US states have spent the past 5 years trying to criminalize protest | Grist

The Minnesota legislature has spent the last five years preparing for the kind of protests that have rocked the city over the past week in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd — by attempting to criminalize them.

From 2016 through 2019, state lawmakers introduced ten bills that either made obstructing traffic on highways a misdemeanor or increased penalties for protesting near oil and gas facilities. Most of these legislative proposals were introduced in response to ongoing protests against a controversial oil pipeline as well as those following the police killing of Philando Castile in a St. Paul suburb in 2016. The bills would have allowed protesters to be jailed for up to a year, fined offenders up to $3,000 each, and allowed cities to sue protesters for the cost of police response. Many of the bills were introduced in 2017 after racial justice activists in the state made headlines shutting down a major highway. A couple others were in response to protests in 2016 and 2019 against the energy company Enbridge’s planned replacement of a pipeline running from Alberta to Wisconsin.

 

Source: US states have spent the past 5 years trying to criminalize protest | Grist

Yes, Native Americans MUST be Included

GREAT FALLS, MONTANA – As protesters demand justice for George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, many Native Americans in Montana are showing solidarity for black Americans.

Floyd, 46, died after pleading for his life as a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck. The incident sparked outrage, and protesters flooded cities worldwide, including Great Falls, Helena, Bozeman, Missoula and Billings, calling for justice and an end to systemic racism.

 

Source: Native Americans Want to be Included in Race Talks | Voice of America – English

95 bodies—how sanitizing slavery keeps America’s hands clean – The Black Youth Project

The remains of ninety-five Black people were recently found buried at a construction site in Sugar Land, Texas. The vast majority of reports about this discovery neglect to call these dead Black people what they really were: enslaved.

 

Source: 95 bodies—how sanitizing slavery keeps America’s hands clean – The Black Youth Project

Saying “I am not my ancestors” blatantly disrespects how they lived and died for us – The Black Youth Project

In 2016, arguably the peak of activist apparel’s popularity, a number of businesses began to sell t-shirts, crewnecks, tote bags, buttons, pins and stickers with variations of the following: “I am not my ancestors; you can catch these hands”.

It is understandable why variations of this phrase caught on so quickly. The last five years have inspired a new generation of activists and organizers, a lot of us unfamiliar with the history of the movement for racial justice and with the philosophies of the Black nationalists who came before us.

 

Source: Saying “I am not my ancestors” blatantly disrespects how they lived and died for us – The Black Youth Project

Five legendary African cities you didn’t know were destroyed by Europeans – Face2Face Africa

Time and time again, archaeological findings have proven that Ancient African civilizations were well ahead of their time. Even though ancient Egypt has often been the main reference point when interpreting the past and experience of Africa, there were other kingdoms that sprang up to become equally powerful empires.
African history and civilizations did not only feature well-established towns or cities but also advanced systems of governance and trade. The following cities, which were created largely because of trade, cultural exchange or transit for traders and pilgrims, were thriving until they were destroyed by European imperialists.

 

Source: Five legendary African cities you didn’t know were destroyed by Europeans – Face2Face Africa

Black Lives Matter Protesters Topple Slave Trader Statue and Dump It in Harbour – VICE

Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol have toppled a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston and rolled it into Bristol Harbour.

The Colston statue has long been a controversial and much-hated monument in the city, with Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire calling for its removal in 2018. It stood on Colston Avenue – a street also named after the slave trader – in the city centre.

 

Source: Black Lives Matter Protesters Topple Slave Trader Statue and Dump It in Harbour – VICE

What Southeast Asian Refugees Owe to Black Lives — PIVOT – The Progressive Vietnamese American Organization

I was put on this by a friend of mne, an Angoleira named Xau Ying Ly.
As usual, you can find the link to the full article on the bottom of this post.
“Two decades before the first Southeast Asian refugees resettled in the United States, Black civil rights activists advanced the policies that helped reshape immigration policies that have saved our families. Their efforts culminated in the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which codified equality, anti-discrimination, and anti-racism as our country’s official policy.
…
Black civil rights leaders also had a direct hand in advocating for Southeast Asian refugees. Bayard Rustin, a Black and gay civil rights leader who co-organized the March on Washington, was a member of the International Rescue Committee’s Citizens Commission on Indochinese Refugees. Rustin visited refugee camps in Thailand in 1978, listening to the struggles of Cambodian, Hmong, Lao, and Vietnamese refugees. In part due to Rustin’s advocacy, President Carter supported a policy that rescued Southeast Asian refugees who had been turned away elsewhere.
Rustin also took on the difficult task of changing the mind of public opinion. Through national organizing, he convinced over 80 Black civil rights, organized labor, business, and academic leaders to publicly support the resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees. They took out an advertisement in the March 19, 1978 issue of The New York Times, soliciting donations for the International Rescue Committee, and connecting the plight of refugees to those of poor and Black Americans. Among the signatories are giants such as Coretta Scott King; Rev. Jesse Jackson; Daisy Bates; Hazel N. Dukes; and A. Phillip Randolph.
Within the Black community, Rustin responded to objections that refugees would only take away desperately needed jobs and housing by explaining the humanitarian crisis, going as far as calling the Southeast Asian refugee relegated to precarity the new ‘invisible man.’ This invisible man, formulated by the legendary Ralph Ellison, is one who is not seen for who they are as an individual, but only as a subset of stereotypes.
…
Our fight for resettlement is over, but the fight for the civil rights of Black people continues. In May of 1978, regarding the plight of Southeast Asian refugees, Rustin wrote: ‘Black people must recognize these people for what they are: brothers and sisters, not enemies and competitors.’ They were there for us, and we should be there for them: it is our turn to stand up for Black lives, not out of a debt that needs repaying, but out of decency.”

 

Source: What Southeast Asian Refugees Owe to Black Lives — PIVOT – The Progressive Vietnamese American Organization

Martin Luther King Jr Day: What We Get Wrong About His Story | Time

 

“In the 1960s, the vast majority of white people, South and North, disapproved of the movement’s tactics. In a May 1961 Gallup survey, only 22% of Americans approved of what the Freedom Riders were doing, and 57% of Americans said that the “sit-ins at lunch counters, freedom buses, and other demonstrations by Negroes were hurting the Negro’s chances of being integrated in the South.” Just before the March on Washington, Gallup found only 23% of Americans had favorable opinions of the proposed civil rights demonstration.”

 

Source: Martin Luther King Jr Day: What We Get Wrong About His Story | Time