Kudos to @LastWeekTonight for getting to the nitty gritty of how this panic over CRT is an old trick out of a very old racist playbook.
Here’s the gist of it (1/5):
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And for all those who don’t get what CRT is--or attack it bc of claims that it labels all white people racist--the fact that CRT focuses on institutions & laws rather than prejudice & individuals has been a contradiction in plain sight. (4/5)
Countering the coordinated lying at the heart of the anti-CRT campaign and connecting the dots between the assault on democracy, antiracism and Black history is what we’re about.
Join #UnderTheBlacklight with friends, heroes, & Master-ful teachers. Meet us there at 8:00 pm EST.
I finally took a moment to read Judge Cahill’s sentencing memo in the trial of Derrick Chauvin and I’m appalled. Buried deep in Judge Cahill’s justification for Chauvin’s sentence is a shocking disregard of the trauma inflicted on the Black girls who witnessed Floyd’s murder.
The disregard of the trauma imposed on 17-year-old Darnella Frazier who filmed Floyd’s death, her 9-year-old cousin who witnessed it, and two other teens was easily missed by most observers last month who were relieved that Chauvin received any significant time at all.
Yet, he would have received more had the judge given force to a MN law that permits an upward departure in sentencing for crimes committed in front of children. Chauvin committed this crime in the presence four children which should have been enough to add more time.
My most recent piece, "The Eternal Fantasy of a Racially Virtuous America," was my last in what was a great run at @newrepublic under the editorial leadership of Chris Lehmann (@lehmannchris).
Here's a thread of the articles I wrote for TNR in the past two years:
From May of 2019, "Racial Terror and the Second Repeal of Reconstruction: How the legacy of Jim Crow haunts Trump's America.”
From August of 2019, “The Destructive Politics of White Amnesia: Before there is reconciliation, there must be truthful engagement with the conditions of Trumpian reaction."
Almost 5 years ago, over 25,000 protesters surged through the streets for Millions March NYC, an anti-police brutality demonstration fueled in part by grand jury decisions not to indict police officers for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. 2/13
What’s less known is that #SayHerName, a campaign to elevate the names of Black women, girls and femmes killed by police, also emerged from that moment. These names remain obscure--like India Beaty, Shelly Frey, Jessica Williams--even today. 3/13