Category Archives: Black Lives Matter

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.

The rest is here:

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.

Read this article:

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?

Read more:

'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.

See original here:

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.

Read more:

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

On July 13, 2013, Alica Garza a young activist was stunned when George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder in the death Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager. In her grief, Garza posted on Facebook, Black People. I love you. I love us. Our Lives Matter.

In the meantime, Opal Tometti and Patrisse Cullors two more young Black activists had joined voices with Garza.

Cullors shared Garzas post and added the hashtag #blacklives

matter. The slogan caught on, and the global protest movement Black Lives Matter was born.

Veronica Chambers with Jennifer Harlan has created a remarkable coffee-table book, Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter (Versify/HMH 2021), which outlines not only the history of a movement, but the history of our nation. The book is packed with photos and passionate text and is a guide on how to protest injustice.

About Garza, Tometti and Cullors, author Chambers writes They started out as three young girls who cared deeply about their communities and about doing their part to make those communities safer, more just, and more equitable for all.

Each woman began her activism as a preteen, and each continues to focus her work on Black Lives Matter today.

A year after Zimmermans acquittal in Florida, Michael Brown was murdered by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. Many of us grieved deeply. All the while, awareness of the tragedy heightened. Protests bloomed nationwide under the banner Black Lives Matter.

Chambers writes, Black Lives Matter picked up a baton that had been passed from generation to generation of Americans working, often through protest, for racial justice.

And a generation of young activists emerged finding friendship, strength, a common goal, and the first glimpse of how powerful they could be when they stood up, marched, and shared on social media what they saw and heard.

Some individuals have joined BLM protests and have become media sensations overnight.

Young and old are drawn to the boots-on-the-ground experiences that protesters describe on Twitter such as what it feels like to be tear-gassed.

With the senseless murder of George Floyd in Minnesota, protests flourished across the country in June 2020 while we were in pandemic-lockdown mode. We could focus on this recurring tragedy the murder of Black people.

Art specifically murals as well as music first spirituals, then blues, then protest songs have been instrumental in drawing people together for the hard work of resistance rooted in hope.

From pages 55 to 65, there is a valuable photographic timeline, starting in 1954 with Brown vs. Board of Education and working to the present. The grassroots BLM movement has been almost exclusively a peaceful movement on the part of the protesters where young participants are educated by experience.

So many activists have braided their threads into the narrative of BLM threads that began before our country was born. This book outlines the systemic racism on which our country is built.

Chambers offers examples of how to effect change, whether its front-line protesting or becoming street medics, suppliers or observers. This is a must-have book if you care about justice and equality in our world.

Patricia Hruby Powell is the author of the award-winning Josephine, Loving vs. Virginia and Struttin With Some Barbecue, among others. She teaches community classes at Parkland College.

Go here to see the original:

Patricia Hruby Powell | Examining history of Black Lives Matter movement - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

A history book featuring Black Lives Matter on the cover will be distributed to schools by the Welsh Government, as the teaching of ethnic minority histories becomes compulsory.

History Grounded, written by historian and former teacher Dr Elin Jones, is aimed at eight to 12-year-olds and charts a history of Wales from the Neolithic up to the Transatlantic slave trade, as well as the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The protest movement features on the cover of the book endorsed by the Welsh government, which is set to be issued to schools ahead of curriculum changes - as Wales moves to become the first UK nation to make the teaching of minority ethnic history compulsory.

Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, publisher of History Grounded, has described the book as a game changer, adding: Representing Wales history in all its rich diversity was central to the work.

During the past year, we have gained a new appreciation of the importance of learning the history of marginalised communities, as well as an appreciation of education as a tool to fight against racism and all other forms of prejudice.

The book features sections on various movements in Wales, with the LGBT and Black Lives Matter banners featuring on the cover, alongside the Red Flag of Merthyr - the first red flag raised as a symbol of working class revolt.

The volume also outlines Wales connections to the slave trade, including the importing of sugar, and features a map detailing the names of about 40 families who received compensation following the abolition of slavery in 1833.

The Welsh government has said that the book will be provided to schools in early 2022, as part of plans to support the teaching of Wales history in the new curriculum beginning at the start of the 2022/23 academic year.

In 2020, the Welsh government launched a 500,000 project to develop teaching materials for a new curriculum which would inspire their learners to become ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world.

On the new History Grounded book, Jeremy Miles, the minister for education and the Welsh language, said: We want to ensure all pupils leave school with an understanding of our nations history not just the major events, but through the lives and experiences of people and communities from all over Wales.

History Grounded really helps bring Wales rich history to life and will be a fantastic teaching resource for our new curriculum.

History Grounded was not commissioned nor paid for by the Welsh government.

Originally posted here:

History book with Black Lives Matter banner on the front to be given to Wales schools - Telegraph.co.uk

December is drawing to a close, ending another strange year in Taunton history. It was a time of political and social struggle, a time of tragedy and possibility, of endings and new beginnings. This was the second year of the COVID pandemic that still has the world in its grip, casting a specter over every aspect of life in the city. And yet there were some positive developments too.

We looked back at the past 12 months of Gazette stories and came up with a list of 10 of the most important issues and stories that affect us all. Lets look at them all briefly and wed like you to choose which are the top three stories of 2021. Vote using our form at the bottom of the story.

Perhaps the most touching article of the year is the story of a radiant little girl who loved life so much she crawled when she could no longer walk and never, never stopped dancing. Taunton Police Officer Jeremy Derosier and his wife, Jamie, lost their 6-year-old daughter Aubriella to mitochondrial disease, only a few years after they lost their son to the same illness. They held a fairy-tale wedding for Aubriella before her passing.

Tragedy strikes: Taunton cop walks 6-year-old daughter down the aisle before she loses battle with illness

After years of lingering decline, the Silver City Galleria mall finally closed and was demolished, another victim of the retail apocalypse. The two-story mall had opened its doors in 1992, and by 2021 the front door was the only part still standing from the 1.1 million square-foot building. The site was sold in the summer, and could see industrial development.

Saying goodbye to the Galleria: How many times have you walked through this door? Taunton Galleria entrance last to go

Taunton has taken the scenic route on the road to the recreational marijuana industry. Would-be marijuana business owners have long had complaints about delays, made allegations of unfairness, and faced cease-and-desist orders. Its only after two years of red tape that the citys first recreational pot shop has opened its doors.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em: Taunton's first recreational retail pot shop is open here's what the first day was like

Reckless riding of dirt bikes and ATVs on public roads has been considered a continuing nuisance in Taunton. After years of complaints, the city government created a new ordinance governing the use of these recreational vehicles, and what the city can do to those who violate the law. But some ATV riders said they have a side to the story too.

'Zero tolerance': Here are Taunton's new rules on reckless ATV driving

The COVID-19 pandemic rolled along in its second year, but people were armed with a new weapon in the fight against the highly contagious illness: three new vaccines were developed. Initially rationed to give first-dibs to those at highest risk, eventually vaccines were authorized for everyone ages 5 and older. Early shortages of vaccines have given way to public clinics, like the VaxBus, and doses available at most pharmacies and clinics. But while COVID cases dipped in the spring and summer, new variants have emerged and new cases are soaring once again.

Take your shot: Taunton lags behind Mass. in vaccinating kids against COVID; here's how to get the vaccine

The local real estate market exploded in 2021, with home prices soaring the average home price in 2018 is what the least-expensive houses are selling for now. We've been keeping an eye on the latest moves in the real estate market in our weekly updates. And while this trend has been great for sellers, its been difficult for homebuyers to find new digs.

'It was horrible': Taunton homebuyers struggle in seller's market

An off-duty Taunton police sergeant was charged with seriously injuring a motorcycle rider while driving drunk. Shawn Smith of Raynham, with 21 years on the force, was arrested in the off-duty incident. Heallegedly sideswiped motorcyclist George Haskell, 52, who faced serious injuries and underwent multiple surgeries during his over seven weeks in the hospital. Smith said he would retirefrom the force, and his case is pending.

OUI incident: Longtime Taunton cop to retire after alleged drunk driving crash with motorcyclist

A homophobic piece of hate-mail received by the town of Dighton sparked a debate in town over whether the gay pride flag should fly at town hall a debate that lasted for months, with a local election hinging on it. In the end, Dighton Town Meeting ended up shutting down the debate definitively, by passing a restrictive flag bylaw after a four-hour meeting. Taunton got in on the gay pride flag debate as well, with Mayor Shaunna OConnell opting not to fly the rainbow banner over city hall, sparking a small gay pride rally in protest.

Gay pride flag ban: Dighton Town Meeting bans flying LGBTQ and other flags on town property

The political divide was wide on other issues, as well. A mural at Taunton High School depicting the thin blue line drew complaints. Supporters called the flag a tribute to fallen police officers and a sign of support, while detractors noted that the flag has been flown in opposition to Black Lives Matter protests and has been used at white supremacist rallies. On Taunton Green, supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and those holding Blue Lives Matter flags had dueling but peaceful rallies. In the end, the school replaced the mural with an American flag and a quote from a black soldier.

Dueling rallies: Taunton BLM and thin blue line supporters face off during peaceful but heated rallies

A year after the closing of Coyle & Cassidy, the old school got new life, as Bristol Community College opened its Taunton Center in the building. Bristol had been leasing space inside the Silver City Galleria, but the new space gives the community college access to features that werent available in the mall space.

Peek inside: Here's a look inside Bristol Community College's new Taunton Center at Coyle & Cassidy

Use this form below to cast your vote for first, second, and third place.

Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.

Read this article:

What was Greater Taunton's biggest story of 2021? Use this form to cast your vote - Taunton Daily Gazette

Home Entertainment Scotland reexamines its heritage in the age of Black Lives Matter December 25, 2021

Castles, gardens, villages One report designates around fifty historic sites as the result of the slave trade and slavery. A new woke madness for historian Robert Tombs.

Scandal in the Highlands. A 60-page report was commissioned by the National Trust for Scotland, the body responsible for the protection and promotion of Scottish heritage. Its title sounds like repentance: Facing our past!

Read alsoLeopold II, Edward Colston, Churchill Their statues vandalized or unbolted

On 885 kilometers of coastline, The organization owns and maintains a significant number of estates, gardens, buildings and collectionsLists Jennifer Melville, project manager. This report is, according to her, the first step which aims to become aware of the truth on Scotlands slave past. VShe heritage has been created, improved or financed by the suffering of others, she explains. We can bring these truths to life and address their complex history. Before justifying the writing of this report: Our public demands to know more about it.

Read alsoCanada: calls for the removal of colonialist symbols from public space

Among the 48 controversial sites, some are the most touristic in Scotland, like the dizzying Glenfinnan monument. This tower, 18 meters high, marks the beginning of the Jacobite uprising of 1719. Close to the shores of Loch Shiel and surrounded by mountains, the monument is today disputed, 302 years later, by this famous report. The latter explains that it was built by Sandy Macdonald, a wealthy businessman who made his fortune in Jamaica, during the height of the slave trade.

Read alsoNutcracker, considered racist, will it survive the era of cancel culture?

Focusing on slavery while ignoring its many other flaws exposes the madness of the woke view of history.

Robert Tombs, the story

This work also calls into question the role played by certain influential figures of the time, such as Charles Edward Stuart, the second contender for the Scottish and English crowns. According to this report, we must go back to 1745, shortly before the battle of Culloden, that the one also nicknamed Bonnie Prince CharlieWill lose, to understand where the problem comes from. Indeed, underlines the document of Jennifer Melville, the pretender sailed from Nantes a busy port in the transatlantic slave trade to the Hebrides, in the summer of 1745 on a French slave ship. The latter belonging to the wealthy shipowner, slave trader and plantation owner of Irish descent, Antoine Walsh.

Read alsoUnited States: Minneapolis commemorates the death of George Floyd

The bronze statue of the merchant slave Edward Colston was unbolted and then thrown into the water by protesters of the movement Black Lives Matter, On June 7, 2020 in Bristol. HANDOUT / AFP

This report could cheer up activists in the Black Lives Matter movement, who are already very active in Scotland. And especially in Edinburgh, where the statue of Henry Dundas, a politician who worked to delay the abolition of slavery, was covered in graffiti. Protests that have also arisen in England with the debunking of the statue of the slave merchant and English patron Edward Colston, in Bristol in the south-west of the country.

Focusing on slavery while ignoring its many other flaws exposes the insanity of the woke view of history.Explains historian Robert Tombs, in the column entitledWhy delete Bonnie Prince Charlie now?And published in The Telegraph . Before continuing: It seems to be the only thing that touches modern consciousnesses. Yet the slave trade was widely viewed as a bad business even then.

SEE ALSO Snow White: new victim of cancel culture?

Read the rest here:

Scotland reexamines its heritage in the age of Black Lives Matter - The Times Hub

The Los Angeles Police Department worked with a Polish strategic communications firm last year to track tweets related to Black Lives Matter and defund the police, according to documents obtained via a public records request by The Brennan Center.

The LAPD conducted a month-long trial of social media monitoring with Edge NPD, a company based in Warsaw, Poland.

LAPD Chief of Police Michel Moore speaks with protesters in the Fairfax District on Saturday, May 30, 2020 in Los Angeles, CA. Protests erupted across the country, with people outraged over the death of George Floyd, a black man killed after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground with his knee. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

The fall 2020 trial period included tracking 200 keywords and resulted in the collection of millions of tweets, including thousands related to Black Lives Matter and the movement to defund the police.

Edge NPD previously had no experience working with law enforcement.

The companys CEO, Dobromir Cias, told The Guardian the LAPD wanted to respond to negative narratives during the height of nations reckoning with racism and police violence, while flagging potential threats.

The trial was offered to the LAPD at no charge and was supposed to serve as a demonstration of the monitoring technology, but was not intended to monitor specific Black Lives Matter activists, Cias said.

A Twitter spokesperson told The Guardian in a statement the platform prohibits surveillance of activist organizations.

Twitter prohibits the use of our developer services for surveillance purposes. Period. We proactively enforce our policies to ensure customers are in compliance and will continue to do so, the spokesperson said.

The company said it suspended Edge NPDs developer account for violating the policies.

During the 40-day trial in October and November of 2020, the LAPD sought to collect social media data related to six topics, including civil unrest, American policing, domestic extremism and white nationalism, election security, potential danger and the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Keywords the LAPD and Edge NPD discussed tracking during the trial included abolish the police, nojusticenopeace, police budget, and police killing.

Cias suggested BLM and defund the police be added to the list. An LAPD official agreed BLM would be good to add to the list, but noted that many people use the phrase to discuss legitimate rights.

Story continues

Cias also said he would personally send tweets to the LAPD that looked kind of dangerous, during the trial, but added that he didnt verify the legitimacy of the information in the tweets he passed along.

When youre passing this information, you dont really know how serious it is. I think its up to law enforcement to really verify if its true, Cias told The Guardian. We dont do fact checking.

About 270,000 of the 2 million tweets collected during the trial were related to American Policing, according to the Brennan Center.

Flagged tweets included those that highlighted racism in American or called on LAPD chief Michael Moore to resign.

The LAPD did not establish a long-term contract with Edge NPD after the trial, although the company proposed a $150,000 agreement. However, the LAPD has looked into similar monitoring services offered by at least 10 other companies.

Its not clear what the police department did with the collected data.

More news from our partners:

Pennsylvania Man Who Planted Explosives After BLM Protest Sentenced to Probation, Thanks to Judge Who Was Convinced He Had a Breakdown

I Havent Heard Your Name Mentioned All Year Step Up | Shaq Keeps It Real On Anthony Davis And The Lakers

Homebuyer Love Letters Could Result in Bias, Real Estate Firm Wants to Block New Oregon Law Banning Them

Originally posted here:

LAPD Worked with Foreign Firm to Track Tweets About Defund the Police and BLM During 2020 Protests; Its Unclear How Data Was Used - Yahoo News