Anti-Defamation
Former Bates Head Football Coach Malik Hall filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, District of Maine against the college yesterday, claiming he faced “severe racial discrimination” during his three-year tenure leading the football program, according to court records obtained by The Student.
Hall, who is joined in the suit by his wife, Ayesha, and his three children, Asah, Kayah and Malik Jr., alleges that as a result of the treatment he faced, he has suffered “economic damages, loss of opportunity, loss of reputation and mental anguish.”
The former head coach is also alleging claims of unlawful racial employment discrimination under the Maine Human Rights Act, unlawful racial employment practices under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VII, unlawful racial discrimination under Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, defamation, and negligence in providing him and his family with housing that was infested with black mold. Head Football Coach
In June 2021, Hall filed a separate complaint of discrimination with the Maine Human Rights Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Those complaints are not yet public documents.
Hall began his tenure as the first Black head coach in Bates history in 2018 after a career coaching at many other colleges and universities, including a three-year stint as the defensive line coach for the University of Pennsylvania.
Bates College announced he would not be returning to the program in July 2021.
After the lawsuit was filed today, The Student reached out to Mary Pols, the college’s spokeswoman for a response.
“The college has not seen the lawsuit filed by Malik Hall, but I can tell you the college strongly disagrees with the account of events as described in the Bates Student,” she said.
Housing
In his complaint, Hall alleges that the college struggled to find him appropriate housing once he was hired. It presented him two options, he claims: one too small for him, his wife and their three children, and the other needing many renovations.
Throughout history, transgender people of color have had a place of honor in many indigenous cultures around the world.
This changed in many places, however, as European colonizers began forcing indigenous people to follow white social norms. These include anti-Blackness, Christianity and a gender binary that reduced gender to just man and woman.
Colonizers presumed that being cisgender, or having a gender identity that is congruent with gender assigned at birth, was the only acceptable norm.
For trans people who refused or were unable to conform, colonial societies often used racism and cissexism, or behaviors and beliefs that assume the inferiority of trans people, to invalidate their existence, limit their access to resources and threaten their well-being.
For example, colonizers in some cases deemed people who expressed their gender outside the binary as sinful and deviant, and punished them with emotional and physical violence. Transgender people
The reverberations of these colonial beliefs are still felt today. In just the first three months of 2022, there were over 154 anti-trans state bills proposed across the U.S. seeking to limit the rights of trans kids and their parents.
We are researchers who study how LGBTQ people of color build resilience, resist oppression and promote wellness within their communities.
We look at how having multiple identities like being trans and a person of color intersect and interact with each other in ways that affect how someone navigates their life.
Trans people of color who have multiple marginalized identities face higher levels of stress from being a minority compared to those with fewer marginalized identities.
While there has been a lack of research on the experiences of trans people of color, many studies suggest that many of the challenges they face arise from the intersection of racism, xenophobia and cisnormativity.
For nearly three years, former President Donald Trump has avoided facing journalist E. Jean Carroll in court on accusations that he raped her then defamed her when he claimed “she’s not my type” and said she was lying. A federal judge has finally had enough.
In a court order Friday, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan berated Trump’s “bad faith” delay tactics and shot down his latest maneuver: an attempt to use New York’s recently expanded free speech legal protections.
“[Carroll’s] only claim in this case is a single count of defamation. It could have been tried and decided—one way or the other—long ago. The record convinces the court that the defendant’s litigation tactics, whatever their intent, have delayed the case,” Kaplan wrote.
“My client E. Jean Carroll and I could not agree more,” Robbie Kaplan, Carroll’s lawyer, said in a statement to The Daily Beast.
Carroll is a journalist whose “Ask E. Jean” column ran in Elle magazine for nearly 30 years. In June 2019, New York Magazine ran an excerpt from her book in which she claimed—in detail—how Donald Trump raped her in the dressing room of the high-end Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman decades ago.
When Trump was asked about the accusations at the White House, he whipped out the most distasteful defense imaginable.
“I’ll say it with great respect. Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?” he told reporters.
Carroll sued for defamation in New York state court, then shifted her lawsuit to federal court.
In his order on Friday, the judge described how Trump took both usual and ridiculous steps to prevent the case from moving forward.
The former president tried to avoid being served—that is, receiving an official notice that he was sued—by remaining fortified in the White House or his luxury condo in Manhattan.
The WA Premier sent a text message to the owner of the state’s only daily metro newspaper, Kerry Stokes, thanking him for his support following the introduction of legislation that prevented businessman Clive Palmer from claiming damages in relation to a mining project, the Federal Court has heard.
The text message has been revealed during the defamation case brought by Clive Palmer against Mark McGowan over his comments about the mining magnate’s attempt to enter the state in 2020 and attempt to pursue damages over Mr Palmer’s shelved Balmoral Mining project.
Mr McGowan has entered his second day on the stand, where he was today grilled by Mr Palmer’s lawyer, Peter Gray SC, over a series of texts exchanged with the media mogul.
Mr McGowan texted Mr Stokes at 4:59pm on August 11, 2020, a minute before the legislation was read into WA Parliament by Attorney-General John Quigley.
The text said: “Kerry, we just introduced legislation to block a claim by Clive Palmer against the state of WA for $28 billion.
“The claim was currently in arbitration and was based on two decisions Colin Barnett made in 2012. Barnett rejected a proposal by Palmer to develop the Balmoral South mine.”
He then told Mr Stokes the risk was too great and he had decided to legislate.
“Obviously he Mr Palmer won’t be happy. I’ll call to discuss.”
Mr Stokes responded three days later on the evening of August 14, shortly after the legislation had passed.
It also followed three days of front page articles in The West Australian, which depicted Mr Palmer variously as a cockroach and a cane toad.
Kerry Stokes: “Mark, well done. I think no-one else could have achieved the legislation in the speed you did. Reckon the insect heads should make a telethon sales item. People are with you! Kerry.”
Mr McGowan: “Thanks Kerry I was asked about those marvellous front pages today.
Lawyers for E. Jean Carroll are no longer seeking to depose former President Donald Trump in their defamation lawsuit, saying doing so would cause too much delay.
Roberta Kaplan, who represents Carroll, told reporters after a nearly one-hour federal court hearing Tuesday that they changed their minds given the former President’s history of litigation and a desire to go to trial as quickly as possible
Kaplan is still seeking a sample of Trump’s DNA, however.
Donald Trump’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week in court
Carroll sued Trump in 2019 alleging he defamed her when he denied her allegations that Trump raped her in a New York department store dressing room in the mid 1990s, said she was not his type, and alleged she made the claim to boost sales of her book. Trump has denied the assault.
On Tuesday, Carroll told reporters she would “never settle” the lawsuit, saying she is fighting not just for herself but for all women who have been assaulted.
Kaplan said she is “perfectly happy to question” Trump on the witness stand, if the case were to go to trial, describing the lawsuit as a “he said, she said” case.
After the court hearing, Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said the decision to no longer seek Trump’s deposition was “surprising” and that it was the “first I heard of it.”
The change in strategy was raised in a court hearing Tuesday related to Trump’s effort to amend his response to Carroll’s defamation lawsuit and counter-sue under New York’s amended anti-SLAPP law, which can be used to counter frivolous defamation lawsuits.
In the filing, Trump’s lawyers alleged Carroll sued Trump as “retribution” for his truthful statements and “for the sole purpose of harassing, punishing or otherwise maliciously inhibiting his free exercise of speech.”
February is Black History Month and marks 10 years since the death of Trayvon Martin sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.
Black Lives Matter has evolved from a hashtag to a global movement for racial justice.
Here are some of the key events over the decade.
Ten years ago on 26 February, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin went to buy a bag of Skittles and some iced tea.
As he walked to his dad’s fiancée’s home in Sanford, Florida, he was shot dead by the gated community’s neighbourhood watch coordinator.
His killer, George Zimmerman, was later acquitted of second-degree murder, sparking the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
Martin would have turned 27 on 5 February. Here are some of the key moments in the racial justice movement that has gone global in the decade since he died. Black History Month
April 2012
In the spring following Martin’s death, a group of young people – the Dream Defenders – marched from Daytona Beach Florida to Sanford.
July 2013
In response to Zimmerman’s acquittal, on self-defence grounds, thousands of protesters took to the streets across the US, demanding “justice for Trayvon”.
The Dream Defenders occupied Florida State Capitol for a month, demanding a repeal of the Stand Your Ground law – which permits use of lethal force in self-defence when law-abiding citizens fear their lives are in danger.
BLM founder Alicia Garza wrote a Facebook post she called “a love letter to Black people”. It was shared online by her friend Patrisse Cullors, who added the hashtag BlackLivesMatter. Another friend, Opal Tometi, created the BlackLivesMatter.com website.
What’s the World Economic Forum doing about diversity, equity and inclusion?
In July, 43-year-old Eric Garner was wrestled to the ground by New York police officers and held in a chokehold. He died after saying “I can’t breathe” 11 times.
Black teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in August in Ferguson, Missouri.
A Brussels-based human rights watchdog has warned the EU institutions and member states on the attacks against Muslims Muslims escalate and the spread of far-right ideas in France.
“The country is showing the marks of a growing far-right within its institutions,” the European Network Against the Racism (ENAR) said in a statement on Monday. Muslims escalate in France
The watchdog denounced “the escalation of attacks against the Muslims and civil society organisations who work against the racism and anti-Muslim hatred in France.”
They added that Europe should be concerned by the French government’s “increasingly divisive discourse and strategies” that are based on far-right ideology and target Muslims and civil society organisations.
“Under the guise of national security, civil society organisations have been dissolved, mosques have been raided, and schools and Muslim-owned businesses closed,” contrary to the principles of the rule of law, ENAR said.
Also Read: US white supremacist propaganda incidents ‘rose by 120% in 2019’
‘Fundamental rights under threat’The watchdog also noted that fundamental rights “of racialised people in France, and Muslims in particular” are under threat in France.They asserted that the freedom of expression and association is particularly in danger.For this, they cited a recent report from the French Observatory of Associative Freedom that documented 20 abusive sanctions against NGOs without legal or factual bases over the past five years.ENAR stressed these actions have a “chilling effect” on Muslim communities and civil society because they are “considered guilty until proven innocent.”The statement underlined that French mainstream media has also joined the trend of attacking NGOs and “demonising Muslims.”The organisation also warned that French politicians actively seek ties with openly far-right political organisations across Europe.The watchdog also noted that fundamental rights “of racialised people in France, and Muslims in particular” are under threat in France.They asserted that the freedom of expression and association is particularly in danger.
Incidents of white supremacist material being spread across the US rose by 120% in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
It was the second year that the circulation of racist and nationalist posters and banners more than doubled, the hate monitoring group said.
One Texas-based group was responsible for two-thirds of all propaganda.
The ADL found that white supremacists held 20% fewer events, “preferring not to risk the exposure” to the public.
The ADL Center on Extremism’s report released on Wednesday documented 2,713 cases of propaganda in the past year, compared to 1,214 cases in 2018. The cases amounted to an average of seven reported incidents per day.
University campuses were frequent targets, the ADL found, with all but seven out of 50 states reporting incidents of banners, posters and flyers.
“The data is unmistakable. White supremacists are doubling down on their efforts to promote messages of hate and recruit new members,” said the ADL, which was founded in 1913 to combat anti-Semitism.
Also Read: Congressional Democrats Target Bans on Teaching About Racism in Schools
“The barrage of propaganda, which overwhelmingly features veiled white supremacist language with a patriotic slant, is an effort to normalise white supremacists’ message and bolster recruitment efforts while targeting minority groups including Jews, Blacks, Muslims, non-white immigrants and the LGBTQ community,” the statement added.Center on Extremism Director Oren Segal told the Associated Press that the groups are making an effort to emphasise “patriotism” in an attempt “tomake their hate more palatable for a 2020 audiencImage caption, Members of the National Socialist Movement in GeorgiaLast week, FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged that racist extremists in the US are now considered a “national threat priority” presenting the same danger as foreign terror organisations such as the so-called Islamic State.About 90% of all incidents came from three groups – Patriot Front, American Identity Movement and the New Jersey European Heritage Association.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are calling on Facebook to take “immediate measures” to better combat the proliferation of anti-Semitic content on its platform.
In a letter sent on Dec. 16 to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook — which was recently rebranded as Meta — and Meta COO Sheryl Sandbe
The MEPs suggested that Meta implement “strict terms of services to prevent the dissemination of hate speech online”; invest in “proper trainings for employees” so they can filter out abusive content online, and improve their tools of artificial intelligence that they claim “are – as of yet – clearly unable to detect more of the problematic content.”
They additionally told Zuckerberg and Sandberg, “You would also need to improve the supportive structure for flagging such content, take swift action when anti-Semitic messages are reported to you, and provide more transparency on your efforts to combat cyberhate on your platform. Much more needs to be done to tackle anti-Semitism on your platform and we urge you to take more proactive measures against hateful posts and abusive users.”
rg, eight MEPs expressed concern about Facebook’s “lack of improvement” in removing anti-Semitic posts.
The MEPs said that on Nov. 9, which was also the anniversary of Kristallnacht, they tested Facebook’s “reactivity” to flagged anti-Semitic content by reporting posts that contained blood libels, conspiracy theories tying Jews to the COVID-19 pandemic and Holocaust denial. They said only 11 percent of the reported anti-Semitic content was eventually removed online.
The letter stated, “There is only one conclusion one can draw out of this: most hate messages, including calls for violence, are never taken down when reported, and your services continue dismissing user reports on blatantly anti-Semitic content. We therefore urge you to take immediate measures to counter this increasingly worrisome phenomenon.”
Source: JNS
Also Read: Rise in hate crimes in NYC causing some young Jewish men to remove yarmulkes
First the Laura Logan mishegoss, now this: As per The Daily Beast, Fox News’ social media accounts deleted a cartoon criticizing George Soros after it was pointed out that it depicted an infamously anti-Semitic trope. The image, drawn by conservative cartoonist A.F. Branco, showed the progressive-leaning billionaire — a long-favorite target of Republican opprobrium — holding the strings of two Democratic donkeys, one holding a sign for “defund police,” other “no bail.” It’s a reference to right-wing complaints about progressive criminal justice policies and Soros’ supposed influence upon them.
The caption referred to Soros, who is Jewish, as “the puppet master” — a term that has long been used as an anti-Semitic trope. The image was shared on both its Facebook and Instagram accounts. On the latter, it received 16,000 likes before it was removed.
Among the post’s critics was the Anti-Defamation League. “As we have told Fox News numerous times, casting a Jewish individual as a puppet master who manipulates national events for malign purposes conjures up longstanding antisemitic tropes about Jewish power + contributes to the normalization of antisemitism,” the ADL tweeted after the image appeared. “This needs to be removed.”
The network has a history of trading in anti-Semitic tropes. Last March, substitute Ingraham Angle host Raymond Arroy — filling in for the host, currently under fire for recently unearthed frantic texts she sent on Jan. 6 conveying horror at the Capitol riot that she would later downplay — devoted an entire segment to calling Michael Bloomberg, who is also Jewish, a “puppet master.” Only two weeks ago Fox Nation host Lara Logan compared Dr. Fauci to Dr. Josef Mengele, aka the Nazi concentration camp doctor known as the “Angel of Death.”
Source: UPROXX
Also Read: Anti-Semitic graffiti found near Anne Frank memorial in Idaho: cops
