Category Archives: Black Lives Matter

I was invited to join folks from Black Lives Matter to meet some of the affected in Buffalo, New York, people who have been traumatized by the awful May 14 massacre of 10 Black people and the wounding of more.

I joined Black Lives Matter leaders from all over the country, from Michigan, New York, Los Angeles, Texas, and Florida. My BLM colleagues asked me to put the racist attack on Black folks just buying groceries in the context of white insanity and predatory capitalism.

The pain in Macedonia was palpable. It was so real that you could hold it in your hands. When you went to hug people, they held on, seeking comfort. It was also that they had experiences to share.

More, those from Buffalo understand that the killings at Tops were not just killings at the Tops Market. They were manifestations of vile racism and predatory capitalism that pervades Buffalo.

The Tops Market in the eastern part of Buffalo is the only grocery store there. Why is there only one grocery store in the eastern part of Buffalo? Anybody who operates a monopoly can extract surplus value from its shoppers.

The dozen or so people I talked to said that customer service at Tops was never great. Why would it be when the store has a monopoly?

Without stopping at the East Buffalo Tops and another one in Buffalo, I can guarantee that prices in the hood were higher than they were in other parts of town. Tops management would likely say that costs are higher and profit margins lower. Im not sure that that is the only reason.

Predatory capitalists see communities like east Buffalo as profit centers. They isolate Black shoppers and consolidate their market to maximize their profits. Why is there only one grocery store in an area that serves as many as 100,000 people, many poor, carless, or without options? Why, in our predatory capitalist space, are there no competitors to provide alternative grocery services.

People gather outside Tops market on May 15 in Buffalo, New York, a day after a gunman opened fire at the store, killing 10 people. Suspect Payton Gendron was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder.

Black lives matter and Black money matters too. So all these corporate folks who are throwing dollars to assuage the pain of the massacres might make a difference by building more grocery stores in East Buffalo.

I felt the pain in Buffalo, the side-walks spilling over with flowers, stuffed animals, signs, and more. The side-walks are spilling over with pain. The so many ways that the Buffalo pain is the collective pain of African American people.

Much of the pain is the absolute pain of the massacre, and there is also pain from the economic oppression that the people in east Buffalo are experiencing. A highway bisected a Black community so white folks could gain. Been there, done that, in too many cities. Segregating us makes it possible for racist filth to isolate us.

And yet, through the pain, we rise. Are there investors who would empower Black Buffalo? Relieve these survivors of their pain? No more thoughts and prayers. Action. Action. Action.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author and dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at Cal State LA.

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Black Buffalo is hurting from more than the massacre - Daytona Times

In Detroit, the Black Lives Matter movement that took off around the country in 2020 coalesced around an organization called Detroit Will Breathe. In October 2020, DWB protesters marched in Shelby Township, to protest police brutality, at one point blocking a street. Seven protesters were arrested, and five were charged with felonious assault on police officers, among other charges.

The Michigan District of the Communist Party USA extends solidarity to the Shelby 5 regarding the wrongful felony and misdemeanor charges filed against them. These charges represent the anti-democratic and anti-people character of the Macomb County prosecutor Peter Lucido, Shelby Township Police Chief Robert Shelide, and the Judge Michael Servitto, who is presiding over the cases. This serves as a warning to the entire working class about the fascist danger posed to our fragile democracy. In the background of this case, the working class is being bombarded with targeted voter suppression tactics, union-busting schemes, assaults on womens and LGBTQ rights, and the march by the Pentagon towards the next imperialist war.

Following the international uprising for Black lives and against police brutality in 2020, Shelide tweeted, regarding the racial justice protests for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, that he [wished] to God I would have been there. Body bags for these vicious subhumans and that real cops would take care of these barbarians.

And what of the crimes to which the Shelby 5 are being charged? In October 2020, activists rightfully called on Shelide to resign or be terminated for making those violent, racist remarks and organized a protest to demonstrate that this type of fascist language from public officials will not be tolerated. The protestors were met with police brutality and then charged with trumped-up felonies and misdemeanors for their justified and constitutionally protected actions. The newly elected Trumpite prosecutor Lucido then added additional misdemeanor charges against protestors that were previously found to be baseless.

In fact, during the May 23, 2022, court hearing for Tristan Taylor, an organizer with Detroit Will Breathe and part of the Shelby 5, Judge Servitto denied his lawyers motion to dismiss the charges even though he admitted to not reviewing the evidence in the case. Furthermore, the judge went on to compare Taylor, who is Black, to terrorists in the film Die Hard.

This underscores the anti-democratic nature of the Macomb County prosecutor and judge, as well as the entire criminal-legal system they serve. The criminal charges targeting these racial justice protestors in Michigan are an example of an alarming trend and yet another push towards fascism, in which local Republican politicians and the shock troops in the police department are on the front lines. This is a national trend and a reaction to the millions of working-class and oppressed who rose up in the summer of 2020 to defend Black lives, as well as the rejuvenation of the trade union movement spearheaded by primarily young workers. This trend towards fascism culminated in the violent coup attempt on January 6, 2021, and is playing out in local state houses with targeted racist voter suppression and chauvinistic, anti-women and anti-LGBTQ legislation. Therefore, the Michigan District of the Communist Party USA calls for:

We also call on our members and supporters to sign and circulate the petition put out by the Shelby 5 Defense Committee seeking to drop all the charges against the protestors.

Image: Detroit Will Breathe (Facebook).

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Prosecution of BLM activists is a danger to democracy - Communist Party USA

CAMBRIDGE, Md. In light of the upcoming Juneteenth holiday, a Cambridge artist is looking to revamp the towns Black Lives Matter mural and wants teens with an eye for the arts to help.

Back in 2020, artist Miriam Moran and the non-profit Alpha Genesis Community Development Corporation left a colorful and bold mark on Race Street with the creation of the mural.

Now , they plan to retouch it with a fresh coast of paint and add some new details with one being a tribute to stopping gun violence in the wake of recent mass shootings.

Moran tells 47ABC, its a way to bring unity to the area and gives young artists the power to tell stories right from their own paint brush. We dont ignore whats going on. We actually love them and want to have an opportunity, especially the teens, to have a voice through art, Organizer and Artist Miriam Moran said.

This is an opportunity to do so and to be apart of something that is meaningful.

Painting materials, food, and more will be provided for all who participate.

That event will be next Saturday, June 18th from 10a.m.-7p.m.

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Upcoming project adds fresh coat of paint to Cambridge BLM mural, bringing teen artists together - 47abc - WMDT

The Wire was brilliant, but its a daunting five seasons with strong Baltimore (USA) accents if you havent seen it.

Not to worry We Own This City (Sky Atlantic and NOW TV app) is just as good. Its the same writer (David Simon) looking at policing and gangs in the same city (Baltimore) and the accents arent as hard. In fairness, thats probably because The Wire started a trend of realistic accents and were used to putting in the work to understand them.

Where The Wire eased us into the crossroads of politics, race and policing, We Own This City is a gripper from the first episode. Its a real-life story, pivoting on eight officers from the Baltimore Police Departments Gun Trace Task Force they were right bad 'uns, convicted of racketeering and extortion among other things in 2017.

This is the story of how they were caught, but like everything else David Simon does, its about a lot more as well. If you ever wonder where the Black Lives Matter movement came from, watch 10 minutes of We Own This City and youll get it (you might even join the movement).

While high-profile shootings by police bring matters to a head, its the low-level harassment of African Americans that lay the groundwork. Its brought to life here by Detective Daniel Hersl, a particularly nasty piece of work who is shown assaulting and humiliating people for what looks like pleasure.

Just as in The Wire, David Simon brings us into the heart of the action. His trick of using background sound hip-hop music at a drug-dealing location, the constant babble of the police radio makes it feel like we are walking around behind the characters, rather than observing them.

The convicted cops are different shade of bad. Hersl is proper bad, while another detective, Wayne Jenkins, has a wild-eyed cocky charisma that invites you to see things from his side of the fence.

But its the story-telling that makes this show. For the first 15 minutes, it felt like I was watching a police procedural, another episode of Law & Order, as we joined drug squad cops on an everyday bit of surveillance. Next thing I know, were with a civil rights lawyer, trying to find out why cops with a string of complaints against them are still out on the street.

Then it gets confusing, when three gang members steal another dealers drug stash, but the next morning I see them out on the beat, wearing Baltimore Police Department stab vests.

The plot unfolds from here, jumping around in time a bit, because all TV shows must jump around in time now, for reasons that arent very clear.

It doesnt matter. We Own This City is like getting a hug from The Wire, a short and sharp reminder of the best TV show Ive ever seen. And if you liked Sgt Jay Landsman in the five seasons of The Wire, hes the police commissioner in this, hogging every scene he enters. Its a gem.

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TV review: The Wire was brilliant and We Own This City is just as good - Irish Examiner

Editors note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the authors own. Read more opinions on theGrio

Ronald Reagan was confused.

Unfazed by the higher-than-average ambient temperature and the screams of agony, he didnt immediately notice that his mental capacity had been restored to its full working condition at first. As he peered across the hellscape to find a familiar face, he immediately recognized George Washington, drenched in sweat, tossing chunks of a Black substance into a furnace shaped like a dragons mouth.

Welcome to hell, said Washington, as he dumped another shovelful of fossil fuel into the abyss belching forth the fire and brimstone that surrounded them both. Grab a shovel and get to work.

Hell? Reagan replied. I think Im in the wrong place. Let me speak to a manager.

Im the manager on duty, said the American Cincinnatus. Let me guess, you thought youd be in heaven. WellSurprise!

The Gipper suddenly remembered how he earned an endorsement from the Ku Klux Klan after giving a racist speech at the site of a civil rights murder. He recalled how he ascended to the highest level of American politics by demonizing poor African Americans, defending South African apartheid, opposing the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and every piece of civil rights legislation in his life. He even remembered when he argued: If an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house, it is his right to do so.

Marinating in the eternal hellfires, Reagan turned toward the father of his country and offered the only defense he could muster to explain the actions that had earned his spot in the VIP section of Hades, asking:

But what about the welfare queens?

*****

Jack Del Rio was confused.

Unfazed by the violent mobs attempt to overturn one of the freedoms he claims to love, the Washington Commanders defensive coordinator couldnt quite comprehend why Congress needed to investigate the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6. As he peered across the political landscape to find an explanation, Del Rio belched forth a chunk of false equivalency into the abyss of social media.

Would love to understand the whole story about why the summer of riots, looting, burning and the destruction of personal property is never discussed but this is ??? wrote the Washington Commanders defensive coordinator on Twitter.

Welcome to Hell, replied Satans shift supervisor, Nikole Hannah-Jones virtual stalker and penis length expert Andrew Sullivan in a tweet comparing the George Floyd protests to the Caucasian coup detat. $2 billion in property damage in the 1619 riots which were followed by a surge in murders of black Americans. You can despise this mass violence as well as January 6.

Lucifer Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) excused the unscheduled Capitol Rotunda tour to pro-insurrectionist activist Steve Bannon by juxtaposing the white rioters with the George Floyd protesters. January 6 was just a riot at the Capitol. And if you think about what our Declaration of Independence says, it says to overthrow tyrants, Greene said whitely.

It is not difficult to understand why Del Rio, Sullivan and their fellow lip-deficient Americans struggle to understand the difference between the quest for white supremacy and the fight for Black freedom. After all, but what about the Black people? has served as the justification for white peoples penchant for white people-ing since Americas infancy.

Before ratifying the Constitution, Virginias delegation demanded that James Madison tack on an addendum to prevent licentious and wicked Africans from rebelling against slavery. Sure, the Constitution created a federalized army to protect white people. Still, founder George Mason asked: But what about Black people? So Madison created the Second Amendment.

Nine years before he raped and impregnated an enslaved teenager, Thomas Jeffersons Notes on the State of Virginia posited that Americas race-based, constitutional human trafficking differed from ancient Romes because Black freedom was incompatible with whiteness. Sure, Jefferson believed that all men are created equal in theory. Of course, there is one caveat:

But what about Black people?

Among the Romans emancipation required but one effort. The slave, when made free, might mix with, without staining the blood of his master, Jefferson whitesplained. But with us a second is necessary, unknown to history. When freed, he is to be removed beyond the reach of mixture.

Still unsure? Luckily, we are here to help.

To assist you in understanding the differences between Black protests and white mob violence, we put together a list of five questions that will answer the question: But what about Balck people?

Just in case you havent heard of it, theres this little-known document called the Constitution of the United States. Although the 14th Amendment was added after they robbed white people of their right to own human beings, theres an entire section that says: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Whether its voter suppression abridging our voting privileges or police depriving Black people of due process, equal protection and life, almost every single Black protest is an attempt to force white people to recognize this constitutional right. Conversely, white people have historically organized with the explicit purpose of opposing this constitutional right. Lynch mobs formed to deprive persons of life. Segregationists wanted to enforce laws that abridge the privilegesof citizens.

To be fair, when white protesters gathered on Jan. 6 at the Capitol to stop the election count, they were less focused on abridging the privileges of the people who voted than trying to undo the part of the 12th Amendment that reads.

The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President.

Reading is fundamental.

Lets be honest, theres no way to prevent individuals from doing bad things (if there is, then white people have a lot of explaining to do).

Lets forget the Washington Post report that the George Floyd protests were less violent than the civil rights protests of the 1960s. Ignore the fact that most of the gun violence at the protests against police brutality was committed by counterprotesters. Pay no attention to the bulletin issued by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center on the 2020 protests that said, the greatest threat of lethal violence continues to emanate from lone offenders with racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist ideologies and [domestic violent extremists] with personalized ideologies.

Instead, lets focus on what violence accomplishes.

If Black Lives Matter protests are, as you claim, intentionally violent, how does that serve the protesters cause? No one thinks that the reason cops keep shooting Black people in the face is that we just havent burned down enough department stores. Breaking every window in Louisville wouldnt have made the judge think twice before he signed the no-knock warrant that led to Breonna Taylors death.

But when white insurgents assaulted cops during the mass breaking-and-entering on the Capitol Building, their violence was a means to an end. They had weapons and a plan. Their goal was to intimidate, threaten or physically assault the people responsible for certifying the election.

See the difference?

When comparing Caucasian unrest to a Black uprising, consider the evidence.

There are blatant, statistically proven disparities in Americas economic, education, political and criminal justice systems. We saw what happened to George Floyd on video. Regardless of the year, location or even the crime rate, all across America, police disproportionately kill Black people; you can count for yourself. Racism is systemic, institutional and real.

Now show me large-scale voter fraud. Show me the ballot harvesters or the illegal mail-in ballots. Show me the non-citizen voters, the dead voters or the repeat ballot casters. Show me one single state or county where any official entity has proven that the wrong presidential candidate received a majority of votes.

Dont worry, Ill wait.

Theres a good reason why Jack Del Rio believes the people who were arrested, beaten and unfairly incarcerated during the protests of 2020 are never discussed.

White people dont care.

Ask Fox News. The No. 1 political news outlet in America isnt even broadcasting the Jan. 6 hearings. Instead, they will allow their white audience to tune in to hear Tucker Carlson whine about how immigrants are ruining America followed by Sean Hannity talking about Black-on-Black crime. Luckily, Laura Ingraham will be there to quiet any dissent by telling anyone who disagrees to shut up and dribble.

Plus, I know Ashli Babbitts name, but Marjorie Taylor Greene has never mentioned Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young, the HBCU students who were beaten on camera during the George Floyd protests. After all, why should Greene care about students who live in the state she represents? To be fair, the charges against those six police officers were dropped, unlike the four white officers who pleaded guilty to beating a Black protester in St. Louis who just happened to be an undercover cop.

Or perhaps the disparate outrage is because the Jan. 6 lynch mob was funded, organized and excused by elected officials who are excusing an attempt to overthrow the government they swore to protect and serve.

Damn you, liberal media!

The No. 1 difference between white protesters and Black protests is the disparate treatment of the people involved.

Perhaps the reason why the Jan. 6 violence has received so much attention is that Black protesters who commit acts of violence have already been arrested and convicted. It makes you wonder why the pro-militia, pro-gun Republicans who love Kyle Rittenhouse havent defended John Grand Master Jay Johnson, the member of a Black, pro-Second Amendment militia who was convicted of assaulting officers. Like Rittenhouse, Johnson traveled to a Black protest with the intention of protecting people. Unlike Rittenhouse, when Johnson brought his AR-15 rifle to a protest for Breonna Taylor, he shot zero people.

But of course, you have to protect police officers. Oh, wait

At least 52 active or retired military, law enforcement, or government service employees (including at least 19 current or former police officers) have been charged in the Caucasian Capitol Invasion. Grand Master Jays potential 20-year sentence pales in comparison to the longest sentence for the people who brought bear spray, cattle prods and built an actual gallows to attack the sworn protectors of fake democracy:

Six years.

Del Rio has apologized and was fined $100,000about 2.8 percent of his $3.5 million salaryfor his extremely hurtful comments. But on Twitter, he continues to defend the white-on-white crime mob on Jan. 6. Meanwhile, the senators, the representatives, the prosecutors, the white supremacists and the Supreme Court justices wife who planned, funded and organized the attempted overthrow of the United States government have not been arrested, charged or formally indicted.

This country will continue to protect whiteness at all costs.

Not only is this the difference between a Black protest and a white mob, it is also the answer to the aforementioned age-old Caucasian question. Whenever anyone asks, But what about Black people? America has a standard response:

Were killing them as fast as we can.

Michael Harriot is a writer, cultural critic and championship-level Spades player. His book, Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America, will be released in 2022.

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Originally posted here:

The difference between white insurrections and Black protests, explained - TheGrio

In the face of heated criticism, the Oregon School Resource Officers Association has voted to cancel next months appearance of David A. Clarke, a controversial former sheriff from Wisconsin who had been set to speak at its annual conference.

The associations leaders announced the sudden reversal on the nonprofit groups website Thursday night, less than 48 hours after The Oregonian/OregonLive wrote about the concerns of police reform advocates who were stunned that the group was giving such a public platform to a polarizing figure who has been an outspoken critic of the Black Lives Movement while defending the Proud Boys.

Clarke, who resigned as Milwaukee County sheriff in 2017, was under contract to speak for two hours about leadership and policing at the associations annual conference, which is scheduled July 24-27 at the Mt. Hood Resort in Welches. The association supports police agencies that assign officers to school districts.

The associations board announced it had voted unanimously to drop Clarke as one of its speakers, noting his politics have caused a number of Oregonians to reach out in protest.

If any presenter, in the eyes of some, is going to damage our credibility and/or ability to fulfill that mission, then we will make the necessary changes, wrote Mike Jackson, association president, and Rick Puente, association vice president. Days earlier, both had defended the choice of Clarke as a guest speaker, saying they werent interested in his politics.

On Thursday night, they wrote that Clarke had been chosen to be one of the keynote speakers based partly on what they described as his popularity with his constituents, his unabashed support for police officers around the United States and his support for police dealing with post traumatic stress. The association, they added, only cares about two things: safe schools and safe kids in Oregon.

Another speaker will take Clarkes place and be named at a future date.

Great victory! wrote Kathy Selvaggio, a West Linn community activist, on the West Linn Community for Police Reform Facebook page. So grateful for those who spoke out about their concerns.

Selvaggio has sought changes in the citys police department after West Linn paid $600,000 in February 2020 to settle a wrongful arrest suit filed by Michael Fesser, a Black man and Portland resident.

Community activists from West Linn and Lake Oswego and a city councilor from West Linn were among those who urged their police chiefs and school districts in the last week not to send their school resource officers to the conference.

Imagine how our Lake Oswego students will feel if they learn that Lake Oswego SROS (school resource officers), educators, and administrators are spending time learning from a man who is openly biased and who openly has disdain for some of them, wrote Willie Poinsette, president of the community-based group Respond to Racism, in a letter to Lake Oswegos city manager and school superintendent.

On the associations Facebook page announcing the decision to exclude Clarke, Pam Ashton commented, Tough decision. I admire your commitment to children, above all else.

Clarke has supported defunding schools to boost police ranks instead, mocked coronavirus safeguards such as mask mandates and amplified conspiracy theories about liberal philanthropist George Soros having his fingerprints all over the activism of student survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

Clarke, who is Black, has consistently referred to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations for civil rights and against police bias as Black Lies Matter. In recent weeks, he has defended the Proud Boys, calling the prosecution of some of the groups leaders on sedition charges in the U.S. Capitol insurrection an abuse of power. He also criticized the U.S. Justice Departments decision to investigate the police response to the Uvalde school shooter as improper.

During his tenure as sheriff, there were numerous reports of inmate abuse, staff harassment and five deaths in the county jail. The county paid out $6.75 million to settle a civil suit filed by the family of one man who died in custody from dehydration after they said he was denied water for six straight days.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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Oregon association for school resource officers cancels controversial ex-sheriffs appearance at conference - OregonLive

OPINION:

The last few weeks have been a test of leadership for President Biden and the Democratic Party. Theyve failed with flying colors. Two years after all the George Floyd political theatrics and political violence, the Democrats response to Uvalde has proven they believe some lives matter more than others.

In the wake of the massacre in Texas, the American people were watching to see if Democrats would give Republicans political space to compromise on measured legislation. They havent. Americans were watching to see if Mr. Biden would sound a unifying tone. He didnt. They were watching to see if Democrats were ready to view gun violence through the larger lens it deserves. They quietly refused.

What Americans got was unrealistic legislation, deliberate efforts to use the deaths of 19 children as a wedge issue for the November elections, hyper-partisan attacks and perhaps most disgraceful, a continued disregard for the lives lost to urban violence.

Since Uvalde, dozens of people have been shot in Americas cities. As of this writing, the dead range in age from three to 73. Nearly all of the victims were Black, lower-income or minority.

No national address from the White House. No presidential visit. No photo op with local officials and families. No collages of victims photos on national newscasts.

No grand plans to create enhanced gang units in cities dealing with spikes in violent crime. No press conferences demanding new policing practices to get illegal guns off the streets and confiscate the weapons killing literally thousands of young Black and Hispanic people every year.

Congressional Democrats are too busy working with former ABC News president James Goldston to produce the Jan. 6 hearings for primetime television.

For Mr. Biden, whos been in Washington for 50 years, the lack of focus on the larger problem must be intentional. A tweet on June 6 mentioned six school shootings that have taken place in the last 20 years, where most of the victims were white. After last weekends violence in Americas cities, not one social post from the president calling for action.

According to the CDCs data, more than half of all firearm death victims in 2019 were Black males, despite being 6.4% of the U.S. population.

Shining a light on urban violence would mean highlighting crimes committed by largely minority gangs and the lower-income who were supposed to elevated by the Great Society programs. That cant happen. Genuine outrage risks further revelations about failed policing, immigration and welfare policies of the left. That cant happen either.

Talk about the 70% of Black children born to fatherless households? God forbid.

So, if a deranged kid shoots up a supermarket or a school, its worth days of wall-to-wall news coverage. Democrats spring into action, whipping up their base and demanding comprehensive legislative solutions. But if a few Black teens in Chicago get gunned down, the higher echelons of the Democratic Party scarcely seem to care. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot would rather talk about protecting abortion rights than fighting crime.

Democrats have been exposed for treating Blacks and Latinos as expendable. They dont want them protected and advanced. They want to keep them dependent, angry and imperiled.

One chilling theory is becoming increasingly plausible. Todays Democratic Party, with its bulging socialist veins and arteries pumped with the venom of perpetually outraged intellectual elites, must view those dying daily on the streets of the cities they run as somehow less than human.

This would follow the pattern of fascist, socialist and communist ideologies that historically hold the view that only certain people truly matter. The rest are simply a means to an end.

If it means a state like California can leverage persistent violence and poverty to justify a reparations agenda, then so be it. If a city like Chicago or New York can feign outrage over gang killings to drive a message of white supremacy and black victimhood, then so be it.

Democrats tighten their grip, the government gets bigger, and New York Citys Mayor Eric Adams gets to go to the Met Gala next year again. Everyone else can go buy an electric car.

With an ascendant far left, backed up by Big Media, Big Tech and an insatiable bureaucracy, this mentality will get more pervasive unless Americans stand together against it.

For America to recapture its greatness, all lives must matter, but Democrats would rather focus on made-for-TV Jan. 6 hearings.

Black and Latino Americans should be afforded the same level of outrage, grief and calls to action as the children of Uvalde. It couldnt be clearer now Joe Biden disagrees.

Tom Basile is the host of America Right Now on Newsmax Television, an author and a former Bush administration official.

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For America to recapture greatness, Biden and Dems must remember that all lives matter - Washington Times

Stanley Hunt (left) as Blood and Dane Troy as Acts in Oakland Theater Projects The Mojo and the Sayso. Photo: David Flores II / Oakland Theater Project

Its been three years to the day since Linus, a Black child, was killed by plainclothes police officers. But none of his family has been set free yet not from any physical barrier, nor from their blinding grief or righteous yet futile rage.

In Aishah Rahmans 1987 play The Mojo and the Sayso, if justice was ever a hope, it was a slim one, now long buried. The freedom the Benjamin family seeks is to love one another again.

Each character in the play, now in an Oakland Theater Project production that opened Sunday, June 5, channels his or her unrequited feeling into a false idol and tries and fails to convert the others to worship.

For Awilda (Paige Mayes), its a church led by a snake oil salesman of a pastor (Reginald Wilkins). For her husband, Acts (Dane Troy), its the car hes been building in their living room out of junkyard scraps, the car whose metal tube outline ingeniously dominates Karla Hargraves set. As Acts tinkers on the vehicle throughout the show, he might hang gears and other parts by string to the contour, almost as if hes trimming a Christmas tree or as if hes literally pinning his hopes on a castle in the air.

For the couples surviving son, Blood (Stanley Hunt), the false idol is weapons. Every shadow and rustle is a threat to him now, and brandishing a handgun or a knife isnt just his way of protecting home; its his way of being seen in it.

The poetic, probing play, directed by Ayodele Nzinga, is sharp about the ways family members can live right on top of each other without ever intersecting or seeing or hearing one another, and how sorrow and guilt and fury only further entrench that isolation. Even when the Benjamin family members finally cry out for connection with all the fire in their bellies, even as all sides want it, none can say so in a language the others understand.

But even at a mere 80 minutes, the show frequently languishes. A fight scene is so clumsily realized that its not clear if anyone on stage believes the weapon is real. Its as if the only direction the performers got was to improvise and hope for the best when that scene rolls around. And Hunts Blood aimlessly drifts about and circles the stage to the point of distraction, like a blinking light that wont turn off.

Turn your gaze instead to Mayes, whose performance here suggests shes ready for the meatiest roles on the Bay Areas most august stages. She moves with the crisp focus and expansive communicative power of a dancer. Her voice, which the script affords frequent, glorious opportunity to burst into song, can rip a hole in the air one Troys Acts can almost walk through, but not quite.

Mayes shapes each moment shes on stage with athletic prowess, intellectual precision and emotional clarity. Wherever she trains her blazing eyes, you know its the most important thing or person in the scene.

The Mojo and the Sayso needs Mayes remarkable talent and skill when, after one of the best reveals of true colors in Bay Area theater design history (the specifics must be kept vague for your full enjoyment), she must instantly give up on her beliefs in order to take her husbands hand. Together, they all leap into a dreamland that, in the magic of the show, has burst through the walls of their home.

In our own era of police violence, the plays finale reads as a special gift. One way we must insist that Black Lives Matter is to let families like the Benjamins dream impossible dreams and then pave their way to reality, if at first onstage, then everywhere else.

LThe Mojo and the Sayso: Written by Aishah Rahman. Directed by Ayodele Nzinga. Through June 26. One hour, 40 minutes. $10-$52. Flax Art & Design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 510-646-1126. https://oaklandtheaterproject.org

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Review: At Oakland Theater Project, a play written in 1987 has a new way to say Black Lives Matter - SF Chronicle Datebook

During a Senate Judiciary hearing on white supremacy and domestic terrorism, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that the "machinery of the federal government should not be used as a tool to target and persecute your political opponents."

Cruz went on to say that Democrats repeatedly attempt to "politicize acts of violence," adding that they're trying to erase the history of the KKK, which was formed "by elected Democrats" and whose leadership "was almost entirely elected Democrats" as well as the "authors of Jim Crow laws."

Cruz said that Democrats use the "white supremacy" label to attack their political opponents while at the same time "diminishing anti-Jewish violence, anti-Asian violence, violence directed at white people, violence directed at police -- my view is simple: violence is always wrong whatever your ideology, left-wing, right-wing, no wings."

Cruz then listed examples of violent attacks carried out by Black nationalists, mentioning "the violence of the antifa riots and the Black Lives Matter riots that wracked this country" in the summer of 2020. "Stores were looted, police cars were fire-bombed, people were assaulted, people were murdered," Cruz said. "My colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle sought to excuse, sought to apologize, four even went to so far toraise moneyto bail out of jail the violent rioters committing these acts of violence."

When Cruz finished his remarks, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said that Cruz's comments failed to mention "that the FBI reported that of the racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists ... 87 percent were white supremacists."

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Amy Klobuchar shuts down Ted Cruz's attempt to use Buffalo hearing to rant about Black Lives Matter - Salon

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Offensive Honolulu license plate still on the road one year later - KITV Honolulu