Message from Associate Editor Aswad Walker

CLOSING ARGUMENTS

Even with Derek Chauvin being found guilty on all counts for the murder of George Floyd, what’s been proven conclusively is that America and white supremacy are synonymous. Still not sure? The federal government okayed deployment of the National Guard in D.C. in anticipation of the public’s response to the Chauvin verdict. Yet, when former president 45 and his lackeys spent two months issuing a call-to-arms in D.C. to “Stop the [non-existent] Steal” (i.e. commit treason), no such pre-deployment happened. And on Jan. 6, to nobody’s surprise, when Trumpites came in full insurrectionist glory, beating cops with American flags and fire extinguishers, with nooses and zip ties for prisoners in hand, the National Guard wasn’t deployed until hours after besieged lawmakers begged for help. Yet, Blackfolk have been begging for 400 years to be treated humanely. And therein lies the problem. Closing arguments conclude that it’s time we stop trying to convince others to treat us with respect, and take actions that demand it. Because regardless of Chauvin’s guilty verdict, institutional racism will keep marching on. And the killers of Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin, and so many others, are still free.

RACIAL PROFILING NEEDED

Even with all the criticism police earn, I’ll still feel safer when police start racial profiling. And by “start,” I mean start profiling whites. More specifically, white men. Have you seen the mug shots of most U.S. mass murderers lately, or historically? There’s most definitely a “type.” White male, late teens to mid-40s, usually single, GOP-Trump-loving, avid white supremacist website visitor and/or devoted FOX News fanboy who believes white men are the most oppressed demographic in America. Seriously. According to The Violence Project, a nonpartisan research group that tracks U.S. mass shooting data, 98% of mass shootings have been committed by predominantly white men. Law enforcement has NO PROBLEM racially profiling Blacks based off racist stereotypes, but refuses to allow facts to paint the mass shooter profile we’ve seen over and over again… in Atlanta, Boulder, Indianapolis, Charlottesville, Columbine, Phoenix, Virginia Beach, El Paso, Santa Fe, Dayton, Sandy Hook, Pittsburgh. Get the picture.

BUCKWILD TEXAS SENATE

Keeping in racist lockstep with far-right, GOP founders of the “America First Caucus” (literally the whitest “shtuff” ever), the Texas Senate has gone buckwild. Harris County’s 2019 move to end cash bail for those accused of minor offenses and to stop criminalizing poverty, has now been reversed by Texas Senate good ‘ol boys and girls. Apparently, reinstituting Jim Crow voter suppression tactics wasn’t enough. Now, these GOP state senators have reinstituted penalizing people (mainly Black and Brown) for lacking Elon Musk-level money. But wait, there’s more. Senate Bill 14 would ban cities and counties from requiring companies to provide benefits like paid sick leave, leaving sick Texas workers having to “choose between going to work and eating,” according to Texas AFL-CIO president Rick Levy. And what better time than now, a moment dominated by heightened racial violence, pandemic stresses and mass shootings, for Texas senators to champion a bill that would let Texans without permits open carry? What could go wrong?

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