Judd Legum Profile picture
Aug 1 9 tweets 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
1. @RonDeSantis just sent a letter to @KamalaHarris requesting a meeting to discuss Florida's new Black history curriculum

DeSantis said he would bring along William Allen, who helped write the curriculum

Who is William Allen?

We took a deep dive

And it's a WILD ride

🧵 Image
2. Allen has a history of making incendiary remarks and promoting right-wing ideology

In 1989, as chairman of Reagan's Civil Rights Commission, Allen gave a talk at an anti-gay conference titled “Blacks? Animals? Homosexuals? What is a Minority?”

popular.info/p/meet-the-sch…
3. In the speech, Allen said creating legal protections for minority groups “is the beginning of the evil of reducing American blacks to an equality with animals and then seducing other groups to seek the same charitable treatment.''
4. At the time, the rest of the Commission denounced the speech for being ''disgusting and unnecessarily inflammatory.'' When the Commission held a vote to condemn the speech, Allen "was the only member of the commission to vote in behalf of himself."

popular.info/p/meet-the-sch…
5. Allen was also charged with kidnapping a 14-year-old girl from a reservation. There was a custody battle between her birth mother and a white couple that wanted to adopt her

“Allen contends that the girl wants to leave the reservation, though the mother has formal custody”
6. Following pressure from the Commission, Allen eventually apologized. But even then, he said he would “not assume responsibility'' for the events. He also refused to step down, and instead called for the resignation of everyone on the Commission.
7. More recently, Allen has been an outspoken critic of efforts to promote diversity.

Accepting the “whole idea of diversity and identity,” Allen says, “is apartheid.” Image
8. There is a lot more on Allen and other members of the work group that created Florida's new Black history curriculum in today's Popular Information.

popular.info/p/meet-the-sch…
9. This platform is controlled by a mercurial billionaire who uses it to promote right-wing ideology and conspiracy theories.

I recommend getting accountability journalism directly by subscribing to Popular Information.

It's free to sign up.

popular.info/subscribe

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More from @JuddLegum

Jul 20
1. Right-wing activists in Florida are trying to get to ban "Arthur's Birthday" from school libraries

The book tells the story of Arthur, a bespectacled aardvark in the 3rd Grade, whose birthday party is scheduled at the same time as his classmate, a monkey named Muffy

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2. It's unclear exactly why Arthur's Birthday was challenged because Clay County schools would not immediately release the challenge form

On page 5 of the book, one of Arthur's classmates, Francine, says they can play spin the bottle at the party

popular.info/p/right-wing-a…
3. On the book's last page, Arthur's friends present him with a gift. It's a glass bottle with the words "Francine's Spin The Bottle Game" printed on it. No aardvarks or monkeys are shown playing spin the bottle in the book, which was first published in 1989. Image
Read 10 tweets
Jul 19
1. In the 1950s and 60s, southern officials regularly ignored court orders affirming the rights of Black Americans.

In 2023, this is still happening.

The Alabama legislature is ignoring a Supreme Court ruling to create a second majority-Black Congressional district

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2. Black people account for more than one-quarter of Alabama's population. But, for decades, white Republicans have ensured that only one of Alabama's seven members of Congress is Black. They've accomplished this by gerrymandering the state'sdistricts to limit Black voting power.
3. The process is called "packing" and "cracking." First, as many Black voters as possible are packed into a single Congressional district. Then the remaining black voters are cracked — split into multiple districts — to limit their voting power.

popular.info/p/alabama-legi…
Read 11 tweets
Jul 18
1. 13 GOP Attorneys General wrote a letter to 100 top CEOs alleging they were discriminating against white people — "an inversion of the odious discriminatory practices of the distant past."

Is Corporate America really biased against white people?

Let's look at the data.

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2. Corporate America's treatment of white people, according to the GOP Attorneys General, is "immoral and illegal."

They warned the CEOs if they don't stop discriminating against white people in hiring they will be criminally charged.

popular.info/p/is-corporate…
3. NOTE: affirmative action programs in hiring are already illegal. The DEI programs targeted by the GOP AGs involve "expanding outreach for new hires, creating employee resource groups... and reducing bias in hiring through 'blind' applications." It's NOT affirmative action.
Read 9 tweets
Jul 17
1. A Popular Information analysis of @RobertKennedyJr's first FEC filing reveals the lion's share of Kennedy's biggest donors have PREVIOUSLY DONATED ONLY TO REPUBLICANS

Follow along for details.

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2. Through 6/30, Kennedy's campaign has collected the maximum, $6,600, from 96 individuals.

37 individuals have previously only donated to Republican candidates for federal office.

Only 19 have a history of consistently supporting Dem candidates

popular.info/p/gop-donors-f…
3. Mark Dickson, a Californian who amassed a fortune in the aerospace industry, has donated more than 450K to federal candidates since 2015

The total includes $400,000 to Trump Victory

Dickson has NEVER supported a Democrat running for office

Until he maxed out to Kennedy
Read 6 tweets
Jul 13
1. After months of innuendo and speculation, they finally had their man

On May 14, @RepJamesComer appeared on @FoxNews & said he identified an "informant" who had evidence that "Joe Biden...was involved in a quid pro quo with a foreign country in exchange for foreign aid"

🧵
2. There was just one problem: the informant had gone "missing"!

"[W]e can't track down the informant," Comer told Fox News' @MariaBartiromo. "We're hopeful that the informant is still there."

popular.info/p/fox-news-won…
@MariaBartiromo 3. What happened to the informant with bombshell information? Comer was vague. "These informants are kind of in the spy business," he said. "So they don't make a habit of being seen a lot or being high-profile or anything like that."
Read 11 tweets
Jul 12
1. A United States Senator, @TTuberville, went on national television this week and repeatedly defended white nationalism

Despite several racist diatribes, Tuberville continues to enjoy the support of major American corporations.

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2. In May, Tuberville appeared on an NPR affiliate in Alabama and criticized the Biden admin's efforts to root out white nationalists.

"Democrats are attacking our military" by "saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists."

popular.info/p/united-state…
3. Tuberville appeared on CNN Monday and was asked by anchor Kaitlin Collins to clarify his remarks. Collins noted that white nationalists believe "that the white race is superior to other races." Tuberville objected to that characterization, saying it was "some people's opinion"
Read 10 tweets

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