Daily Archives: June 18, 2021

Juneteenth is a holiday that dates back to 1865, when the last enslaved people were set free in this country. Theres a national debate underway over how racism and slavery should be remembered.

This story originally aired on North Country Public Radio. You can find the original piece, here.

But Black activists in Vermont and northern New York say the celebration has been re-energized in recent years and hope Juneteenth spurs a better understanding of Black history in America.

More from NPR: Slavery Didn't End On Juneteenth. Here's What You Should Know About This Important Day

Ferene Paris Meyer didn't even hear about Juneteenth until she was in her 30s. It was 2018. She and a few other Black women were organizing an event in Burlington, where Paris Meyer lives. One of them suggested having the event on Juneteenth.

I was like, hold on. Come again? What is this Black holiday? I didnt know, I had no idea, Meyer said.

"I really think that Juneteenth is an opportunity for America to heal, to start the healing process from this history that it just doesn't admit to." - Bianca Ellis

Once she learned more about Juneteenth, Paris Meyer says she wanted something this year for the Black Community to just get away. Paris Meyer had recently discovered sailing on Lake Champlain and wanted to share that experience with other Black people.

I was in awe of how beautiful it was to be on the water, how healing it was to be on the water and I just want them to come out and all they have to do is show up and we got them.

Homegoings: DonnCherie On The Art Of Authenticity

From 20 local sponsors, Paris Meyer raised about $16,000 for the sailing event and for an urban farm and retreat for BIPOC people in Winooski. There are seven sailing trips throughout the Juneteenth weekend for 58 people.

The focus on healing is something that Bianca Ellis thinks about around Juneteenth, and not just for Black people. Ellis is a former Fort Drum Army officer. Shes been organizing Juneteenth events in Watertown for the last eight years. This years event all virtual.

I really think that Juneteenth is an opportunity for America to heal, to start the healing process from this history that it just doesnt admit to.

For Ellis, thats the true history of slavery the brutality of it, how many people fought to preserve it, and how slowly it was abolished.

For Benita Law-Diao, it also means the history of Black people who weren't enslaved.

Blacks were ship captains, they were in commerce. Everybody wasnt a slave, even during slavery. There were free Blacks. What did we do? What were we doing? How did we contribute?

Law-Diao has family members who were slaves and later sharecroppers in Alabama. She lives in Albany and is helping organize Saturdays Juneteenth event at the John Brown Farm in Lake Placid.

There will be a dance performance, African drumming, and storytelling about the underground railroad. Law-Diao says she has deep respect for the abolitionist- the farm is named after.

He stood up and said, This is wrong, this is wrong. Im a man of God and this is wrong and I cant let this happen. He gave his life and for that, I am truly grateful, but it hurts when I think about how he had to lose his life in order for us to be free.

More from VPR: (Un)fractured: Covering Race And Racial Injustice In Our Communities

There are Juneteenth events and celebrations across the North Country this weekend, including ones in Potsdam and Plattsburgh, Saratoga Springs, Watertown and Lake Placid.

Paris Meyer from Burlington says there is a lot about whats being honored on Juneteenth that is painful. She says the day is also a celebration of joy and freedom.

"Juneteenth actually should be the most bumping day in the summer for us here because of what it honors, what it teaches." - Ferene Paris Meyer

Juneteenth actually should be the most bumping day in the summer for us here because of what it honors, what it teaches, she said.

By honoring Black voices and Black experiences, Meyer says, the day teaches a more accurate version of American history and highlights a day when all Americans were finally free.

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Juneteenth In The North Country: Celebrating Freedom, Promoting Healing - Vermont Public Radio

Freedom Riders will board the bus in Phoenix on Friday and stop at different cities where prominent events of the Civil Rights era happened.(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Growing up as a Black man in the 1960s, Aubrey Barnwell still feels the sting of Jim Crow laws and remembers the lasting impact they had on him and his parents.

My parents drove from North Dakota to Florida when I was a baby, Barnwell recalls. On their way, they stopped at a store to get some milk. The people at the store would not allow them to go in the store. They handed the milk (to them)out the door.

"My mother and father poured the milk out because they were not sure what the individuals who had given them the milk had done to it.

That was just one of many childhood experiences Barnwell cites as inspiring him to board a bus from Phoenix to Washington, D.C., this Friday to rally lawmakers in support of the For the People Act, a bill aimed at expanding voting rights across the country.

The bus will leave Phoenix the day before Juneteenth the annual holiday commemorating the end of enslavementin the United States.

Barnwell, a 60-year-old pastor from Peoria, is on the board of Case Action, a progressive social justice group that is co-organizing the rides along with Unite Here Local 11, a labor union.

He and other Freedom Riders, as they are called, will board the bus on Friday and stop at cities where prominent events of the Civil Rights era happened, including Tulsa, Okla.;Little Rock, Ark.;and Greensboro, N.C. Their journey will end June 26in Washington, D.C., where they hope to meet with lawmakers to show support of the voting-rights bill.

The rides are named after the original 1960s Freedom Rides, in which civil rights activists rode interstate buses into the Southto challenge racial segregation.

Some people were remarking that they feel actually somewhat upset that people who really died for the right to vote in the '60s now are having to do something 60 years later on the same issue, said Susan Minato, Unite Here Local 11 co-president. It does not seem like it should be this way. And so it's a continuation of a movement that is constantly refining the Constitution and the democracy of our country."

Marisela Mares, a 23-year-old labor organizer and former food service worker from south Phoenix, says participatingin the Freedom Rideis especially poignant for her as a transgender woman of color.

We already go through enough hardships in life and so to add on top of that, making it even harder for me to vote, Mares said. There's a lot of trans folks that have disabilities that don't really have the time or energy or the capacity to go and wait in line at a polling place. We need to protect access to the early ballot.

The bill would reform redistricting and election security laws in addition to expanding early voting and requiring states to set up automatic voter registration for eligible voters in federal elections.

Some of the bills features and goals already exist in the status quo in Arizona, such as widespread early voting, but others are new, said David Gartner, a professor of law and associate dean of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

The things that don't yet exist in Arizona, which exist in every neighboring state, (include)things like automatic voter registration: when people, for example, get a driver's license, it would automatically enroll those who are eligible, said Gartner, who specializes in election law.

He added that there's a whole other section of the bill that addresses ethics and campaign finance.

This system, slightly different than Arizona's elections, would create a matching system for donations that are $200 or less, he said. The idea, and theres some evidence for this, is more people will participate both in funding elections and also in running themselves. So those pieces arent directly related to who gets to vote, but may influence who shapes the elections.

But the fate of the For the People Act itself is unknown. While it passed in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in a near party-line vote in March, its future is uncertain in the divided Senate, where Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., called it partisan voting legislation and said he will vote against it in its current form.

It's probably fair to say that the things that (Manchin)doesn't like are unlikely to make it into any final legislation, but the harder question is,'Is any of it going to make it into law,' Gartner said.

That will depend on the filibuster, a Senate rule that requires a 60-vote majority for legislation to move forward.

BothManchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., are opposed to eliminating the filibuster, which have made them the targets of criticism from many Democrats. However, Sinema has co-sponsored the For the People Act, calling it critical voting-rights legislation."

For subscribers:Sinema's calls for bipartisanship tested as she helps lead infrastructure talks

Given the filibuster, it will turn on those same two people, the senator from West Virginia and the senator from Arizona, Gartner said of the bill's viability in the Senate. And I don't know that anybody knows that answer.

Minato says that Unite Here Local 11 helped elect Sinema to the Senate in 2018, and hopes she will hear their concerns. We want her to know that the people of Arizona, the people in the country, really care about this issue so that's why we're starting in Arizona.

Sinemas office said that shewelcomes the support of UNITE HERE 11 and other Arizonans for the For the People Act and believes the right to vote, faith in the integrity of our electoral process, and trust in elected officials are critical to the health and vitality of our democracy.

She is a cosponsor and supporter of both the For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act because she supports legislation restoring critical safeguards that protect every American's right to vote, and she supports reforms that reduce the influence of money in politics, secure our elections from foreign interference, and hold government officials to the highest ethical standards, Sinemaspokesperson Hannah Hurley wrote in a statement.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., also supports the bill.

Mares, one of the Freedom Riders, said the rides represent an ongoing fight against the filibuster in order to secure the passage of the bill in the Senate.

Fifty or sixty years ago we risked our lives to end segregation and to win civil rights and voting rights, and we're still fighting, said Mares, the labor organizer who will participate in the rides. The filibuster is still there, there are still people that don't see this as an urgent issue and I think that's even more reason why we have to go in and put that pressure and inspire the leaders to really take action.

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Arizonans to participate in 'Freedom Rides' to DC in support of voting-rights bill - The Arizona Republic

Recent red-state bans or restrictions on the use of critical race theory (CRT) in public schools and universities have been denounced by mainstream media. While most of the bans primarily target CRTs racial essentialismprohibitions on assigning fault, blame, or bias to a race or sex, or to members of a race or sex because of their race or sex, according to a bill signed into law in Iowa last weekthe new legislation is regularly described as an attack on diversity or racial sensitivity training. According to New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, the reforms amount to outright government censorship; for Atlantic staff writer Adam Harris, they show the GOPs cynical desire to spark another battle in the culture wars. A recent MSNBC headline goes further still: GOP Pushing Bill to Ban Teaching History of Slavery.

Beyond the hyperbole, substantive critiques of the new legislation usually allege that curricular restrictions violate academic freedom. Insofar as this contention originates on the left, one could regard it as a cynical manipulation of language. After all, progressives have had little to say about free speech in education for at least a generation; that they have suddenly rediscovered the virtue of an open marketplace of ideas now is convenient.

At the same time, however, a significant number of genuine defenders of academic freedom, on the left and right, have also voiced opposition to the bans on CRT-based curricula in taxpayer-funded schools. Their views deserve to be taken seriously. These critics object to the anti-CRT laws on first principles, contending that a ban on teaching a particular ideology or doctrine in public schools undermines free speech and related constitutional rights. The federal courts should reflexively invalidate anti-CRT laws on First Amendment grounds, writes First Amendment law professor Ronald Krotoszynski in the Washington Post. Educators cannot do their job if state governments attempt to ban the teaching of ideas they fear.

But the dogmatic insistence that political neutralitya fuzzy idea, by any measurebe strictly adhered to in all government policy, in lieu of legislators ever promoting a substantive vision of the good, represents a fundamental misinterpretation of academic freedom in a publicly funded setting. This argument is particularly perplexing in the context of taxpayer-funded grade schools. The idea that banning specific topics in these schools curricula is government overreach misses the fact that public K-12 programs are monopolistic, government-run institutions; a change in their curricular requirements does not expand state power in any substantive way.

This misunderstanding is clearly visible in the writings of figures like Acadia University professor Jeffrey Sachs, a self-described mainstream liberal who care[s] deeply about classic liberal norms like free speech and academic freedom. Sachs argues that the recent anti-CRT laws are condemnable for their use of state power to suppress woke speech and viewpoints. And yet, the debate over legislative interventions in woke K-12 curricula does not actually consider the use of state power to suppress private speech rights; it deals with the question of whether state employees should be allowed to teach woke doctrine on the taxpayers dollar. Are policymakers proscribed from ensuring that tax dollars are not used in ways that harm the taxpaying polity? For Sachs, such intervention is tantamount to using the blunt instrument of the state to infringe on the rights of public educators. But if crafting public education policy and overseeing its implementation is not the role of the state, then whose is it?

Krotoszynski suggests an answer in his Washington Post editorial, where he approvingly quotes Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurters characterization of teachers as priests of our democracy, who cannot carry out their noble task if the conditions of a responsible and critical mind are denied to them. Leaving aside whether CRT actually promotes or detracts from critical thinking, do teachers purported positions as priests of democracy elevate them above democracy itself, as conducted through democratically elected state legislative bodies, tasked with overseeing public education? The idea that it is unconstitutional and a violation of academic freedom, in Sachss words, to restrict public K-12 schools from teaching something like the New York Timess 1619 Projectthe revisionist reinterpretation of the American Founding specifically targeted by bans enacted in Arkansas and Iowawould suggest that public educators should be insulated from accountability and democratic oversight, operating instead as private citizens outside the purview of the very state legislatures that pay them.

This is the final problem with the idea of political neutrality in public school curricula. Public school teachers are not private actors, and a public school curriculum is not a neutral or free marketplace of ideas. What one teaches and does not teach in this setting is an unavoidably political decision, using public funds to favor certain concepts and theories at the necessary exclusion of others. A public educator teaching the 1619 Project is not a private voice in a free marketplace of ideas, but a specificand taxpayer-endorsedstate employee, acting as an extension of the state itself. To assert that a curriculum is somehow less political in the hands of a teacher rather than a legislator is to accept the notion that teachers are not servants of the public good, but masters of it.

One could object to the CRT bans on pragmatic grounds, such as the concerns that some have raised about the use of overly broad language in some versions of the legislation, but the legitimacy of the new laws on principle depends not on whether the government should ban or suppress certain viewpoints in the public square but on whether CRT serves a genuine pedagogical purpose in public schools. Why does the 1619 Projectdebunked by historians for a number of blatantly ahistorical claimshave an inviolable claim to publicly funded classrooms? Does its demonstrably false assertion that the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery have a place in a U.S. history class any more than creationism has a place in biology courses?

Sachs argues that his interest isnt defending Critical Race Theory, its defending free speech and academic freedom. David French, a prominent conservative critic of the bans, tweets that defending the right of free speech is [not] the same as defending the content of that speech. But teaching a specific ideology in a taxpayer-funded curriculum is not a mere exercise of neutral free speech or academic freedom. To defend it in this context is, in fact, a defense of its content, or at least a defense of the idea that its content is legitimate enough to be backed by state funds and taught to our children. And to make that argument is to defend government-run classrooms teaching a doctrine that explicitly undermines the American constitutional order.

Nate Hochman is a Publius Fellow at the Claremont Institute and a recent graduate of Colorado College.

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Critical Race Theory and Academic Freedom - City Journal

Royal Caribbean has released the health protocols for Freedom of the Seas departures out of Miami, Florida, starting from July 2, 2021. It is important to know that the protocols are for July sailings only.

Freedom of the Seas will be the first ship in the fleet to resume cruise operations from the U.S. She will be the first of many vessels that are returning to service this summer.

Now that Royal Caribbean has released the health protocols for Freedom for the Seas, guests can decide if they should still go ahead with a long-awaited cruise vacation. The detailed protocols were released on June 17, and guests booked on the July sailings out of Miami will still receive full details before departure.

Royal Caribbean says it strongly recommends passengers 16 and older to be fully vaccinated, and during check-in, guests will be asked to show proof of full vaccination such as the CDC record card. Those guests who are not fully vaccinated will have to undergo additional testing at their own expense and follow different protocols to those fully vaccinated.

Those over the age of 16 and not fully vaccinated will have to undergo a PCR test which will cost $135 per guest which will be added to the onboard account. Those guests of two years old to five years old will have a free PCR test.

The Royal Caribbean App will be an important part of the cruise to make sure guests remain safe. Before even stepping onboard, a health questionnaire must be completed on the app and an allocated arrival time to the terminal chosen.

Even though most guests are expected to be fully vaccinated, there will be different rules for those not fully vaccinated. This covers a wide range of experiences during the cruise. The onboard SeaPass will be required to access lounges, show, and dining venues, and this will let the crew keeps things organized.

Also Read: Royal Caribbean Clarifies Vaccine Policy Including Florida Cruises

There will be venues and events that will only be available for vaccinated guests on Freedom of the Seas. In the main dining room, the areas will be split up in addition to spaced seating. There will be more times allocated for showtimes, and select shows will only be for vaccinated passengers. There will be shows that will allow all guests too.

All guests have to wear a face mask indoors unless seated and actively eating or drinking. Outdoors, the rules are more relaxed including at Perfect Day at CocoCay. Vaccinated guests dont have to wear a mask in any of the venues. Royal Caribbean has said that the CDC is to releases further updated guidance on mask policies for vaccinated passengers so these details could change further.

When it comes to shore excursions, it depends on the local authorities, and Royal Caribbean will provide further details during the voyages. To access many venues and dining, guests will have to make a reservation using the Royal Caribbean App. You can read all the details on the health protocols for Freedom of the Seas here.

Following a simulated sailing to stress test protocols departing June 20 out of Miami, the Royal Caribbean cruise ship will begin paid sailings on July 2, 2021. The ship will sail 3- and 4-night cruises, including calls to the Bahamas and the cruise lines private island destination of Perfect Day at CocoCay out of PortMiami.

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Royal Caribbean Releases Health Protocols for Freedom of the Seas July Cruises - Cruise Hive

June 16, 2021

Juneteenth, a commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S., is a day to celebrate freedom and a time to dream, says one Georgia Southern University professor.

On June 19, 1865, Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the Civil War had ended and enslaved Black Americans were free by executive decree.

More than 155 years later, the annual remembrance still resonates, explained Maxine Bryant, Ph.D., assistant professor of criminal justice and director of Georgia Southerns Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center. Its vitally important not to forget history, she said, however the day represents more than past triumphs.

We want to honor the dream, said Bryant. When we think about freedom, we have to recognize that enslaved Blacks dreamt of freedom and they didnt see it for themselves, but they dreamt of it for generations to come. And then generations later when were dealing with the civil rights issues, those people dreamt of freedom. They dreamt it for the generation that lives now. So as we celebrate Juneteenth it is not just a recognition or celebration of when the people in Galveston, Texas, found out about freedom. Its about all that freedom represents.

Across the country, organized efforts, like the one on Georgia Southerns Armstrong Campus, which will feature Gullah Geechee master storytellers and drummers, an African dance troupe, and traditional quilt lessons, are some of the many ways communities will celebrate Juneteenth on Saturday, June 19.

Recognizing and celebrating Juneteenth in the communities we serve is an honor and privilege and in direct alignment with our institutional value of Inclusive Excellence, said TaJuan R. Wilson, Ed.D., associate vice president of Inclusive Excellence and chief diversity officer. It is my hope that campus education and programming will continue to expand in the years to come and that every member of our learning community understands and celebrates the historical significance of that day in 1865, while making connections to our ongoing, comprehensive work in diversity, equity and inclusion.

Juneteenth Live on the Armstrong Campus is free and open to the public.

The event will take place at the following:

Saturday, June 193:30-5:30 p.m.International Gardens (between Solms Hall and Hawes Hall)

Hear the drum, the song, the stories told by the Saltwata Players

Listen to poems of freedom

Learn the powers of the quilt

Taste the flavors of Gullah Geechee cuisine

See the movements of the Sankofa African Dance Troupe

Experience the African spirit

*Sponsored by The Center for Africana Studies and The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center

Georgia Southern University, a public Carnegie Doctoral/R2 institution founded in 1906, offers approximately 140 different degree programs serving almost 27,000 students through 10 colleges on three campuses in Statesboro, Savannah, Hinesville and online instruction. A leader in higher education in southeast Georgia, the University provides a diverse student population with expert faculty, world-class scholarship and hands-on learning opportunities. Georgia Southern creates lifelong learners who serve as responsible scholars, leaders and stewards in their communities. Visit GeorgiaSouthern.edu.

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Juneteenth: A celebration of freedom and a continued dream | Newsroom - Georgia Southern University Newsroom

Concern about threats to free speech and research in universities is commonly dismissed by the Left as a Right-wing fabrication. Three years ago, the political economist Will Davies argued in the Guardian that the free speech panic had been invented by the Right, because its accustomed authority had been lost to anarchic social media. A year later, the journalist Nasrine Malik wrote that the tale of university campuses succumbing to an epidemic of no-platforming was designed to secure, not freedom of speech, but the licence to speak with impunity.

Then, in February of this year, Jo OGrady, secretary-general of the University and Colleges Union, responded to advance word of a White Paper announcing plans for legislation to bolster academic freedom, by accusing the Government of stoking a culture war despite there being no evidence of a free speech crisis on campus. And only last week, in their submission to the Times Education Commission, Tony Blair and Andrew Adonis wrote that the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill now making its way through Parliament is a reform in search of a problem since free speech is hardly a key issue on university campuses.

The Lefts echo-chamber is just plain wrong. Quite why they doggedly turn such a deaf ear to the problem is a bit of a puzzle. One obvious explanation is that what is being suppressed is speech that criticises ideologies that the Left supports ideologies such as transgender self-identification, Critical Race Theory, and decolonisation which currently enjoy dominance in our cultural and educational institutions. According to last months report by the Policy Institute at Kings College London, of all newspapers it is the Guardian that has made by far the most mention of the culture wars in the past five years. Rather than nonchalant dismissal, this suggests a degree of alarm at the rising challenge to the Lefts present cultural ascendancy.

There is empirical evidence that the freedom to speak and research of significant minorities of university students and teachers in the UK are being inhibited. Those affected range from political and social conservatives on the Right to feminist critics of transgender ideology on the Left. The problem is by no means confined to the limited number of instances of the no-platforming of speakers. It is much wider and includes a variety of kinds of case.

For example, in the summer of 2017 the clinical psychotherapist, James Caspian, was forbidden by Bath Spa University to conduct politically incorrect research into transgender de-transitioning, because of its risk to the University. In May 2018, a junior research fellow attending a seminar on colonialism that I ran in Oxford, insisted that his name and face appear in no record, lest senior colleagues in the Faculty of History damage his career as punishment for associating with me. In October 2020, a student at the Centre of Teacher Education at Warwick University, after objecting to the suggestion of non-gendered classrooms for young children and disapproving of the imposition of transgender ideology on them, attracted complaints from fellow students. This student was referred by the University to a suitability panel and suspended until the panels hearing, suffered a collapse in mental health, and now, eight months later, remains formally absent on grounds of sickness. And, in January 2021, Cambridge Universitys School of Arts and Humanities wrote to all of its departments, requiring them to explain how they were going to promote decolonisation. Permitting no conscientious space to those doubtful of the inbuilt assumptions about colonialism and racism, the School marched ahead as if dissent was, literally, unthinkable.

For every individual who finds himself censored, ostracised, made ill, or bulldozed, there are hundreds of others who look on aghast and resolve to keep their mouths shut, lest they attract trouble. Moral courage is quite as rare on campus as it is everywhere else, and fear is no less prevalent. The public censoring of one causes the self-censorship of many.

This is evidenced, not only by anecdotes, but by hard social scientific data. In 2017, a report on academic freedom produced by Jo OGradys own union reported that 35.5 per cent of its members polled admitted to self-censorship, above all of their political views. It also found that [i]n sharp contrast with the other 27 EU nations, the constitutional protection for academic freedom (either directly, or indirectly via freedom of speech) in the UK is negligible, as is the legislative protection for the substantive (teaching and learning) and supportive (tenure and governance) elements of academic freedom.

In its 2018 report, the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights acknowledged that instances of the no-platforming of speakers who challenge the assumptions of identity politics and the disruption of meetings organised by social conservatives could be having a wider chilling effect on free speech. A 2019 Policy Exchange study of academic freedom in the UK presented evidence of such an effect on students speech, such that some mainstream political views cannot be discussed in the classroom. A follow-up report in 2020 showed that the chill extends to professors. Since more than 80 per cent of academics lean to the Left, Right-leaning professors tend to perceive their professional environment as hostile. Mindful of their careers, they censor themselves, going into inner exile and keeping their conservative thoughts to themselves.

These threats to freedom of speech and research are not right-wing fantasies; they are real. And their effect can only be to deepen the lack of political diversity in our universities and to widen the gap between the academic elite and the rest of the population.

The good news is that the Governments Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill will go a long way toward thawing the chill. By creating a new post of Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom, it will enable the Office for Students to focus on analysing the various problems and working out a consistent set of solutions that will establish sector-wide norms. By authorising the Director to recommend redress, even sanctions, it will encourage busy vice-chancellors to push the issue closer to the top of their agendas. By allowing academic staff to appeal beyond their own institutions, it will at once support beleaguered individuals and render those institutions externally accountable. And by extending the duty to secure free speech directly to student unions, it will give student leaders pause before they yield to pressure to stifle dissent.

Since the Bill was published, it has attracted a number of criticisms. One is that legislation cannot change culture, so as to lift the fear of social or professional rejection that causes self-censorship. But that is not true. Legislation can nudge culture in the right direction by reassuring dissidents that an external body stands ready to hold universities to account, by giving them the power to appeal outside of their own institutions. By laying down a set of liberal norms over time, the new law would help to dissipate the climate of fear.

Another objection is that persuasion would be better than the threat of sanctions. That is both true and untrue. It is true insofar as it would be ideal if universities could be persuaded to do what they should, without the Government ever having to pick up the punitive stick. But it is untrue insofar as sight of that stick in the course of negotiations is often necessary to encourage serious nibbling at the diplomatic carrot.

A third criticism is that the new law would burden universities with even more bureaucracy, by requiring the demonstration of compliance, especially in the promotion of free speech and academic freedom, in order to gain or maintain registration. This is true, but, unfortunately, it is also necessary and the issue is important enough to make it proportionate. Besides, if universities find themselves stretched for resources, they could always divert some away from the promotion of reporting portals, whereby students are encouraged to lodge anonymous complaints about academics guilty of microaggressions and the like. Moreover, after the relevant systems have been set in place and the norms established, the number of cases will decline and the burden will lighten.

Some have even argued that the legislation would have the perverse effect of making both students and academics more cautious in issuing invitations, lest they be cancelled and invite trouble. But the Bill will shift the balance in favour of taking risks for free speech by imposing a duty to promote it. And besides, cancellations dont just happen; they are not Acts of God. Student unions and universities have the agency to disallow them.

The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill promises to go a long way in addressing the real problem of the stifling of the freedom to speak in our universities. But it could go further still.

As it stands, the Bill adopts an extraordinarily narrow definition of academic freedom, confining it strictly to an academics field of expertise. Consequently, it fails to protect expressly the freedom of students and academics to voice critical opinions about their own universities, and in particular to dissent from politicised curricular change such as decolonisation without fear of disciplinary action on the ground of bringing their institution into disrepute.

Further, in its current form it would still allow discussion in an academic context to attract allegations of having the effect of harassment under Section 26 of the Equality Act 2010.

And it does not yet give academic staff access to affordable justice via an employment tribunal, in case of failure to be appointed or of being dismissed for speaking or researching freely within the law. Access to a tribunal is relatively straightforward and shields complainants from the threat of having to pay huge costs, if they lose. A tribunal can also order re-employment.

If it were amended so as to fill these gaps, the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill could make a vital contribution to reducing political polarisation in our country. For what is at stake is not merely the freedom of individuals, but the preservation of universities as places where young citizens are educated to voice, entertain, and discuss controversial ideas and views, exciting fierce passions, and to do so in a civil, rational, and responsible mannerso that light might prevail rather than heat. What is at stake is the future of liberal public culture in Britain.

Nigel Biggar, CBE, is Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford

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A liberal public culture needs the Freedom of Speech Bill - TheArticle

Our early PPP data analysis shows Black-owned businesses secured just 3% of PPP loans worth $150,000 or more in the Carolinas

CHARLOTTE, N.C. From Paycheck Protection Program loans to mortgages, marijuana arrests to SWAT Team raids, widespread disparities persist 156 years after Union soldiers shared the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Texas on June 19, 1865. Those disparities remain the result of systemic barriers that single out Black members of the community. Despite the lack of equity, advocates in the community are working tirelessly to close the gaps.

A WCNC Charlotte analysis of early PPP data found white men received the vast majority of forgivable loans. Of the owners who identified race in their applications, Black-owned businesses secured just 3% of PPP loans worth $150,000 or more in the Carolinas.

"Are we invisible?" NAACP President Rev. Corine Mack asked in response to our findings. "Does our pain not feel like pain to some folks? When we cry, do you not see our tears? This is a serious problem and it's not just in Charlotte."

The far-reaching disparities resulted in Small Business Administration changes in subsequent rounds to address the lack of equity.

PPP is just a snapshot of the lending divide. When it comes to regular mortgages, a WCNC Charlotte analysis of federal home loan data found most of Charlotte's largest lenders deny Black applicants far more often than their white counterparts. The denials were blamed on poor credit and high debt to income ratios, which is a byproduct of centuries worth of unfair treatment.

Banks, lawmakers, advocates, borrowers, and now the Biden administration are working to make sure every person has a fair shot at owning a home, but they caution change will be gradual.

"You see the will and the work going in to really make some fundamental changes," U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing Finance Senior Adviser Alanna McCargo said.

New first-time homeowner Sadia Vanager wants her kids to know how much work goes into buying a home. Not only does she credit education and her realtor, but she's also grateful for her partner for helping financially support the possibility.

"I don't want it to be like, 'Mommy's just making these things happen,'" the mother of three said. "They need to know stuff takes hard work. It takes being a steward of your money, being a steward of your credit."

Data show widespread disparities in policing too. Public records show the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has significantly decreased the number of people arrested and cited for marijuana possession, but data show when officers choose to take someone to jail or write a ticket for weed, the majority of the time that person is Black.

"We're making the arrests, we're writing citations, we're making traffic stops in those areas where we're seeing the violent crime," CMPD Deputy Chief Stella Patterson said, defending the department's practices.

CMPD data show Black communities are also far more likely to come face-to-face with a SWAT Team when police serve search warrants. More than six years' worth of department records identified only one SWAT Team-served search warrant in predominantly white South Charlotte.

"I think the optics of it could be problematic for some people certainly, but we have to understand why is it that this is occurring," Deputy Chief Patterson said.

According to the deputy chief, South Charlotte doesn't have a violent crime problem, unlike other parts of the city, which is why that part of town sees so few SWAT raids.

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Data shows major Black and white divide 156 years after the freedom of slaves - WCNC.com

Rock the Vote, the leading nonpartisan nonprofit that connects politicians to young voters, is partnering with the Womens National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) for a brand new campaign initiative called the Freedom to Vote.

Organized by the people who campaigned for For The People and John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the Freedom to Vote campaign protects residents' right to vote, especially in states like Arizona, Georgia and Texas that have instituted what critics call voter suppression mandates, the organization told Changing America.

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Most of us believe for democracy to work for all of us, it must include all of us. But, weve seen extremist politicians in states putting up barriers to silence voices and manipulate our elections, Rock the Vote President and Executive Director Carolyn DeWitt said. When it comes to our elections, we want a transparent process we can trust, where Americans have equal freedom to vote. Federal legislation would enact national standards for voting, take big money and special interests out of our democracy, and protect against voting policies that discriminate. Thats why its critical we empower voters with information about these pieces of legislation and provide resources so they can make their voices heard.

As the organization states, educating young voters about political discourse is a challenge across various states, and knowing where to engage civic voters is also a hurdle.

Among the other partners that are funding the campaign are the following:

18 Million Rising

Advance Native Political Leadership Action Fund

All on the Line

American Association of University Women (AAUW)

Amplifier/Amplifier Art

Athlete Ally

Black Male Voter Project

Black Voters Matter Fund

End Citizens United / Let America Vote Fund

Ignite National

Indivisible

Major League Soccer Players Association (MLSPA)

MoveOn

National Black Justice Coalition

National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund

National Women's Soccer League Players Association (NWSLPA)

Pulso

The Andrew Goodman Foundation

Voto Latino

Voice in Sport

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Rock the Vote partners with the WNBA and others to spread awareness of 'Freedom to Vote' | TheHill - The Hill

Theres a lot of discrimination against LGBTQ people here in the US. There are still a lot of laws in place that pose a challenge for specifically transgender and non-binary people to get access to jobs and equal access to housing. Tremaine Jones (He/They), Project Director, The LGBTQ Freedom Fund

Advocate and health educator Tremaine Jones is acutely aware of why he does the work that he does. Prior to serving as the project director for the LGBTQ Freedom Funds bail out and HIV programs, Jones worked primarily in public health.

I always knew that the system was messed up and that mass incarceration was a big issue in this country. But when I really got to understand more of the criminal legal system, it just made me realize that the system is meant to fail, and its meant to put people in harms way, he said.

This is key to why Jones views mass incarceration as both a public health concern and LGBTQ issue.

Nearly 1 in 3 LGBTQ persons will face incarceration and 1 in 6 transgender people will be sexually assaulted while incarcerated, according to Jones. Statistics like these paired with the fact that most suicides occur in the first week of a persons incarceration highlight why the LGBTQ Freedom Fund is working to secure the safety and release of LGBTQ-identified people who are in jail and immigration detention.

Im Black and Im queer. So at some point I have a likelihood of getting incarcerated because of who I am, said Jones. The fact that systems are in place to entrap people who are like me, and also have very similar experiences that I do, is why its really important that we have this conversation.

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The non-profit posts bond for pretrial detention throughout the state of Florida and has done immigration bonds for people who have been detained in over 20 states in the US, some of whom engage in underground economies to make ends meet.

Many people are being lost in the cracksespecially LGBTQ people, people of color, and poor peoplewho dont have access to resources, who are doing things that are considered not legal in this country simply because they need to survive, said Jones.

This is why community bail funds (the Freedom Fund is a part of the National Bail Fund Network) are necessary because they help serve those who might others face violence and abuse while incarcerated.

We post bond for people at least three times a week. And lately weve been posting for at least three to five individuals to get them out of jail or immigration detention, said Jones, who also added that if you have the means to give, give your money and resources to LGBTQ organizations, especially Black and Latinx owned LGBTQ organizations, because those organizations are really doing the work.

Tremaine discusses more about the LGBTQ Freedom Funds work, shares his thoughts on police at Pride events, and offers advice for allies and accomplices to the LGBTQ community in the video above. Check it out.

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The LGBTQ Freedom Fund Is Doing the Work to Bail Out People In U.S. Jails and Immigration Facilities - The Root

WHAT: The LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at The University of Texas at Austin will commemorate Juneteenth during the inaugural Juneteenth Freedom Summit: Birth of a New American Freedom. Speakers will discuss education, housing, wealth, and why Juneteenthmatters now more than ever, amid a national political awakening on racial justice and equity.

WHEN: Saturday, June 19, 11 a.m. CT

WHO: Peniel Joseph, scholar of race and democracy, LBJ School of Public Affairs

Richard Reddick, Associate Dean, College of Education

Sylvester Turner, Houston Mayor

Annette Gordon-Reed, historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of On Juneteenth

WHERE: The event is free and open to the public. It will be held via Zoom Webinar. Registration is required.

BACKGROUND:Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, when federal troops informed enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, of their freedom on June 19, 1865 more than 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Texas was the last state to free enslaved African Americans.

MEDIA: Members of the media are permitted to record the event but are not permitted to publish, use or distribute any portion featuring commentary from Annette Gordon-Reed. Media assets are available in advance. Please contact victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu.

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UT Austin's Inaugural Juneteenth Freedom Summit to Explore Education, Housing and Wealth - UT News - UT News | The University of Texas at Austin