An Arizona man who directed racial slurs at a Black YouTuber on the street is claiming that he's not racist.According to CNN, Paul Ng accosted Andre Abram and his friend while they were shooting a video, taking the young men's pictures without cause and telling them they were in "a no n****r zone."After getting arrested and fired from his real estate job following the incident, Ng said he's not racist, but rather reacted poorly."Although provoked, I should not have responded in that manner," the disgraced man told CNN.Abram said he and his friend hadn't done anything to provoke the perpetrator when they were doing their project in Scottsdale, Arizona. "We were on a public road. We weren't being loud," the YouTuber said. "We weren't being belligerent. We weren't being disorderly."The story went viral after Abram and his friend posted video of the incident on social media, leading to repercussions against Ng."On Sunday we learned of an extremely hateful and racist video that was posted to social media showing one of our inactive Independent Contractors, Paul Ng, demonstrating abhorrent, unacceptable behavior,"  Russ Lyon Sotheby's Real Estate Agency stated. "We took immediate action in severing his license, terminating his involvement with us effective immediately and condemning his disgusting behavior."The video shows Abram asking Ng, "Why are you coming over here?""I just wanted to see what you guys were taking pictures of," the 74-year-old said.The Arizona man shamelessly described himself as a racist during the confrontation while declaring the area as "a no n****r zone."He also claimed the building behind him as his home and asked Abram about his car's Michigan license plate, which the young man still keeps after moving from Detroit five months ago.Abram kept his composure during the incident and continued to record until the racist man backed away."Just because he called me that racial slur does not mean that I can go be physical, because being physical is illegal while him using his First Amendment to say whatever he wants to say is not," the 25-year-old told CNN. Kathi Ouellet, who owns the business building seen in the video, said Ng is not connected to River Trading Post,  but lives in a condo upstairs. "As far as I'm concerned, it was off the charts wrong," Ouellet told KPNX. "Frankly, I found this really shocking. I didn't expect this from him."Police said Ng was booked and released on Saturday after he was charged with disorderly conduct for "using derogatory and racist terminology which later had the propensity to cause escalating violence."Abram delivered an uplifting message to his viewers as he continued to record in the street immediately after the incident."I'm coming out here to give my people the best motherf**kin motivation they can get," the videographer said. "I came out here to inspire my people. I came out here to give the people that juice, just that power. To get up and do what they wanna do every morning. What did I get that for that? I get this motherf**ker over here being a racist."The 25-year-old continued to proudly march through the streets and captured the racist man blowing leaves at his residence."As he's blowing leaves and as I'm out here motivating the people, he wanna try to be a racist," Abram said. "It's all good because I'm getting the money. I'm changing the people's lives. I'm helping people. I'm motivating people."And the young man made it more clear that he will not be told where he belongs."He gonna tell me this n****r free. But n***a standing on it," Abram said. According to police reports, Ng said he surveys the area every morning, searching for any "suspicious individuals."Police said the 74-year-old told an officer about Black Lives Matter and Antifa, implying that "Black individuals in the area that do not belong in the area, belong to these...

Louisville Metro Police Department Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly is suing Breonna Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, for "emotional distress" just weeks after he was let off the hook for shooting her on March 13, according to CBS News. The civil lawsuit says Mattingly is suffering from "severe trauma, mental anguish, and emotional distress" because of Walker.The dispute over who shot Mattingly that night is one of the most hotly contested facts of the case, as Blavity has previously reported. During his press conference announcing the decision not to charge Mattingly, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Walker's one shot gave officers license to spray Taylor's apartment full of bullets, hitting her with at least six and killing her. A suit filed by Walker states one of the other officers could have been responsible for the bullet which struck the sergeant.  Cameron said the bullet that hit Mattingly in the leg matched the ones from Walker's gun, but a Kentucky State Police ballistics report did not agree, saying “due to limited markings of comparative value” it was “identified nor eliminated as having been fired” by Walker that night, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.Friendly fire from ex-detective Brett Hankinson was ruled out because he did not have a 9mm weapon like Walker, Cameron said during the press conference.But that statement was later proven to be untrue. Walker's lawyer, Steve Romines, appeared on CNN earlier this month and said that in discovery for Walker's lawsuit against the police, he received a document from the police department showing Hankinson was issued a 9mm gun in addition to the .40 caliber handguns they have. Walker has denied shooting directly at the officers and said he only fired a warning shot in the air because he thought his house was being broken into. Mattingly, along with detective Miles Cosgrove both shot Taylor that night although it's unclear which fired the fatal shot per ABC News. Dozens of witnesses have spoken to The New York Times and Vice News saying they never heard the police identify themselves and on the 911 call Walker made after Taylor was shot, it is clear he does not know the police are the ones who broke down their door. "We know police are firing wildly from various angles. The timeline and evidence at the scene is more indicative of (police) actually shooting Mattingly than it is Kenny Walker," Romines told The Courier Journal. Hankinson was fired specifically because he was shooting wildly, even into other apartments, and crime scene photos show that police hit dozens of surfaces during their barrage of shots fired."The radio transmission and the 911 calls reflect that a minute and eight seconds transpires with no shots before they start shooting into the apartment again. During that time, Hankison yells 'reload.' We know police are firing wildly from various angles. The timeline and evidence at the scene is more indicative of (police) actually shooting Mattingly than it is Kenny Walker," Romines added. The civil suit against Walker, a licensed gun owner, calls his actions that night "outrageous, intolerable, and offends all accepted standards of decency and morality."But in a statement from Romines shared with CBS News, he bashed the lawsuit as baseless and offensive considering Mattingly shot Taylor that night. "Kenny Walker is protected by law under KRS 503.085 and is immune from both criminal prosecution and civil liability as he was acting in self defense in his own home. Even the most basic understanding of Kentucky's 'Stand Your Ground' law and the 'Castle Doctrine' evidences this fact," Romines said."One would think that breaking into the apartment, executing his girlfriend and framing him for a crime in an effort to cover up her murder would be enough for them," he added. "Yet this baseless attempt to further victimize and harass Kenny indicates otherwise," he added. The police initially charged Walker with attempted murder for the one bullet that hit Mattingly but dropped the charges, prompting Walker to file his own lawsuit against the police department for the actions of the officers involved that night.Both Walker and Mattingly have spoken to CBS This Morning about the case in recent weeks. As Blavity previously reported, Mattingly made a number of controversial comments about George Floyd while also justifying his decision to shoot Taylor to death. And Walker spoke at length with CBS' Gayle King about the future that he and Taylor had planned as well as his struggles with his mental health since witnessing her being repeatedly shot. "She would have done anything for anybody. She took care of a lot of people," he said. "So a lot of people, they need her bad right now, including me.""To the world she's just a hashtag, a picture, and all of that. But to me it was much more. More than a girlfriend too. I think that's what I want the world to know the most. That was my best friend…The most important person pretty much to me on Earth. And they took her," he...

The teenager who documented the killing of George Floyd is being honored with a prestigious award for recording the harrowing scene that has driven global protests demanding protection for Black lives.  According to a press release, human rights advocacy organization Pen America announced this week that Darnella Frazier, 17, will receive the 2020 PEN/Benenson Courage Award. Pen America will bestow the award to Frazier in its first ever virtual gala on Dec. 8. As Blavity previously reported, Floyd was killed by former police officer Derek Chauvin, who suffocated Floyd by placing his knee on his neck on May 25. The 17-year-old documented the almost eight minute-ordeal, often vocalizing her concern for Floyd’s safety through the event....

A Philadelphia boutique owner was devastated after her store was destroyed by looters, according to ABC-6. The city's unrest and protests after the shooting death of Walter Wallace, Jr. lead to the destruction of Jameelah Scurry's atelier, La'vanter Boutique. However, community members refused to stand by and watch the young woman's dream go up in flames.The Peirce College graduate launched a GoFundMe fundraiser on Oct. 27. She wrote about her struggles as a young entrepreneur and is seeking $15,000 to help cover the cost of restoring her storefront to its original...

Philadelphia has become the latest scene of clashes between police and protesters following the shooting death of a Black man at the hands of police. As Blavity previously reported, two police offers fired multiple shots at 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr. as he approaches them with a knife in an encounter captured on video Monday afternoon. The Associated Press reported that Wallace’s family says the man was experiencing a mental health crisis and that they called 911 requesting an ambulance, not police, and that cops should have used non-lethal force to subdue their relative. The city's police union, meanwhile, has defended the shooting as justified. Wallace’s killing set off two nights of protests that devolved into large-scale looting and clashes between demonstrators and police officers that left at least 90 people arrested and 30 cops injured, according to local ABC affiliate WPVI. The city has since implemented a nighttime curfew and will be bringing in National Guard troops to maintain peace.The city’s police department has a long history of abuses and using lethal or unnecessary force against Black Philadelphians. Wallace’s killing is just the latest in a long line of incidents and policies that have created tensions between Philadelphia police and Black citizens. The Philadelphia Inquirer has compiled a long, comprehensive timeline of the history of the city’s police and the many incidents of abuse directed towards Black residents. Here are five of the most relevant and infamous instances of police misconduct, violence and systemic racism that have occurred in Philadelphia prior to Walter Wallace Jr.'s...

Even Republicans are speaking out about a controversial column from longtime conservative icon Peggy Noonan.Noonan has faced significant backlash after writing a lengthy opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal bashing vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris for dancing during campaign rallies, something President Donald Trump has been seen doing as well. “She’s dancing with drum lines and beginning rallies with 'Wassup, Florida!' She’s throwing her head back and laughing a loud laugh, especially when nobody said anything funny. She’s the younger candidate going for the younger vote, and she’s going for a Happy Warrior vibe, but she’s coming across as insubstantial, frivolous. When she started to dance in the rain onstage, in Jacksonville, Fla., to Mary J. Blige’s ‘Work That,’ it was embarrassing,” Noonan wrote over the weekend.Knowing she would be courting controversy with her words, Noonan added that “apparently you’re not allowed to say these things because she’s a woman.” The rest of the column features other criticisms and calls for more seriousness from Harris. MSNBC host Nicole Wallace, who spent years as the White House communications director for former President George W. Bush, said she revered Noonan growing up and was inspired to work for the Republican Party because of her but was troubled by her remarks.  "To hear her take out her very skilled cudgel and smash it against a woman who has broken the kinds of barriers that every one of us has faced, Peggy too, is searing for me," Wallace said during a discussion with Karine Jean-Pierre, campaign chief of staff for Harris."When you’re a white woman and Republican, there's just certain stuff culturally that you don’t know jack bleep about... This, to me, felt tone-deaf and nasty and it felt personal and it felt bitchy," Wallace unloaded on Noonan further after the segment ended.Wallace's criticism follows days of backlash to Noonan's words, which came right as TikTok exploded with memes of people copying the dances Trump does at his rallies. People online noted the racial implications of the specific terms Noonan used like "Wassup" and the reference to Mary J. Blige."Peggy Noonan with her kinda racist mean nasty ole lady vibe," longtime journalist Soledad O'Brien wrote on Twitter as others commented with disgust. Noonan has a long history of racism toward Black political candidates. In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, journalist Jonathan Capehart referenced another column Noonan wrote for The Wall Street Journal about then-President Barack Obama. “He is not a devil, an alien, a socialist. He is a loser. And this is America, where nobody loves a loser,” Noonan wrote in 2011, right before Obama won reelection. There is a long history of Black politicians in the United States facing an array of racially-targeted attacks. Just this summer, Harris and other Black women angling to be Joe Biden's running mate were hit with insults from the media as well as members of both parties. Akin to Noonan's column, people within Biden's own selection committee criticized Harris publicly for being too ambitious, an accusation almost never levied against any male politician. One Republican mayor in Virginia said Biden was announcing "Aunt Jemima as his VP pick" and Fox News let host Tucker Carlson unleash an astonishingly bigoted tirade against Harris, Georgia Gubernatorial Candidate Stacey Abrams and Congresswoman Karen Bass.But during a livestream conversation for the Black Girls Lead 2020 conference in August, Harris told the group not to let the attacks sway you."There will be a resistance to your ambition, there will be people who say to you, 'you are out of your lane.' They are burdened by only having the capacity to see what has always been instead of what can be. But don't you let that burden you," Harris...

Rapper Saweetie caused a stir earlier this month when she boldly proclaimed that one should tell their partners to keep it pushing if they aren’t purchasing them Birkin bags or paying their bills.While many folks, namely men who are likely not even in the same tax bracket of the "Tap In" rapper, had something to say, social media’s sexism and racism quickly jumped out. One critic audaciously suggested that Black women rappers such as Cardi B and the City Girls are not only depreciating the value of the historic luxury item but sporting faux ones as well.Cardi B and the “b” is for Birkin pic.twitter.com/VWikgJGDh0— 🥂bri (@DearBelcalis) October 26, 2020“Sorry idc if this comes off as anti black but it is what it is. Birkins have literally lost their value. The city girls and Cardi have got y’all convinced that these birkin bags are easy to get," an Instagram user by the name of @CelestialThug wrote. "There’’s a certain number of Birkin’s that are made per year."“There are BILLIONAIRES who are spending months/years on a waiting list just to get one. These bags are supposed to be exclusive, and you’re supposed to be big in the fashion world and have relationships with these people to get one: that’s why rihanna has a birkin bag that was only made twice, with Beyoncé having the other one,” the user continued.“A little rap duo from Miami who can’t even land a vogue cover or a number #1 do not have authentic birkin bags sorry."Cardi B clapped back at the user, stating that these accusations of wearing knockoff Birkins aren’t thrown at their white celebrity counterparts and that hip-hop actually adds value to designer brands.“Why is it that y’all asking female rappers if they can get a bag from the Hermès store,” the musician asked. “Y’all don’t do this to these white celebrities. Why is it that y’all gotta be asking us," Cardi B continued.The rapper also went on to state that after a mere mention of Christian Louboutin shoes in "Bodak Yellow," sales of the shoes "went up by 1000%+."While that specific number hasn't yet been verified, Cardi B was responsible for a $4.5 million increase in sales of Louboutin shoes after their shoutout in her 2017 hit song according to Billboard, and internet searches for the shoes went up 217 percent. Additionally, in 2017, a Nielsen report found that Black women are major trendsetters with an impact on American culture so colossal, that they're leading Black spending power towards $1.5 trillion by next year. Accusing a Black woman of depreciating an item by way of association with it is not only a reach, it's a blatant falsity. While on the surface level, suggesting these women, despite their wealth, are sporting bootlegged items could seem like trivial celeb chatter. But these accusations are riddled with misogynoir. The notions are misguided attempts to camouflage anti-Black women rhetoric by suggesting that they are undeserving of enjoying luxury even at the expense of their own labor. Capitalism has taught us to value profits over people but when those same people who have historically been trampled on rise up, all of a sudden there's a problem.This world sorely devalues Black women to the point of expressing anger when they refuse to fall in line within the narrow constraints of mediocrity that their white counterparts so eloquently fit into. The expectation that Black women should simply enjoy the scraps that society tries to feed them is almost as ludicrous as thinking they can’t afford to purchase their own Birkin bags.Cardi B’s debut album went on to become the eighth best-selling album of 2019 by a female artist and it was the longest-charting debut album to be released by a female rapper. The City Girls are champions of sexual liberation by way of anthems encouraging women to utilize their God-given assets to claim power and reverse societal arrangements that favor men and subordinate women.Cardi B and the City Girls have been some of our greatest financial advisors in the past few years so any claim that asserts that they can’t afford a Birkin is comical at best. It’s alarming for one to even believe that they and other female rappers would sport fake bags when the validity of the jewelry worn by male rappers is never addressed. It’s one thing to suggest that their bags are fake but to claim that they’re depreciating the value is downright criminal and steeped in the throes of misogynoir.via GIPHYSince the beginning of time, it’s been proven that Black women have been the de facto leaders in spearheading the blueprint of fashion and style. Along with that, we’ve seen brands skyrocket because of Black women’s influence. When Mary J. Blige and Lil Kim, two hip-hop heavyweights, collaborated with M.A.C. Cosmetics to raise money for people afflicted with HIV and AIDS, they raised $4 million, which was the most M.A.C. had ever raised in a year’s span.Any claim that suggests the depreciation in value on items worn by Black women is simply fallacious and rooted in anti-Black rhetoric. This attempt to humble Black women because they don’t live down to the world’s expectations must stop.via GIPHYLast year, quite a few folks stood in solidarity with Jermaine Dupri when he said that women rappers were “strippers rapping.” When Moesha was released on Netflix, you wrote think pieces on why the teenage fictional character was toxic. When Kamala Harris was announced as Joe Biden's Vice Presidential pick, her Blackness and qualifications were attacked. Now, by some standards, Cardi B and her Black women colleagues in hip-hop are cheapening the value of Birkin bags while simultaneously sporting fake ones. How often do we see Kim Kardashian being peppered with questions when she wears a Birkin? When is the last time that we bore witness to Paris Hilton, hotel heiress and racist, being accused of depreciating the value of Birkins? Never. Society’s fascination with trying to humble Black women is unfortunately nothing new and has deep ties with the fabric of this...

We knew that this year's election was going to be a rough one.From President Donald Trump on down, various people, groups and operatives have been working to undermine the vote, manipulate electoral rules in their favor, and exclude, intimidate and deter voters, particularly those who are Black. Add to that the difficulties that COVID-19 and the economic recession have caused, and it was clear that there would be difficulties with this vote. Blavity has already produced an election guide, which includes helpful resources for both mail-in voting and in-person voting. As both mail-in and early in-person voting have already started in many states, Blavity is keeping track of voter suppression efforts and difficulties faced by voters across the...

Update (October 29, 2020): A committee organized by the Senate Democratic Caucus has revealed that at least 17 more women underwent or were pressured into dangerous gynecological surgeries at Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC), a privately managed ICE institution in Georgia. In a private briefing on Capitol Hill on Monday, caucus members, which included Atlanta Attorney Sarah Owings, two women who were previously detained at the facility and four doctors, expressed that the total number of women who said one of the facility’s doctors intimidated them into unnecessary procedures has ballooned to 57 since 2018, according to The Intercept. The initial report approximated that 20 or more women detained at ICDC had undergone full or partial hysterectomies in the last six years by Dr. Mahendra Amin, a 68-year-old medical practitioner. But during Monday's meeting, the group of advocates that presented to the Senate said their lawyers found 57 confirmed cases and none of them had received any follow-up care in five weeks. In September, Dawn Wooten, a nurse at Irwin facility, filed a complaint to the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security and reported that federal doctors were performing mass hysterectomies on immigrant women against their will, as Blavity previously reported. Wooten’s complaint identified Dr. Amin as the primary culprit, who has since been restricted from seeing patients. Azadeh Shahshahani, the director of advocacy organization Project South that collaborated with Wooten to raise the complaint, said the numbers presented to the politicians could speak to an even larger scale of injustice for women detained in ICE facilities. “It pains me to know that there could be many more women out there who will never be able to talk about what happened to them and the abuse that they suffered while at Irwin, let alone receive a measure of redress, while living with the life-long damage to their bodies and spirits,” Shahshahani said. “ICE and the private prison corporation LaSalle must be held to account.”Tony Pham, ICE’s acting director, told The Intercept in a statement that the agency welcomes any federal investigations and if there is any truth to the allegations, “it is my commitment to make the corrections necessary to ensure we continue to prioritize the health” of ICE detainees.“The recent allegations by the independent contracted employee raise some very serious concerns that deserve to be investigated quickly and thoroughly,” Pham said. According to the Los Angeles Times, the review, conducted by a team of certified doctors and nursing experts who reviewed thousands of Irwin detainees’ medical records, found a “disturbing pattern of aggressive treatment, including ‘overcalling’ the need for invasive surgeries, unwarranted pressure to undergo surgery, and a failure to obtain informed consent.”Original (September 16, 2020): A nurse who works for an ICE facility in Georgia filed a complaint to the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, writing that government doctors were performing mass hysterectomies on immigrant women against their will, according to Yahoo News.The doctor has been identified as Dr. Mahendra Amin, a 68-year-old who is also an immigrant according to Prism. Dawn Wooten worked as a nurse for the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia which is operated by LaSalle Correction but used by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a detention facility for immigrants.Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network all came together to file the complaint on behalf of Wooten.In the complaint, Wooten lays out her alarming observations and includes anecdotes about officials refusing to test detainees for COVID-19 even if they have symptoms and the mass removal of women's ovaries. “I’ve had several inmates tell me that they’ve been to see the doctor and they’ve had hysterectomies and they don’t know why they went or why they’re going,” Wooten said in the complaint. OIG Complaint by Law&CrimeIn her statement, Wooten wrote that women who complained of having heavy menstrual cycles or abdominal pain had hysterectomies performed on them by a doctor outside of the facility who she called "the uterus collector.”"Everybody he sees has a hysterectomy — just about everybody. He’s even taken out the wrong ovary on a young lady [detained immigrant woman]. She was supposed to get her left ovary removed because it had a cyst on the left ovary; he took out the right one. She still wanted children-so she has to go back home now and tell her husband that she can’t bear kids,” Wooten said in the report.  Wooten, who is Black, wrote passionately about how her complaints were received, saying she was demoted in July and reprimanded when she told her superiors that what they were doing was wrong. “I’m asking for these things and speaking for these detainees. I’m a problem. I’m being seen and I’m not supposed to be seen or heard. It makes you look like you’re not doing your job,” she said.  There is a long history of unwanted hysterectomies and sterilization in the United States, particularly with Black women and immigrants. For decades, Black women were sterilized against their will throughout the South during C-sections and other medical procedures.Legendary civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer was sterilized against her will in 1961 while having a small tumor removed.“In the North Sunflower County Hospital. I would say about six out of the 10 Negro women that go to the hospital are sterilized with the tubes tied,” Hamer once said, according to The Washington Post. So many Black people were sterilized in North Carolina that the state was forced to compensate people who had reproductive organs forcibly removed during other procedures, according to USA Today. Wooten said women repeatedly came to her after seeing the doctor outside of the facility to ask why they had their ovaries removed while being treated for other issues.“Everybody he sees, he’s taking all their uteruses out or he’s taken their tubes out. What in the world,” she wrote. In addition to the concerns she raised about the hysterectomies and the lack of COVID-19 protections, she also said her supervisor died from COVID-19 after working in the facility. In the report, she says he caught it from people in the facility and that in general, cases of the virus were not being reported.  Women being detained at the Irwin County Detention Center made waves in April when they released a video showing the condition of the facility and the lackluster treatment they were receiving. The Intercept spoke with Wooten and a lawyer for Project South, who said the nurse's claims were emblematic of the Trump administration's general lack of care about immigrants. “Ms. Wooten’s whistleblowing disclosures confirm what detained immigrants have been reporting for years — gross disregard for health and safety standards, lack of medical care, and unsanitary living conditions,” the lawyer said. This is not the first report of ICE officials mishandling women and children. During a discussion about Black immigrants from Haiti, South America and Africa led by the non-profit Raices, lawyers said their clients in Texas were reporting troubling instances of medical malpractice.One lawyer told a horrifying story about a Haitian woman who was pregnant and was having pain as well as bleeding while being held at the Karnes County Correctional Center in Texas. There is no OBGYN at the facility so a prison guard had to take the woman outside of the facility for a medical appointment.She did not speak English, so after the exam, the doctor told the male guard accompanying her what was happening. The guard never explained to the woman what the doctor said or what was discovered during the exam.For weeks, she waited for more information about what the doctor told the prison guard. It was three weeks later that she was finally informed that the doctor told the prison guard that her baby had no heartbeat and that she had...

Alumni of Morehouse College are bashing a new campaign advertisement from Rick McCormick, a staunch Republican running in Georgia's 7th Congressional District race who is cringingly referring to himself a "Morehouse Man."McCormick got his medical degree from Morehouse School of Medicine, an institution that is independent and separated from Morehouse College in 1981.As Student Body President at Morehouse School of Medicine, I was able to serve a diverse group of people with the same goal of success. As your Congressman, I will always lead by example - I will be ALL IN for ALL Americans. Vote Rich McCormick on Nov. 3 for a fighter in DC. #ga7 pic.twitter.com/F9WFPnRrBa— Dr. Rich McCormick for Congress (@RichforGA) October 24, 2020 The advertisement features two of McCormick's Black supporters, Dr. Lattisha Bilbrew and Alvin Hicks, touting his connection to the medical school and their friendship with him, with Bilbrew calling him a "Morehouse Man."The advertisement caused significant backlash, with dozens of Morehouse College graduates criticizing McCormick. The graduates say he's intentionally misusing the medical school's name as a tacit way to promote his connections to the Black community. McCormick is in a hotly contested race that is upending past projections. In just four years, the district has transformed from a majority white area to one with a significant number of Black and immigrant residents, slowly turning it from red to blue. Between 2010 and 2016, the district was solidly red and Congressman Rob Woodall easily won reelection for years. But in 2018, Woodall won by just 433 votes against Carolyn Bourdeaux and last year announced that he would not be seeking reelection, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.The rapidly diversifying district is now seen as a toss-up, with some polls saying it is leaning democratic in favor of Bourdeaux, who is running again.McCormick's latest ad is part of a larger effort to bolster his credentials with Black voters in the district, but the effort may have backfired considering the responses to the...

If you’re interested in sharing your opinion on any cultural, political or personal topic, create an account here and check out our how-to post to learn more.____As a Black man in America, working to reduce gun violence in Chicago, I find the rhetoric between presidential candidates — and what is not being said — dangerously irresponsible. We all have to acknowledge the reality of racism in our country along with the monumental efforts of those working seriously and honestly to confront our past for a more just future.People look at my community as hopeless. I know personally about wrongly executed warrants and arrests. I know what gun violence does to a person, family and communities intimately. I also know what intentional disinvestment looks and feels like and I know what happens when you address racism with law enforcement. Roseland, one of the 77 neighborhoods in Chicago, is a community where redlining, white flight, the disappearance of manufacturing jobs, the war on drugs and mass incarceration has led to the current state of the place I call home.Unfortunately, America does have a racist past filled with racist policies that have been and continue to be oppressive to people of color. There are dominant beliefs in our country about race that continue to contribute to inequities. America has had a steady level of violence for the last 50 years with few exceptions. Chicago has not had under 400 murders since 1965. The common denominators are the places where violence is highly concentrated. A closer look will show that these places have much more in common than skin color.Within communities disproportionately affected by gun violence, like Roseland, unemployment is usually twice that of other communities. Educational opportunities are subpar at best. The housing market has yet to recover and the tax base is among the lowest in the city. The people in these places are voiceless and deliberately removed from any serious political process. The median income pales in comparison to other parts of the city, and there is always an underground economy. Another important commonality is that there is always a large presence of law enforcement.Just as public health has considered the environment as a factor for disease and injury, it should also consider the environment when considering violence prevention strategies. Rather than an issue that needs to be policed, violence is a public health issue that needs a public health approach.In a year where violence is up across the country, and especially in my fair city of Chicago, where violence is up almost 51%, there has been a 33% decrease in fatal shootings in the Roseland community where we work to make those environmental modifications. Chicago CRED, for example, uses a data driven approach and multidisciplinary team to support men and women who have been victims and perpetrators of violence. The men are strategically recruited by credible messengers from the community. Next, the participants are surrounded with supportive clinicians, life coaches and employment and training specialists. The team then supports the participants in meeting goals they have set for themselves with safety and an aversion to violence being at the center of it. The multidisciplinary team focuses on trauma, safety, education, family and employment.As a country, we should reimagine public safety and not ignore what has failed us as a nation to this point, but learn, be smarter and do better. Reimagining public safety is not about dismantling the criminal justice system, or defunding the police. Reimagining public safety is actually about reducing violence, crime, racist policies and financial waste.The most important thing that Chicago CRED provides the men with is hope. Consistent relationships, meeting the men where they are, while dealing with years of trauma appears to have some key ingredients to the success in Roseland. While we can’t take all the credit for the reduction in fatal shootings, nor should we want to, we can say we have done things that we know work. This trauma-informed approach looks at the whole person, educational opportunities, job training and trusting relationships.As a country, many agree that we cannot address racial issues with law enforcement. We know inequities have negative consequences and glaring disparities around quality of life. We know resources, and the lack thereof, are also key determinants to violence.There is an example in Roseland where we are reimagining public safety. We are addressing years of disinvestment one man at a time. We are providing wraparound services and support where institutions have failed. We are treating the years of trauma and violence from a clinical framework. We are engaging with the community to do with and not for. We are trying to give these men a vision of peace and safety for the first time.Take it from individuals on the ground. We know what works. Today, we need our nation’s leaders to acknowledge the harsh reality of our past and reimagine what public health really means — for all citizens.____Steve Gates is a lifelong resident of Chicago’s Roseland community who works with Chicago Beyond and Chicago CRED to reduce...

If you’re interested in sharing your opinion on any cultural, political or personal topic, create an account here and check out our how-to post to learn more.____One morning in January, on the eve of the primaries, Dayton rapper Tyheir Kindred (alias YelloPain), awoke to find that his song, “My Vote Don’t Count,” had gone viral overnight, earning praise from luminaries like Chelsea Clinton. The music video starts with Kindred walking down the streets of downtown Dayton, Ohio, rapping about its shuttered storefronts and potholes, recounting how the hopes of young people like him have been dashed prematurely during the past few presidencies.He later turns his despair on its head when the scene switches to him in a classroom, and he starts breaking down the three branches of government for his attentive students — a surprising array of Daytonians of all ages, races and places. The video, which has since received over 5 million views on social media, recently went viral again in the lead-up to November. The video ends with Kindred’s cousin, Desiree Tims, a young Black woman reiterating the importance of voting in local elections. (Tims is currently running for Congress for Ohio’s 10th District.)Local artists like Kindred are natural political organizers because they are already imagining a world without pain through their art. In 2018, I was among a handful of young, Black and Latinx creatives and organizers who founded the Midwest Culture Lab to reimagine the future of the Midwest, and to engage unlikely voters in our own communities. This included organizing art crawls, poetry slams, music videos and, in the age of COVID-19, virtual concerts.The road to progressive victory does not lie in the so-called “white working class.” As a life-long resident of Dayton — a city that many have been too eager to paint as a symbol of the dying Rust Belt — I knew that Black and brown communities had their own stories to tell. Better ones. Stories that breathed new life into tired, old narratives about the Midwest. New stories of hope, imagination and creativity that envisioned a better future for all of us.In the 2018 cycle, we tapped into issues like criminal justice reform that young voters cared the most about. The Ohio Student Association produced a video called “Imagine a World Without Cages” that reached 3.5 million people on Facebook, including 1.6 million video views and more than 380,000 page views. This effort helped double Ohio’s youth vote from 11.6 percent in 2014 to 24 percent in 2018. And more importantly, it proved that artists and culture-makers could inspire the real swing voters, the young people who are deciding between voting Democratic and staying home.Videographer: Kailah Ware (@kailahwiththecamera); Music: Mariah J (@mo.luv); Producer: Amber J Phillips (@amberabundance)Now, as former Vice President Joe Biden and Donald Trump battle for Midwestern swing votes in the countdown to November 3, activating young, Black Midwesterners through art and culture could transform the outcome of the 2020 election and help build a better future for all of us here and our communities.In 2016, Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes, even though 506,691 youth of color were available to vote in the state. Even though Trump won Ohio by an eight-point margin, Ohio is now a toss-up that could be decided by the 480,148 young people of color in the state. When we are in the margins, young people of color make the difference and cultural organizing knows how to find and activate those voters.To be clear, cultural organizing is not simply about putting on a show and shouting out “Be sure to vote!” at the end. The simplistic message of “Go vote!” does not inspire most young people.Instead, cultural organizing goes much deeper. The artist takes responsibility for the political education of their audience, many of whom live on the margins. Cultural organizers truly engage with young people, asking how they are feeling and what they care about.They ask: “What is the world you want to see? What is the system you want to transform?” And more importantly: “What does real safety look like for Black and brown people? What if we didn’t have to deal with rampant police violence, failing schools and an unjust health care system that leaves our families bankrupt?”The Democratic party often calls upon Hollywood celebrities to energize donors, volunteers and voters. Yes, we need to hear from John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, from LeBron James and Gina Rodriguez. But young voters, especially voters of color, need a way to plug in locally. That is why the leadership of local creatives is so important.Cultural organizers know how to center conversations around local issues. Young people interested in decriminalizing marijuana need only look at their local District Attorney’s race; people who are just starting their families and worried about the safety of their water need only get their answers from their mayor and city council. Local concerns can get young people to the polls. Once there, they can be pushed to vote for the top of the ticket.For example, a Michigan rapper, Tina Bina, recently joined Detroit Action’s 18 year-old youth organizer for a conversation about filling out the census and registering to vote, followed by a performance. The artist and her audience are building a political home together and co-creating “the world as it should be.”In Milwaukee, two local musicians, Genesis Renji and Miguel Leija, wrote an original song and created a music video to inspire Black and brown young people to fill out the census. The hip-hop beat drove home the point that 800,000 Black people, especially children, were missing from the last census count. “If we’re not counted, then we don’t count. And they keep all those funds for themselves. Unemployment, health care, school lunch, food stamps, even elderly help.” The video, which was recorded in both English and Spanish, was viewed more than 2.3 million times.Art has also provided us with a vital space to process the collective heartbreak and mourning resulting from 2020’s never-ending tragedies — from the COVID-19 deaths in our communities, the loss of beloved figures like John Lewis, Chadwick Boseman and Kobe Bryant, to the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Indeed, their murders have poured lighter fluid on the frustration and anger that had been smoldering for a long time. Young people like me took to the streets to demand an end to the racial terror they have lived with all their lives. At last, our pain was in public view.But Vice President Joe Biden should not assume that the tens of thousands of young people who turned out for the protests will necessarily turn out to vote. Cultural organizers hold the key to fighting fatigue and disillusionment as young people come down from the high of being in the streets. Artists and culture-markers are the political strategy for the Midwest if Democrats are serious about winning.The winds of culture are already shifting in our favor. From Vogue’s two September covers featuring the art of Kerry James Marshall and Jordan Casteel, the Vanity Fair issue dedicated to Breonna Taylor, to the myriad of corporate brands speaking out for Black Lives Matter, the energy for Black stories, Black art and Black representation is steadily gaining momentum in these spaces that traditionally excluded us. But there is still much work to be done.“If the form is beautiful but there’s no function behind it, no change that holds the person up, then [all you can do] is look at it,” says Marshall Shorts, who serves as creative director for the Midwest Culture Lab. Since graduating from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 2016, he has vowed to make art accessible for the people in our community.A leader in the Ohio arts scene, Marshall reimagines narratives about Black bodies through graphic design and video. Like many cultural organizers, art and activism have always been a part of Marshall’s identity. He has organized multiple paint-by-numbers and mural-making events for the community, encouraging people to participate in art-making and patronize Black artists. Recently, he also helped spearhead the opening of a shipping container gallery and performance stage in the historically Black neighborhood in Columbus, where he lives.“It was never about me being the best artist or designer. It was always about having agency and creating agency for my community,” Marshall tells me.Right now is the moment. If cultural organizers like Marshall can mobilize young Black and brown voters here in the Midwest to show up at the polls, they can change the course of history. While it is easy to look to the streets today and believe that they will turn out, translating this street protest energy into political power requires a healthy dose of political and creative imagination.If Democrats are serious about winning the White House and the Senate, and increasing their numbers of elected officials across the board, they would be smart to support and engage the local singers, rappers, DJs and other artists and tastemakers who are building the power of their communities.Videographer: Charles Hairston Music Credits: T. Wong (@twongcreates) Photo Credit: John Landry (@Top5ivephoto)____Prentiss J. Haney is the Executive Director of the Midwest Culture Lab, a project of the Alliance for Youth Organizing in collaboration with Chicago Votes, Ohio Student Association and Leaders Igniting for Transformation in...