Politics and Current
OP-ED: DC just passed a draconian crime bill, showing that black faces in positions of power are not enough
WASHINGTON – FEBRUARY 01: Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks on stage during Black History Month observance through the Welcome Black kickoff event on the Carlyle Room on February 1, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Brian Stukes/Getty Images)
Thirty years ago, Congress, under the leadership of now President after which Senator Joe Biden, passed the 1994 crime bill – a bill that became infamous for his disastrous role in the mass incarceration of many Black people.
Today that is the law widely criticized amongst progressives and Black people as an obvious indicator of anti-Blackness Hillary ClintonJoe Biden and each politician considered to support this bill as well heavily criticized. Not enough to maintain them out of the White House (in Joe Biden’s case), but strong nonetheless.
Despite this criticism – and despite making a great show of A Black Lives Matter mural in the sphere and changing the name of the square in the face of the George Floyd protests – Washington city council passed the criminal law This would give the police unfettered power in the town. This includes, but is not limited to:
- have the power to designate any neighborhood as a high-risk area, and once they accomplish that, they’ll stop, search or arrest anyone walking with up to at least one other person
- the suitable to arrest any person wearing any face covering on the police’s sole discretion;
- the suitable to require any person traveling on the subway to discover themselves to the police without lawful reason, regardless of whether the police identified themselves or not;
- the suitable to legally kill suspects during automotive chases;
- the power to review body camera footage before writing a statement; AND
- making weapons a crime – it will develop into a separate crime the moment the weapon touches the bottom.
It doesn’t take much imagination to understand how deadly the results of this latest law could be in a country where police have repeatedly killed black individuals with the justification that they thought the black person was armed, legally or not. . Imagine that a law that makes it a crime discourages you from putting your gun down, when keeping a gun in your person could easily be a death sentence from the police.
This laws initially blew me away. Not only is that this why – despite the general public condemnation that followed the 1994 Crime Bill – they determine to introduce one of essentially the most openly draconian, dangerous, excessive and possibly unconstitutional expansions of police powers that will certainly be implemented on a racist basis, but precisely because she was introduced by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser – a black woman.
But then I began pondering seriously concerning the 1994 crime bill and realized that the racist legacy of the law’s effects often overshadows the grim reality that we must seriously reckon with: the bill was supported by many black leaders.
With that in mind, as an alternative of viewing Mayor Bowser in isolation, I see her amongst other Black politicians across the United States pursuing troubling policies. They have exploited their blackness – or, more specifically, the black community’s receptivity to supporting black candidates who present themselves as avatars of black excellence, black success/wealth, and black respectability. However, our community often fails to critically examine how clinging to those myths harms other Black individuals who do not or cannot model themselves after these myths.
While people rejoice Atlanta as a sort of Black mecca, its politicians routinely ignore and over-criminalize Atlanta residents living in poverty, often using RICO charges against them to create the impression of a Black mecca for a few wealthy Black people.
Moreover, they provide their blackness as a shield for white individuals who do not wish to be called racists. White voters can thus elect Blacks who promise to police Blacks more rigorously, thus strengthening the racist system without being called racists. If you remember the movie where a white father met his daughter’s black boyfriend, played by Daniel Kaluuya, to speak that he would “vote for Obama for a third term.”
This shield may explain why so many white and black people support and defend District Attorney Fani Willis – the lady famous for bringing RICO charges against Donald Trump, while people conveniently forget that she often abuses RICO charges against Black people.
Willis is identical woman who desired to bring RICO charges against Atlanta public school teachers, refused to prosecute the officer who killed Rayshard Brooksand – although Georgia’s attorney general has filed RICO charges to indict activists protesting the development of a massive police training facility called Cop City – she has not yet brought charges police who shot one of the activists.
This is the curse of representation for its own sake. The fundamental problem is the idea that diversifying racist institutions will change those institutions, when in fact diverse members are required to punish their very own more harshly in order to prove their price and purpose to the institutions they serve.
When you think about the necessities of the cohort to which Mayor Bowser belongs, it becomes easier to discover other members. New York Mayor Eric Adams, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens come to mind.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is a black man, but he can also be a former NYPD officer who seems to discover more with the latter than the previous. Despite a campaign that aired ads targeting the Black community depicting his childhood experiences with police brutality and his desire to develop into a police officer to fight it, Adams is not only liable for restoring stop and friskbut for doing it worse than even in the Bloomberg era, when it was ruled unconstitutional in 2011 because of racist use by New York police against blacks and Latinos.
Since Adams took power, the New York Police Department has detained tens of 1000’s of people 97 percent of people detained are black or Latino. Worse still, Adams not only oversaw the NYPD’s use of stop and search warrants, but he in particular revived and renamed the NYPD unit which was disbanded on account of the disproportionate number of police shootings in 2020 to perform arrests. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Adams.
Meanwhile, just down the road in Philadelphia, Mayor Parker is busy hiring tons of of recent cops, ban and criminalization of ski masksAND also promising to implement the Stop and Frisk function.
And all of this still pales in comparison to Atlanta Mayor Dickens presiding over one of the blackest cities in the country and responding to the demands of those black voters protests against the police brutality they face, which killed 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks in 2020 spending $90 million for Cop City– which might cut down acres of forest needed to guard Atlantis from flooding and overheating so cops could learn war tactics to police black voters.
While people rejoice Atlanta as its own Black meccaits politicians routinely ignore i over-criminalize Atlanteans who live in povertyoften arming the RICO charges against themso that they’ll create the looks of a Black mecca for a few wealthy Black individuals who can model themselves on the parable of Black perfection and, by supporting the police state, show that they keep other Black people in line.
It is time for Black people to query Black leadership and reject the concept that it’s enough to have any Black person on the table so long as they give the impression of being the part, or to repeat the myths of Black excellence and respect that harm most of us in practice.
It’s time to ask ourselves which Black people we put on the table, since the plethora of anti-Black laws supported by Black politicians across the country indicate that now we have many individuals representing us, but only a few serving us.
Politics and Current
Trump’s staff are trying to stop the “abuse” of Elon Musk’s relationship with the president, who cannot demand him because “there is no leverage over him, and Elon gives Zero FS”
He is a spoiled brat of the inner circle of the magician, opening the thumb with Donald Trump’s “Tatus”, seemingly remaining a privileged son.
A jealous older brother Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Trump, who once enjoyed the same close president, declared war with the younger, richer Nemesis a couple of months ago, swearing that he banished him on January 20.
But this date has passed, and Elon is still standing, often alongside the president.
However, this week, the General Director of Tesla could go too far. Musk undermined Trump’s announcement on Tuesday about an investment price $ 500 billion in the infrastructure of artificial intelligence, claiming that supporters of the “Stargate project” only a fraction of the proposed investments price $ 500 billion.
He even published a joke This suggested that the directors were burning Crack “to come up with the number of $ 500 billion for Stargate.”
Bannon saw, telling Musk journalists, “he should not reverse what the president was already talking about. This is unacceptable and unsatisfactory. You see how he is out of control.”
Trump, when asked about the number of Musk’s failures at a press conference on Friday, seemed to move his arms.
“I mean that Elon does not like one of these people,” Trump replied, referring to musk contempt for the general director of OPENAI Altman itself, one of the primary investors of the Stargate project.
That’s all? No pink slip? Even insult? What does the President’s Musk have?
“It is obvious that he abused the proximity of the president,” Trump’s ally he said Politico. “The problem is that the president has no levers over him, and Elon gives zero f – s.”
As Politico noted: “It is very unusual for the senior adviser-Muska-in public to criticize the president’s initiatives, and his broadly favorable speculation in GOP circles about whether he and Trump will finally seem.”
But there are no signs of the upcoming breakup. Trump is unable to hide his feelings and although there have been reports that he has enough musk, the general director of Starlink retains almost unusual access to the president.
Musk even has an office in West Wing, during which he pilots the “Department of Government”, an advisory commission created by Trump to eliminate waste in the federal government.
“We are now working with him to understand his ideas – the ideas are innovative. Make done not so much,” said a political official of the White House.
Bannon called on the chief of staff of Susie Wiles to “sit (musk) down” and “immediate sorting”.
He should already know: no person puts Elon in the corner.
Politics and Current
Black historians and leaders condemn the executive order of Trump addressed to the Smithsonian African American Museum: “Literal attack on Black America” - essence
The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, near the Washington monument. (Photo: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group by Getty Images)
One of the latest executive orders of President Trump is to arouse serious slack and for a reason. New order entitled “Restoring truth and mental health to the history of America” He follows the Smithsonian institution particularly the National Museum of History and Culture of African American-conquering it consisting in pushing “a divisible, focused ideology on the race.”
But about this: the executive order ignores key facts about the history of America, akin to the founders’ fathers wrote slavery in the structure and announced enslaved people as three fifth people.
As Essence informed earlier, the order is about by JD Vance Vice President liable for reviewing the museum content and gives the internal secretary Doug Burgum the right to examine whether any monuments have been removed or modified “to consolidate a false reconstruction of America’s history.” In other words, direct effort is to rewrite history to match the president’s narrative – one which removes the influence of racism and black contribution to the nation.
In 2017, at the starting of his first term, Trump actually praised the African American Museum and culture, saying that “he was deeply proud, that there is now a museum that honors millions of African Americans and women who built our national heritage.” Now he conducts the effort to undermine the institution itself, which he once called the treasure. But historians and black leaders don’t withdraw. As Clarke put it: “Let’s be a bright, black story is America’s story. Every rhetoric that opposes this concept is not only incorrect, but grossly racist.”
Historians, supporters of civil rights and black political leaders shouldn’t have this. Here’s what that they had to say about the latest attempt to whiten history.
01
“A literal attack on Black America” - Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
“Black Smithsonian, what his name is, is indeed one of the bits of the hearts of Black America. Also one of the bits of the heart in the whole nation.” Kendi, a well -known historian and creator, called Trump’s order “A literal attack on Black America itself” And he warned that this was part of a bigger strategy for starvation of black resource institutions. “For me it is part of the plan to starve those institutions that are already starving resources so that the only institutions that tell the story of America in fact tell political propaganda,” said Kendi for the Associated Press.
New York, New York – March 10: Ibram X. Kendi Visits Build to discuss the book Stamp: racism, antiracism and you at Build Studio on March 10, 2020 in New York. (Photo of Michael Laccisano/Getty Images)
02
We don’t run or remove our history ” – Congress Chairman Black Caucus Yvette Clarke
“There is nothing brave or inappropriate in telling the truth. We reject the constant efforts of this administration to whiten the history of our nation.” Clarke and the Congress Black Club issued a powerful statement, condemning Trump’s order as “clearly funny”, emphasizing that it was Trump’s administration – not historians – that is distorting history, falsely accusing others of it. “We do not run or remove our history just because it makes us feel uncomfortable. We fully accept good, evil and ugly.”
United States – July 13: Rep.
03
“They want to deny slavery even existed” -morehouse College Professor, Clarissa Myrick-Harris
“It seems that we are heading in a direction in which there is even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery existed at all, or that Jim Crow’s rights and racial violence against black communities, black families, black individuals.” Myrick-Harris, a professor of Morehouse College, warned that this movement concerns something greater than just museums-this is an attempt to erase the truth about the past of America.
04
“You can’t erase our past”- Rep. Jasmine Crockett
Rep. Jasmine Crockett condemned this movement, calling him a broader effort to erase marginalized voices from each the present and the past. “The first Trump removes all reference about the diversity from the present – now he is trying to remove it from our history,” wrote Crockett on X. “Let me be completely clear – you can’t remove our past and you can’t stop us from fulfilling our future.”
Washington, DC-26 February: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) speaks during the interrogation with the government’s subcommittee in the US Capitol on February 26, 2025 in Washington. The supervision of the Chamber carried out a hearing to consider witnesses regarding foreign aid in the USA. (Photo Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
05
“Museums exist to tell the whole story” – former president of Naacp Ben Ben Jezechny
“Attempts to tell the country’s general history always omit … and the place where we came to the possession of these museums so that we can better tell the full history of this country.” Jealous, he pushed himself to the concept that the recognition of the black history is dividing, arguing that museums dedicated to marginalized groups exist precisely because the mainstream history ignored them so long.
Atlanta, Georgia – August 28: former president of NAACP, Ben Jealous, speaks on a march for voting rights at King Center on August 28, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo Derek White/Getty Images)
Politics and Current
HHS Secretary HHS RFK JR. Fluoring in water can worsen health differences for black Americans
The United States of the Secretary for Health and Social Welfare, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., reversed the tenth anniversary CDC guidelines to recommend water fluoridation. The position applies to public health experts who claim that practice has reduced the occurrence of oral disease.
Kennedy, who has long been a skeptic of fluoride safety in the water, announced on Monday that he would order CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) to stop the advisory advice for countries about water fluoridation, fulfilling the promise he made after the election of President Donald Trump in November last yr. On the identical day, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will start reviewing “new scientific information” on the potential health threats of fluoride in drinking water, in keeping with the Associated Press. The Federal Agency is responsible for determining the utmost allowed fluoride level in public water systems.
As the perfect health secretary in the country, Kennedy doesn’t have the best to force states to stop the fluorisation of drinking water, but taking a step to order CDC reversal in this matter could have a major impact. . CDC Earlier he said that fluorine in drinking water strengthens tooth health and reduces the niches, replacing minerals lost over time for normal consumption.
The federal government has supported Water fluorization from 1950 and started to find out the rules on how much fluoride needs to be added to drinking water in 1962.
Public health experts questioned that there’s a threat to the health of fluoride in drinking water, especially considering the fluoride level allowed for 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water. Revelation of recommendations and potentially reduction or elimination of water fluoridation concerns a very negative impact on health supporters who’re afraid of black and brown communities.
King said that eliminating the usage of fluoride in drinking water, combined with a disproportionate lack of access to healthcare, may prove harmful to black and brown American children and adults.
“These populations are particularly threatened due to the limitation of dental insurance, and the lack of available dental suppliers. The increased incidence of the dental recess and the occurrence of expensive conditions that can be prevented can be the result,” he explained.
Scientific data show that the differences in the health of the oral cavity amongst black children have existed for years, despite the intervention of public fluoridation of drinking water in their communities. According to Study from the National Institutes of Health“Although the availability of insurance has increased, research indicates that it remains unused by the African American community.”
There are also other aspects that could be available apart from access to insurance and care. “Socio-cultural factors also affect the way African Americans experience oral health, from the patient’s relationship with the value determined on the health of the oral cavity,” notes the NIH study. “African Americans have a fragile history with the medical community, and sometimes they show evidence of distrust for doctors. This distrust can lead to the avoidance of African Americans.”
Without the intervention of fluoridation, public health experts are afraid that the health of the Black Americans may worsen.
Administrator EPA Lee Zeldin praised Kennedy’s move about water fluoridation and said that the brand new review of the agency would inform her “future steps”.
“Secretary Kennedy has long been at the forefront of this problem. His spokeswoman played a key role in our decision to review the threats associated with exposure to fluorine, and we are involved in cooperation with him, using solid sciences when we develop our mission of human health and the environment,” he said.
(Tagstranslate) Robert F. Kennedy JR (T) Trump administration
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Trump’s staff are trying to stop the “abuse” of Elon Musk’s relationship with the president, who cannot demand him because “there is no leverage over him, and Elon gives Zero FS”
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