“By ‘white supremacy’ I do not mean to allude only to the self-conscious racism of white supremacist hate groups. I refer instead to a political, economic and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings.”
-Frances Lee, Ansley, Stirring the Ashes: Race, Class and the Future of Civil Rights Scholarship, 74 Cornell L. Rev 993, 1024 n.129, (1989).
- “White lies.”
- The number of U.S. hate groups expanded last year under President Donald Trump, fueled by his immigration stance and the perception that he sympathized with those espousing white supremacy. New York Times
- Not guilty verdict in murder of 15-year-old girl emblematizes systemic injustice for Indigenous women and girls. Jezebel
- Fifty years after the historic Kerner Commission identified “white racism” as the key cause of “pervasive discrimination in employment, education and housing,” there has been no progress in how African Americans fare in comparison to whites when it comes to homeownership, unemployment and incarceration. Washington Post
- An Indian immigrant’s fight for US citizenship in 1923 holds lessons in Trump’s America. Scroll
- Decades after Brown v. Board of Education, school segregation is still rendering the nation’s most diverse public school district its most divided, putting children on divergent paths to poverty and privilege virtually from birth, undermining New York City’s future prospects. The Nation
- New podcast chronicles the internment of Japanese Americans. Colorlines
- Americans’ reliance on household debt ─ and poor people’s struggles to pay it off ─ has fueled a collection industry that forces many of them into jail, a practice that critics call a misuse of the criminal justice system. NBC News
- The lead US agency tasked with granting citizenship to would-be Americans is making a major change to its mission statement, removing a passage that describes the United States as a nation of immigrants. The Intercept
- Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner drank a glass of chocolate milk to demonstrate his belief in diversity. Chicago Tribune
- ‘Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?’ reckons with white supremacy. A filmmaker investigates a racial murder committed by his great-grandfather in Jim Crow-era Alabama. It’s an intensely, painfully personal project. New York Times
- Since Standing Rock, 56 bills have been introduced in 30 states to restrict protests. The Nation
- Inside Atomwaffen as it celebrates a member for allegedly killing a gay Jewish college student. ProPublica
- Tweet by Charles M. Blow about the Florida shooter. Twitter
- Illinois Republican called Black female Attorney General candidate ‘lesbo’ and used the n-word. The Root
- Video: Two Black students were racially profiled and publicly assaulted by Loyola’s campus police. Twitter
- Philando Castile’s mom slams NRA chief Wayne LaPierre as a hypocrite: “If he really cared about the good guys out here, he would have stood up for my son. It’s about money. This country is run off money. Everybody wants a piece. My son was one of the good guys, but him being black, obviously they didn’t see him as a good guy. They’ve yet to say anything about my son.” New York Daily News
- The NCAA says student-athletes shouldn’t be paid because the 13th Amendment allows unpaid prison labor. The Intercept
- The NAACP has filed suit against Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach police citing discrimination against African American tourists during Black Bike Week. WPDE
- People of color continue to be denied conventional mortgage loans at rates far higher than their white counterparts. Reveal
- The immigration debate is about whether Latinos are “real Americans.” Democrats debate policy as Trump pursues a radical ethnonationalist agenda. Vox
- Fired Infowars staffers are at war with Alex Jones – one claiming he was teased as the site’s ‘resident Jew’ while an African American worker says she was ‘mocked’ for her skin tone and Jones ‘grabbed her behind.’ Daily Mail
GOOD NEWS, VICTORIES & HEROES
- Former trump campaign aide Rick Gates is expected to plead guilty. New York Times
- The hundreds of BRAVE & INTELLIGENT & RESILIENT students that have taken to the streets, to the White House, to state capitols, town halls, on Twitter — to mobilize, protest, shout from the rooftops that #EnoughIsEnough and #NeverAgain. “We’ve been waiting for you.” -President Barack Obama
- Al Hoffman Jr., a prominent Republican donor, has vowed to withhold contributions from candidates that do not support a ban on assault weapons. New York Times
- Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott calls for raising the minimum age to buy firearms to 21. NBC News
- Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway is asking the NRA to find a new home for its annual convention in May. ABC 13
- After 4,000 Daily Action calls yesterday, the First National Bank of Omaha is no longer offering their NRA Visa card. HuffPost
- Three car rental companies (Alamo, National, and Enterprise) have ended their partnership with the NRA. ThinkProgress
- Scott Pappalardo filmed himself destroying his AR-15 rifle (which he’s owned for more than 30 years) to “make sure this weapon will never be able to take a life.” ABC News
- Amal & George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, and Jeffrey Katzenberg all donated $500,000 to the student-organized March For Our Lives. Reuters
- This week, Democrat Linda Belcher won a special election in Kentucky’s (deep-red) House District 49. Making it the 37th flipped seat since trump was elected. The Hill
- Lucy McBath is mother, wife, businesswoman and activist for social justice. In 2012, her 17-year-old son was shot and killed by a white man. This year, she is running for a seat in Georgia’s House of Representatives to help “make communities safer and better for every American of every background.” Mother Jones
- 236 mayors from all over the U.S. sent EPA chief Scott Pruitt a letter demanding that he stop dismantling the Clean Power Plan. Grist
- Following a unanimous decision by the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission, a racist statue located in Civic Center is one step closer to being removed. SFGate
- People are registering to vote at Black Panther screenings via the #WakandaTheVote campaign. Vox
- Ellen to trump: “You mess with @Oprah, you mess with me, Mr. President.” The Ellen Show
- The U.S. Women’s Hockey Team won their first gold in 20 years. ABC News
To read more from Susie Tompkins Buell’s The Rising, click here.
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