This week, we discuss how tools developed in Silicon Valley are being used to erode the privacy and safety of citizens protesting police brutality.
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Friday, June 5, 2020
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Host Amanda Seales Leaves ‘The Real’ After 6 Months Citing Lack of Black Executives
Amanda Seales is a multitalented comedian and an actress. Last year she became the new host on The Real with Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, Adrienne Hougton, and Tamera Mowry-Housley. However, in a recent Instagram Live video this week, she revealed that she would be leaving the daytime television show after only six months.
Seales revealed the news this week in an interview with actor Brandon Victor Dixon in an hourlong conversation where she brings up why she decided to leave the Emmy Award-winning show. Deadline reported that Seales was offered a new deal, but declined to stay.
“My contract is up … and I didn’t renew it because it doesn’t feel good to my soul to be at a place where I cannot speak to my people the way they need to be spoken to,” Seales said during her interview. “And where the people who are speaking to me in disparaging ways are not being handled,” she added.
Seales continues to say that one of her motivations was due to the lack of diversity among senior-level executives that were making decisions she didn’t always agree with.
“I’m not in a space where I can, as a full black woman, have my voice and my co-workers also have their voices and where the people at the top are not respecting the necessity for black voices to be at the top too,” Seales said.
Seales also went on Instagram in another video to clarify that her exit had nothing to do with any of her co-hosts. Loni Love reposted her video thanking her for her statement.
“Do not try to create some false dissension between me and the co-hosts of The Real. Y’all so fucking corny,” she said. “There is a whole pandemic and an uprising going on, and you still can’t find s*** else to do but try and create some kind of conflict that doesn’t exist? … What I gotta do with my business ain’t got nothing to do with them sisters.”
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Cities make deep COVID-19 budget cuts but not to police departments
The coronavirus pandemic has brought both health and economic devastation to the world. Because of that, it has forced state and city governments to make difficult choices about budgets and funding.
READ MORE: Appeals court restores some claims in 2011 New York police shooting of veteran
Cities and states were previously improving their bottom lines with a wealth of commercial, retail, and residential development, the popularity of restaurants and live music venues, among other attractions. Now they are faced with a loss of taxes, consumer spending, and the fallout from closed retail businesses.
As it often goes, budget cuts come at the expense of the most vulnerable populations. In cities like Philadelphia, summer job employment programs, cultural organizations, and public school services are being cut.
But according to Fastcompany, budgets that are remaining intact are for the police.
For example, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed a new budget for the 2021 fiscal year that includes just a 0.39% reduction in the NYPD’s $6 billion dollar annual budget. Yet the city’s Department of Education will see a budget cut of $827M, which represents 3% of its annual budget. The Department of Youth and Community Development, which oversees services including summer youth programs, would lose a whopping 32% of their budget.
READ MORE: Morehouse, Spelman students are traumatized by Atlanta police encounter
In Los Angeles, which was hit hard by the coronavirus, the proposed city budget includes a $123M dollar increase, some of which will include bonuses for police officers with college degrees and pay increases, Fastcompany reports. This is despite many other city workers who are facing pay cuts.
In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed during an arrest, a budget passed last December allows for the hiring of up to 30 new police officers in a total budget of $193M. That is 60% higher than the $119M that has been allotted for the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department, which helps low-income residents find housing and jobs, among other services.
This kind of budgeting is reflected in other major cities, which policymakers and community organizations say don’t necessarily make those cities any safer.
READ MORE: Dallas protester loses eye, teeth after police shoot him with unknown object
“Study after study shows that a living wage, access to holistic health services and treatment, educational opportunity, and stable housing are far more successful in reducing crime than police or prisons,” says a 2017 report from the Center for Popular Democracy. an organization that links policymakers with grassroots organizations.
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Dallas protester loses eye, teeth after police shoot him with unknown object
A 26-year-old Dallas man lost his eye, seven teeth, and had the left side of his fractured after being hit with an unknown object by police during a peaceful protest.
The incident happened on Saturday, May 30 as Brandon Saenz was looking for a friend during a protest when he says, he heard a “Boom!”
READ MORE: ‘More Black cops’ and other BS myths for combating police brutality
A tweet says that it is possible that Saenz was struck with a wooden round. The poster wrote that there is another video of officers singing, “America, F**k yeah!” That video has been deleted.
cw: blood, severe injury
DALLAS: @DallasPD shot a Black man man in the eye with a wooden round.The man’s condition is unknown. In the next video you will hear the cops laughing and singing “America, Fuck Yeah!” seconds after shooting him. pic.twitter.com/Yirl8kzrFS
— Chad Loder (@chadloder) June 1, 2020
Daryl Washington, Saenz’s attorney, said that “Brandon was out peacefully protesting police brutality and now he’s a victim,” Washington said. “We can’t continue to have innocent individuals injured by police officers who have taken an oath to serve and protect.”
Washington also represents the family of Botham Jean who was shot and killed by Amber Guyger, an off-duty police officer who shot and killed Jean in his own apartment.
According to The Dallas Morning News, internal DPD policies state that less-lethal ammunition such as rubber or pepper balls should “never be used to intentionally target the head, neck, face, eyes, or spine unless deadly force is justified.”
Washington said that Saenz was interviewed by police, but no charges have been filed, and no officers responsible have been identified. Saenz, his family, and attorneys are calling on Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall to denounce the incident and identify the officers responsible.
“I just want my justice,” Saenz said Wednesday at a press conference.
READ MORE: Obama addresses George Floyd protests, police brutality at MBK town hall
The young man’s father, Andre Ray, told The Dallas Morning News that there is irony at his Black son being injured at a protest against police brutality. “They weren’t doing anything abnormal other than protesting,” he said. “Why do we handle young men this way? Why do we use aggression? Why do we use violence?”
Brandon Saenz’s attorneys said they have identified at least three other people with similar injuries.
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Virginia governor plans to remove Confederate Robert E. Lee statue
An iconic monument of the Confederacy, a prominent statue of General Robert E. Lee is coming down in Virginia.
Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, announced plans on Thursday that he will remove the statue which stands in a prominent place in Richmond.
READ MORE: Mississippi governor declares April ‘Confederate Heritage Month’
According to CNN, the governor will order the statue to be moved from its massive pedestal and placed in storage until Northam’s administration finds a new place for it.
The statue is one of five Confederate monuments on a street called Monument Avenue in the National Historic Landmark District. The monuments have been sites of protests in Virginia in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. The monuments have been tagged with graffiti including messages of “end police brutality,” and “stop white supremacy.”
The Richmond city government also announced on Wednesday that the city’s mayor and a city council member will — on July 1 — introduce an ordinance to bring down all the Confederate monuments on Monument Avenue in the former capital city of the Confederacy.
The removal of Confederate monuments was one of the catalysts for the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA where far-right, white-nationalist militias marched and chanted statements like, “Jews will not replace us,” and “blood and soil.”
The rally took place in 2017 and one counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed during the event.
Historians have noted that the preservation of Confederate statues wrongly honors long-deceased supporters of the enslavement of Africans in America. However, others argue that they should not be destroyed, but somehow become lessons for the country to learn from the ugliness of the past.
READ MORE: Alabama Supreme Court ruled Birmingham cannot move nor change Confederate monuments
Confederate memorials across the south became a hot-spot in the Black Lives Matter movement after Dylann Roof murdered nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Del. Jay Jones, a Black lawmaker said he was overcome with emotion when he heard the statue was coming down, “That is a symbol for so many people, black and otherwise, of a time gone by of hate and oppression.”
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Morehouse, Spelman students are tramautized by Atlanta police encounter
Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young have made a mark on the world.
The young students at Spelman College and Morehouse College, respectively, have become faces of the Black Lives Matter movement since being aggressively snatched out of their car by police last weekend.
READ MORE: Atlanta cops who assaulted Spelman and Morehouse students fired, put on desk duty
The two students were in their car stuck in traffic as people in Atlanta protested the police killing of George Floyd. Both students have stated that they are traumatized by the event.
“It’s probably one of the hardest moments that I’ve had to face in my life. I just can’t even fathom what happened,” Young said on CNN, “At this point, I’m just so far gone, it’s like I’m trying to remove myself from that situation, but it’s really hard to cope with.”
Young was injured with a fractured wrist, bruised ribs, and 20 stitches in his forearm.
“I haven’t even processed the situation and everything that happened,” Pilgrim said. “I don’t want this to continue to happen and have more victims who are traumatized that can’t sleep, can’t eat. I don’t want that for anyone else. This is disgusting. This isn’t right.”
“I thought I might be killed,” says Taniyah Pilgrim, a college student involved in the tasing incident in Atlanta. “Nothing really warranted it. After I realized none of this really had a reason, I was just thinking, OK, this is the end.” https://t.co/jzpsRwEkiU pic.twitter.com/Nf7tnQde2h
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 3, 2020
The symptoms Pilgrim described are consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is a disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event.
Pilgrim and Young were snatched out of their car, their windows were broken and each student was tased last weekend as officers alleged they had a gun. The students told CNN they were filming police during the spontaneous protests in Atlanta.
“I heard officers say gun two-three times,” an officer wrote in a report. “Not being able to see the hands of the passenger and being that she was in my immediate sight I deployed my city-issued taser to defuse the situation.”
READ MORE: Twitter cancels Trina after she calls protesters ‘animals’
“As we’ve seen in the past, (there was an) attempt to assassinate the character of these young people to say there was a gun. There was never a gun,” said Young’s attorney Mawuli Davis.
All six officers involved in the incident have been charged. The charges include aggravated assault, simple battery, and criminal damage to property. Two of the six officers were terminated from their positions.
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As George Floyd Is Laid to Rest, There Is No Peace in Sight
The first of at least three services honoring the life of George Floyd, the father of two daughters whose brutal videotaped death in police custody has sparked worldwide unrest, will take place this afternoon at North Central University in Minneapolis.
Memorial services generally celebrate lives. This one will also no doubt condemn a death that has inspired people throughout the world to risk their own lives by marching for justice for Floyd and too many other black men and women unjustly killed, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Millions have now watched with horror as Floyd—trapped and immobilized, hands cuffed behind his waist, his anguished face pushed into the filthy pavement as the life is crushed out of him—pleaded for the officers to stop.
“Please, please, please, I can’t breathe,” we have all heard Floyd cry out.
Even when Floyd goes suddenly silent and still, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, dispassionate and unrelenting, keeps his uniformed knee pressed into the soft fold of Floyd’s neck.
Even when Floyd’s entire six-foot-four-inch body goes slack, the expression on Chauvin’s face is unmoved and, seemingly, unconcerned.
Not one of the officers present shows any interest in preserving Floyd’s rights, his dignity, or his life. In fact, the only aid seen given is to Chauvin, whose fellow officers are recorded assisting him as he physically dominates the man suspected of trying to pass a possibly counterfeit $20 in a Cups Foods grocery store.
Not one officer is seen questioning Chauvin’s force or attempting to help Floyd. His final cry of “Mama!” broke me.
Breathless, Drained, and Raw
I have been the daughter, wife, and mother of black men and I have found myself in the last week nearly gasping for air myself as Floyd’s last words echo in my head.
I am breathless with fury at the white teacher who told my already shaken 13-year-old cousin that while Floyd’s killing was unjustifiable, “most black people still die because of black-on-black crime.” (Yes, the teacher and school are now on notice, as if her mother needed THAT on top of everything else.)
I am breathless with worry (laced with pride) when my son insists upon participating in protests and when he’s forced to rush home after a curfew is suddenly announced giving him less time than he needs to get there.
I am breathless with despair when my daughter calls on any of her unwoke followers to unfriend her: “The news is draining,” she posted after a weekend of riots. “This country is draining. Your (because he certainly isn’t my) president is draining. I don’t know why we have to continuously remind ya’ll that black lives matter. Why do I, a black woman, have to remind you that I deserve to be alive as much as anybody else?”
While this nation has become more rigidly divided in recent years, not merely over politics, but over race, the details recorded of the last minutes of Floyd’s life are virtually undebatable. And so, the fact that it took more than a week for criminal charges against Chauvin to be right-sized from third- to second-degree murder, adds insult to injury.
That thousands had to take to the streets of this country before Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (who is black) arrested and charged the other three fired officers who were videotaped being actively complicit in allowing—arguably even causing—Floyd to die, rankles the nerves of a nation that has already borne more than any civilized citizens in a democracy in 2020 should have to. This is, of course, especially true of black people—and is intensified by the heightened racial disparities in healthcare, education, housing, employment, and, yes, policing, inflicted on our community during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Yet, here we are. And there’s no turning back now.
Black Lives Matter Goes Global
In a June 3 written statement released on social media, Floyd family lawyer Ben Crump called the new charges “a significant step forward on the road to justice.” He added that the timing—on the eve of Floyd’s memorial service—was a “source of peace” for the family in the midst of its pain.
But, to be clear, the pain continues. It is raw and ragged and widespread. It is exhausting and enraging and it has served as a wake-up call to many beyond the black community in ways that, despite an unbroken chain of black killings at the hands of police and vigilantes, little to this point in history has.
My son’s first protest followed the murder of Trayvon Martin. He was around Martin’s age and displayed similar taste in clothes and snacks. My son is 23 today and, like many of his generation, has been non-stop marching for the same cause since.
The world—from Canada to Mexico, Nigeria to South Africa, London and Germany to Sydney and New Zealand—is protesting in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. And neither the pain nor the protests will stop until justice is served and we succeed in not only transforming race relations but in dismantling structural, systemic racism in this country.
These are difficult days. They have also been inevitable. Such is the course of history when a nation steadfastly refuses to honor the promises it makes to its people, and when all one needs to understand the devastating depths of the hypocrisy and its costs is to make like a sports commentator and go to the videotape.
No doubt, many more cameras will be present at Floyd’s memorial service today, as Reverend Al Sharpton eulogizes another black man who should be alive and well, and an enrapt world watches to see what happens next.
I pray that what it sees is real progress in the weeks and months ahead. I pray we bear witness to justice served because, as we know too well, charges and convictions are not one and the same. I pray most of all that not another black life is snuffed out by a white person who brazenly believes that one’s right to live is dictated by the color of their skin. Sadly, that’s an old prayer, passed now to another generation that includes Floyd’s youngest daughter, Gianna, who is just 6 years old.
The ideas and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author’s and not necessarily the opinion of Black Enterprise.
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Marquette University Revokes Admission Due to Racist Social Media Post About George Floyd’s Death
An incoming freshman student at Marquette University has had her admission and scholarship offers revoked after she posted on Snapchat that the police killing of George Floyd was acceptable because of Colin Kaepernick’s protests during the national anthem according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The unnamed lacrosse player remarked, “Some ppl think it’s ok to (expletive) kneel during the national anthem so it’s ok to kneel on someone’s head,” the incoming freshman’s post read. “come at me. y’all brainwashed.”
Officials at Marquette University had learned of the Snapchat post last week and that the student had also used racially offensive language in other posts.
Marquette spokeswoman Lynn Griffith confirmed the incoming freshman’s offer to attend the university had been rescinded.
“Following an internal review involving the Division of Student Affairs, Undergraduate Admissions, Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, and Intercollegiate Athletics, and in alignment with our Guiding Values, Marquette University has made the decision to rescind the incoming student’s offer of admission and athletics scholarship, effective immediately,” Griffith said in a written statement.
“As a Catholic, Jesuit institution, we are called to build a nurturing, inclusive community where all people feel safe, supported, welcomed, and celebrated.”
Marquette students Breanna Flowers and Lazabia Jackson, who are, respectively, president and vice president of the university’s Black Student Council, issued a joint statement supporting the university’s decision.
But they also mentioned that the university has a long way to go in making Marquette a place where black students truly feel they belong, calling the campus a “mini-suburbia.”
“The university sits in the middle of a predominantly black city, with only having 4% of black students at the university, who they are direly struggling to maintain,” Flowers and Jackson said. “This is not because black students are not as intelligent …The issue is they are not recruiting in an equitable manner.
“It’s time for Marquette to wake up and abide by their Jesuit values and treat their black students like they matter,” the students said.
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Fashion Designer Aurora James Creates The 15% Pledge To Help Black-Owned Businesses
The call for justice sparked by a viral video of an unarmed black man named George Floyd has now led thousands around the country and the world to come out and protest racial violence at the hands of police officers. The movement has mobilized many in the community not only stand in solidarity with protesters but also empower others within the black community in other fields. Now, a prominent black designer within the fashion industry is stepping forward to create a new pledge aimed to bring millions in revenue to the black-owned business.
Aurora James is the designer behind the luxury fashion brand, Brother Vellies, and has made a name for herself in the world of high-end fashion as one of the few black designers in the space. The Toronto-born New York City transplant recently unveiled on Instagram her new initiative called the 15% pledge, a call for major corporations to commit 15% of funds to black-owned businesses. James names companies like Whole Foods, Target, Sephora, Net-A-Porter, and others to take in the call to action.
All those I tagged specifically should be able to come to the table with what they’re willing to contribute. Just doing an IG post and saying your heart is breaking is not enough,” James said to Fast Company. “I know how to do this. I started my business from scratch. I know how to be a vendor with one of their companies. Every roadblock, I’m willing to sit down and figure out. And there are a whole slew of people that will also help make this happen.”
“So many of your businesses are built on black spending power,” James wrote in her Instagram caption. “So many of your stores are set up in black communities. So many of your sponsored posts are seen on black feeds. This is the least you can do for us. We represent 15% of the population and we need to represent 15% of your shelf space.”
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Eric Garner’s Mother on Her Son’s and George Floyd’s Last Words: ‘It was Déjà Vu All Over Again’
Nearly six years after Eric Garner uttered his last words, “I can’t breathe,” after being choked to death by New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo, his words have come back to stun America after George Floyd died saying the same three words. Hearing those words all over again for Gwen Carr, Eric Garner’s mother, was daunting.
In a recent interview with NBC News, Carr said, “It was déjà vu all over again. It’s like a reoccurring nightmare.”
In response to the video of Floyd, “I don’t see any justification,” she said. “To put your knee on someone’s neck, you are obstructing their breathing. That is completely a no-no.”
In July of 2014, Garner was recorded on the cell phone video camera of a bystander who documented his encounter with NYPD. During his last moments, he said, “I can’t breathe” 11 times as he was in a chokehold. Garner’s death sparked national unrest and outrage as protestors took to the streets. His last words went on to become chants at rallies around the world and the sentiments of how black people feel living under oppression in America.
Garner’s death was a part of what some considered to be a Red Summer.
Right after he lost his life, John Crawford was killed in Beavercreek, Ohio on August 5. Michael Brown Jr was killed in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. Ezell Ford was gunned down in Los Angeles on August 11. And, Dante Parker was slain in Victorville, California, on Aug.12.
As history repeats itself and people take to the streets, it is the hope of many that Floyd’s death and the civil unrest will prompt the justice system and the nation to change.
Carr’s hope is that Floyd’s family receives justice more expeditiously than she and her family did for Garner.
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