A federal judge in Nevada has struck down a law that targets some immigrants who come to the country illegally.
Section 1326 in U.S. law says if you were denied entry to the U.S. or were deported at some point, simply entering the country becomes a crime.
Nevada district court judge Miranda Du struck it down, saying it violates the Constitution because of its racist, anti-Mexican origins in the late 1920’s, even though the law was reenacted under a different name in 1952.
“Moreover, the government fails to demonstrate how any subsequent amending Congress addressed either the racism that initially motivated the Act of 1929 or the discriminatory intent that was contemporaneous with the 1952 reenactment,” she wrote.
Du ruled that the government didn’t prove it would have passed the law without its original “discriminatory intent”, so it violates the Fifth Amendment.
Historians like Kelly Lytle Hernandez have found that racism played a significant role in the law’s creation.
“(The law was created) in 1929 by a eugenicist and white supremacist with the clear intention of targeting Mexican immigrants in particular, Latinx immigrants in general,” said Hernandez, a UCLA history professor and author who gave testimony in the Nevada case.
“It’s time to go back and reckon with that history and address it and redress it. And that’s what this judge has done,” Hernandez said.
Ahilan Arulanantham, a law professor at UCLA, said this was a “extraordinarily important decision. It is the first decision striking down the illegal reentry statute as unconstitutional.”
Arulanantham said this law – and another penalizing initial illegal entry into the U.S. – are by far the most prosecuted federal crimes.
“There are whole prisons in the southwest where almost everybody in the prison is just serving time for this offense,” he said. “And overwhelmingly, 98 or 99% of the people prosecuted for this crime are Latino.”
Source: Boise State Public Radio
An Iowa woman who attacked two children, a 12-year-old Black boy and a 14-year-old Latina girl, with her car in 2019 was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in federal prison.
Nicole Poole Franklin, 43, had pleaded guilty to both federal hate crime charges and state attempted murder charges.
On Dec. 9, 2019, the 12-year-old boy was walking with his older sibling when Franklin hopped the curb in her car and tried to run him over. The boy suffered minor injuries.
Franklin said she thought the child was an ISIS terrorist out to get her.
Less than an hour later, Franklin launched another attack, this time on the 14-year-old girl, who was walking to a basketball game. The girl suffered serious injuries, including a concussion, according to police.
Franklin said she thought the girl was a Mexican who “wasn’t supposed to be in the country,” and was taking “our homes, our jobs.”
Police said Franklin fled both scenes and went to a convenience store, where she launched into a racist tirade against two Black men. She was not charged with a crime for the tirade.
Franklin admitted to both attacks and was sentenced in May on the state charges, getting at least 17½ years in prison, the Associated Press reported.. She’ll serve her 25-year federal sentence concurrently, and she will not be eligible for parole.
Source: NY Daily News
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A Florida educator has been removed from the classroom after video surfaced of her screaming racist rants at a woman and her children, according to news reports.
The Collier County School District placed Patricia Schmidt on administrative leave and she may lose her job, according to an NBC2 report.
The victims were walking near a paved “residents only” path in a neighborhood Saturday when Schmidt is accused of driving by, blaring her horn, lowering her window and screaming profanities and slurs at them.
The incident was caught on video.
“Did you have sex with a Black guy? Your kids are half-breeds. Look at them!” the woman in the car can be heard shouting in the video.
At another point, the woman yells at the victim that her son “must be special ed” and then refers to the boy by a slur.
Schmidt is an exceptional student education specialist at Lely Elementary in Naples, working closely with children with special needs, the TV station reported.
“Who knows how she’s treating them in the classroom when their parents aren’t there to defend them?” the victim said.
Source: Orlando Sentinel
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Frustration with Seattle Children’s Hospital continues to build among staff, stakeholders and community, as the institution’s leadership declines to release the findings from a monthslong investigation into equity, diversity and racism at the hospital.
That investigation was prompted by the November resignation and allegations of Dr. Ben Danielson, the beloved medical director of the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, which falls under the Seattle Children’s umbrella.
One member of the hospital’s Board of Trustees, Cynthia Huffman, resigned over the decision not to release the findings, according to people familiar with the action. Huffman did not immediately return a request for comment.
The decision to withhold the final report’s findings is a squandered opportunity to rebuild trust with a community still raw from Danielson’s resignation, say those who’ve been anticipating the investigation’s conclusions.
“This is a process that was supposed to be an attempt to build back community trust and rebuild a reputation that was marred by credible charges of systemic racism in the institution,” said Micki Flowers, one of the founders of Friends of the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic Guild, the revered satellite clinic where Danielson worked.
The hospital said it will establish a task force by Sept. 1 to lay out more specific and public-facing metrics for success.
“Moving forward, we will act with an unwavering commitment to deliver equitable treatment of pediatric care and pursue equitable treatment across Seattle Children’s workforce while promoting anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion for all,” CEO Dr. Jeff Sperring and board chair Susan Betcher said in a letter published Friday.
Children’s spokesperson Jennifer Morgan told Crosscut she did not have any further updates to share. Individual board members have either not responded or declined to comment.
Source: The Columbian
Jamel K. Donnor, Associate Professor of Education, William & Mary
Two Black students – Ikeria Washington and Layla Temple – were named valedictorian and salutatorian at West Point High School in Mississippi in 2021. Shortly afterward, two white parents questioned whether school officials had correctly calculated the top academic honors.
Ultimately, the school superintendent named two white students as “co-valedictorian” and “co-salutatorian” on the day of graduation.
High school seniors with the highest GPA in their graduating class are chosen to be valedictorians and are often responsible for delivering the graduating speech. Salutatorians, who are high school seniors with the second-highest GPA in their graduating class, often give the opening remarks.
The superintendent attributed the mix-up to a new school counselor who was given incorrect information on how to calculate class rankings.
As an educational researcher who focuses on race and inequality, I am aware that the controversy at West Point High School is by no means isolated.
A history of overlooking Black valedictorians
Back in 1991 a federal judge in Covington, Georgia, resolved a dispute a Black high school senior had with a white student over who gets to be valedictorian by making them share the honor.
Then in 2012 in Gainesville, Georgia, another Black valedictorian was also forced to share the honor with a white student. Later, the white student’s family asked the school to drop his candidacy from the academic honor.
In 2011, Kymberly Wimberly, a Black student in Little Rock, Arkansas, had her valedictorian honor stripped away by her principal to be given to a white student with a lower GPA. Wimberly’s lowest grade during all four years of high school was a B. In the rest of Wimberly’s courses, honors and Advanced Placement courses, she received A’s.
In her lawsuit, Wimberly claimed that a day after being informed that she was the valedictorian for McGehee High School, the principal told her mother, Molly Bratton, that he “decided to name a white student as co-valedictorian.”
Read the complete article at: Yahoo
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The president of the state chapter of the NAACP is leveling accusations of racism and white supremacy against auditor Beth Wood and state Sen. Lisa Barnes, R-Nash, over Wood’s investigation of corruption in the Rocky Mount City Council and Barnes’ proposed legislation intended to address it.
“The truth is that Beth Woods and Lisa Barnes, a Democrat and a Republican, respectively, are operating tactics and strategies out of the old 1898 racist playbook,” state NAACP president Anthony Spearman wrote in a memo posted on the group’s Facebook page and sent to the Conference of NC State Conference of Branches of the NAACP.
Wood’s investigation, conducted by the Office of the State Auditor, found that multiple city officials prevented efforts to collect $47,704 in utility bills owed by council member Andre Knight. Records show the councilman’s debt was wiped clean by the city-run utility system, with direct involvement from the city manager’s office. The story was reported by Carolina Journal in May 2020.
“The former City Manager then instructed the Finance Director to handle the council members’ account. The city provided no evidence that any other customer had their outstanding utility accounts handled in this manner,” the investigation report says.
The state’s investigation found other indications of corruption including:
- Multiple downtown development managers failed to follow program guidelines, resulting in $32,452 of uncollected loans and $28,000 of improperly awarded funds, including to a nonprofit chaired by Knight.
- The Engineering Division’s non-compliance with the city’s code of ordinances could cost the city $31,000.
- City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney failed to comply with the city’s travel policy, resulting in $1,575 in unallowable travel expenses, including lobster and steak dinners … and an individual steamed seafood bucket.
Councilman Knight blames racism for the audit’s findings.
The audit was conducted after more than 200 complaints to the auditors’ corruption hotline.
“That’s an attempt to break the black majority in this city we have fought very hard for,” Knight said in an interview with WTVD.
Read the complete article at: Richmond Observer
Also read: North Carolina NAACP stands in support of addressing systemic racism in social studies curriculum
Earlier this year, as Officer Russell Ellis neared the end of his late shift at the University of Washington’s campus police department, one of his superiors offered him an energy drink. The sergeant was laughing, Ellis said, noting that the beverage was flavored like watermelon.
“I thought all you guys like watermelon and Popeyes chicken,” the senior officer said, according to Ellis, who is Black. A second Black officer described a nearly identical encounter with the same sergeant two years earlier.
Ellis, 49, said the exchange left him stewing privately with anger and humiliation. But he said it was far from the first time he had faced racial disparagement or discrimination during his years at the university, a sprawling lakeside campus in Seattle. The school touts diversity goals to the public, shares anti-racism resources with the student body and shapes the ideals of one of the nation’s most progressive — and one of the whitest — big cities.
All five Black rank-and-file officers in the university Police Department filed multimillion-dollar damage claims this week, describing a culture of entrenched racism that has included racial slurs, vicious comments about Black people and open hostility directed at them and at members of the public.
Dozens of incidents, ranging over the past several years through last month, are detailed in the filings. Officer Karinn Young said she sometimes found bananas placed in front of her locker, once with a note that referred to her as a “monkey” and said, “Here’s your lunch.” Officer Hamani Nowlen reported that a white supervisor hit him with a long, sticklike object and remarked, “You people should be used to being hit with these.” Officer Damien Taylor said he overheard white officers talking about the case of George Floyd, who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis last year, saying, “His Black ass got what he deserved.”
Read the complete article at: Seattle Times
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WWII vet: Osceola “Ozzie” Fletcher was a 22-year-old Army private delivering supplies to the Allied forces as they arrived on the coast of France on D-Day when his vehicle was struck by a German missile. The vehicle overturned, killing the driver and wounding Fletcher during the Battle of Normandy in June 1944.
But for more than three-quarters of a century, Fletcher was never recognized for being wounded in action in World War II. Instead, Fletcher said, he and about 2,000 other Black U.S. soldiers who saw action on D-Day were overlooked or denied awards because of racism and the racial inequalities of the country, including in the U.S. armed forces, which were racially segregated at the time.
“Black soldiers didn’t get the Purple Heart. They got injured, damaged, hurt. But they never got wounded,” the Brooklyn native said to local media last year. “Only the White men who were wounded got Purple Hearts.”
That changed Friday in New York for Fletcher when the 99-year-old was awarded the Purple Heart, an honor that his family and military and political leaders said should have been conferred decades ago.
“It was an honor and privilege to pin a long overdue Purple Heart on a great Soldier and member of the Greatest Generation, Mr. Ozzie Fletcher,” Gen. James McConville, chief of staff of the Army, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “This week, we were able to pay tribute to Ozzie for the sacrifices he made in service to our great Nation during World War II.”
In a video message at the ceremony, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., described Fletcher as a “loyal New Yorker” who “served this country with distinction and selflessness even while African American soldiers were treated as second-class citizens,” the New York Daily News reported. After McConville awarded him the medal, Fletcher’s daughter, Jacqueline Streets, said, “The wrong has been righted.”
Read the complete article at: Stripes
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A Black woman gave a masterclass on how to remain cool, calm and collected under fire. ROSS
A viral video on Sunday shows a Black female manager at Ross calmly dealing with being cursed out by an angry and seemingly racist and irate white woman customer.
Although “Karen” was not heard using a racial slur, she did go off on a tirade hurling slurs at the manager, who is Black, as if the nasty words would shame her. But the Black manager had time and clearly wasn’t shook by “Karen’s” vile language.
It is not clear when or where the incident took place, or what caused the incident, or how it escalated to the level of the white woman yelling and making a scene in the clothing store.
Celebrities like Loni Love of The Real, even appealed to Ross to give the Black woman a raise for her grace under pressure.
According to one of the original reports, the incident happened in St. Louis and there is an active GoFundMe for the manager who is going through tough times during the pandemic.
Social media sympathized with the calm manager who patiently handled the disrespectful and racist attitude of “Karen.”
“You are prejudice, and you are an ugly motherf–kin’ [b-word], is what you are,” the angry white woman said.
After she was told by the unbothered manager to “please leave,” the white customer could not help herself when she threatened the Black manager while collecting her belonging. “Oh I’m leaving. You’re going to be leaving soon too, I promise you that, you f–kin’ nobody [b-word].”
“Call it racism!” “Karen” said, acknowledging that her actions were horrible. “F–k you, you f–kin’ Black [b-word],” “Karen” yelled on her way out.
The very last thing the woman said was an inaudible remark about the Black manager being a “monkey” and sitting on her porch.
Read the complete article at: Black Enterprise
Also Read: Chicago schools will train students and staff to identify and report racism and bias incidents
A Toronto woman who asuffered a racist verbal assault in her own backyard has had hundreds rushng in to offer support.
Kelly Zhang took to the South Etobicoke Community Facebook group on June 6 to explain how “after 6 years of living in this wonderful community, we have won the jackpot of experiencing anti-Asian racism first hand last night.”
Zhang says that after trying to tell a next door neighbour to wind down a non-socially distanced gathering for the third time at 3 a.m., one man told her he “would not want to be dictated by f#*cking Chinese people” and that she “was not in China anymore.”
She’s lived in Canada for 28 years, and currently lives with her partner and two children ages five and nine.
“I have seen a lot of love, compassion and support from this group in the past year. I know we are better than that and collectively do amazing things. And I would really appreciate the continued support from this group to raise awareness and educate others,” reads Zhang’s post, which concludes by asking people to share her message.
In less than 48 hours, the community rallied around her, with 570 people expressed moral support, with more than 150 posting messages of outrage, sadness and and cameraderie, with comments like “SOUTH ETOBICOKE does NOT claim those type of people. Miserable and disgusting humans,” “Horrible. Disgusting behavior! Not cool” and “It is so sad you had to experience this in a place that you should feel safe in.”
“I’m very encouraged to see all the support from y’all. You have shown me that hate and racism definitely don’t have a place here,” Zhang responded in the comments, later clarifying, “This individual has just moved in the house next door to us, which is a rental property. He’s definitely not reflective of our community.”
Read the complete article at: blogTO
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