politics

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.____The Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests are highlighting our failure to live up to our nation’s vision of “liberty and justice for all.” These protests remind us that it is not enough to express solidarity; solidarity must be practiced. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to address the clear and present danger people of color frequently experience at the hands of law enforcement officers.  But these inequalities are not limited to the justice system. They are across the board and must be addressed in the private and public sectors.If our current colleague, John Lewis, was correct when he said, “in many ways, technology rights are the new civil rights,” we have some real work to do. The diversity numbers at tech companies are dismal. While Black Americans make up 12% of the U.S. population, their representation at major tech companies falls far short of parity: Apple (9%), Twitter (5.7%), Facebook (3.8%) and Google (3.7%). BLM protests are siren calls for structural change.A company that seems to be answering that call is Zoom. They have announced a $1.2 million partnership with Claflin University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Orangeburg, South Carolina, to better connect Black students to the tech jobs and opportunities of the future. This is not a one-and-done donation or a photo-op. It is a five-year commitment of serious time and effort to make this a lasting and substantive partnership.They are not just donating resources. They are committing time and personnel. Damien Hooper-Campbell, a Morehouse graduate, will spearhead this initiative for the company. Also, Zoom’s Chief Operating Officer, Aparna Bawa, is joining Claflin’s Board of Trustees. Zoom’s long-term commitment is a model for the type of partnership that provides more tech opportunities to Black students.During Claflin’s fall and spring semesters, Zoom will host two paid internships, paying $10,000 each to work on projects designed by the company. In the summer, Zoom will host three rising seniors, earning a housing stipend and $45,000, in their summer internship program. Not only will it put real money in the pockets of these students, the internship program will connect students to their peers from a wide range of backgrounds and universities. This will expand their networking capacity and provide job opportunities after graduation.Zoom will also provide four $10,000 academic scholarships for selected Claflin students, contribute $30,000 to Claflin University’s general operating fund, work with professors to assist in curriculum development and find ways to engage Claflin’s alumni interested in career opportunities at Zoom.Here’s why Zoom’s comprehensive approach is so important. Jason Su, the Chief Technology Officer of Silicon Valley tech startup, Whiterabbit.ai, a company also providing paid internships to HBCUs in South Carolina, found that when interviewing 4.0 computer science students at HBCUs, he found them to be just as motivated and brilliant as students from better known tech schools. What they lacked were opportunities and experiences, like attending hackathons and working on real-world projects. With historically limited resources, HBCU professors can only teach so much and textbooks only go so far.Here’s what’s so promising about the Zoom-at-Claflin model. Not only are they providing scholarships for students to attend college, they are directly providing real world experiences and opportunities within Zoom, and working with Claflin’s professors to develop case studies to better prepare students when interviewing with tech companies.Zoom is not alone. Last month, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings personally donated millions to both Spelman and Morehouse Colleges. And many of us remember Tech Giant, Robert F. Smith’s announcement during his Morehouse commencement speech last year. Although Claflin’s alumni donation ratios are over 40%, much higher than other universities, it’s endowment, at $27 million, is far short of other well-known HBCUs like Howard University, Spelman College and Morehouse College, with endowments of $688.6 million, $389.2 million and $145 million respectively. Smaller HBCUs like Claflin should not be forgotten. Many of them deserve our attention and resources, which is why Zoom’s contribution to Claflin is critical.There are more than 100 HBCUs with more than 225,000 students that can benefit from long-lasting partnerships like the one between Zoom and Claflin. This is how we start to dismantle systems that cause young Blacks to fear for their lives when walking to school and jogging on public streets while dreaming of becoming the next Steve Jobs. Their lives and livelihoods...

The Kansas City mayor received text messages from one of his constituents calling him a racial slur and containing a “subtle death threat” after he updated the requirements for facial coverings in the city, reports CBS News.On Monday, Mayor Quinton Lucas took to Twitter to post screenshots of messages he received in which a person, who identified as white in previous messages, called him a “piece of s**t n***er.” The person questioned the new face mask mandate, claiming Lucas walked with “rioters” while not wearing a mask.“You should swing from a tree, I’m not threatening it, but would love to see it,” one of the text messages read.“Y’all... let’s do better,” Lucas urged in his tweet about the messages.Add to this the racial slur and subtle death threat I received yesterday about requiring masks, and it’s like, y’all... let’s do better. pic.twitter.com/PWCHo912TJ— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) June 29,...

New York City will stop placing medically vulnerable incarcerated people into solitary confinement, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio. During a press conference on Monday, de Blasio said the city would look into creating a plan to end all solitary confinement before October, NBC News reported. The move comes after Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco, a trans woman, died in solitary confinement at the notorious Rikers Island jail complex last year. According to a document released by Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of NYC Health and Hospitals, the city will no longer allow people to be placed in solitary confinement if they are pregnant, have mental health issues, or have a chronic health issue or disability. Any person who has received an organ transplant is also ineligible for solitary confinement. “Let’s take the next step. We have proven that we can keep jails safe with much less use of solitary confinement punitive segregation,” de Blasio told reporters.De Blasio referenced the death of Kalief Browder as one of the main reasons why the city was eager to end solitary confinement. Browder died by suicide in 2015 after being held on Rikers Island for three years on charges that were eventually thrown out. He spent about two years in solitary confinement, The New York Times reported. The mayor also spoke about Polanco's death and the city's desire for no one to suffer the way she did. "We ended [solitary confinement] already for young people, and New York City led the way in this nation in addressing the fact that we should not have young people in solitary confinement. We all remember the tragedy of Kalief Browder, and we acted on the lessons of that tragedy. He did not die in vain," de Blasio said."But then we saw another tragedy recently, Layleen Polanco. Layleen Polanco should not have been in Rikers to begin with. Layleen Polanco should not have been in solitary confinement and lord knows, she deserves justice. Her family deserves justice, the transgender community deserves justice. We have to right the wrong. We can't bring her back, but we can make change so that no one else goes through such a tragedy," he added.Polanco died from an epileptic seizure on June 7, 2019, following a harrowing experience in the Rose M. Singer Center jail on Rikers Island last year. As Blavity previously reported, Polanco was arrested on minor charges and was placed in solitary confinement after an altercation. She was sentenced to 20 days in a cell alone and told doctors she was having suicidal thoughts before she was moved. A psychiatrist pushed back against the sentence due to Polanco's history of seizures, but a doctor cleared her for solitary confinement anyways. In light of her death, the city suspended three officers and one captain without pay and gave an unknown punishment to 13 other officers, according to NBC. “The death of Layleen Polanco was an incredibly painful moment for our city. What happened to Layleen was absolutely unacceptable and it is critical that there is accountability,” de Blasio said in a statement on Friday. The New York City Department of Correction released a report last week indicating that jail officials made a number of mistakes that led to Polanco's death. “She should have never been in solitary confinement. Had we done this work where the mayor said what he said today a year and a half ago, we wouldn't have or we perhaps wouldn't have had a Layleen Polanco,” Board of Correction Vice Chair Stanley Richards told NBC. De Blasio added that a working group would be created to study how prisons and jails in the city can end the practice for everyone. Richards told NBC that recommendations will be presented before October and that a vote will be held before the new rules are...

On Monday, Reddit finally placed a permanent ban on a subreddit called r/The_Donald, which has become home to some of the website's most abhorrent, racist and sexist content, The New York Times reported.The community of President Donald Trump supporters became a haven for white supremacists and alt-right groups promoting racist content.Earlier this month, The Washington Post interviewed researchers with content moderation company Sentropy that found r/The_Donald and other right-wing subreddits had three times as much hate speech as left-leaning groups and had six times as much hate speech about white supremacist extremism. Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, decided to resign from the company's board earlier this month in part because of how the platform affected his wife Serena Williams and his Black daughter, as Blavity previously reported.“Reddit is a place for community and belonging, not for attacking people. ‘The_Donald’ has been in violation of that,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told Times reporters.Huffman caused controversy earlier this month when he said the site does "not tolerate hate, racism, and violence, and while we have work to do to fight these on our platform, our values are clear."He was immediately called out by dozens of people, including Reddit's former CEO Ellen Pao, who wrote on Twitter, "I am obligated to call you out: You should have shut down the_donald instead of amplifying it and its hate, racism, and violence. So much of what is happening now lies at your feet. You don't get to say BLM when reddit nurtures and monetizes white supremacy and hate all day long."Just as Reddit was placing a ban on the subreddit, Trump retweeted and then deleted a video this weekend showing a man yelling "White power" at a rally in Florida, according to CNN.The video was from a June 14 golf cart parade organized by Trump supporters living in The Villages, a retirement community near Orlando. Counter-protesters showed up, and the two sides began shouting at each other before one man in a golf cart repeatedly screamed "White power.""Thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!" Trump wrote, according to The Daily Beast.The retweet immediately caused outrage on both sides of the aisle. Black South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott was pressed about the retweet during his appearance on CNN's State of the Union with Jake Tapper."There's no question. He should not have retweeted and he should just take it down," the Republican said.About an hour after Scott appeared on CNN, the retweet had been deleted. White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement that "President Trump is a big fan of the Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters."During a White House press briefing on Monday, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump was not listening closely and did not hear the "White power" phrase.McEnany told Fox News once Trump was notified that the man was screaming "White power," he took down the tweet, The Daily Beast reported.   “He stands for them and his point in tweeting out that video was to stand with his supporters, who are oftentimes demonized, so he took it down but he does stand with the men and women of The Villages,” McEnany said. The retweet comes at a time when the president is facing backlash for his ardent defense of Confederate statues and flags across the country. Since the beginning of the recent Black Lives Matter protests, he has regularly sent out tweets demanding Confederate statues be left up.Very sad to see States allowing roving gangs of wise guys, anarchists & looters, many of them having no idea what they are doing, indiscriminately ripping down our statues and monuments to the past. Some are great works of art, but all represent our History & Heritage, both....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2020He spent much of the weekend tweeting out photos of Black people accused of tearing down Confederate statues and statues dedicated to men who owned slaves. pic.twitter.com/3X0C2xqacB— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2020The Post reported that almost 30 Confederate statues have been torn down since protests began. On Friday, Trump signed an executive order that reinforces laws stating touching any statue will lead to 10 years in prison and fines."They’re tearing down statues, desecrating monuments, and purging dissenters. It’s not the behavior of a peaceful political movement; it’s the behavior of totalitarians and tyrants and people that don’t love our country," Trump said in a statement after the...

Update (July 10, 2020):  Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron continues to face withering criticism for trying to do everything except handle Breonna Taylor’s tragic case. He’s now found his latest diversion: suing the state’s governor over a recent mask mandate designed to protect Kentucky’s citizens, WLKY reported.On Friday, Cameron filed a motion against governor Andy Beshear’s decision to make masks mandatory inside public places statewide and in places where social distancing is not possible, according to local news outlet WLKY. Kentucky tallied 426 positive coronavirus cases on Friday and has seen a spike in recent weeks as dozens of states struggle to control localized COVID-19 outbreaks. Nearly 19,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus so far and 620 people have died since the pandemic began, with another eight people dying on Friday. In a statement to WKYT, Cameron said he was suing the state over the mask mandate not because he thought masks should be worn but because he wanted the executive order “follow state law.”“Today, our office is filing a motion in Scott Circuit Court asking the Judge to consider whether Governor Beshear’s most recent executive order requiring face coverings complies with the current temporary restraining order stopping enforcement of COVID-19 executive orders that are not in compliance with state law,” Cameron said.“To be clear, the request we are making to the court today is not about whether or not it is appropriate to wear a mask. It is my belief that masks are an important tool in fighting this pandemic. It is, however, about determining if the Governor’s executive order mandating mask use follows state law. As the chief law officer for the Commonwealth, it is my duty to raise this question before the court and ensure that the law is followed,” he added.Cameron and Beshear have spent weeks going back and forth over the legality of executive orders the governor has been signing to keep the state’s coronavirus numbers low. It is unclear if the mask mandate went into effect at 5pm on Friday, but governor Beshear told a press conference that he had no choice but to pass the rules.  "This is dangerous and devastating and for a court to say, 'I guess I just don't believe that the virus exists and you don't have to do anything,' no social distancing, nothing else, is absolutely irresponsible," he said. "We've got to move past it, I'm going to continue to do what it takes. (Cameron) put in that order today, we're doing the mask mandate today. We'll beat him in court and just because the circuit judge there, I guess, thinks he's an epidemiologist and we don't need any types of restrictions, I know that's not the case," Beshear said.Cameron, who was endorsed for the attorney general position by President Donald Trump, paid a visit to the White House on June 8 for a discussion surrounding police-community relations reports WBKO. In Cameron's statement which followed the event, he did not mention Taylor once. Honored today to join @POTUS, @VP, AG Barr, and law enforcement stakeholders for an important conversation on strengthening the relationship between law enforcement and Black communities. Read my full statement here: https://t.co/VkOj7Ttk3W pic.twitter.com/wTduekKTGX— Attorney General Daniel Cameron (@kyoag) June 8, 2020 Visit ForBreonna.com to demand justice for Taylor.  Original (June 30, 2020): Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is being blasted for focusing his attention on all things except Breonna Taylor.Rather than offering transparency on where the Taylor case stands and taking swift action, like authorities involved in the cases of Rayshard Brooks and George Floyd, Cameron took to Twitter on June 20 to proudly share his efforts in helping a football association get their players back on the field safely amid coronavirus...

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.____In the wake of mass civil unrest around the world, questions about what it means to keep communities safe and the role of law enforcement have again come to the forefront. It is no secret that the relationship between the police and the Black community is one rife with complexities rooted and entangled in a system of white supremacy and injustice. The very history of early policing is connected to the slave patrols of the south in America’s infancy.From fledgling nation to world leaders, we have stumbled repeatedly in our quest to deliver on the promise of liberty and justice for all; the trauma of chronic tribulation moving freely from generation to generation. Once again the collective grievances are unbearable and we are forced to reexamine what afflicts us, what oppresses us, what makes it hard to breathe. We are faced with questions about what safety is, who owns it and how it's created.Community residents know best what they need to feel safe. The peacekeeping tactics that have been used under the guise of protecting cities have singled out Black and Brown communities as enemies of peace. If we really want to understand how to undo the structural damage that has destabilized communities of color, government must abandon its policymaking from the ivory tower, and come take a seat at the people’s table. We are beyond talk. Action is the only viable response.As the Executive Director of the Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety in New York City, I am tasked with working with residents in the city’s most disenfranchised neighborhoods to develop solutions that will make them not only feel safe but actually be safe. In the process, I have sat in on dozens and dozens of conversations with Black and Brown communities. While there are those for whom safety is very much about law and order, what is more commonly affirmed in those conversations is that safety isn’t about the absence of crime — it’s about the presence of opportunity. Crime is an outcome. It’s the product of centuries-long, government-backed structural inequity, disinvestment and dehumanization. It should not come as a surprise that neighborhoods with the least amount of government dollars flowing into the community, the lowest rates of educational attainment, minimal access to fresh food, and the highest rates of incarceration and chronic disease also have the highest rates of crime. This is what systemic inequity looks like.This is also why Black and other communities of color rarely trust the government to act in their best interest or keep them safe. True safety lies in networks of strong community leaders, well resourced local organizations, unmitigated access to opportunity, a legitimate and responsive government, and the realization of justice. That’s why in New York City, we’ve spent the past four years developing NeighborhoodStat, or NStat. It’s a community-based, problem-solving process grounded in the belief that public safety cannot exist without the public. NStat is not a perfect solution, but it strives to serve as a mechanism for residents to achieve their vision of safety for their own communities. A 2019 report from the Center for American Progress noted that “while this approach may seem like a radical departure from traditional policing-focused methods of crime reduction, the model is firmly grounded in evidence on the factors that influence neighborhood safety.” It also found that because NStat focuses on “micro-level communities,” that jurisdictions of all sizes seeking to address public safety through community investment can learn from it.We’re always learning and adapting ourselves, but there are some things we know will rarely change. In order for a community-centered approach to safety to work, it requires, first and foremost, direct communication with residents who are experts in the rich assets of their community as well as its vulnerabilities. It requires sweeping and comprehensive investments in education and skill-building, employment, health and wellness, small business, recreation and physical spaces. It demands a coordinated effort from all stakeholders and uncompromised accountability from the government to ensure the right dosage of each intervention is applied as the community sees fit.The power of hyper-local safety networks was never more apparent than during the COVID pandemic, when Black and Brown communities were disproportionately hit by both the disease and the city’s enforcement of safety guidelines. In response to the pandemic, we activated our MAP network and community partners like the Center for Court Innovation, Jacob Riis Settlement and Los Sures-Southside United, who hit the streets en masse to distribute PPE and make sure their communities had access to food and the supplies necessary to protect themselves. The city’s health and safety were compromised, and community networks came to our rescue to survive a pandemic.As we consider the role of law enforcement in our communities, we must acknowledge that the police are not a one-size-fits-all solution to the myriad problems they have been empowered to solve. They should not be first responders when our loved one’s mental health is compromised, our child has a bad day at school, our teenager rebels, a member of our community is unhoused or our neighbor is battling the sickness of substance abuse. Organizations rooted in the community already know that person by name, and we have a responsibility to invest in their ability to respond. That is what we’re committed to do through the Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety and NStat.We can no longer strip entire neighborhoods of resources and tell its residents to build a future with broken tools. It’s past time to divest from punitive enforcement and invest in well-being and opportunity. The days of using conditions that the government helped create as an excuse to over police neighborhoods are over. The time for communities to self-determine their own safety is...

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.____Written by 50 Miles More organizers, Hiwot Schutz, 17, and Bria Smith, 19____Beginning on June 30 and ending on July 4, young people from our organization 50 Miles More are walking 65 miles from Milwaukee to Madison to demand Wisconsin’s elected officials address the racism epidemic in our state and country.50 Miles More has always been about challenging authority and calling out the elected officials who say they are working for us, yet argue when we ask for policies that benefit us and help us to grow in a healthy and flourishing environment.In 2018, our organization began by way of a 50-mile march from Madison to Janesville as a call-out to the Speaker of the U.S. House and State Representative, Paul Ryan, for continuously blocking gun reform policies. These policies directly affected us, and we were not going to stand by as we watched our future be gambled away.We quickly realized that although we were achieving so much and really making a difference, we didn’t feel represented in these conversations and debates. The narrative was controlled by white students who didn’t have the same lived experiences of racism that we did. As a group, we realized that we couldn’t talk about gun violence without also talking about police brutality and gun violence within inner cities, along with racism.This year, 50 Miles More was reclaimed by Black women and Black queer youth. We are making a change through Black Feminism and the voices of youth as the voice of this revolution. We hope to see Tony Evers, the Governor of Wisconsin, work for the people who make up this city, including the truly marginalized folks who love this city enough to walk 65 miles in order to see it change.People can’t ask for safer schools while at the same time promoting school security that puts Black and brown people’s lives in jeopardy, proliferating the criminalization and adultification of Black youth within our schools. The topic of gun reform has to be more inclusive.The Black revolution comes from the unearthed momentum of young people. Most social justice movements that shifted our laws and ideologies led the youth to hope to strategize a future for change.Milwaukee, our home, is a graceful city that is controlled by an unjust narrative. We have seen racism modernize itself into our homes, boarded up buildings, and create under-resourced and overpoliced elementary schools that leave our students starving for knowledge. We have seen our community scramble to feed children with empty bellies, host block parties to uplift artists and stand in silence as we grieved gun violence victims.Milwaukee is ready for the revolution, to reimagine every system that we know as normal and put people first — Black womxn first. Us first.We are walking 65 miles for Black youth. For queer youth. For womxn. For that young queer Black womxn whose identity is never amplified or represented on the media platforms. We are walking 65 miles toward a new society that welcomes those who are clothed in brown skin. Walking 65 miles means that Black womxn have finally entered the spaces of leadership. It means we are intersecting communities that have experienced trauma to be a part of a larger conversation.It means holding politicians accountable for their violence against Black and brown communities. It means holding police accountable for their treachery in our neighborhoods. It means power to the people, power to our new imagined freedom and power to the...

The mayor of Laurel, Mississippi, fought back tears as he signed an executive order to remove the state's long-standing, divisive flag from all city-owned buildings. According to WLOX, Mayor Johnny Magee signed the order on Tuesday to remove the state flag, which features a Confederacy emblem. The mayor was unable to speak for about a minute as he was overcome with emotion, The Laurel Leader Call reported. "The current flag hovering above the State Capitol of the state of Mississippi was adopted as the state flag by the Mississippi Legislature in 1894 and the upper-left portion of this flag is often referred to as the Confederate battle flag,” Magee said during a press conference.Signing the order, the mayor said the flag "shall not be flown at any of the public facilities." Shortly after the signing, the flag was removed from Laurel City Hall. "There comes a point in time in the annals of history when it becomes necessary to redefine who a people are, and what a collection of these people represent," Magee said. "It is the opinion of the mayor of this city that now is such a time."According to Newsweek, Magee has served as the city's mayor for eight years and is a native Mississippian. "I don't apologize for being emotional," Magee said during the signing. "I have lived through some things with this flag and as they told Dr. King to wait — time for waiting is over."As a lifelong Black resident of Mississippi, Magee has always looked at the flag as a reminder of the state's racist history.“It has also been used by some as an image of hatred, divisiveness and violence, none of which in any way represents the ideals and principles of our great nation, our proud state, or our vibrant city,” the mayor said.Magee said the removed flags will be donated to the local library or another agency that will take them. The mayor is also asking the state to remove the flag. "Adopt a new flag that represents and signifies the values and principles upon which our state is now based, and which unifies the people who call our state home,” he said. In an interview with Newsweek, the Black mayor said he was thinking about the challenges he had to endure while growing up in Laurel. "I was born here in Laurel, I grew up here in Laurel, went to school here, and all the time of my growing up here, there was this flag and there was this attitude," Magee said. "And so, when I was doing the executive order, all these thoughts and all these feelings just came rushing back and I began to reminisce about some of the things I endured here in Laurel and I had gone from that position to be in a position of the mayor, to be able to take that flag down and I wanted to do it to bring the people of Laurel together."The Laurel native said he had been wanting the flag to be changed since the early 1970s when schools were integrated. "We had a Black high school that was closed and we had to go to the all-white high school and trucks were riding around the parking lot with [Confederate] flags in the back and I knew then that I wanted a change," he said.According to MSNBC, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he will sign a bill to change the state flag if the Legislature votes to remove the Confederacy emblem.Mississippi moved closer to taking the next step when the House and Senate voted with a two-thirds majority on Saturday to file a bill to change the flag, ABC News reported. “I would never have thought that I would see the flag come down in my lifetime,” Democratic Sen. Barbara Blackmon told ABC News.Mississippi is the only state which features a Confederate battle emblem on its...

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the police reform bill named in honor of George Floyd that seeks to end qualified immunity and would require precincts to surrender data on use of force. Despite Republican pushback, the bill passed with a final vote of 236-181, with three Republicans — Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Will Hurd of Texas and Fred Upton of Michigan — voting in favor, reports CNN. “Today with the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the House is honoring his life and the lives of all those killed by police brutality and pledging: Never again," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday before the vote. "When we pass this bill, the Senate will have a choice, to honor George Floyd's life or to do nothing.”Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, where Floyd was killed in May, stepped in as speaker pro tempore for the debate, reports NBC News. “My community has been crying out for justice and real reform for decades,” she said. “This legislation is an important step in the right direction, but we can’t stop here. We must heed the calls of the people who are impacted by police brutality daily and restructure broken police departments across our country."Although the bill passed in the House, many fear that it will not be taken up in the Senate, as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the House’s plan is an overreach and will not advance.“The House will do its duty and pass the Justice in Policing bill today. I hope the Senate will do the same, but I fear it will not," House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said.President Donald Trump has threatened to veto the bill if it reaches his desk, saying it was “overbroad” and “would deter good people from pursuing careers in law enforcement, weaken the ability of law enforcement agencies to reduce crime and keep our communities safe, and fail to bring law enforcement and the communities they serve closer together,” according to a statement from his administration. “The Senate Republicans want very much to pass a bill on police reform. ... We have total cooperation with many different communities, including the police community. They want it very much to happen,” Trump said at a news conference, per The Washington Post. “The Democrats don’t want to do it because they want to weaken our police, they want to take away immunity, they want to do other things.” The passing of the bill in the House comes a day after Democrats in the upper chamber blocked a Republican police reform bill, the Justice Act, stating it wasn’t expansive enough in its policies. It needed 60 votes to pass but failed with a 55-45 vote.  The Republican bill would not have ended qualified immunity and did not include a federal ban on chokeholds, according to The...

A group of Black mothers has come together to demand Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer work together on proposed legislation that would address voter suppression and racism.Led by Tina Knowles-Lawson, the mothers of Black people lost to police violence have joined forces with other celebrities to sign a letter calling on congressional leaders to put their differences aside and take tangible steps in addressing some of the country's most pressing issues by the passing The HEROES Act.  A release sent to Blavity, which included the letter, highlights the landmark Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder, which Knowles-Lawson said "gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and upended decades of progress.""Over the past seven years, states and localities have reverted to discriminatory practices that restrict the voting rights of Black, Brown, Native, and Asian American people and have put up unnecessary roadblocks to the ballot," Knowles-Lawson wrote. "Fall-out from the most recent primaries makes it abundantly clear that we must act now to ensure every citizen can freely and fairly vote in the upcoming general election, and chaos at polling places in recent primaries has demonstrated that elections officials are unprepared to hold safe and accessible elections this year," the mother of two added.The HEROES Act includes $3.6 billion specifically designated for federal election planning and is designed to address the very issues most states are facing concerning polling locations and voting machines. A key aspect of the bill focuses on absentee ballots, which have become extraordinarily important because of the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the virus, voters are more reluctant to show up at crowded polling locations. Knowles-Lawson pointed out widely covered incidents in Georgia, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania where people in majority Black districts were often forced to stand in long lines and wait hours to vote, all while other districts had relatively hassle-free experiences. Multiple states reported a litany of issues involving missing absentee ballots, broken voting machines and understaffed locations. Just yesterday, a video from Kentucky went viral showing Black people banging on the doors of a voting site because they had been locked out. Kentucky closed 95% of its polling locations ahead of this week's primary election, as Blavity previously reported."This is modern-day voter suppression plain and simple. Voters in all these states risked their health, and that of their communities, simply to make their voices heard. People should be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote and stay healthy, even during a pandemic. We should not have to choose between public health and a functioning democracy," the 66-year-old said in the letter."Many are advocating for structural change through legislation. Among the most urgent is H.R. 6800, The HEROES Act, a bill passed by the House of Representatives in May that would provide a $3 trillion safety net for those most impacted by COVID-19, including disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities, through provision of health care, economic security, justice system reform, housing, and voting access," she added.Additionally, the bill will ensure that every eligible, registered voter is provided with an absentee ballot with prepaid postage, mailed with enough time for completion and return."Congress has starved state and local communities of the resources they need to run safe, and accessible elections. We can’t allow this in November. Our democracy can't wait. Please understand, it is everyone’s responsibility to take action and do their part to undo this country’s systemic racism," Knowles-Lawson said. "Senators, some of you may never know what it is to wonder whether your child could be shot by the very people purportedly tasked with protecting their life. We pray that, in the future, no one suffers that fear. But to get there, we must act together, as Americans," Knowles-Lawson added. In an interview with CBS This Morning, Knowles-Lawson explained more of what was in the HEROES Act and said it was particularly necessary right now because people are still concerned about catching the coronavirus. The longer people have to wait in line, the more likely they are to become infected by COVID-19, Knowles-Lawson said. She added that many Black people she has spoken to in recent days feel hopeless and that she believes the bill can help people focus their energy toward voting people into office who can address the country's pressing issues. The letter was signed by Knowles-Lawson as well as Viola Davis, Whoopi Goldberg, Octavia Spencer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Solange Knowles, Gabrielle Union, Taraji P. Henson, Kelly Rowland, Lala Anthony, Halle Berry, Yvette Nicole Brown, Melina Matsoukas, Janelle Monáe, Bozoma Saint John, Holly Robinson Peete, Oge Egbuonu, Lena Waithe, Kerry Washington and Rashida Jones.The letter was also co-signed by Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner; Kadiatou Diallo, the mother of Amadou Diallo; Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin; Maria Hamilton, the mother of Dontre Hamilton; Wanda Johnson, the mother of Oscar Grant; Wanda Cooper-Jones, the mother of Ahmaud Arbery; Rep. Lucy McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis; Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor; and Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland."In passing this legislation, you will take an affirmative step toward declaring that Black lives matter. You will help build an America as good as its ideals. And you will lead the country – thanks to the creation of a more accountable democracy in which all Americans’ voices are heard – toward a long-sought moment in which no mother need wonder: will my son or daughter not make it home tonight because of the color of their skin?" Knowles-Lawson wrote in the...