier for defendants to receive a personal bond if they have a mental illness or intellectual disability, and requires that independent law enforcement agencies investigate jail deaths".

Police officers are required to complete comprehensive racial profiling training and forty hours of de-escalation training. Law enforcement agencies will maintain records documenting race or ethnicity of all persons detained and whether the officer knew the individual's race or ethnicity prior to being detained. In addition, police officers will undergo training to limit uses of force. All law enforcement agencies are required to provide education to the public concerning complaint procedures.

County jails are required to collect information used to make a determination of mental illness or intellectual disability. A written assessment of collected information will be submitted to a magistrate and mental health expert if a potential substance abuse, mental illness or intellectual disability exists. If need arises and is reasonable, pending charges may be suspended and an individual may be diverted to a treatment facility. In the event of a death in custody, the custodial agency will begin an investigation until a representative of an outside agency is on scene. In addition, electronic monitoring will be in place to ensure timely security checks for the welfare of those incarcerated.

On September 8, 2015, at the Library of Congress, the just-inducted United States Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, the Chicago- Mexican son band Sones de Mexico, and their songwriting class, cowrote the ballad "Corrida de Sandra Bland", in Spanish. Sones de Mexico performed the song the next day.

In 2018, filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner released the HBO documentary film Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland. Say Her Name is also the title of a painting by the artist Jennifer Packer created in response to Bland's death.

Waller County Jail surveillance-camera videos at YouTube, no audio, dates/times unknown, not necessarily in correct sequence

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Sandra Bland was a 28-year-old African American woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on July 13, 2015, three days after being arrested during a pretextual traffic stop. Her death was ruled a suicide. It was followed by protests against her arrest, disputing the cause of death and alleging racial violence against her.

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Murder of Ahmaud Arbery

Location

Satilla Shores
unincorporated Glynn County, Georgia, U.S.

Coordinates

31°07′27″N 81°33′22″W ﻿ / ﻿ 31.12417°N 81.55611°W Coordinates: 31°07′27″N 81°33′22″W ﻿ / ﻿ 31.12417°N 81.55611°W

Date

February 23, 2020
c.  1:15 p.m.

Murder, shooting, hate crime

Victim

Ahmaud Marquez Arbery, aged 25

Perpetrators

Travis James McMichael

Gregory Johns McMichael

William "Roddie" Bryan

Motive
Anti-black racism[1][2][3][4][5]

Verdict

All perpetrators guilty on all counts in federal trial
State trial:
Travis McMichael
Guilty on all charges
Gregory McMichael
Not guilty of malice murder
Guilty on remaining charges
William Bryan
Guilty of felony murder (3 counts), aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment (1 count each)

Charges

State charges:
Malice murder, felony murder (4 counts), aggravated assault (2 counts), false imprisonment, criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment[6]
District Attorney Jackie Johnson: Violating the oath of a public officer, obstruction of justice
Federal charges:
Interference with rights (a hate crime) (1 count each), attempted kidnapping (1 count each), using firearm during a crime of violence (1 count each for McMichaels)[7]

Sentence

Travis McMichael
Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus 10 years[8] (federal); plus 20 years (state)
Gregory McMichael
Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus 7 years[8] (federal); plus 20 years (state)
William Bryan

35 years in prison (federal)

Life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 30 years[a] (state)

On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was murdered during a racially motivated hate crime while jogging in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood near Brunswick in Glynn County, Georgia. Erroneously assuming he was a burglar, three white men pursued Arbery in their trucks for several minutes, using the vehicles to block his path as he tried to run away. Two of the men, Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, were armed in one vehicle. Their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, was in another vehicle. After overtaking Arbery, Travis McMichael exited his truck and assaulted Arbery with a shotgun. As Arbery attempted to defend himself, Travis McMichael fatally shot him. Bryan recorded this confrontation and Arbery's murder on his cell phone.

Members of the Glynn County Police Department (GCPD) arrived on the scene soon after the shooting, but no arrests were made for more than two months. The GCPD said the Brunswick District Attorney's Office first advised them to make no arrests, then Waycross District Attorney George Barnhill twice advised the GCPD to make no arrests, once before he was officially assigned to the case, and once while announcing his intention to recuse due to a conflict of interest. At the behest of Gregory McMichael, a local attorney provided Bryan's video to local radio station WGIG, which published the video on May 5. The video went viral on YouTube and Twitter. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) arrested the McMichaels on May 7 and Bryan on May 21, charging them with felony murder and other crimes.

The case was ultimately transferred to the Cobb County District Attorney's Office. On June 24, 2020, a grand jury indicted each of the three men on charges of malice murder, felony murder, and other crimes. Their trial began in November 2021 in the Glynn County Superior Court; all three were convicted on November 24 of felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. Travis McMichael was further convicted of malice murder. On January 7, 2022, the McMichaels were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus 20 years, while Bryan was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 30 years. On February 22, 2022, the three men were found guilty in a federal court of attempted kidnapping and the hate crime of interference with rights, while the McMichaels were also convicted of one count of using firearms during a crime of violence.

The local authorities' handling of the case resulted in nationwide criticism and debates on racial profiling in the United States. Many religious leaders, politicians, athletes, and other celebrities condemned the incident. Georgia Attorney General Christopher M. Carr formally requested the intervention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the case on May 10, 2020, which was granted the following day. Former Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson was indicted in September 2021 for "showing favor and affection" to Gregory (her former subordinate) during the investigation, and for obstructing law enforcement by directing that Travis not be arrested. In the aftermath of the murder, Georgia enacted hate crimes legislation in June 2020, then repealed and replaced its citizen's arrest law in May 2021.

Ahmaud Marquez Arbery (May 8, 1994 - February 23, 2020), nicknamed "Maud" or "Quez", was 25 at the time of death. He frequently ran for exercise, including regularly in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood close to the city of Brunswick, Georgia. Arbery lived in Fancy Bluff, a traditionally black neighborhood across the U.S. Route 17 highway from Satilla Shores, which was around two miles away. He graduated from Brunswick High School in 2012, where he was a football star. As a linebacker, he was known for his speed and agility. He attended South Georgia Technical College during fall 2012 and spring 2013 to train for a career as an electrician. He paused his studies to save money by working in his father's car wash and landscaping business, and had plans to re-enroll.

Gregory Johns McMichael (born December 23, 1955), then 64, previously worked as a Glynn County Police Department (GCPD) officer from 1982 to 1989, and as an investigator for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office from 1995 to his retirement in May 2019. In 2018, McMichael helped in a shoplifting investigation involving Arbery. According to various news sources, Arbery had been caught shoplifting in a Walmart store which led to a subsequent revocation and extension of Arbery's probation. It is unknown whether McMichael remembered this when he encountered Arbery on the day of the shooting. The prosecution later said the charges had nothing to do with his murder.

Travis James McMichael (born January 18, 1986), then 34, was a U.S. Coast Guard mechanic between 2007 and 2016, and had some training in law enforcement. He is Gregory McMichael's son.

William Roderick Bryan Junior (born August 19, 1969), nicknamed "Roddie", then 50, was a neighbor of the McMichaels. Bryan is a mechanic and worked at a local hardware store in Brunswick according to posts on his social media.

A video of the murder was recorded by Bryan using his cellphone from his vehicle as he followed Arbery jogging down the neighborhood road. The video showed Arbery jogging on the left side of the road when he encountered a white pickup truck, a thirteenth generation Ford F-150, that had stopped in the right lane. Gregory McMichael is standing in the truck bed, while Travis McMichael initially stands beside the driver's door with a shotgun. Bryan's vehicle comes to a stop behind Arbery and the pickup truck.

Travis and Arbery are seen to grapple over the shotgun. While struggling, both men disappear off camera view on the left side of the frame, after which the audio of a second gunshot is heard. When they reappear, Arbery throws punches and tries to grab the shotgun. A third gunshot is heard being fired by Travis at point-blank range as Arbery appears to throw a right-handed punch at his head. Arbery recoils, stumbles, and collapses face down in the middle of the road while Travis walks away. Gregory McMichael, who has taken out a handgun but has not fired, runs towards his son and Arbery.

On February 11, 2020, Travis called 911 to report a slender six-foot-tall (1.83 m) black man with short hair, wearing red shorts and a white shirt, who was trespassing on the site of a house under construction. Travis said, "I've never seen this guy before in the neighborhood". The dispatcher asked whether Travis was OK, and he said, "Yeah, it just startled me. When I turned around and saw him and backed up, he reached into his pocket and ran into the house. So I don't know if he's armed or not. But he looked like he was acting like he was." "We've been having a lot of burglaries and break-ins around here lately", Travis said on the call. He told the dispatcher that he was out in his truck, and that as many as four neighbors were out looking for the man. His father Gregory was one of the people out searching that night, and Gregory and at least one other neighbor were armed. Police responded and searched the house along with a neighbor, but found no one. However, surveillance video from that evening showed a man who reportedly looked like Arbery, briefly walking in and out of the house under construction. He did not take anything. The under-construction house did not have doors or windows.

Responding officer's report

The GCPD reached the scene immediately after the fatal shooting. The responding officer's report relied almost entirely on an interview with Gregory McMichael, who was described as a witness.

Gregory said he was in his yard when he saw an unidentified man running by. He said he recognized the man from a prior incident "the other night", when he said he saw the man reach into his pants as if for a weapon. He called to his son Travis and said, "The guy is running down the street; let's go". Gregory brought a .357 Magnum revolver, while Travis brought a shotgun in their pickup truck. The McMichaels said they pursued the man because he resembled a suspect in a string of local burglaries. But the police said there had been only one recent theft from an unlocked car in the neighborhood.

Travis attempted to cut off the man with his truck. The man turned and began "running back in the direction from which he came". The report states a third person, who was identified as "Roddy []", also tried to cut off the man, but failed. Gregory said he saw the unidentified man and yelled: "Stop, stop, we want to talk to you", and that they pulled up to the man, with Travis exiting the truck with the shotgun in hand. Gregory claimed the man "began to violently attack Travis" before two shots were fired. The man died at the scene after " bleeding out", the report concluded. Authorities later identified the man as Arbery.

The autopsy report released by the GBI ruled Arbery's death was a homicide caused by three gunshot wounds he sustained "during a struggle for the shotgun" that fired those shots. One gunshot wounded the upper left chest, one gunshot wounded the lower middle chest, and one gunshot caused a "deep, gaping" graze wound to the right wrist. There were no alcohol or drugs in Arbery's body, other than a "tiny amount" of THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis.

The case started under the jurisdiction of Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson. Because Gregory McMichael had previously worked as an investigator in her office, Johnson recused herself from further involvement in the case. On February 27, 2020, the case was transferred by the Georgia Attorney General's Office to the Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney's office. The Waycross Judicial Circuit is south of Brunswick Judicial Circuit.

On March 8, two Glynn County commissioners, citing discussions with Glynn County police, accused Johnson, or her office, of preventing the McMichaels' immediate arrest. Commissioner Allen Booker said: "The police at the scene went to her, saying they were ready to arrest both of them. These were the police at the scene who had done the investigation. She shut them down to protect her friend [Gregory] McMichael." Commissioner Peter Murphy said that officers who responded at the scene had concluded that there was probable cause to make an arrest, but when they contacted Johnson's office, they "were told not to make the arrest."

On February 28, 2022, it was reported that the state bar dismissed complaints filed by Georgia lawmakers against former Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson and Waycross Judicial Circuit DA George Barnhill.

The attorneys representing the Arbery family responded: "This video is consistent with the evidence already known to us. Ahmaud Arbery was out for a jog. He stopped by a property under construction where he engaged in no illegal activity and remained for only a brief period. Ahmaud did not take anything from the construction site. He did not cause any damage to the property. He remained for a brief period of time and was not instructed by anyone to leave but rather left on his own accord to continue his jog. Ahmaud's actions at this empty home under construction were in no way a felony under Georgia law. This video confirms Mr. Arbery's murder was not justified, meaning the actions of the men who pursued him and ambushed him were unjustified."

On April 7, Barnhill wrote to Georgia's Attorney General, Christopher M. Carr, saying Arbery's "family are not strangers to the local criminal justice system", noting that Arbery's brother and cousins had encounters with the law. Barnhill told Carr that there was "video of Arbery burglarizing a home immediately preceding the chase and confrontation".

A video of the shooting was uploaded on May 5 on the website of local radio station, WGIG; it was received from Gregory McMichael. After two hours, WGIG removed the video for being too graphic.

The video was uploaded to YouTube that day. The Arbery family's attorney posted a 28-second segment of the video on Twitter. The video of the shooting went viral. Glynn County police requested the Georgia Bureau of Investigation look into how the video was publicized. The Guardian published an edited version of the video on May 6. TMZ published a longer version of the video on May 5.

On May 7, Alan David Tucker, a local criminal defense attorney, said that he had sent the cell phone video to WGIG, and that it had been recorded by William "Roddie" Bryan, who was in the second truck following Arbery. WGIG confirmed that Tucker had provided the video to the radio station. Tucker had informally consulted with the suspects in the case, but said he had not been retained to represent anyone involved. Tucker said that he released the video to provide "absolute transparency" due to "erroneous accusations and assumptions", and that "my purpose was not to exonerate them or convict them."

Within hours of the video becoming public, Tom Durden, the district attorney for Georgia's Atlantic Judicial Circuit, said that he would present the case to "the next available grand jury in Glynn County" to decide if charges should be filed. The convening of grand juries had been postponed until after June 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Durden accepted Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's offer to bring in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) to investigate.

The GBI found probable cause to charge Gregory and Travis McMichael within 36 hours of taking over jurisdiction of the case, and, on May 7, arrested and charged them with felony murder. The McMichaels were booked into the Glynn County Jail. At an appearance before a judge the following day, the McMichaels were both denied bond.

Given the "size and magnitude" of the investigation, Durden requested that the case be reassigned to another prosecutor with a larger staff. Pursuant to Durden's request, the Georgia Attorney General's office reassigned the case on May 11 to the Cobb County District Attorney's Office, led by Joyette M. Holmes. She was the fourth D.A. to take on the case. Arbery's family welcomed the transfer of the case from a southeast Georgia district attorney to one in the metro Atlanta area 300 miles (480 km) away.

The Cobb County District Attorney's Office, led by Joyette M. Holmes, brought charges against the defendants. On May 21, 2020, William "Roddie" Bryan was charged with felony murder and attempt to commit false imprisonment. According to the arrest warrant, Bryan tried "to confine and detain" Arbery without legal authority by "utilizing his vehicle on multiple occasions" before Arbery was shot. The GBI said their investigators found "a number of pieces of video" that linked Bryan to the case. Bryan was alleged to have attempted to block Arbery, which was unsuccessful, and struck Arbery with his pickup truck while chasing him. Arbery's palm print was found on the rear door of Bryan's truck, cotton fibers near the truck bed were attributed to contact with Arbery, and a dent was found below the location of the cotton fibers.

At the June 4, 2020 preliminary hearing, a Glynn County Magistrate Court judge ruled that there was probable cause for the murder charges against all three men. The prosecution presented additional evidence to the court to support the murder charges, including hours of testimony from the lead GBI investigator. At the hearing, the prosecutor said that the three men "chased, hunted down and ultimately executed" Arbery. The investigator testified that none of the three had called 911 prior to the chase; he said:

I don't believe it was self-defense by Mr. McMichael. I believe it was self-defense by Mr. Arbery. I believe Mr. Arbery was being pursued, and he ran until he couldn't run anymore. And it was: turn his back to a man with a shotgun, or fight with his bare hands against a man with a shotgun, and he chose to fight.

The alleged use of these racist slurs could affect a federal hate crime trial in 2022. Although there may be some overlap in witnesses between the two cases, the federal trial is independent of the state trial and not affected by the state trial's outcome. Other evidence eventually not shown in the state trial by prosecutors, which can be considered in the federal trial, includes imagery of the Confederate flag on the McMichaels' truck.

On June 24, 2020, a Glynn County grand jury indictment was released against all three defendants, each on nine counts: malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.

At a hearing in July 2020, the three defendants waived arraignment and pleaded not guilty. During the hearing the lead prosecutor disclosed that Arbery's palm print had been found on the side of Bryan's truck and texts taken from Bryan's cellphone were "replete with racist remarks." At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge denied bond to Bryan.

Judge Walmsley made the following pre-trial rulings in 2021:

He denied a prosecution motion to bar testimony that the neighborhood was "on edge" at the time of the murder.

He ruled that the defense could not introduce evidence of Arbery's prior "bad acts", noting that the McMichaels were unaware of Arbery's past at the time of the murder. He justified his ruling by stating that the "character of the victim is neither relevant nor admissible in a murder trial", and that such evidence might also mislead the jury into thinking that Arbery's murder was "somehow justified" on potential "future dangerousness".

He ruled that the defense could not introduce Arbery's mental health records as evidence, citing Arbery's medical privacy. Walmsley also stated that a nurse's 2018 diagnosis of Arbery having mental illness was "highly questionable" and may unfairly prejudice the jury.

He ruled that the prosecution could let the jury listen to recorded phone calls made by the jailed McMichaels, and issued a limited gag order on trial lawyers not to comment on inadmissible evidence, including evidence they "should reasonably know" would be ruled inadmissible at trial.

He excluded evidence of "minute" amounts of THC detected in Arbery's body after his autopsy, excluded testimony of two use of force experts which the defense wanted to use regarding Travis McMichael's Coast Guard training, and excluded the introduction of graphic footage of a dying Arbery.

He excluded evidence that Arbery was on probation when he was murdered, and allowed the introduction into evidence of photos and videos of a Confederate flag symbol on the truck that Travis McMichael used to pursue Arbery.

The trial of the McMichaels and Bryan in the Superior Court before Judge Walmsley began October 18, 2021, with jury selection. The jury selection process was lengthy and proceeded slowly, with the 600 potential jurors (members of the ) questioned on what they had heard about the case and whether they had formed a belief about the guilt or innocence of the defendant, and many prospective jurors were dismissed. Judge Walmsley denied a defense motion to limit demonstrations near the courthouse, citing the demonstrators' First Amendment rights; the judge, however, expressed concern about social media posts that were "identifying jurors" or attempting "to influence the public".

On November 3, 2021, jury selection was completed. Twelve jurors and four alternates were selected. Of the 16 members, one was a black man, three were white men, and 12 were white women. The defense struck 11 of 12 prospective black jurors, the defense leaving the one black man from the qualified panel, while the prosecution used all 12 of its allotted strikes on white potential jurors. Judge Walmsley rejected a prosecution motion alleging that the defense had used its strikes in a racially discriminatory way. Only one black person ended up serving on the jury, despite Glynn County's nearly 27% black population.

Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said the murder of Arbery arose from the defendants' "assumptions and driveway decisions ... Not on facts, not on evidence". She stated that the defendants did not have "immediate knowledge" of Arbery committing a crime that day, referencing Gregory McMichael's police statement where he said he did not know if Arbery had committed a break-in. She also highlighted that twelve days before the murder, Glynn County police officer Robert Rash had relayed to the McMichaels a statement from the under-construction house's owner that Arbery "has never stolen or taken anything from his property". Dunikoski described that Arbery was "under attack" by the defendants during the chase on the day of his murder, alleging that William "Roddie" Bryan had attempted to hit Arbery with his truck four times, that Gregory McMichael told Arbery "Stop or I'll blow your fucking head off", that Gregory later described Arbery as "trapped like a rat" as a result of the chase, and that Travis McMichael had "stepped around that open door and moved toward" Arbery during the final confrontation.

Frank Hogue, the lawyer for Gregory McMichael, stated that Gregory correctly recognized Arbery from prior videos of Arbery entering the under-construction house, and that "Greg had sound reasons to believe theft had occurred - burglary".

William Duggan, a Glynn County police officer, testified that he came to the scene after hearing a "shots fired" report on his radio. The jury was shown Duggan's body camera and dashboard camera footage, which included graphic video of Arbery's body. Duggan said he attended to Arbery, intending to stop the bleeding from a large chest wound, but then realized that Arbery was already dead. Duggan said he saw Travis McMichael covered in blood and asked if Travis was OK, to which Travis replied: "No I'm not OK ... I just effing [] killed somebody." Duggan described Travis as very upset and cooperative.

During testimony by Cara Richardson, director of the Glynn-Brunswick 911 call center, several calls were played for the jury to hear. In July 2019, Gregory McMichael reported "a lot of break-ins in this area, automobile break-ins. And my son and I just discovered" a male suspect, "he may be living under Bluff Creek bridge ... We just made contact with him". Other calls made by Travis McMichael in January 2020 and mid-February 2020 were also played, as well as a call by Gregory McMichael at the time of the incident.

Security camera videos showed the jury that Arbery had visited Larry English's under-construction house five times between October 2019 to February 2020. The videos showed that Arbery had no bag, and he did not touch or take any items from the house. The jury also saw more security camera footage from the house, displaying other incidents of two white boys taking plywood from the property's garage, and separately, a white man and woman entering the house at night with a small bag. English made multiple 911 calls regarding the white couple, once saying: "I know that first time they went in and stole", from the boat at his property. English also called 911 over Arbery in 2019, describing him as a "trespasser". Citing ill health, English did not testify live in court, but instead a September 2021 video deposition of his was shown to the jury. English testified in his deposition that (1) people frequently explored his under-construction house; (2) he called 911 on Arbery in 2019 wanting police to tell Arbery "not to be there anymore"; (3) he barely knew the McMichaels and had never met William Bryan; (4) as to whether he told the McMichaels about incidents at his house - "probably", but "not sure"; (5) he had not authorized the McMichaels to confront anyone on his property; and (6) he did authorize a different neighbour (not Bryan) to check his property.

Kellie Parr, whose parents are residents of Satilla Shores, testified that in either December 2019 or January 2020, she saw a man at the under-construction house, whom she now believes to be Arbery. Parr said that the man was "just standing in the door frame and we just kind of looked at each other as I drove by", and that the man "didn't like hide or anything".

Matthew Albenze, a Satilla Shores resident, testified that (1) he saw Arbery "just looking around" inside the under-construction house on the day of the murder; (2) in reaction to that, he put a handgun in his pocket, and called the police non-emergency number from across the street; (3) he chose not to call 911 because he "did not see an emergency"; (4) that Arbery ran off during Albenze's call, to which Albenze said: "I don't know why he took off running. I don't know if he saw me or not". Albenze's call was played to the jury.

Edmund Donoghue, the state medical examiner who conducted Arbery's autopsy, testified that both the first and third shotgun blasts resulted in fatal injuries in Arbery, such that police or paramedics would not have been able to save Arbery's life. The first blast cut through Arbery's right wrist artery and pierced Arbery's chest, breaking ribs and causing massive internal bleeding; the second blast missed; and the third blast cut through a major artery and vein close to Arbery's left armpit, fracturing bones.

Travis McMichael was found guilty of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault (with a firearm and with a pickup truck), false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony (false imprisonment).

Gregory McMichael was found guilty of four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault (with a firearm and with a pickup truck), false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony (false imprisonment). He was found not guilty of malice murder.

William "Roddie" Bryan was found guilty of three counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault (with a pickup truck), false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony (false imprisonment). He was found not guilty of malice murder, not guilty of one count of felony murder, and not guilty of one count of aggravated assault (with a firearm).

A crowd outside the Glynn County courthouse cheered at the guilty verdict by the jury.

As a result of the verdicts, both the McMichaels and Bryan faced mandatory sentences of life imprisonment. The prosecution did not seek the death penalty in this case.

On January 7, 2022, the McMichaels were sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole and an additional 20 years, while Bryan was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

Attorneys for the defendants intend to appeal.

The Federal trial was held at the Frank M. Scarlett Federal Building in Brunswick, Georgia.

In April 2021, all three men were indicted by a federal grand jury with one count each of interference with rights, and with one count each of attempted kidnapping. Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael were also indicted with separate counts of using firearms during a crime of violence. The "interference with rights" charge is a hate crime, specifically claiming "that the defendants used force and threats of force to intimidate and interfere with Arbery's right to use a public street because of his race". The range of sentencing included the death penalty, life in prison, another prison sentence length, and a fine. All three men initially pleaded not guilty.

The Justice Department filed a notice of plea agreement on January 31, 2022. The deal, signed by federal prosecutors and defense attorneys for Travis and Greg McMichael, specified 30 year sentences to be served in federal prison, in exchange for guilty pleas. Travis McMichael's agreement stated that he had not set out on the day of the murder to harm anyone for racist reasons, but that he had "made assumptions" about Arbery due to his race and that race played a part in decision to chase Arbery with a gun. He also acknowledged that in digital messages he had associated black skin with "criminality" and supported vigilantism against black criminals. Greg McMichaels was prepared to plead guilty in a subsequent session.

But Arbery's family took the unusual step of opposing the agreement in open court, begging the judge to reject the deal so that the McMichaels serve their sentences in the Georgia state prison system, which was considered more dangerous and where both the interracial nature of the crime and Greg McMichael's history in law enforcement would make them likely targets of other prisoners. Caught by surprise, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke released a statement saying that the plea deal had been signed only after Arbery family attorneys "informed me that the family was not opposed to it." Assistant US Attorney Tara Lyons also asserted that Arbery's family had been repeatedly consulted about the agreement and were unopposed. But District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood sided with the family, acknowledging their emotional testimony as she took the rare step of rejecting the signed plea agreement, stating that she did not have enough information at that time to know whether the 30-year sentence it specified was fair.

FBI analyst Amy Vaughan testified about messages and social media posts made by Travis McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan, which showed that Travis often described Black people as "savages" and "monkeys", linked them to criminality, and additionally stated that they "ruin everything". In January 2019, Travis wrote that a restaurant patronized by Blacks should "change the name from Cracker Barrel to Nigger Bucket"; two months later, Travis wrote that he loved his job because: "Zero niggers work with me." On social media, Travis shared a video of a young Black boy dancing, where the audio had been edited to that of a racist song entitled "Alabama Nigger" by country singer Johnny Rebel; Travis also reacted to a video of a Black man pranking a white man by declaring that he would "kill that fucking nigger", and then responded to a story about black people assaulting white women by stating that he "would beat those monkeys to death" if that was done to his family members. In other social media posts, McMichael responded to a video of Black Lives Matter protesters by wishing that he had a rifle to shoot the "goddamn monkeys", and separately called for a vehicle to drive into a group of Black people.

According to Vaughan's testimony, William "Roddie" Bryan stated on 2019's MLK Day that he was "working so all the niggers can take off", further describing the MLK Day's parade as the "monkey day parade". Bryan also stated that a Black man that his daughter was dating would "fit right in with the monkeys", and that this relationship "is the only thing I said I would never accept". Vaughan testified that the FBI could not access Gregory McMichael's phone because it was encrypted, but a social media post on Gregory's account four months before the shooting was found stating: "A gun in the hand is worth more than the entire police force on the phone."

During Vaughan's testimony, prosecutors showed a social media post made by Travis McMichael within two months of the shooting, where he posted a video of himself in front of a "No Trespassing" sign, while stating that he would be hunting on private property. Multiple videos of Travis trespassing while hunting were shown. Separately, GBI agent Jason Seacrist testified that a Confederate flag sticker was found pasted on Travis McMichael's truck, while a vanity plate with a Confederate emblem was visible on police body camera footage from the day of the shooting had been removed from Travis' truck by the time investigators accessed the truck months later.

A white woman who was a former subordinate of Travis McMichael testified that Travis repeatedly called her a "nigger lover" for dating a Black man. A woman who met Gregory McMichael in 2015 while he was working as a prosecutor's investigator testified that Gregory reacted to the death of Georgia's civil rights activist Julian Bond by wishing that Bond had died earlier, and that Gregory then said: "All those Blacks are nothing but trouble and I wish they'd all die." A neighbour of the McMichaels said that Gregory had discussed a Black tenant of his, whom Gregory described as a "walrus". Gregory said that after he shut down the property's air-conditioning to induce the tenant to pay rent, remarking: "You should have seen how fast her big fat Black ass came with the rent check".

All three men were found guilty of using force and threats of force to intimidate and interfere with Arbery's right to use a public street because of his race.

All three men were found guilty of attempted kidnapping.

Travis McMichael was found guilty of using, carrying, brandishing, and firing a gun during a crime of violence.

Greg McMichael was found guilty of using, carrying, and brandishing a gun during a crime of violence.

On March 8, 2022, attorneys for Travis and Greg McMichael appealed the verdict, citing that federal hate crimes laws apply only to public places, and that the crime occurred in a private street. Attorneys for Greg McMichael also appealed the conviction on targeting Arbery because he was black, citing his career as a law enforcement agent, spanning several decades, where McMichael's attorney said, there was no evidence of racist behavior.

On August 23, 2022, the McMichaels and Bryan were transported to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison.

In January 2023, Gregory McMichael was moved to the Augusta State Medical Prison. McMichael's attorney cited a recent stroke and depression, plus a hate crime sentencing as reasons for the move.

In May 2020, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said that his office would review how the investigation into Arbery's murder "was handled from the outset". At Carr's request, the GBI investigated whether District Attorney Jackie Johnson or District Attorney George Barnhill's actions in connection with the appointment of a conflict prosecutor to investigate the murder of Arbery constituted a crime. In November 2020, Jackie Johnson lost her bid for re-election as Brunswick District Attorney.

In response to a motion from Johnson to dismiss the charges against her, in May 2022 prosecutors submitted a response showing that Johnson engaged in 16 phone calls with defendant Greg McMichael in the period starting on the day of the shooting and extending until May 5, 2020. One of the calls lasted over 21 minutes.

Georgia Attorney General Carr called for a federal investigation into how local investigators and authorities handled the case, including "investigation of the communications and discussions by and between the Office of the District Attorney of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit and the Office of the District Attorney of the Waycross Judicial Circuit related to this case."

The next day on May 11, the U.S. Department of Justice responded that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia "have been supporting and will continue fully to support and participate in the state investigation. We are assessing all of the evidence to determine whether federal hate crimes charges are appropriate." In April 2021, all three men were indicted for federal crimes - one count each of interference with rights (a hate crime), one count each of attempted kidnapping, and one count for each McMichael of using a firearm during a crime of violence.

The involvement of the GCPD as the primary investigator in a case involving its former officer Gregory McMichael was controversial. Following Arbery's murder, media investigated the history of the GCPD. The New York Times noted that in preceding years, the department had "been accused of covering up allegations of misconduct, tampering with a crime scene, interfering in an investigation of a police shooting and retaliating against fellow officers who cooperated with outside investigators."

Days after Arbery was fatally shot, the chief of police - who had been brought in to clean up a police force described by the county manager in 2019 as poorly trained and characterized by a "culture of cronyism" - was indicted on charges arising from an alleged cover-up of a sexual relationship between an officer and an informant. In response to a grand jury report issued in November 2019, which had condemned the GCPD over "alleged officer misconduct and poor coordination with the local sheriff's office", State Senator William Ligon of Brunswick in early 2020 introduced legislation to allow voters to abolish the Glynn County Police Department. Although the legislation initially stalled in the General Assembly, after the legislature returned following the COVID-19 recess, the House passed the legislation 152-3. The Senate then passed the legislation as Senate Bill 509, which Governor Kemp signed. The legislation allowed a November 3, 2020, binding referendum such that the police department would be abolished if a majority of Glynn County voters agreed. Nevertheless, the referendum was ruled unconstitutional by a superior court judge on September 11, 2020, so it did not appear on the November 3 ballot.

Arbery's murder also prompted re-examinations of the way prosecutions of shootings were handled by the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office. In 2010, two police officers fatally shot an unarmed white woman through her car windshield. Four former prosecutors, who had worked under Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson, alleged that Johnson shielded the officers from criminal prosecution. A 2015 investigation by WSB-TV revealed that Johnson had agreed to withhold a draft murder indictment from the grand jury and had "allowed the officers' department to present a factually inaccurate animation they created showing the car escaping through a gap and running over the officers."

In late June 2020, Georgia enacted new bipartisan hate crimes legislation (House Bill 426). Previous versions of the legislation had passed the state House but failed to pass the state Senate. Arbery's murder was a catalyst for passage of the bill; at the time Georgia was one of just four states without any hate-crimes legislation, as Georgia Supreme Court struck down a previous hate crimes law in 2004. The law requires a higher sentence for defendants convicted of targeting a victim due to "actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability, or physical disability."

Citizen's arrest law repealed and replaced

On February 16, 2021, exactly a week before the first anniversary of Arbery's murder, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced he would introduce legislation that would significantly amend the state's citizen's arrest law. Georgia's citizen's arrest law had been textually very broad in scope, dating back to the Civil War era. The legal defense argued by the defendants accused of murdering Arbery was that they were only attempting to perform a lawful citizen's arrest. Kemp criticized the law for being outdated and vague. According to Kemp, the changes would close numerous loopholes under the existing law while still protecting the rights of law-abiding citizens. On March 4, 2021, the proposed changes were passed out of legislative committee in the Georgia House of Representatives by a unanimous vote. The bill - House Bill 479 - received widespread and bipartisan support. The bill to repeal the citizen's arrest law passed the legislature and was signed by Governor Kemp on May 10, 2021.

On February 2, 2022, the Georgia General Assembly designated February 23 as Ahmaud Arbery Day within the state henceforth. The Georgia General Assembly further encouraged people to run 2.23 miles on this day every year to advocate for racial justice and equity.

On August 9, 2022, officials of the city of Brunswick designated that all intersections along a 2.7-mile stretch of Albany Street bear a sign in his memory.

Arbery's mother Wanda Cooper-Jones said her son was jogging when he was murdered and called for arrests to be made. The Arbery family retained Benjamin Crump, S. Lee Merritt, and Chris Stewart as attorneys. Meritt described the McMichaels as "vigilantes" and "a posse" who "performed a modern lynching in the middle of the day." Arbery's family attorney charged that videos of earlier police encounters show a pattern of unfair treatment of Arbery based on his skin color.

On May 1, Gregory McMichael told The Daily Beast he "never would have gone after someone for their color". He also said he had no direct evidence Arbery had stolen anything in the neighborhood. However, McMichael argued Arbery was on property "without permission".

Attorneys for Arbery's family called for Bryan's arrest. They said that because Bryan had participated in chasing Arbery and had "corralled" him, Bryan participated in the murder.

After the video went public, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said, "I expect justice to be carried out as swiftly as possible." Governor Brian Kemp said on May 7 that "Georgians deserve answers" about the incident. Two Glynn County Commissioners, Peter Murphy and Allen Booker, called for a federal probe. After viewing the video, Georgia U.S. Representative Doug Collins and U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler said it was "disturbing" and called for a full investigation and answers.

Speaking to reporters, President Donald Trump commented, "My heart goes out to the parents and to the loved ones of the young gentleman. It's a very sad thing." Then- presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, said that "the video is clear: Ahmaud Arbery was killed in cold blood." Biden offered condolences and called for "a swift, full, and transparent investigation into his murder." Biden also described the shooting as a lynching.

After the video was released, demonstrators gathered outside the Glynn County Courthouse to demand an arrest in the case, and called for the resignation of District Attorney Jackie Johnson. The local Brunswick NAACP chapter also called for the resignation of the Glynn County police chief. The Southern Poverty Law Center called for a federal investigation into the incident, citing their belief Arbery's murder was racially motivated.

Political commentator and former attorney David A. French wrote that, under Georgia's stand-your-ground law, because the McMichaels initiated the confrontation,

It's a crime under Georgia law to point a gun (loaded or unloaded) without legal justification. When Arbery was confronted by armed men who moved directly to block him from leaving, demanding to "talk" then Arbery was entitled to defend himself. Georgia's 'stand your ground law' arguably benefits Arbery, not those who were attempting to falsely imprison him at gunpoint.

On May 8, 2020, which would have been Arbery's 26th birthday, thousands of supporters of Arbery's family took part in a run of 2.23 miles (3.59 km), the date of his murder; they documented it to social media with the hashtag #IRunWithMaud.

Many clergy and celebrities have voiced support for review of the case, and concern about the violence. Russell D. Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said, "under any Christian vision of justice, there is no situation in which the mob murder of a person can be morally right, nor grounds for a person to be chased down and shot by private citizens." LeBron James expressed outrage on Twitter, and offered "prayers and blessings". Some posted tributes to Arbery, including Lecrae, David A. French, Scott Sauls, Christine Caine, Jack Graham, J. D. Greear, Viola Davis, Wanda Sykes, Padma Lakshmi, Gabrielle Union, and Andy Lassner.

On social media, far-right and neo-Nazi groups spread falsehoods about Arbery; their white-nationalist supporters attacked President Trump for his sympathetic comments regarding Arbery. According to an analyst from the Middle East Media Research Institute, such groups claimed Arbery was wielding a hammer and wearing Timberland boots when he was shot dead; Arbery was wearing running shoes and did not have a hammer. They also spread racist remarks about Arbery, and claimed that the McMichaels and Bryan were victims. Several far-right groups said the McMichaels' and Bryan's arrests reflected a bias against whites. Some far-right members appropriated "jogger" as an euphemism for "nigger" to both mock the circumstance surrounding his death, and as a way to circumvent anti-hate speech policies.

Arbery family lawyer and civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said, "Today certainly indicates progress, but we are nowhere close to the finish line. Keep marching. Keep fighting for what is right. And never stop running for Ahmaud." Crump added, "While today is not one for celebration, it is one for reflection." Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, called the verdict "long overdue."

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp condemned the actions of the murderers, saying Arbery "was the victim of a vigilantism that has no place in Georgia." Kemp and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr each called for community, state, and national "healing and reconciliation." Activist and former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives Stacey Abrams said, "A jury believed the evidence of their eyes and saw the meanness in the killers' hearts. May this verdict bring a small measure of peace." U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock from Georgia said the verdict "upholds a sense of accountability, but not true justice." Warnock's colleague Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff said, "A historic civil rights mobilization was necessary for the killers to face prosecution at all...[demonstrating] profoundly the urgency of reforms to make equal justice real in America." President Joe Biden said Arbery's murder was "a devastating reminder of how far we have to go in the fight for racial justice in this country." Vice President Kamala Harris said, "We honor (Arbery) best by continuing the fight for justice." Congressional Black Caucus chair Joyce Beatty said, "This story - although devastating - is not new; we've seen this play out repeatedly...Justice has been served. However, there is still much work to be done."

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amy cooper: white woman who called police on a black man in central park has been fired - cnn

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White woman who called police on a black man bird-watching in Central Park has been fired

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The white woman who called police on a black man in Central Park during an encounter involving her unleashed dog has been fired from her job, her employer said Tuesday.

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On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while being arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. During the arrest Derek Chauvin, a white police officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, knelt on Floyd's neck for several minutes after he was already handcuffed and lying face down. Two police officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd, while another officer, Tou Thao, prevented bystanders from interfering with the arrest and intervening as events unfolded.

Floyd had complained about being unable to breathe prior to being on the ground, but after being restrained he became more distressed, and continued to complain about breathing difficulties, the knee in his neck, and expressed the fear he was about to die and called for his mother. After several minutes passed Floyd stopped speaking. For a further two minutes, he lay motionless and officer Kueng found no pulse when urged to check. Despite this Chauvin refused pleas to lift his knee until medics told him to.

The following day, after videos made by witnesses and security cameras became public, all four officers were dismissed. Two autopsies found Floyd's death to be a homicide. Chauvin was initially charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, to which was later added second-degree murder. The three other officers were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

Floyd's death triggered worldwide protests against police brutality, police racism, and lack of police accountability. In early June, the Minneapolis City Council voted an intent to restructure the police department as a "new community-based system of public safety". The Minneapolis Police Chief cancelled contract negotiations with the police union and announced plans to bring in outside experts to examine how the union contract can be restructured to provide transparency and "flexibility for true reform".

People involved

George Perry Floyd (aged 46) was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and raised in the Third Ward of Houston, Texas. In 2014, he moved to the Minneapolis, Minnesota area. Though he resided in the nearby suburb of St. Louis Park, he was a frequent customer at the Cup Foods convenience store in south Minneapolis.

Derek Michael Chauvin (age 44) had been a police officer in the Minneapolis Police Department since 2001. Chauvin and Floyd sometimes worked overlapping shifts as security guards for a local nightclub, but the club's former owner was unsure of the extent to which they knew each other.

Tou Thao (age 34) started as a part-time community service officer in 2008 and graduated from the police academy in 2009. After a two-year layoff he resumed work for the police in 2012. Six complaints had been filed against Thao, none resulting in disciplinary action. In 2014, a man claimed Thao handcuffed him without cause, threw him to the ground, and punched, kicked, and kneed him; the man's teeth were broken and he was hospitalized. The resulting lawsuit was settled for $25,000.

James Alexander Kueng (age 26) and Thomas Kiernan Lane (age 37) were licensed as law enforcement officers in August 2019. Kueng and Lane had trained together, and were in their first week as Minneapolis police officers when Floyd was killed. Chauvin was the superior officer responsible for the majority of Kueng's field training.

Thao is Hmong-American, Kueng is African-American, and Chauvin and Lane are white Americans.

Arrest and death

Initial events

On the evening of May 25, 2020, at about 8:00 pm, Floyd purchased cigarettes at Cup Foods, a grocery store at the intersection of East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis. A store employee believed Floyd had paid with a counterfeit $20 bill. Employees of the store approached Floyd while he was in his vehicle and demanded that Floyd return the cigarettes; he refused. A store employee called the police to report that Floyd had passed "fake bills", was "awfully drunk", and "not in control of himself". The interaction between Floyd and the employees was recorded by the restaurant's security camera.

At 8:08, Kueng and Lane arrived, briefly entering Cup Foods before crossing the street to Floyd's SUV. Lane tapped his flashlight on the window, startling Floyd. He asked Floyd to show his hands, and tapped again when he did not obey. Floyd apologized as he opened the car door. Lane instructed him three more times to show his hands. Six seconds after the door opened, he drew his gun and ordered Floyd to show his hands. When Floyd complied, Lane holstered his weapon. Someone parked behind Floyd's SUV began recording a video at 8:10. Following a brief struggle, Lane pulled Floyd from the SUV and handcuffed him. At 8:12, Kueng sat Floyd on the sidewalk against the wall in front of the restaurant. Lane asked Floyd if he is "on something right now", and Floyd replied "No, nothing". Kueng told Floyd he was acting "real erratic" and Floyd said that he was scared. Kueng asked Floyd about foam around his mouth, to which Floyd responded that he had been "hooping" earlier. According to criminal complaints filed against the officers by state prosecutors, Floyd was "calm" and said "thank you".

At 8:13, Kueng and Lane told Floyd he was under arrest and walked him to their police car across the street. Floyd fell to the ground next to the car; the officers picked him up and placed him against the car's door. According to prosecutors, Floyd told the officers that he was not resisting, but that he was recovering from COVID-19, that he was claustrophobic and suffered from anxiety, and that he did not want to sit in the car. While Kueng and Lane attempted to put him in the car, Floyd begged them not to, repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" and offering to lie on the ground instead. During his interview with crime investigators, Lane said that he first saw Floyd bleeding from the mouth at that moment, which he attributed to his "thrashing back and forth" in the car and hitting his face on the glass that goes to the front seat. A Minneapolis Park Police officer arrived and guarded Floyd's vehicle (across the street by the restaurant) and the two people who had been in it with Floyd.

At 8:17, Chauvin and Thao arrived in a third police car joining Kueng and Lane with Chauvin assuming command. He asked if Floyd was going to jail, and Kueng replied that he was arrested for forgery. Floyd said "I can't fucking breathe" twice. Around 8:18, security footage from Cup Foods shows Kueng struggling with Floyd for at least a minute in the driver side backseat while Thao watches. According to The New York Times, at 8:19, Chauvin pulled Floyd across the backseat from the driver side to the passenger side. Then, according to NPR, Floyd exited the vehicle, either pulled out by police or willingly. Still handcuffed, he fell to the pavement.

Chauvin kneels on Floyd's neck

While Floyd lay on his chest with his cheek to the ground, Chauvin knelt on his neck. Floyd stopped moving around 8:20, though he was still conscious. Multiple witnesses began to film the encounter, and their videos were circulated widely on the internet. At 8:20, a witness across the street began recording video showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck, Kueng applying pressure to Floyd's torso, and Lane applying pressure to Floyd's legs, while Thao stood nearby. This witness stopped filming when one of the officers ordered him to leave. Also at 8:20, a second person, standing near the entrance of Cup Foods, began recording the incident. Floyd can be heard repeatedly saying "I can't breathe", "Please", and "Mama"; Lane then asked for an ambulance for Floyd, "for one bleeding from the mouth". Floyd repeated at least 16 times that he could not breathe. At one point a witness said: "You got him down. Let him breathe." After Floyd said, "I'm about to die", Chauvin told him to "relax". An officer asked Floyd, "What do you want?"; Floyd answered, "I can't breathe". Floyd said, "Please, the knee in my neck, I can't breathe."

At approximately 8:22, the officers called for an ambulance on a non-emergency basis, escalating the call to emergency status a minute later. Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd's neck. A passerby yelled to Floyd, "Well, get up, get in the car, man", and Floyd, still handcuffed and face down on the pavement, responded, "I can't", while Chauvin's knee remained on his neck. Floyd cried out "Mama!" twice. Floyd said, "My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts", requested water, and begged, "Don't kill me." One witness pointed out that Floyd was bleeding from the nose. Another told the officers that Floyd was "not even resisting arrest right now". Thao countered that Floyd was "talking, he's fine"; a witness replied that Floyd "ain't fine... Get him off the ground... You could have put him in the car by now. He's not resisting arrest or nothing. You're enjoying it. Look at you. Your body language explains it." As Floyd continued to cry for help, Thao said to witnesses: "This is why you don't do drugs, kids."

By 8:25, Floyd appeared unconscious, and bystanders confronted the officers about Floyd's condition. Chauvin pulled out mace to keep bystanders away as Thao moved between them and Chauvin. Bystanders repeatedly yelled that Floyd was "not responsive right now" and urged the officers to check his pulse. Kueng checked Floyd's wrist but found no pulse; the officers did not attempt to provide Floyd with medical assistance. According to the criminal complaint against Chauvin, Lane asked Chauvin twice if they should move Floyd onto his side, and Chauvin said no.

Medical response and death

At 8:27 pm, a Hennepin County ambulance arrived. Shortly thereafter, a young relative of the owner of Cup Foods attempted to intervene, but was pushed back by Thao. Emergency medical technicians checked Floyd's pulse. Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for almost a minute after the ambulance arrived, despite Floyd being silent and motionless. Prosecutors said that Chauvin's knee was on Floyd's neck for seven minutes and forty-six seconds.

Around 8:29, Floyd was lifted by paramedics onto a stretcher, then loaded into an ambulance which departed for Hennepin County Medical Center. En route, the ambulance requested assistance from the Minneapolis Fire Department. At 8:32, firefighters arrived at Cup Foods; according to their report, the police officers gave no clear information regarding Floyd's condition or whereabouts, which delayed their ability to find the ambulance. Meanwhile, the ambulance reported that Floyd was entering cardiac arrest and again requested assistance, asking firefighters to meet them at the corner of 36th Street and Park Avenue. Five minutes later, the fire department reached the ambulance; two fire department medics who boarded the ambulance found Floyd unresponsive and pulseless.

Investigations and criminal charges

Minneapolis police response

Early on May 26, the Minneapolis Police Department issued a statement which said nothing about Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck: "After Floyd got out [of his car], he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress." Hours later, witness and security camera video circulating on the internet showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck. The department updated its statement by stating that new information had "been made available" and that the FBI was joining the investigation. The four officers were briefly placed on paid administrative leave before being fired later that day.

The medical examiner's final findings, issued June 1, found that Floyd's heart stopped while he was being restrained and that his death was a homicide caused by " cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression". Other significant conditions were arteriosclerotic heart disease, hypertensive heart disease, fentanyl intoxication, and recent methamphetamine use. The report states that on April 3 Floyd had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but does not list it as a fatal or other significant condition.

Floyd's family commissioned a second autopsy, carried out by Michael Baden, a pathologist and former New York City chief medical examiner who had autopsied Eric Garner, and attended by Allecia Wilson, director of autopsy and forensic services at the University of Michigan Medical School. At a joint press conference with Floyd family lawyer Ben Crump on May 31, Wilson said the evidence available to her, which did not include a toxicology report nor unspecified bodily samples, "is consistent with mechanical asphyxia as the cause of Floyd's death", and that the death was a homicide. Baden said Floyd died from "asphyxia due to compression of the neck", affecting "blood flow and oxygen going into the brain", and also from "compression of the back, which interferes with breathing". He said Floyd had no underlying medical problem that caused or contributed to his death, and that being able to speak does not mean that someone is able to breathe.

Neither examiner mentioned excited delirium, a condition which concerned Lane and that he discussed with Chauvin while Floyd was pinned down.

State investigations and criminal charges

On May 29, 2020, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and held at Oak Park Heights state prison. According to the criminal complaint, police are trained that the neck restraint that he applied "with a subject in prone position is inherently dangerous". On June 3, 2020, the charge against Chauvin was upgraded to second-degree murder, and the three other officers were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

On June 10, Lane was released on bail; his attorney asserted that he warned Chauvin of the danger of severe harm to Floyd, and that doing so was all that was required under Minneapolis police regulations at the time. On June 19, Kueng became the second charged officer to be released on bail. Thao then followed suit on July 4. Chauvin was released on conditional bail on October 7, 2020 after a non-cash bond of $1 million was posted. Court documentation provided that Chauvin's release is more supervised and will be forfeited if he declines to appear before a magistrate, refuses to appear in court on scheduled dates, leaves the state of Minnesota without court approval, or has contact with Floyd's family.

On June 17 the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training took up a review of the four officers' law-enforcement licenses.

On June 29 the presiding judge in the case indicated that continued public comments on the case, by defense attorneys or public officials, were likely to lead to the case being transferred to another county.

Federal investigations

On May 26, the FBI announced it was reviewing the incident at the request of the Minneapolis Police Department. On May 28, the United States Department of Justice released a joint statement with the FBI, saying that their investigation into Floyd's death was "a top priority" and outlining the investigation's next steps: a "comprehensive investigation will compile all available information and thoroughly evaluate evidence and information obtained from witnesses ... If it is determined that there has been a violation of federal law, criminal charges will be sought". According to some commentators, the statement was considered stronger than usual as the department often had a more muted tone.

Failed plea bargain agreement

On May 28, state and federal prosecutors held a press conference at a regional FBI office in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb, in what was anticipated to be a major development to the case against the officers who were at the scene of Floyd's death. However, Hennepin County Attorney Michael O. Freeman, the local official with jurisdiction to bring forth criminal charges for police misconduct, said his office needed more time to investigate. In explaining the anticipation of the media briefing and its two-hour delayed start, U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald said, "I thought we would have another development to talk to you about, but we don't". Weeks later, on June 9, it was revealed that state and federal prosecutors were negotiating a plea deal with former officer Derek Chauvin that would have included state murder charges and federal civil rights charges, but the deal fell apart for reasons that were not fully explained.

State civil rights action

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights opened an investigation into the practices of the Minneapolis Police Department on June 2. On June 5, the Minneapolis City Council authorized the mayor to enter a restraining order with the State of Minnesota banning chokeholds and neck restraints, requiring police officers to intervene against other officers' use of excessive force, and requiring authorization from the police chief or other designate before using crowd-control weapons such as chemical agents and rubber bullets. On June 8, a Hennepin County Court judge ordered the Minneapolis Police Department to cooperate with a civil rights investigation, and extended the restrictions on the department to require that the chief make discipline decisions in a timely and transparent manner, and that certain outside investigators be given authority to audit[further explanation needed ] body-worn camera footage and to file or amend complaints on behalf of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department.

Civil litigation

The family of George Floyd filed a lawsuit in federal court against the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department in July 2020. The complaint said Floyd's Fourth Amendment rights were violated by "excessive use of unjustified, excessive, illegal, and deadly force". The lawsuit did not specify the amount of monetary damages the family sought.

Criminal proceedings

On August 29, 2020, attorneys for Derek Chauvin filed a motion for dismissal, claiming that Floyd most likely died as a result of drug use and preexisting medical conditions. On the same day, prosecutors moved to increase potential sentences for the four officers beyond the guidelines for all four accused, arguing that Floyd was vulnerable while being held down on the ground in handcuffs and was treated cruelly.

Memorials, protests, and reactions

The area near the location where Floyd was killed became a makeshift memorial throughout May 26, with many placards paying tribute to him and referencing the Black Lives Matter movement. As the day progressed, more people came to demonstrate against Floyd's death. Hundreds of people, then marched to the 3rd Precinct of the Minneapolis Police. Participants used posters and slogans with phrases such as "Justice for George", " I can't breathe", and "Black Lives Matter". On September 18, the Minneapolis City Council approved designating the section of Chicago Avenue between 37th and 39th Streets as George Perry Floyd Jr. Place, with a marker at the intersection with 38th Street where the incident took place. The intersection has been closed and occupied by demonstrators who said they won't leave until their demands regarding anti-racism and property tax are met.

Unrest began in local protests in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area before quickly spreading nationwide and in over 60 countries internationally supporting Black Lives Matter. Over 2,000 cities in the US have seen demonstrations as of June 13. While the majority of protests have been peaceful, demonstrations in some cities descended into riots and looting, with more being marked by street skirmishes and significant police brutality, notably against peaceful protesters and reporters. At least 200 cities in the U.S. had imposed curfews by June 3, while more than 30 states and Washington, D.C, activated over 62,000 National Guard personnel due to the mass unrest.

The protests were initially peaceful, but later there was vandalism of stores; at the 3rd Precinct police station windows were broken and fires set. Police in riot gear used tear gas, flash grenades, rubber bullets and smoke bombs, and some protesters threw rocks at the police. The media highlighted the apparent differences in aggression between the police response to these protests versus the more measured response to the 2020 United States anti-lockdown protests featuring gun-wielding white protesters. This sentiment also spread on social media.

While peaceful protests continued, others again became violent after sundown, with the pattern repeating for several days. As of June 9, the Star Tribune estimated 570 businesses in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area had been vandalized or destroyed, including 67 destroyed by fire.

Following the rioting, a nighttime curfew in Minneapolis-Saint Paul and Dakota County was established on May 29. 500 Minnesota National Guard soldiers were later dispatched to the area to enforce the curfew, but to little effect, with about 1,000 protesters being able to march peacefully on Interstate 35 well into curfew.

A public memorial, with Al Sharpton delivering the eulogy, was held June 4 at North Central University in Minneapolis. A public viewing and a family memorial was held in Raeford, North Carolina on June 6, near Floyd's hometown. Floyd's family held a public memorial in Houston on June 8, and a private service on June 9. The family said professional boxer Floyd Mayweather paid for the services. Floyd's body was on public view on June 8 in his hometown of Houston. Former Vice President and the 2020 Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, met with the Floyd family privately and gave a video message at the funeral. Floyd is buried next to his mother in Pearland, Texas.

Mass Protests demanding justice for George Floyd, in some cases also to demonstrate against issues with police brutality in their own countries, took place in over 2,000 cities in the US and around the world, including New York City; Los Angeles; Chicago; Toronto; Mashhad; Milan; Columbus, Ohio; Denver; Des Moines; Houston; Louisville; Memphis; Charlotte, North Carolina; Oakland; Portland, Oregon; San Jose; Seattle; outside the White House in Washington; outside Chauvin's summer home in Windermere, Florida; and in many other locations.[excessive citations ] On May 30, 12 states called up the National Guard, and at least 12 major cities imposed curfews that weekend. By June 14, protests had extended into a third week after Floyd's death in many cities, accompanied by calls to reform and defund police departments throughout the United States.

The length of time that Chauvin was originally reported to have had his knee on Floyd's neck, eight minutes forty-six seconds, was widely commemorated as a "moment of silence" to honor Floyd. It was also used in chants, protest signs, and messages, as were the words "I can't breathe".

Numerous statues and monuments honoring persons or events associated with slavery and racism were vandalized, removed, or destroyed during the protests in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Conspiracy theories began spreading soon after Floyd's death. The Los Angeles Times said on June 22 that some theories had been "amplified by a growing number of people on the far right, including some Republican leaders" but that "some Republicans (had) begun pushing back" on false claims and those spreading rumors.

References

External links

Media related to Death of George Floyd at Wikimedia Commons

Complaint - State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin, Minnesota District Court, Fourth Judicial District, File No. 27-CR-20-12646. May 29, 2020.

Amended Complaint - State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin, Minnesota District Court, Fourth Judicial District, File No. 27-CR-20-12646. June 3, 2020.

Complaint - State of Minnesota v. J Alexander Kueng, Minnesota District Court, Fourth Judicial District. June 3, 2020.

Complaint - State of Minnesota v. Thomas Kiernan Lane, Minnesota District Court, Fourth Judicial District, File No. 27-CR-20-12951. June 3, 2020.

Complaint - State of Minnesota v. Tou Thao, Minnesota District Court, Fourth Judicial District, File No. 27-CR-20-12949. June 3, 2020.

Press Release Report: Floyd George Perry, Case No: 2020-3700. Hennepin County Medical Examiner. June 1, 2020.

Autopsy Report, George Floyd, Deceased, ME No.: 20-3700. Hennepin County Medical Examiner. June 1, 2020. (20 pages.)

Stipulation and Order, State of Minnesota v. City of Minneapolis Police Department, Minnesota District Court, Fourth Judicial District, File No. 27-CV-20-8182. June 8, 2020. Stipulation between City of Minneapolis and Minnesota Department of Human Rights and preliminary injunction.

Transcripts of audio of Floyd's last moments, as recorded on Minneapolis police body camera footage and publicly filed on the state court record on July 8, 2020

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On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while being arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. During the arrest Derek Chauvin, a white police officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, knelt on Floyd's neck for several minutes after he was already handcuffed and lying face down.

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Resources and activities linked to each of Helms' white identity development

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Free e-book (rec by TSw)
"What is the reality of policing in the United States? Do the police keep anyone safe and secure other than the very wealthy? How do recent police killings of young black people in the United States fit into the historical and global context of anti-blackness?"

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Explores the reality of US police violence against Black, Brown and Indigenous communities.

What is the reality of policing in the United States? Do the police keep anyone safe and secure other than the very wealthy? How do recent police killings of young black people in the United States fit into the historical and global context of anti-blackness?

This collection of reports and essays (the first collaboration between Truthout and Haymarket Books) explores police violence against black, brown, indigenous and other marginalized communities, miscarriages of justice, and failures of token accountability and reform measures. It also makes a compelling and provocative argument against calling the police.

Contributions cover a broad range of issues including the killing by police of black men and women, police violence against Latino and indigenous communities, law enforcement's treatment of pregnant people and those with mental illness, and the impact of racist police violence on parenting, as well as specific stories such as a Detroit police conspiracy to slap murder convictions on young black men using police informant and the failure of Chicago's much-touted Independent Police Review Authority, the body supposedly responsible for investigating police misconduct. The title Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is no mere provocation: the book also explores alternatives for keeping communities safe.

Contributors include William C. Anderson, Candice Bernd, Aaron Cantú, Thandi Chimurenga, Ejeris Dixon, Adam Hudson, Victoria Law, Mike Ludwig, Sarah Macaraeg, and Roberto Rodriguez.

"Would some communities be safer without police? That's the question at the heart of Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?, a collection of essays and reportage penned by some of Truthout's most compelling and enlightened thinkers-including #BlackLivesMatter co-founder Alicia Garza. With heartbreaking, glass-sharp prose, the book catalogs the abuse and destruction of black, native, and trans bodies. And then, most importantly, it offers real-world solutions."
-Chicago Review of Books

"A must-read for anyone seeking to understand American culture in the present day."
-Xica Nation

" Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is an urgently necessary book, one that deepens and complicates thinking around police violence without waiting for a fresh on-camera brutality to restart the national conversation."
-New City

"This brilliant collection of essays, written by activists, journalists, community organizers and survivors of state violence, urgently confronts the criminalization, police violence and anti-Black racism that is plaguing urban communities. It is one of the most important books to emerge about these critical issues: passionately written with a keen eye towards building a world free of the cruelty and violence of the carceral state."
-Beth Richie, author of Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation

" Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is a powerful collection of essays by organizers, legal activists and progressive journalists that take us beyond the 'few bad apples' theory of police violence, insisting that we interrogate the essential role and purpose of police and policing in our society. These writers have highlighted some of the critical questions that the anti-state violence movement is wrestling with."
-Barbara Ransby, author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision

"This timely and essential set of essays written by activists, organizers and journalists offers a window into our particular historical moment centered on an ongoing struggle against state violence. As a long-time organizer immersed in the current Movement for Black Lives, I read the contributions hoping to learn and to be inspired. I found the essays to be informative, illuminating and challenging. The book covers topics ranging from police torture and the fight for accountability to how we might best engage in transformative organizing that could lead to a word without police. I cannot recommend this anthology any more highly. It's an indispensable primer for anyone who wants to understand the current rebellions and uprisings against police impunity."
-Mariame Kaba, founder and director of Project NIA

" Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is an extraordinary collection of writings by activists living and working at the epicenter of police violence and the anti-Blackness and structural racism so foundational to U.S. systems of policing. Simultaneously enraging, invigorating, radically imaginative, practical, and inspiring, this essential book relocates justice in accountable social, economic, and cultural relationships, pointing the way toward foundational transformation rather than cosmetic reform."
-Kay Whitlock, co-author of Considering Hate and Queer (In)Justice

"America is at war, and the violence that propels that war is largely directed at people of color, especially Black youth. One instance of such a war is evident in the violence by the police against Black communities, the criminalization of everyday behavior, the assaults on Black bodies, and the ever growing incarceration state. Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? addresses this violence in a way no other book has done in the last forty years. It reveals the underlying causes, economic and ideological, that drive such violence so as to provide a comprehensive understanding of its roots, its multiple layers, history, and different forms while at the same time it offers a discourse of critical engagement and transformation in order to address it. Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is an invaluable resource for asking questions about the emergence of racist violence and state terrorism as a defining principle of everyday life and how they can be addressed. Everyone who cares about justice and democracy and a future in which they mutually inform each other should read this book."
-Henry Giroux, author of Disposable Futures: The Seduction of Violence in the Age of Spectacle

"We know the names: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Rekia Boyd, Laquan McDonald. And we've seen the uprisings: L.A., Ferguson, Baltimore, Chicago. Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? goes behind the headlines to ask the deeper questions: Do the police make communities (particularly, communities where Black and Brown people live) safer? Who do community residents fear? Are there ways to address those fears without the police and carceral state? What would we have to create in order to do this? What steps must we take to get there? Each of the essays examines these inter-related questions in depth. Read together, they provide an extremely thorough, and timely, examination of the issues underlying these recent events, forcing us to rethink the very idea of justice in this country."
-Alan Mills, Uptown People's Law Center

"Would some communities be safer without police? That's the question at the heart of Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?, a collection of essays and reportage penned by some of Truthout's most compelling and enlightened thinkers—including #BlackLivesMatter co-founder Alicia Garza. With heartbreaking, glass-sharp prose, the book catalogs the abuse and destruction of black, native, and trans bodies. And then, most importantly, it offers real-world solutions."
—Chicago Review of Books

"A must-read for anyone seeking to understand American culture in the present day."
—Xica Nation

" Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is an urgently necessary book, one that deepens and complicates thinking around police violence without waiting for a fresh on-camera brutality to restart the national conversation."
—New City

"This brilliant collection of essays, written by activists, journalists, community organizers and survivors of state violence, urgently confronts the criminalization, police violence and anti-Black racism that is plaguing urban communities. It is one of the most important books to emerge about these critical issues: passionately written with a keen eye towards building a world free of the cruelty and violence of the carceral state."
–Beth Richie, author of Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation

" Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is a powerful collection of essays by organizers, legal activists and progressive journalists that take us beyond the 'few bad apples' theory of police violence, insisting that we interrogate the essential role and purpose of police and policing in our society. These writers have highlighted some of the critical questions that the anti-state violence movement is wrestling with."
–Barbara Ransby, author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision

"This timely and essential set of essays written by activists, organizers and journalists offers a window into our particular historical moment centered on an ongoing struggle against state violence. As a long-time organizer immersed in the current Movement for Black Lives, I read the contributions hoping to learn and to be inspired. I found the essays to be informative, illuminating and challenging. The book covers topics ranging from police torture and the fight for accountability to how we might best engage in transformative organizing that could lead to a word without police. I cannot recommend this anthology any more highly. It's an indispensable primer for anyone who wants to understand the current rebellions and uprisings against police impunity."
–Mariame Kaba, founder and director of Project NIA

" Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is an extraordinary collection of writings by activists living and working at the epicenter of police violence and the anti-Blackness and structural racism so foundational to U.S. systems of policing. Simultaneously enraging, invigorating, radically imaginative, practical, and inspiring, this essential book relocates justice in accountable social, economic, and cultural relationships, pointing the way toward foundational transformation rather than cosmetic reform."
–Kay Whitlock, co-author of Considering Hate and Queer (In)Justice

"America is at war, and the violence that propels that war is largely directed at people of color, especially Black youth. One instance of such a war is evident in the violence by the police against Black communities, the criminalization of everyday behavior, the assaults on Black bodies, and the ever growing incarceration state. Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? addresses this violence in a way no other book has done in the last forty years. It reveals the underlying causes, economic and ideological, that drive such violence so as to provide a comprehensive understanding of its roots, its multiple layers, history, and different forms while at the same time it offers a discourse of critical engagement and transformation in order to address it. Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is an invaluable resource for asking questions about the emergence of racist violence and state terrorism as a defining principle of everyday life and how they can be addressed. Everyone who cares about justice and democracy and a future in which they mutually inform each other should read this book."
–Henry Giroux, author of Disposable Futures: The Seduction of Violence in the Age of Spectacle

"We know the names: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Rekia Boyd, Laquan McDonald. And we've seen the uprisings: L.A., Ferguson, Baltimore, Chicago. Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? goes behind the headlines to ask the deeper questions: Do the police make communities (particularly, communities where Black and Brown people live) safer? Who do community residents fear? Are there ways to address those fears without the police and carceral state? What would we have to create in order to do this? What steps must we take to get there? Each of the essays examines these inter-related questions in depth. Read together, they provide an extremely thorough, and timely, examination of the issues underlying these recent events, forcing us to rethink the very idea of justice in this country."
–Alan Mills, Uptown People's Law Center

25% off some of our 2016 highlights for UK customers until the end of December. Just in time for Christmas!

Continue Reading

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Explores the reality of US police violence against Black, Brown and Indigenous communities. What is the reality of policing in the United States? Do the police keep anyone safe and secure other than the very wealthy? How do recent police killings of young black people in the United States fit into the historical and global context of anti-blackness?

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Another free e-book recommended by TSw:
"Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression. Among activists, journalists and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in combination. The core of the problem must be addressed: the nature of modern policing itself."

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Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression. Among activists, journalists and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in combination. The core of the problem must be addressed: the nature of modern policing itself.

This book attempts to spark public discussion by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control. It shows how the expansion of police authority is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice-even public safety. Drawing on groundbreaking research from across the world, and covering virtually every area in the increasingly broad range of police work, Alex Vitale demonstrates how law enforcement has come to exacerbate the very problems it is supposed to solve.

In contrast, there are places where the robust implementation of policing alternatives-such as legalization, restorative justice, and harm reduction-has led to a decrease in crime, spending, and injustice. The best solution to bad policing may be an end to policing.

" The End of Policing combines the best in academic research with rhetorical urgency to explain why the ordinary array of police reforms will be ineffective in reducing abusive policing. Alex Vitale shows that we must move beyond conceptualizing public safety as interdiction, exclusion, and arrest if we hope to achieve racial and economic justice."

" The End of Policing's great strength lies in demonstrating that if the shape of American policing is historical, it is also contingent. We could have made different choices regarding how we set about securing the public against the array of threats that confront it, and - refreshingly, at this moment of general despair - Vitale believes we still can."

"Deeply researched, but also vibrantly and accessibly written, The End of Policing is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the dire state of policing today. Alex Vitale shows compellingly that as long as we ask the police to shore up a fundamentally unequal and dysfunctional social order, superficial 'reforms' won't do much to help. And he offers concrete alternatives aimed at restoring communities and getting police out of the business of trying to contain social problems that they cannot-and should not-control."

"An extremely vital book on policing. Should be assigned at all police academies. If only the Philando Castile jurors had read this."

"Challenging standard accounts of how to reform policing, Alex Vitale argues that true safety demands directing resources away from police and prisons and towards economic development, education, and drug treatment. Urgent, provocative, and timely, The End of Policing will make you question most of what you have been taught to believe about crime and how to solve it."

"Unfortunately, neither increased diversity in police forces nor body cameras nor better training make any seeming difference. We need to restructure our society and put resources into communities themselves, an argument Alex Vitale makes very persuasively."

"Vitale's amassing of trenchant facts into an enticing intellectual framework makes The End of Policing a must-read for anyone interesting in waging and winning the fight for economic and social justice."

" The End of Policing is that holiday argument book, the relatively brief stack of facts you can hand to a relative who still talks about those nice guys who helped out with the flat tire and doesn't see why any lives have to matter more than they already do. A thorough rinsing of the American criminal justice system."

"Suggests a radical alternative that, on the one hand, abolishes corrupt and lethal police policies designed to contain the racialised poor and, on the other, develops and sustains safer communities."

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Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression. Among activists, journalists and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in combination.

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Here are SPe's slides from his G11 mentor class - thank you Sanjay!

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Includes videos, questions, and activities

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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It is up to each of us to truthfully evaluate our personal views. Do our perceptions accurately portray others? Researchers have developed tools to help us become more aware of own biases. One such tool, Project Implicit was created by Harvard University to measure our hidden biases and unconscious thoughts through a series of online activities. Try Project Implicit tests for yourself.

Rerouting Shortcuts
Cognitive shortcuts can lead to stereotyping and biased behavior. Here are some suggestions on how to "reroute" these shortcuts.

Activity for Parents
Reflection / Writing Exercise. Ask yourself:

What are some hurtful biases my child(ren) might be susceptible to?

This week I will help correct or prevent these biases by ________.

What to do...

Identify and learn from your own biases and fears.

Seek to interact with others who differ from you.

Lower your defenses. Listen carefully when someone calls you out and work to see why what they say could be true.

Consider how your words may have affected others.

Notice how you feel when someone speaks or behaves with bias towards you. Find ways to speak up if is safe enough or seek support from others if it is not.

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A bias is a tendency, inclination, or prejudice toward or against something or someone. Even people who are not deliberately prejudicial may have implicit biases. Let's learn more about this and other types of bias and their real-world impacts.

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Portal for educators from the National Museum of African American History and Culture

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Whether you are teaching infants, adults, or any age in between, you are an influential part of your students’ learning and development. Educators too have an important role in communicating of our history and culture. What and how the history of race in America is presented is an opportunity to eng…

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Thanks to SPe for another great resource

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Pran shares great resources via Twitter and his site for educators, http://decolonisethecurriculum.com/.

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Children's books addressing race and racism

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Children's books addressing race and racism

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Teacher in me had to do this..

CHILDREN’S BOOKS THAT DISCUSS RACE & RACISM THREAD:

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Teacher in me had to do this..

CHILDREN’S BOOKS THAT DISCUSS RACE & RACISM THREAD:

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Teacher in me had to do this..

CHILDREN’S BOOKS THAT DISCUSS RACE & RACISM THREAD:
— Brittany, M. Ed (@wanderingbritt_) June 2, 2020

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Teacher in me had to do this..

CHILDREN’S BOOKS THAT DISCUSS RACE & RACISM THREAD:

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Teacher in me had to do this..

CHILDREN’S BOOKS THAT DISCUSS RACE & RACISM THREAD:

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Teacher in me had to do this..

CHILDREN’S BOOKS THAT DISCUSS RACE & RACISM THREAD:

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Joe Truss is a school principal focused on culturally responsive leadership

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Darnell Fine on diversity in international schools

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Darnell Fine on diversity in international schools

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Darnell is a MS teacher at SAS who works on social justice.

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Includes lesson plans and classroom resources

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Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to be An Antiracist

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https://www.bameednetwork.com/

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"Anti-bias education is an integral part of the “bricks and mortar” of emotional well-being and social competence, as well as an emotional foundation upon which children fully develop their cognitive capacities. A healthy sense of self requires that children know and like who they are without feeling superior to others. Understanding and liking one’s own personal and social identities open up the possibilities of building caring connections with others."

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A Guide for Parents and Teachers

Recent eventshave led many parents and teachers to seek out resources to address issues of race and inequality with young children. We share with you here an excerpt from the book Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. The book offers practical guidance to early childhood educators (including parents) for confronting barriers of prejudice, misinformation, and bias about specific aspects of personal and social identity; most importantly, it includes tips for adults and children to respect each other, themselves, and all people. Read more about anti-bias education. Also, see the Movement for Black Lives platform and Teaching Black Lives Matter.
By Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards
Adults sometimes ask: Aren't prejudice, discrimination, and anti-bias adult issues? Why bring children into it? In one sense, these are adult issues. Adults have the power to create, to teach, to maintain bias-and to eliminate it. In another sense, because the realities of prejudice and discrimination begin to affect children's development early, it is developmentally appropriate to address them in our work with young children.

Young children need caring adults to help them construct a positive sense of self and a respectful understanding of others. They need adults to help them begin to navigate and resist the harmful impact of prejudice and discrimination. A person's early childhood years lay the foundation for a developmental and experiential journey that continues into adulthood. With appropriate adult guidance, this foundation will be a strong one, providing the base for the next stages of healthy development and the skills a person needs to thrive and succeed in a complex, diverse world.

Anti-bias education is an integral part of the "bricks and mortar" of emotional well-being and social competence, as well as an emotional foundation upon which children fully develop their cognitive capacities. A healthy sense of self requires that children know and like who they are without feeling superior to others. Understanding and liking one's own personal and social identities open up the possibilities of building caring connections with others. Thinking critically about stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination takes away barriers to comfortable and respectful interactions with a wide range of people and gives children a tool to resist negative messages about their identities. Strong cognitive development is also enhanced when children develop curiosity, openness to multiple perspectives, and critical-thinking skills.

[Below are some topics to explore with your children. Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves has strategies, activities and ideas to spark discussion on each of these topics.]

Strategies for learning about physical differences and similarities

Creating a rich anti-bias learning environment sets the stage for discussion and activities about racial and other physical differences and similarities. The richer the environment, the more likely children will ask questions, even in classrooms where the staff and children come from similar racial backgrounds.

In all activities, highlight that physical diversity among people is desirable, and that all colors, shades, and shapes of people are beautiful. Talk about differences in a tone of delight and interest. Create a vocabulary that encourages children to look at themselves and others and admire their sameness and their uniqueness. Just as we do not wait until a child asks questions about how to read before planning how to provide a range of literacy learning opportunities, anti-bias education is the teacher's responsibility, not the child's, to initiate.

Caution-Never single out one specific child when you do activities about the physical characteristics linked to racial identity. Every activity should be about all of the children, as everyone has a racial identity. Moreover, doing activities about all children reinforces that differences and similarities can be found within each racial identity group as well as across groups.

Exploring skin color, hair, and eyes
Children are active observers of physical characteristics. As they become familiar with some of their own features and those of their classmates, help them to have vocabulary and ideas to understand sameness and difference. There are many ways to involve children in discovering similarities and differences among themselves, their teachers, and their families.

Focus on children's confusion about their own skin color
If, when you invite the children to make self-portraits, a child chooses colors that do not correspond to his actual skin, eye, or hair coloring, consider gently encouraging the child to choose the color closest to his skin color.

Expanding awareness of racial similarities and differences
After helping children become aware that the people within their family are alike and different, it is important to expand their knowledge and awareness to groups of people beyond those in the classroom and neighborhood. As children grow, they move into ever wider and more diverse settings, and we want them to be open to and respectful of all kinds of people they may encounter.

Fostering critical thinking and respectful relationships

Positive and accurate learning experiences about human differences and similarities help to give children a foundation for resisting incorrect and harmful messages about themselves and others. Preschoolers are ready to begin thinking critically about the accuracy and fairness of the information and images they encounter. They also have the capacity to use their developing empathy to understand that unfair behavior hurts people and can learn respectful ways of interacting with others. Teachers can use the following strategies to promote young children's development of these understandings and competencies.

Cultivate children's empathy and ways to deal with the hurt of stereotyping. Read books that depict children experiencing unfair treatment based on their racial identity.

Tell persona doll stories about a discriminatory incident between dolls, engaging children's empathy and problem-solving skills.

Intentionally plan activities to counter potential overgeneralizations or existing stereotypes in the children's general environment.

Support children as they demonstrate awareness of stereotyping.

Engage children in group action. It is empowering when we help children take something that is "unfair" into something "fair." Sometimes this involves addressing personal conflict, helping a child speak up for another child. But it is particularly powerful when children act together.

If we want children to thrive in a diverse world and choose to stand up for themselves and others, then we must choose to help young children make sense out of the confusing and often emotionally charged messages they receive about themselves and others. The commitment to support each child to develop pride and self-confidence and deep connections with others calls on us to foster all children's healthy racial identity. When we give children language to discuss their identities in an atmosphere of interest and delight, and the tools for addressing the unfairness they will inevitably encounter, then we know we have helped children construct a strong foundation for the next phases of their lives.

Early Childhood Books for Teaching about Racial Identity
More titles for young children about racial identity.

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Teaching Young Children about Race - Teaching for Change

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A Guide for Parents and Teachers Recent events have led many parents and teachers to seek out resources to address issues of race and inequality with young children. We share with you here an excerpt from the book Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves.

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by Robin DiAngelo

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When it comes to her well-established career as an anti-racist educator, Robin DiAngelo says, "I kind of fell into it." Years of deep learning, research and mentorship from colleagues of color led her not only to understand that her whiteness has meaning-but also to become really good at explaining this to other white people.

The New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism sat down with Teaching Tolerance to discuss why working against one's own fragility is a necessary part of white anti-racist work-and why good intentions don't matter.

In a nutshell, what is white fragility?

Well, when I coined that term, the fragility part was meant to capture how little it takes to upset white people racially. For a lot of white people, the mere suggestion that being white has meaning will cause great umbrage. Certainly generalizing about white people will. Right now, me saying "white people," as if our race had meaning, and as if I could know anything about somebody just because they're white, will cause a lot of white people to erupt in defensiveness. And I think of it as a kind of weaponized defensiveness. Weaponized tears. Weaponized hurt feelings. And in that way, I think white fragility actually functions as a kind of white racial bullying.

We white people make it so difficult for people of color to talk to us about our inevitable-but often unaware-racist patterns and assumptions that, most of the time, they don't. People of color working and living in primarily white environments take home way more daily indignities and slights and microaggressions than they bother talking to us about because their experience consistently is that it's not going to go well. In fact, they're going to risk more punishment, not less. They're going to now have to take care of the white person's upset feelings. They're going to be seen as a troublemaker. The white person is going to withdraw, defend, explain, insist it had to have been a misunderstanding.

And who is the primary audience for this book?

My audience is the average, well-intended white person who sees themselves as open-minded, and yet cannot answer the question: "What does it mean to be white?"

I think white progressives can be the most challenging because we tend to be so certain that it isn't us. And that certitude is problematic. It doesn't allow for humility, and, to be direct, it's quite arrogant. So we don't tend to be receptive at all. ... I think the worst fear of a well-intended white person is that we would accidentally say something racist. But then how do we respond when someone lets us know, "Hey, you just accidentally said something racist"? We respond with, "How dare you. No, I didn't!"

So, to the degree that our identities are very attached to this idea of being free of racism, we're actually going to resist any of the critical examination that we need to be engaged in for our entire lives. Because every moment that I push against the socialization that I've received into a white supremacist culture, that culture is pushing right back at me. And that pressure is seductive. It's comfortable. There are social rewards for not challenging racism. [White] people perceive you as easier to get along with when you maintain white solidarity.

In the book, you talk about the danger of assuming good intentions. Can you say a little bit about why assuming good intentions can actually be dangerous or harmful?

I think intentions are irrelevant. It's nice to know you had good intentions, but the impact of what you did was harmful. And we need to let go of our intentions and attend to the impact, to focus on that.

A lot of groups that come together to have these discussions generate a list of guidelines or ground rules. And if we really looked critically at those, I think we would see that mostly they're about maintaining white comfort. They presume a lack of differential power in the space. But power relations are always at play, and people are in different power positions in that room. So the very things that might make a white person feel comfortable may be exactly what says to a person of color, "Do not be authentic; do not be yourself. Do not show your emotions. Do not get upset. Do not be angry." ...

There's a question that's never failed me in this work to uncover how racism keeps reproducing itself despite all of the evidence we like to give for why it couldn't be us. And that question isn't, "Is this true or is this false: Was the person's intention good or not?" We're never going to be able to come to an agreement on intentions. You cannot prove somebody's intentions. They might not even know their intentions. And if they weren't good, they're probably not going to admit that. The question I ask is, "How does this function?" The impact of the action is what is relevant.

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What's My Complicity? Talking White Fragility With Robin DiAngelo

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When it comes to her well-established career as an anti-racist educator, Robin DiAngelo says, "I kind of fell into it." Years of deep learning, research and mentorship from colleagues of color led her not only to understand that her whiteness has meaning-but also to become really good at explaining this to other white people.

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Blog, resources, podcast

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Teaching While White - Blog - Teaching While White

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Please add your name in the comments if you'd like to read and talk about 'How to be An Antiracist'.