Daily Archives: January 21, 2022

This column is part of our ongoing Opinion commentary on faith, called Living Our Faith. Find the full series here.

One of the more important and often overlooked moments of the civil rights movement was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.s midnight kitchen table experience in 1956, which shaped his (and our) future.

King was 27 years old and in his second year as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, within eyesight of the Alabama Capitol. He had been helping lead the city bus boycott, which prompted an ongoing barrage of death threats to his house, mail and phone. Some days, there were as many as 30 to 40 calls, often in the evening, trying to force him to return to Atlanta.

King would just lay down the phone and, if at night, go back to bed. But one call, around midnight on Jan. 27, became pivotal for him, as he wrote in his autobiography.

While his wife, Coretta, and their infant daughter slept nearby, the caller, a man, said, [N-word], weve taken all we want from you; before next week youll be sorry you ever came to Montgomery.

Shaken more than usual, King, as he later wrote, went to the familys small kitchen, made a pot of coffee, buried his face in his hands, and prayed aloud: Lord, Im down here trying to do whats right. I think Im right. I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But Lord, I must confess that Im weak now, Im faltering. Im losing my courage.

King wrote in his autobiography: It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying: Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you. Even until the end of the world.

His fear quieted at that moment and left him, though the threats never did. A bomb blew up on the front steps of his home three evenings later. Fortunately, despite the wreckage, no one was injured.

From the damaged porch, King called his gathered supporters out of their anger, and into nonviolence and love for their enemies.

King lived without fear for another 12 years, always going forward, knowing his life was at risk. He said: if I am stopped, this movement will not stop. The world is better for his having lived without fear.

What we can learn from Kings kitchen table experience is the importance of spiritual grounding to move onward in the hard, sometimes perilous struggle for justice, allowing no fear to detour our journey forward.

King learned his anchoring from the Revs. Howard Thurman and James Larson, forerunners of Black Liberation Theology, and Mohandas Gandhis nonviolence. King was carried along by gospel music and spirituals.

Spiritual grounding is essential. Our human history teaches us that. This is not about religiosity, going to church, and so on, but that deep personal spiritual anchoring, whatever ones faith tradition (or none).

If we lack this tethering, our striving for justice will be short-lived and yanked away by distraction or fear of societal disapproval, retaliation, physical danger, financial insecurity, and so on. (The list is long).

Community grows because we give back; it does not grow in a vacuum.

Our annual commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. should honor not only him, but, as he often pointed out, all those who struggled in danger to themselves without fear. We should reflect on how their deep spirituality moved them (and us) closer to the dream. Consider Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis, and all those anonymous people before us, many of whom faced repercussions or death. We should honor, and imitate, their spiritual grounding and fearless courage.

Black Lives Matter has raised up a challenge and put it directly in our faces. Likewise, the pandemic, now two years in the making, has laid bare the extravagant economic dislocations that oppress people of color and poor people.

Many want to rise to the challenge. Others will drift in their solipsism. People who want work for justice should consider more deeply grounding themselves so as to be fearlessly true to the struggle, and not wind vanes.

James C. Harrington is the retired founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project and an Episcopal priest in Austin. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.

Find the full opinion section here. Got an opinion about this issue? Send a letter to the editor and you just might get published.

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What Black Lives Matter can learn from Martin Luther Kings religious faith - The Dallas Morning News

SARATOGA SPRINGS Kevin Luibrand, the lawyer for Schenectady School Board member Jamaica Miles, said in City Court Thursday that undercover officers were present during the July 14 Black Lives Matter protest, in an operation called Take Back the Narrative.

Miles was one of 13 people who were later charged with offenses associated with blocking traffic during the protest at a busy intersection during the height of the citys summer tourism season.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph Frandino said Miles was charged because she is observed during parts of a 9-minute video blocking a car.

On four separate occasions, motorists asked the crowd to allow them through, including a man who said he needed to get medication for his heart condition.

Miles has been charged with unlawful imprisonment and disorderly conduct.

Frandinosaid he offered to drop the unlawful imprisonment charge if Miles pleads guilty to disorderly conduct, a noncriminal disposition.

Instead, Miles lawyer filed a motion to dismiss the case in the interest of justice, arguing Miles is being treated more harshly than Molly Dunn, a white woman who protested that day and was observed on video blocking traffic for the entirety of the video while holding a sign.

Dunn was a defense witness in Miles case. Dunn had already accepted the prosecutors offer of an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal of the same charges after 30 days. Luibrand had also represented Dunn.

Luibrand described Miles as a person of good character, a single mom roughing it out with four kids who has no criminal record and is engaged with her community as co-founder of the activist group All of Us.

Dunn is also an activist in her own right, and she, too, has no criminal record. Yet Luibrand said the prosecutor treated them differently.

Its hard to say the difference, but its real, Luibrand told Judge Francine Vero. Mollys white. Jamaicas not.

The protesters were present to decry comments made by retiring Assistant Police Chief John Catone, who had complained during a June 28 press conference that a recent spate of violence had been caused by gangs from Albany, and that the police department had been damaged by activists who were portraying officers as racist killers.

The longtime police official vowed to pull out every single connection my family has made over the last 130 years, and I will stop your narrative.

In court, Luibrand asked rhetorically: How do you protect the narrative? You cut the legs off people that speak.

Luibrand said the judge couldnt force the prosecutor to offer Miles an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal.

But Luibrand said Vero could give confidence to the community by affording the Molly Dunns of the world the same treatment as the Jamaica Miles of the world.

In describing a portion of the video footage, Luibrand said Miles for a time pushed her toddler who was in a stroller.

The lawyer said Miles, who spoke from a bullhorn, wasnt paying attention to the occupants of a car that protesters had blocked.

She spoke to people across the street at the Adelphi Hotel, among others.

Shes almost oblivious to theres even cars there as she moves around, Luibrand said.

The lawyer contrasted that with the white girl, Dunn, who stood in front of the car.

However, the ADA rejected that his offer was motivated by race, saying Luibrand had wildly neglected to mention that three white protesters and eight people of color received adjournments in contemplation of dismissal.

The ADA said Miles absence of acriminal history, and the fact shes a hardworking, respected, accomplished member of her community with four children werent in dispute.

However, Miless part in ignoring the pleas of the motorists couldnt be ignored, the prosecutor said, while noting that a older gentleman in the video, who was visiting Saratoga Springs from California, was visibly shaken when describing what happened.

Frandino also explained why officers in attendance didnt immediately arrest the protesters.

Instead, the defendants were summonsed six weeks after the event.

Rather than sprinting in and disrupting the protest, rather than rush and arrest everyone in the middle of the street and cause even further congestion and potential public safety issues, Frandino said, law enforcement purposefully and carefully waited, gathered all the digital evidence that they could [and] identified everyone they could from the videos and later issue warrants.

Law enforcements concern then, and law enforcements concern now, remains public safety, and to turn that afternoon into even more of a chaotic event would have endangered the safety of everyone on the street protesters and onlookers alike, Frandino said.

The prosecutor asked the judge to imagine if the circumstances were reversed, and it were Miles driving down Broadway and had been stopped in traffic while surrounded by a crowd of people carrying signs and screaming into bullhorns.

I envision her press conferences on the steps of City Hall to demand that I place this man in jail for as long as possible, as opposed to supporting a full and complete dismissal of the charges against him, Frandino said.

Frandino said he prosecuted all 13 cases without taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

All 13 of them received an individual independent analysis by our office to determine their level of culpability, he said.

Luibrand said no ones life was changed by what was observed on the video.

Vero said she hoped to prepare a written decision on the request for a dismissal by early next week.

Contact reporter Brian Lee at[emailprotected]or 518-419-9766.

Categories: News, Saratoga County, Schenectady County

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Lawyer says Jamaica Miles, a Schenectady School Board member, treated more harshly than fellow white protester at summer Black Lives Matter protest ...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (NEXSTAR) Invoking the dream of his formerly enslaved great-grandfather, Richard Irvin, the mayor of Illinois second largest city, jumped into the Illinois Republican primary race for Governor on Martin Luther King Day.

Richard Baxter Irvin was born a slave, but he dreamed of being free, Irvin said in a campaign launch video. I dont just share the name Richard Irvin, he said. I share his dream of what Illinois could be: where a growing economy provides ladders of opportunity for anyone willing to work; where families are safe; where kids are educated, not indoctrinated.

Before he was elected as the mayor of Aurora in 2017, Irvin fought as an Army soldier in the Gulf War, returned home and graduated from law school at Northern Illinois University, went on to work as a prosecutor in the Cook County States Attorneys Office, and eventually became a community prosecutor in his hometown.

I grew up in Section Eight public housing in Aurora where I now serve as mayor, Irvin said in his campaign video. Mom had me at 16, a single mother working two jobs. Didnt have much of a father, but my granddad, son of Richard Baxter Irvin, taught me to believe in myself, to do the best I could in whatever I did.

He ran for mayor in 2005 and 2009, and lost both races. Former House Republican Leader Tom Cross endorsed him at the time. Irvin later became a local precinct committeeman in the Republican party. However, Kane County election records show Irvin pulled a ballot to vote in recent Democratic primary contests in 2014, 2016, and 2020, including both presidential races where Donald Trump was on the ballot.

Irvins voting history raised questions about his political allegiances and created an opening for his GOP opponents to attack him. State senator Darren Bailey (R-Louisville) labeled him as a career Democrat. Gary Rabine (R-Bull Valley) sarcastically welcomed Irvin to the Illinois Republican Party. Jesse Sullivan (R-Petersburg) said the people of Illinois are sick of career politicians whove been given ample opportunities to fix our state.

Illinois Republican Party chairman Don Tracy called on the candidates to play nice, and said hed enforce Ronald Reagans so-called 11th Commandment, Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.

Tracy also dismissed the attacks questioning Irvins conservative credentials.

Hes definitely a Republican, Tracy said on Monday morning at a Martin Luther King Day breakfast. Up in that area, in Chicago in particular, people tend to pull Democrat ballots because thats where the action is.

Just because people have voted in Democratic primaries before does not disqualify them from being Republicans or voting Republican, Tracy said.

Irvins announcement also drew swift reaction from billionaire and Republican megadonor Ken Griffin, who has discussed plans to spend up to $300 million backing Republican candidates in Illinois in 2022.

Unlike the current Governor who was born into wealth and has demonstrated little urgency or progress in improving our State, Richard Irvins life embodies the American Dream and a real commitment to making communities stronger, Griffin said through an emailed statement from his spokesman at Citadel Strategies.

From humble beginnings, he put himself through college with the help of the GI bill and chose to enter public service to make a difference in the lives of others, Griffin said. As Mayor of Aurora, he has successfully delivered on the issues Illinoisans care most about strengthening the education system, improving public safety, creating economic opportunities and governing with integrity. I am excited that he has decided to join the race, and look forward to the opportunity to meet him and learn more about his ideas in the weeks ahead.

The timing of Irvins campaign launch on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day irked top Black leaders in Springfield. Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago), and Representatives Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) and Sonya Harper (D-Chicago) slammed the shallow opportunism of the Republican party.

The co-opting of a day of great significance to justify a political platform that from its onset seeks to strip protections from working families across Illinois, minimizes the struggles of the past, and rolls back the progress that weve made to expand rights is highly disappointing, the chairs of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus said in a press release.

On Irvins campaign website, he claims he called in the national guard to respond to looting in the aftermath of protests over the murder of George Floyd. However, a spokesman for the Illinois National Guard confirmed mayors do not have that authority, and would have to make any request through the governors office.

Governor Pritzkers office declared states of emergency in several counties during the protests and looting incidents of the summer of 2020, and issued deployments of the national guard to assist local police departments in several cities, including Aurora. Calls to Irvins office in Aurora were not returned on Monday.

The next year, while he was running for re-election in Aurora in the spring of 2021, Irvin told a local news outlet, I support Black Lives Matter strongly and passionately.

This year, now that hes running for governor in a Republican primary, Irvin repeated critics of the Black Lives Matter movement who often retort, I believe All Lives Matter.

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In bid to become first Black governor of Illinois, Richard Irvin says All Lives Matter - wcia.com

Martin Luther King Jr., a reverend who charted a colorblind approach to racial injustice, was a man of honor. Read his famous speeches and you will be in absolute awe.

Oh, how we need a King now. Hed set race-baiters everywhere straight. Hed tell them to love their fellow, flawed human beings as individuals, not attack them as irredeemables.

Today, Black Lives Matter the group, not the concept should review MLKs approach to civil rights. The organizers and adherents have chosen a different approach to racial reconciliation: belittlement, division and wholesale condemnation.

King was a modern saint, a modern Moses, leading his people out of separate-but-equal bondage and into a land of equal opportunity where skin color and background was secondary to content of character and ambition.

He was all about love real love which is intentional, reality-based and long-suffering with a pinch of forgiveness thrown in for good measure. Listen to King describe his main motivating idea of pacifism as the only way to win hearts and minds:

Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, Love your enemies. It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. Thats love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. Theres something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.

This is the King-led civil rights movementin one paragraph. It defeated its enemies by loving them. Blacks were separated, ostracized, threatened, beaten, killed, shot with fire hoses and all other kinds of evil, but they persevered because they were led by King, who believed love was the answer, not revenge, hate and violence.

If King wanted, he probably could have led Civil War II, with the likes of Malcolm X and other clench-fisted Black Power haters leading followers into armed confrontation. He did not, thankfully. And, in hindsight, he didnt have to. The patient, pacifist approach earned respect from the multitudes who were confronted by white supremacy and rejected it in its raw, hateful form.

Those who need proof BLM is taking a completely different tactic from King need only look up clips from rioting in major cities everywhere in the summer of 2020. Watch as demonstrators in these oft-touted peaceful protests took over whole city blocks and fought against police officers, burned businesses, carried bullhorns during early-morning parades threatening and mocking residents who just wanted a peaceful nights sleep and went on network news shows threatening to come for all white people when they got done destroying cities.

The whole experience was surreal, as if we were watching the Bolshevik Revolution scene in Dr. Zhivago when hordes of communists overran a familys home during dinnertime. But this was America in 2020. It was scarier than any novel coronavirus could ever be.

And BLMs message has gotten more divisive as the years pass. They reject the nuclear family. They align themselves with Democrats and progressives and are hostile toward Republicans and conservatives at every turn. They reject capitalism. They sow distrust of Americas venerate institutions. They tell us to beware and defund the police. The groups website requests readers to report any suspicious disinformation regarding BLM, as if were in Stalinist Russia.

After the recent Kyle Rittenhouse not-guilty jury verdict, an official BLM tweet responded to Rittenhouses magnanimous, turn-the-other-cheek support of the BLM movement by simply stating, (Expletive) you. Would King ever use that hateful expression? Of course not. He wasnt that crude, unforgiving or ungracious.

We were lucky to have King in the 1960s. We need similar wise leadership now, and its not too late for BLM to start forming bridges, rather than creating further division. If it did, it, too, might still be relevant 50 years from now, just as King is.

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Here's Something: BLM should learn to be more like MLK - pressherald.com

If youve ever owned a slave, please raise your hand, Jeffery Robinson asks a live audience at the beginning of Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, a searing documentary based on a lecture he has spent a decade perfecting.

Obviously, nobody in the auditorium raises a hand. This is 2018 New York. But the few seconds that follow the question are probably the only chance these audience members have to put some distance between themselves and the countrys sorry record of racial oppression. No, explains Mr. Robinson, slavery may not be our fault, but it is our shared history.

And then Mr. Robinson, a longtime criminal defense lawyer and former deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, launches his harrowing journey through centuries of institutionalized racism. Along the way, he points out both the well known (the plantations, the lynchings, the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre) and the less widely known (the troubling third verse of The Star-Spangled Banner or the advertised offer by future President Andrew Jackson of $10 extra for any 100 lashes given his escaped slave).

No matter how much you think you already know, youre bound to learn new things from Who We Are, a 117-minute documentary directed by Emily and Sarah Kunstler and released by Sony Pictures Classics. And to be stunned, at some point.

How did this lecture come about?

Mr. Robinson explains that he became a father in 2011, when his sister-in-law died and her son, then 13, moved in. Suddenly, Mr. Robinson needed to teach a Black teen about racism. In educating himself, he says, he was stunned by what he himself lucky enough to have a stellar education, including a Harvard law degree didnt know.

He began sharing his findings wherever he could in community centers, churches, conference rooms. The directors, after hearing him speak, suggested a movie. Their resulting film is anchored by the 2018 lecture in New Yorks historic Town Hall and filled out with archival footage, photographs and current-day interviews with the likes of 107-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle, one of the last survivors of the Tulsa massacre, and Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, whose death from a police chokehold became a rallying cry for Black Lives Matter.

Mr. Robinson also argues briefly with a man holding a Confederate flag, who insists the Civil War had nothing at all to do with slavery.

At a slavery museum in Charleston, S.C., Mr. Robinson examines two pairs of shackles. One is adult-sized, the other toddler-sized. We also see an oak hanging tree and later, photographs of white Americans standing next to the bodies of Black people who have been lynched, a sight Mr. Robinson says was once normal and accepted in America.

But despite the many references to painful periods in U.S. history, its also the smartly placed sprinklings of Mr. Robinsons own life experience that help personalize the proceedings and give the film its emotional wallop.

A number of these moments take place in Memphis, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 but also where Mr. Robinson grew up. He travels back to his hometown, where, he tells us, his parents tried to buy a house in a white neighborhood but were turned away, until white friends went and bought it for them. Then, when the family moved in, a neighbor showed up with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies for the lady of the house but turned and left, cookies in hand, when Mr. Robinsons Black mother came to the door.

In another scene, a white high school friend confesses he never told Mr. Robinson that theyd all once been denied entry to a basketball game because of Mr. Robinsons race; a pastor intervened, without Mr. Robinson ever knowing. Both men are reduced to tears at the story.

Mr. Robinson closes on a note of tentative hope. The Black Lives Matter protests united people of all races in American streets, he ob- serves: The possibility of radical change is in the air. But he also warns: The things theyre saying about Black Lives Matter today are the exact same things they said about Martin Luther King in the 60s.

If the format of a lecture is inherently limiting, the directors do a superb job of weaving a compelling visual and emotional experience. One can only hope they, and Mr. Robinson, get the wide audience the film deserves. The documentary is part of a broader educational initiative, the Who We Are Project.

Mr. Robinsons final point is that were at another tipping point just as we were in the late 1960s. Will we fall back again, he asks?

Or, will this generation decide to do something different?

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'Who We Are' offers a searing view of racism in U.S. - Richmond Free Press

As of April 2021, roughly 23 percent of all adults and 29 percent of Black adults in the U.S. reported using Twitter. While a low number compared to the 69 percent of Americans and 74 percent of Black Americans who reported using Facebook, Twitter influences everything from pop culture to politics, and has been pivotal in fostering communities of like-minded individuals. Black Twitter is one of the most notable online sub-communities and has a particular knack for creating viral tweets and hashtags that raise awareness about social and cultural issues.

New research by co-author Nia Atkins examines Black Twitters influence on several fronts. One is its ability to set the news agenda for mainstream media outletssuch as CNN, the New York Times, and USA Todayon issues affecting Black communities. Another is Black Twitters influence over Black voters within the realm of electoral politics, specifically during elections. While her research has concluded that Black Twitter, in the aggregate, lacks agenda-setting power over the mainstream media, it also suggests that Black Twitter may impact the discussions and electoral opinions of Black voters. Thus, Black Twitter could have a particular socio-political roleone which deserves additional attention from media outlets and political candidates interested in reaching Black voters.

In the modern pre-Twitter world, getting involved politically often consisted of in-person interactionthrough methods such as door-to-door canvassing, petitioning, and passing out fliers. Other pre-social media organizing practices took place over the phone. One example of early phone-based organizing is the phone treea popular pre-email method in which, for example, five people would each call five people, each of whom would call an additional five people (and so on). While these face-to-face and phone-based methods are still in use today, social media platforms have allowed people historically excluded from mainstream political organizationssuch as Black people and other marginalized groupsto engage in large-scale political discourse and advocate for what they believe in.

Since its inception, Twitter has provided a decentralized mechanism through which people can immediately and continuously share their points of view both within specific communities and with wider society. In fact, as the Federal Trade Commission argues in an ongoing legal case against Facebook, Twitters design fosters topic-based interaction with strangers, while conversely, platforms such as Instagram and Facebook facilitate connections with friends and family.

While Twitters role as a forum for the discussion of news, pop culture, and politics is not new, the use of Twitter for such a purpose by Black people has gained attention and interest from observers. It has been framed by its collective compilation of Black American voices within Twitter, commonly known for its appeal to socio-political commentary and critique on a variety of issues, and as felt by Black people. Though other identity-based communities exist on Twitter, Black Twitter remains the most well-known of such communities due to its ongoing success in grabbing the attention of outsiders. The ubiquitous expression, Black Lives Matter, for example, is a slogan and hashtag that was popularized by Black Americans on Twitter through this specific online community in the aftermath of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, a Black teenager. But can such online, collective action, like the one leading to the hashtag Black Lives Matter more generally influence Black electoral opinion and the mainstream news agenda? Recent research on the Black Twitter community may provide some preliminary evidence regarding the answers to such questions.

As part of her research, Atkins designed a research methodology that incorporated presidential candidate polling numbers among Black voters and Black Twitter sentiment within the context of the 2020 Democratic primary election. Sentiments were calculated using a lexicon-based sentiment analysis package called sentimentr developed by data scientist Tyler Rinker. This electoral contest was chosen as an appropriate case study due to the overwhelming majority of Black voters who supported the Democratic party over the Republican party, the relevance of social media and Twitter in particular to recent presidential elections, and the growing pertinence of Black Twitter to the cultural and socio-political zeitgeist. Sentiment analysis on a sample of tweets during this period was conducted to gauge Black Twitters feelings about the field of candidates. More specifically, the average sentiment scorea number falling between -1 and 1was calculated for all tweets per month per candidate. Finally, the relationship between monthly candidate sentiment scores and monthly candidate polling numbers was assessed through linear regression.

Regarding the latter question of the previous section, the influence of Black Twitter discussions on the mainstream media agenda was also evaluated based on each platforms discussion of two policy issue areascriminal justice reform and reparations for American slaveryduring the 2020 Democratic primary presidential election. These two policy areas were selected on account of their topical relevance to the general political conversation at the time, following renewed discussions of Black Lives Matter and anti-racism, as well as their specific salience to Black communities. The frequencies of a set of criminal justice reform and reparations-oriented keywords and phrases like reparations, mass incarceration, and prison reform were compared between a sample of Black Twitter tweets and a sample of articles from three mainstream newspapers. Finally, the relationship between the two variables was evaluated using a linear regression model.

The results of the first regression model that measured Black Twitter sentiment and polling numbers indicate that a one-point increase in Black Twitter sentiment in one month resulted in a 12.1 percentage point increase in a candidates polling numbers among Black voters the following month. Thus, this model provides some evidence of a relationship between Black Twitter sentiment and Black voter support. It suggests that Black Twitter discourse around political candidates could impact broader Black electoral opinion to a potentially election-altering scale.

The second regression model, which focused on the policy issues, found a negligible relationship between Black Twitter issue-based conversation and mainstream media issue-based reporting. The results indicate that mainstream news organizations may not find policy discussions on Black Twitter newsworthy or may simply fail to monitor such conversations at all. Whatever the mechanism, there wasnt much social media impact on policy discussions relevant to Black Americans.

Both of these data results assert preliminary evidence regarding the influence of Black Twitter when it comes to Black voting behavior and mainstream news agendas. Despite its reputation as a tool for raising socio-political and cultural awareness, Black Twitter appears to be generally ineffective at impacting the reporting of mainstream news outlets on such socio-political issues. This inefficacy was revealed specifically during a presidential primary election, a period in which policy issue-based dialogues were particularly relevant. Nevertheless, Black Twitters apparent relationship to the opinions of Black voters should encourage conventional news outlets toat minimumobserve Black Twitter, particularly during presidential elections, for some insight into both the candidates that Black voters may support and the policies they may discuss. Ideally, however, these conclusions will also motivate the media to go even further by incorporating policy-oriented topics of Black Twitter conversation into their news coverage.

While Black Twitters relationship to Black voting patterns is a much less popular topic of discussion, this research sheds light on the correlative nature of such a relationship. If Black Twitter sentiment can impact polling numbers among Black voters by as much as twelve percentage points, the medium should be considered a relevant actor within the realm of electoral politics. Whether the shift in polling numbers is caused by Black Twitter itself or not, the conclusions suggest that Black Twitter may predict this shift.

These research findings demonstrate how one Twitter community of marginalized people can play a role in shaping the political landscape. With these conclusions in mind, journalists to voters to policymakers should take notice of Black Twitter users as a politically noteworthy force during election times. What the studys findings indicate is their potential as voters or a populace of concerned citizens to predict shifts in Black voters support of a certain politician. Such findings demonstrate the influence of online platforms and should also encourage future candidates to better assess social media discourse, especially among Black online users, over the course of their campaigns as a supplementary gauge of wider demographic support.

Facebook is a general, unrestricted donor to the Brookings Institution. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions posted in this piece are solely those of the authors and are not influenced by any donation.

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How Black Twitter influenced Black electoral opinion during the 2020 presidential election - Brookings Institution

Scotlands first black professor has accused fellow academics of discrimination after an explosive row over Edinburghs links with slavery prompted calls for him to quit as chair of two groups re-examining the citys history.

The row began when Sir Geoff Palmer who is leading two separate reviews into the city and the universitys involvement in the slave trade denounced Jonathan Hearn and Sir Tom Devine, current and emeritus professors at Edinburgh University, as members of an academic racist gang after Hearn published an article in the Spectator suggesting the city council review risked being historically superficial and Devine stepped in to defend him.

Palmer criticised Hearn and Divine in a series of tweets, which focused particularly on their views of Sir Henry Dundas, a controversial figure whose monument in the Scottish capital was vandalised in June 2020 during a Black Lives Matter demonstration.

Palmer and others believe Dundas, the leading Whig politician of Scotland in the late 18th century, has been unfairly credited with fighting slavery in Scotland when he held back abolition for a generation by delaying tactics in parliament, and a revised plaque explaining this background was erected at the monument last year.

But in his recent article, Hearn argued that historians were still debating whether Dundas delayed abolition and that there was plenty of evidence to suggest that Dundass gradualist approach to abolition however unsatisfactory it may seem to us in the present day was the only approach which would be politically successful at the time.

After Palmers tweets, Devine called for his dismissal from the review groups, accusing him of appalling slurs of racism against those whose only fault was to have a different view from his own.

Palmer told the Guardian: I have been making the same arguments for a long time, but I think this timing has to do with this project, the fact that this work is gaining significance but some historians are unhappy that they are not involved.

This is a public debate and if some people are demanding my dismissal without providing any evidence for it then that is discrimination. If they can provide evidence that I am incompetent and biased then I will step down.

Devine is understood to be taking legal advice, but another prominent academic figure in the city, the UKs first professor of black male studies, Tommy J Curry, said the row exemplified a naivety in Scottish culture around discussions about race.

Hearn said that while he stood by his Spectator article, he had no ill will towards Palmer and would be happy to engage in civil, face-to-face public discussions about our disagreements My main concern in this is that inquiries into public history need to be conducted in an open manner, with respect for diverse viewpoints.

As the public consultation on the city review comes to an end this week, the council leader, Adam McVey, revealed it had generated thousands of blatantly racist responses from supporters of rightwing organisations looking to interfere with the process, saying: The personal targeting of Geoff that Ive seen is appalling. Ive seen groups that are nothing to do with Edinburgh throwing abuse and scaremongering about a process they clearly know nothing about.

He added that the review group, led by Palmer, would now digest the thousands of responses to the consultation in a considered and mature response, with the aim to more honestly tell our citys history.

Curry, also a professor at Edinburgh University, said the response to Palmer revealed a naivety of Scottish culture that it wants to have the debate but is not used to having arguments about race where black people themselves have the power to name racism in society.

This isnt a difference of opinion, he said, its about whether history should change based on fact. Weve acknowledged that Dundas didnt abolish slavery and did participate in the trade.

Reassessments such as this one had been going on for decades, said Curry, but there is also a well-established pattern of UK scholars with no knowledge of black or brown scholars work in a global context, so everything reads as a political threat, with their only lens of understanding being woke culture of BLM.

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Scotlands first black professor accuses academics of racism in slavery row - The Guardian