In the immediate aftermath of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minnesota police officers, white America experienced a reckoning of sorts. Record labels apologized for historically exploiting Black artists, cities painted murals in recognition of the Black Lives Matter movement, racists got outed, institutions …
Welcome back to another week in HBO’s Lovecraft Country; our fourth. I want to begin this article moving backward from the largest issue in this week’s episode (serious spoiler alert): the violent murder of Yahima by Montrose. The final scene features a presumably cis Black man slitting the throat of a “two-spirit” …
Two GOPers have joined over 350 restaurants in the $2 billion lawsuit against Gov. Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Two local Republican politicians are joining a lawsuit filed by a group of New York restaurant owners to sue the state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, and the mayor of its largest city, Bill de Blasio.
State Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, New York City Council Minority Leader Steven Matteo and hundreds of restaurants contend that they have “tried to reason with the mayor and the governor,” but have been left with “no choice but to proceed with legal action.”
Malliotakis argued that “New York City meets the coronavirus reopening metrics like every municipality in the state, yet restaurants are being prohibited from having any indoor dining, and there’s no justification for this.”
Over 350 restaurants have signed on to the $2 billion lawsuit against Cuomo alleging irreparable harm. It demands that restaurants be able to open for indoor dining at a reduced capacity of 50%.
Read More: Meet the 3 women who created New York’s Black Women’s March
One eatery participating in the suit, Il Bacco, sits only 500 feet from the Nassau County border, where restaurants have been able to serve indoors at 50% capacity since June 24.
Robert Hanley, who manages a fine dining restaurant in Staten Island, told the New York Post that he had to “furlough or lay off” two-thirds of his staff.
The 5,000-square-foot restaurant is currently only serving a handful of socially distanced customers in four outdoor parking spots. “It’s unsustainable,” he said, “no matter how deep your pockets may be.”
Read More: New York woman, son start movie rental company amid pandemic
If New York City restaurants are not allowed to partially reopen before winter, experts suggest that more than 75% of them could close for good. According to Eater, more than 1,000 restaurants and bars in the city have already permanently shut their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
New York City was once the epicenter of the pandemic, with more than 23,000 deaths from COVID-19. Cuomo said Sunday that the state’s infection rate has been less than 1% for over a month.
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Seventh-grader Isaiah Elliott was participating in a Grand Mountain School art class when his teacher saw the toy gun onscreen.
A 12-year-old Colorado boy was suspended for five days from his school for “waving” a toy gun around during a virtual class. However, both he and his parents assert that the toy was moved from one side of his computer screen to the other.
Seventh-grader Isaiah Elliott was participating in an art class on his third day of distance learning on Aug. 27 when his teacher saw the toy on the screen. The vice principal of Grand Mountain School in Colorado Springs sent an email to his parents saying that the boy was “extremely distracted.” The vice-principal also noted that there had been “a very serious issue with waving around a toy gun.”
Read More: Woman calls police on Black man using his phone, falsely claims he had gun
That vice principal, Keri Lindaman, informed the Elliotts that she had called school resource officers from the local county sheriff’s office to conduct a health and wellness check on the boy at the family home.
The original report by Buzzfeed notes that El Paso County Sheriff’s officers revealed footage of the incident to the boy’s father, Curtis Elliott, videotape that had been recorded by the instructor and shown to them in the vice principal’s office.
Read More: Black teenager attacked by corrections deputy
His official notice of suspension states “Isaiah displayed and waved a firearm facsimile during a virtual classroom on Aug. 27, 2020.” But his father, upon viewing tape, said the boy, sitting on their sofa, had merely moved the plastic toy — labeled “Zombie Hunter” — from one side to the other, not wave it in a threatening manner.
Also, the Elliotts said that they had not permitted for their son to be recorded, according to matriarch Dani Elliott. The school noted that it was not their “current practice” to record classes, but said they had just added a new platform and were still becoming familiar with the system.
The Elliotts are planning to remove Isaiah, who has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), from the school district. They are currently considering a charter school more conducive to his needs.
Read More: Black jogger wrongfully arrested by San Antonio police: ‘I was guilty before proven innocent’
Grand Mountain School was aware of his diagnosis, and he reportedly has an individualized education plan there on file.
School officials wrote a statement on Facebook noting that “safety will always be number one for our students and staff.” They attested that the school follows “board policies and safety protocols consistently, whether we are in-person or distance learning.”
Dani Elliott expressed concern because young Isaiah’s suspension notice was written in a way that sounded like the incident occurred on school grounds, which could affect his future permanent records.
“God forbid something happens to my son down the road,” she said. “People could look at this and decide he doesn’t deserve justice. I know that sounds extreme … it’s a very real reality for us.”
The case inspired comments on social media that reminded the school of the police killing of Tamir Rice, who was playing with a similar gun in a Cleveland park when he was shot to death by police in 2014.
Like Isaiah Elliott, Rice was 12 years old.
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A team of Democrats has introduced legislation to declare racism as a national public health crisis.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Barbara Lee collaborated on Thursday to announce a bill titled “The Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2020.” The anti-racism bill is an unprecedented act that would convene and create national centers to research health disparities related to bigotry, according to ABC affiliate WCVB.
The trio cited the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and the swell of social justice protests as reasons to consider approving the motion.
In August, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared racism a public health issue and announced a state advisory committee to address issues affecting the Black community, as Blavity previously reported.
Michigan joined 18 other states that has at least one county that has made a similar declaration. King County in Washington has committed to an Anti-Racism Crisis Response Bill of Rights that support communities of color and aims to end the legacy of racism. While in Burlington, Vermont, a public health equity manager has been consulted to help the city in its fight against the issue.
“It is time we start treating structural racism like we would treat any other public health problem or disease: investing in research into its symptoms and causes and finding ways to mitigate its effects,” Warren said. “My bill with Representatives Lee and Pressley is a first step to create anti-racist federal health policy that studies and addresses disparities in health outcomes at their roots.”
The politicians said the coronavirus outbreak has highlighted racial disparities that need to be addressed. Nationwide, communities of color are being hit the hardest, according to NPR. In Boston, Black and Latinx communities make up 65% of the COVID-19 cases but account for just 40% of the population.
Wear a mask. pic.twitter.com/gvHn7OxIcp
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) July 29, 2020
“COVID-19 has exposed the injustices in health outcomes for Black and Brown people, and it’s no coincidence,” Lee told the Root. “In addition to addressing the lasting impacts of systemic racism in criminal justice, economic inequality and the like, we must also commit resources to understanding racially unjust health outcomes.”
A motivating factor behind the bill is the federal government's inefficiency in collecting data related to race for COVID-19 cases, the Democrats said.
"With the COVID-19 pandemic unveiling and exacerbating racial disparities in health outcomes, it is time we recognize and treat structural racism and police brutality as the public health crises that they are," Pressley said in a statement.
If it is accepted as law, the act would create two new initiatives within the CDC.
The bill would be instituted to declare racism a public health concern while leading research on the issue. Another priority of the center would be educating the public on the "health impacts of structural racism and anti-racist public health interventions.”
A Law Enforcement Violence Prevention Program would also be created within the CDC to combat police brutality and institutional racism with law enforcement agencies. It would work to eliminate “deaths, injury, trauma, and negative mental health effects from police presence and interactions.”
“We must have a coordinated public health response to structural racism, and this bill would do just that,” Pressley said.
