Translate

Tupac Amaru Shakur, " I'm Loosing It...We MUST Unite!"

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

2 Florida officials fired for erasing Black faces from firefighter murals

The first Black female deputy fire chief in Boynton Beach, Florida is speaking out after she was erased from a mural honoring the city’s firefighters.

Latosha Clemons is understandably outraged over the incident, which resulted in two city employees losing their job. 

Former fire chief Glenn Joseph, who us Black, was also set to appear on the mural but he too was replaced by a white face.

Clemons has now lawyered up to get to the bottom of why the Black faces were omitted from the display and made to look Caucasian. 

“Who made these changes and why did they make these changes?” her attorney, Nicole Hunt Jackson, asked Wednesday at a news conference, NBC News reports.  

READ MORE: White Florida man charged after pointing gun at Black homeowner

“I wanted little Black girls to look at that mural and know they can have their face on a mural,” said Clemons, the only Black female firefighter in Boynton Beach. She retired a few months ago after serving her community for 20 years. 

The mural was unveiled at a ribbon-cutting this month, showing her image replaced by a white face.

“My role is to get to who is responsible, how they came to the conclusion it was acceptable — and to push the issue for the need to examine policies and determine whether or not there needs to be racial sensitivity training,” her attorney explained.

“It’s a huge racial insult. For them to unilaterally take this and decide to not only remove her face but to whitewash the face, it is beyond offensive,” said Jackson. 

The mural has been removed and public arts manager, Debby Coles-Dobay, and the chief of the fire rescue department, Matthew Petty, have reportedly been fired over it. 

“The decision made to alter the artwork that was approved by the Public Arts Commission was wrong and disrespectful to our community,” City Manager Lori LaVerriere said in a statement.

Coles-Dobay claims she “was pressured to make this artwork change by the fire chief and his staff, as the city well knows.”

Have you subscribed to theGrio’s new podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!

The post 2 Florida officials fired for erasing Black faces from firefighter murals appeared first on TheGrio.



from TheGrio https://ift.tt/2BtOxFK
at
Labels: ,

reelblack on YouTube

Reelblack Podcast - Waiting For Charles / AMA
Sorry for the delay. Charles Woods is expected to call in but in the meantime, ask me anything. Its been a while since we streamed live.


View on YouTube
at
Labels:

Apple acquires Will Smith’s ‘Emancipation’ in largest film festival deal ever

Apple Studios has secured global rights to Will Smith’s slave drama Emancipation, in a historic festival acquisition deal worth over $100 million.

The film package with director Antoine Fuqua attached was brought to the Virtual Cannes market last week. After a heated bidding war with seven other studios, including Warner Bros., Apple bagged the project for a whopping $120 million, Deadline reports.

Based on a true story, the movie follows Smith as a slave named Peter who flees a Louisiana plantation and must outsmart his captors on a journey North, where he joins the Union Army.

READ MORE: Will Smith, Warner Bros. sued over Richard Williams biopic

The story of Peter made headlines in 1863 when a photo taken of him during an Army medical examination was published. The visually-arresting image showed cars on his bare back from a brutal whipping received by an overseer on the plantation owned by John and Bridget Lyons.

“It was the first viral image of the brutality of slavery that the world saw,” Fuqua told Deadline. “Which is interesting, when you put it into perspective with today and social media and what the world is seeing, again. You can’t fix the past, but you can remind people of the past and I think we have to, in an accurate, real way,” he explained. 

Adding, “We all have to look for a brighter future for us all, for everyone. That’s one of the most important reasons to do things right now, is show our history. We have to face our truth before we can move forward.”

Fuqua noted that the Civil War-era thriller is “based on historical fact” and that writer Bill Collage “really went deep into” the “historical documents and also information from Peter’s own diaries,” he said. 

“When I read the script, I thought, what an amazing journey, a heartbreaking and heart-racing film to have an opportunity to make,” Faqua added. 

READ MORE: Will Smith, Warner Bros. sued over Richard Williams biopic

“It’s rare to have a film that, on the entertainment side, has action that I’ve never seen before, real action, a guy running through the swamps for his life, wrestling with alligators and snakes, being chased by hounds, then joining the Civil War, fighting against the Confederate army.”

Fuqua told Deadline that the image of Peter’s back “hit my heart and my soul in so many ways that are impossible to convey.”

Citing the most recent protests over racial injustice and police brutality, he added, “we’re watching some of the feeling that I had, in the streets right now. There’s sadness, there’s anger, there’s love, faith and hope as well because of what I see young people doing today.”

He continued, “They’re doing all the heavy lifting now. Black, white, brown, yellow, you name it. They’re out in the street, they’re young, and they’re standing up for their future.”

Production on Emancipation is slated to kick off in 2021.

The film will premiere in theaters and on Apple TV +.

Have you subscribed to theGrio’s new podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!

The post Apple acquires Will Smith’s ‘Emancipation’ in largest film festival deal ever appeared first on TheGrio.



from TheGrio https://ift.tt/2NQvbwU
at
Labels: ,

Delaware moves whipping post from public square that was used until the ’50s

You may wonder why in the world a whipping post ever existed in a public square in America post-slavery.

And then, you might wonder, well after its use was outlawed, why it remained in that public square for another 70 years, in full view of anyone passing by on a daily basis.

READ MORE: Mississippi lawmakers vote to remove Confederate emblem from flag

That is the question residents of Georgetown, Delaware must have asked before the protests in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor generated a national and global racial reckoning not seen in decades.

A protester holds up a sign that reads “We Never Left Jim Crow” during a protest sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody on May 29, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Some of those protests targeted still existing symbols of racism including monuments and statues to Confederate leaders and others who had played a role in subjugating Black people.

That outrage played a role in the removal of a whipping post that had existed outside Delaware’s Suffolk County courthouse this week but not before its horrific history was revealed.

 

As reported by Philadephia’s ABC station, WPVI, the 8-foot tall whipping post was used up until the ’50s to publicly punish people convicted of crimes. According to the state’s  Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs (HCA) it remained in use until 1952 and African-Americans were the ones who were punished that way more often than others.

Delaware, the nation’s first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, was also a slave slate. Freedom fighter Harriet Tubman escaped from Maryland to Delaware via their shared border and the Underground Railroad but had to continue on to Pennsylvania to live as a free woman.

“It is appropriate for an item like this to be preserved in the state’s collections, so that future generations may view it and attempt to understand the full context of its historical significance,” HCA Director Tim Slavin told ABC. “It’s quite another thing to allow a whipping post to remain in place along a busy public street – a cold, deadpan display that does not adequately account for the traumatic legacy it represents, and that still reverberates among communities of color in our state.”

READ MORE: Christopher Columbus statues beheaded in Boston, toppled in Richmond

Delaware did not outlaw the practice of whipping as punishment until 1972, the last state to do so. The post will be stored and preserved in an HCA facility so that it can be determined how to present it in its proper historical context in a museum.

Have you subscribed to theGrio’s new podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!

 

 

The post Delaware moves whipping post from public square that was used until the ’50s appeared first on TheGrio.



from TheGrio https://ift.tt/2NOFZMg
at
Labels: ,

China’s new national security law is already chilling free speech in Hong Kong

Andrew Wan, a pro-democracy lawmaker, is arrested by riot police during a protest against the new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. | Yat Kai Yeung/NurPhoto via Getty Images

China’s new security law just went into effect in Hong Kong. Free speech evaporated overnight.

At 11pm local time on Tuesday, Hong Kong’s government unveiled the text of a draconian new national security law that gives the Chinese government vast new powers to crackdown on free speech and dissent in Hong Kong.

Drafted in secrecy by top Chinese officials in Beijing — and not seen by the public until that very moment — the law criminalizes “secession, subversion, organization and perpetration of terrorist activities, and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.”

Those who commit such acts — which experts say are vaguely defined in the law, and thus allow for an extremely broad interpretation by authorities — face severe punishment, up to and including life in prison.

“The things that you talk about, you write about, you publish about, and even the people you know about, that you have connection with, can be potentially at risk of being prosecuted under this law,” Ho-Fung Hung, a political economy professor at Johns Hopkins University who focuses on China and East Asia, told Vox.

And, according to the New York Times, “The law opens the way for defendants in important cases to stand trial before courts in mainland China, where convictions are usually assured and penalties are often harsh.”

The law went into effect immediately. Less than 24 hours later, Hong Kong police announced the first arrest under the new policy.

And they weren’t subtle about it: They immediately posted photos on their official Twitter account of the young man they’d arrested. His alleged offense? Holding a pro-Hong Kong independence flag.

Chinese state media quickly reported the story of the first arrest — but they made sure to blur out the offending images of the pro-independence flag itself, lest they commit the same grievous act of promoting such a seditious idea (something the Hong Kong Police Force apparently didn’t think to do before tweeting the photos).

For many Hong Kong watchers, these images marked the beginning of the end of the freedoms that Hong Kong, unlike the rest of mainland China, had enjoyed for decades.

The law effectively ends “one country, one system”

The “one country, two systems” principle — enshrined in the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s de facto constitution — has been in place ever since Britain handed back control of the territory to China in 1997.

As Vox’s Jen Kirby explains, “The ‘one country’ part means [Hong Hong] is officially part of China, while the ‘two systems’ part gives it a degree of autonomy, including rights like freedom of the press that are absent in mainland China. China is supposed to abide by this arrangement until 2047, but it has been eroding those freedoms and trying to bring Hong Kong more tightly under its control for years.” Kirby continues:

Last spring, Hong Kong’s legislature tried to pass an extradition bill that critics feared would allow the Chinese government to arbitrarily detain Hongkongers. That ignited massive protests, leading to months of unrest that sometimes turned violent. The bill was withdrawn, but the demonstrations continued, as the fight transformed into a larger battle to protect Hong Kong’s democratic institutions.

But Beijing’s imposition of this new national security law is the most direct and dramatic move China has made toward erasing those freedoms once and for all.

“[The National Security Law] is a complete destruction of the rule of law in Hong Kong and threatens every aspect of freedom the people of Hong Kong enjoyed under the international human rights standards or the Basic Law,” Lee Cheuk Yan, a veteran Hong Kong politician and activist, told US lawmakers during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the new law on Wednesday.

Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images
On July 1, 2020, Hong Kong residents awoke to discover a barge with a large banner reading “Celebrate the National Security Law” floating in the waters of Victoria Harbor.

And Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, told Vox, “This law really eliminates ‘one country, two systems.’”

But Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activists aren’t cowed — or at least, not yet

Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
Pro-democracy supporters hold a Hong Kong independence flag and shout slogans during a rally against the national security law as riot police secure an area in a shopping mall in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020.

On Wednesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam held a press conference to announce the new law — a law drafted without her input and whose full details even she didn’t know until just the day before.

Outside, thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets to protest against — and in direct defiance of — it, despite a heavy police presence.

STR/AFP via Getty Images
Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks during a press conference with Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng (L) and Security Secretary John Lee (R) about the new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020, on the 23rd anniversary of the city’s handover from Britain to China.
Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
Demonstrators in Hong Kong take part in a protest on July 1, 2020, against the new national security law that infringes on freedoms residents have had since Britain handed back control of the territory in 1997.

Riot police deployed around the city held up large purple banners that read: “This is a police warning. You are displaying flags or banners / chanting slogans / or conducting yourselves with an intent such as secession or subversion, which may constitute offenses under the ‘HKSAR National Security Law.’ You may be arrested and prosecuted.”

By the end of the day, nearly 400 people had been arrested, including 10 who were specifically arrested for violating the new law.

Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
Riot police detain a man as they raise a warning flag during a demonstration on July 1, 2020, against a new national security law imposed by Beijing.
Dale de la Rey/AFP via Getty Images
Riot police detain a man as they clear protesters taking part in a rally against a new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020.

But experts fear that despite this initial strong opposition, the law’s chilling effect will happen eventually.

“People will be intimidated. They will charge people and they will sentence them,” Glaser said. “The Chinese have this saying, ‘kill the chicken to scare the monkey.’ They will look for very early cases that they can prosecute so that they can demonstrate their resolve in the hope of intimidating other people from challenging their authority.”

Johns Hopkins’s Hung also said the law could have major implications for September’s Hong Kong legislative elections, because the Chinese government could use the new law as a legal basis to suppress pro-democracy candidates.

“Under the new law, many of the slogans, many of the opinions are going to be illegal,” Hung said.

There’s already precedent for Chinese election officials intervening in Hong Kong’s legislative elections — in 2016, a number of candidates were disqualified for allegedly supporting Hong Kong independence, Hung said.

“I think that the Chinese were nervous after the last round of the district elections that there could be many Democrats who would be elected and, potentially, the pro-China legislature would lose legislators,” Glaser said.

“I think that if candidates do not moderate what they say, that they will be prevented from running under the law,” Glaser added. “They could easily be arrested.”

In fact, that has already happened: one pro-democracy lawmaker, the Democratic Party’s Andrew Wan, was arrested during the protests Wednesday.

It’s a stark example of just how quickly life has changed in Hong Kong, literally overnight.



from Vox - All https://ift.tt/31B9rNZ
at
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Black Faith

  • Black Christian Reads
    Who are you? - Ever since I saw the first preview of the movie, Overcomer, I wanted to see it. I was ready. Pumped. The release month was etched in my mind. When the time...
    5 years ago

Black Business

Black Fitness

Black Fashion

Black Travel

Black Notes

Interesting Black Links

Pride & Prejudice: Exploring Black LGBTQ+ Histories and Cultures

  In the rich tapestry of history, the threads of Black LGBTQ+ narratives have often been overlooked. This journey into their stories is an ...