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The Demonization of Black Lives Matter

Right Wing Watch: The Week’s Weirdest Moments on the Extreme Right.

The Demonization of Black Lives Matter

With the 2020 presidential election fast approaching, activists on the extreme right are pulling out all the stops as they cook up outlandish conspiracy theories designed to terrify Americans into reelecting President Donald Trump.

For example, former Rep. Michele Bachmann recently claimed that Black Lives Matter and anti-fascist activists are deliberately creating civil unrest across the country in an effort to destabilize the government so they can impose communism on the United States. Key to the plan, Bachmann claimed, will be the election of Joe Biden to the presidency so he can crash the U.S. economy and establish a one-world government.

Bachmann, who has been serving as a self-appointed “pastor to the United Nations” since leaving office, claimed that the Black Lives Matter movement is run by "transgender Black Marxists who are seeking the overthrow the United States." These BLM activists, she said, are trying to foment race wars which will provide the pretext for a communist takeover.

“This is exactly what a communist revolution looks like," Bachmann warned. "They think they’re going to do it by electing Joe Biden and then, once Joe Biden is elected ... they think that what they’re going to do is have the United States’ economy collapse, move to a digital currency globally, and then we move into a global-type government. I mean, it’s bizarre, but this is their goal."

Bachmann wasn't the only right-wing activist warning about supposed dangers allegedly posed by BLM, but she couldn't hold a candle to Trump-loving evangelist Lance Wallnau, who warned that, in protest chants where the names of Black people killed by police are called, the movement is using "witchcraft" to bring down America.

"It actually is rooted in a form of mysticism, which is spirit-summoning of the ancestral dead," Wallnau said. "So what you have is a form of spiritism, which is really witchcraft, which is woven into the foundation of the summoning of the ancestors spiritually, which is summoning the dead. This is the theology that is woven into the roots of BLM."

Wallnau went on to allege that when cities paint “Black Lives Matter” murals on their streets, they are actually creating a "Babylonian siege engine" that is used as part of a "summoning of demons through a ritual of incantation."

But when it comes to crafting truly outrageous anti-BLM conspiracy theories, few can match the ingenuity of the so-called “firefighter prophet,” Mark Taylor. Taylor is a former Florida firefighter who transitioned into the role of modern-day "prophet" after claiming to have been told by God in 2011 that Donald Trump would become president of the United States. In his capacity as a "prophet," Taylor has been an endless source of increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories, such as his claim that Trump has access to technology that can control the weather, his assertion that the late Sen. John McCain did not die of brain cancer in 2018 but was secretly executed by a military tribunals, not to mention Taylor’s insistence that the Freemasons and the Illuminati are using a Satanic frequency to change people’s DNA in order to make them oppose Trump.

One would like to think that Taylor would be shunned by others in the pro-Trump right-wing movement for pushing such obviously absurd claims, but of course, the exact opposite is the case, as Taylor has instead become so popular among denizens of the Trump base that a feature-length movie was made about him in 2018 with the help of Liberty University.

Not surprisingly, Taylor continues to regularly spread baseless and far-fetched conspiracy theories, such as his most recent assertion that BLM and other protesters who have taken to the streets across the country in recent months are actually victims of mind-control whose actions are being orchestrated by “handlers” carrying umbrellas.

“You can’t reason with someone that’s been mind-controlled," Taylor said. "Do you notice the guys in the streets with the umbrellas? Those are their handlers. That activates the programming. What that does, the umbrella reminds them and activates the violence programming, saying that, ‘If you don’t get violent, we will activate the tormenting spirits that we have placed in you to torment you until you do.'”

Sure.

And just in case that wasn't outlandish enough, Taylor recently insisted during a different interview that anyone who votes for the Democrats in the upcoming elections is "supporting Satanism, pedophilia, abortion, human and child-trafficking." People who vote for Democrats, he said, are committing "spiritual treason, punishable by spiritual death."

With less than two months to go until the election, it is probably safe to assume that these sorts of claims will seem downright reasonable in comparison to the things we're going to be hearing from some of Trump's extreme right-wing supporters in the coming weeks.

Right Wing Watch is a project of People For the American Way, dedicated to monitoring and exposing the activities and rhetoric of right-wing activists and organizations in order to expose their extreme agenda.

Racial Justice Can Only Begin When Police Departments Reflect the Communities They Serve By Sunita Sohrabji

Sept. 15, 2020

Racial Justice Can Only Begin When Police Departments Reflect the Communities They Serve
By Sunita Sohrabji

"Take your knee off our necks" march August 28. PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney News Wire.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Ethnic Media Services

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Even as U.S. crime rates drop to historic lows, residents of low-income neighborhoods continue to be over-policed and victimized by law enforcement, concluded panelists at a Sept. 4 briefing.

Crime in the U.S. peaked in the early 1990s, but has fallen 51 percent from 1993 to 2018, notwithstanding a couple of years with spikes in violent crime, according to FBI data. Property crime has also dropped by 54 percent in the past 25 years.

But low-income urban cities, overwhelmingly populated by Black and Latinx residents, continue to be over-policed, largely by white males, many with known affiliations to white supremacist organizations. 83 percent of police officers are white males.

A summer of protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement — after the death of Minnesota resident George Floyd who was killed by former police officer Derek Chauvin — has heightened public scrutiny on local law enforcement. The nation has been deeply divided by the choice of supporting either “law and order,” with armed militia inserting its might into peaceful protests, or de-funding the police, which President Donald Trump and others have equated with giving rise to anarchy.

Former FBI agent Michael German, author of the report “Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism, White Supremacy, and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement” released by the Brennan Center for Justice Aug. 27, said ample evidence exists of police officers being affiliated with white supremacist groups.

Moreover, research organizations have uncovered hundreds of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials participating in overt bias, via racist and sexist social media activity, he said at the Sept. 4 briefing, organized by Ethnic Media Services. Officers rarely face repercussions for such activity, claiming they are protected by the First Amendment.

“The FBI believes this is a significant problem, and yet there is still no national strategy around far-right violence and white supremacy in the United States,” said German. He said the problem was poorly understood because the federal government de-prioritizes such work, and state and local governments are unlikely to pick up the slack.

Raj Jayadev, the co-founder of Silicon Valley De-Bug, which pioneered the concept of participatory defense in criminal justice proceedings, gave the example of San Jose, California police officer Philip White, who was fired in 2015 for tweeting a series of racially-charged messages. White targeted the Black Lives Matter movement, which was protesting the death of New York resident Eric Garner, who died in 2014 while being placed in a choke-hold by former police officer Daniel Pantaleo. “I can’t breathe,” said Garner as he fell unconscious.

White tweeted out: “By the way if anyone feels they can’t breathe or their lives matter, I’ll be at the movies tonight, off duty, carrying my gun.” He was initially fired, but in 2016, following arbitration, White got his job back and is still on the force.

“The culture of policing is so steeped in racist practices. I don't know how you change that,” said Jayadev, adding that the culture of policing is laced with white supremacy to the point where officers like White are not outliers, but instead accepted by their peers. “Oh that’s just Phillip: he does things like that,” said Jayadev, characterizing White’s colleagues’ response to his tweets. Moreover, racist officers are protected by their unions, he said, rarely facing the repercussions for their racist behavior.

In June, the postings of a private Facebook group comprised of active and retired San Jose police officers were exposed. One inflammatory post claimed: “Black lives really don’t matter,” whereas another post suggested a hijab could be used as a noose.

“Racism is embedded into an institution that has the ability to kill to harm to strip you of your liberty,” said Jayadev, commenting on the Facebook group incident.

The civil rights activist spoke about the concept of de-funding police. “This system of law and order that has existed as a result of and since slavery does not result in safety. If anything, it creates more harm and danger,” he said. “So take away that harm and then invent and create space for investments into other things that address the root causes of harm.”

Jayadev and Dr. Dorothy Johnson-Speight, who founded Mothers in Charge after her son was killed in 2001 in a parking dispute, said some of the funds currently allocated to policing could instead be used to fund mental health and behavioral health services, which could be implemented in many situations in which police are currently deployed.

“When that call comes in, it doesn't go to 911. It goes to a different number to a group of people that are equipped on how to de-escalate a situation and solve the issue without taking a life,” said Jayadev.

“They go to the home and and then they have someone that actually survives the encounter and actually gets the help that they probably called for,” he said.

Johnson-Speight spoke about the need for police departments to reflect the community they are policing. “You can't expect 83 percent of white men to understand the issues of minority communities.”

“How can it be community policing if you don't understand, or if you're not really involved in the community,” she queried, noting that police are recruited from throughout the nation.

“I think now because of George Floyd we have seen people around the country and around the world standing up against police brutality,” said Johnson-Speidt. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

African Union Threatens Expulsion for Member Countries with Outstanding Bills

Sept. 14, 2020

African Union Threatens Expulsion for Member Countries with Outstanding Bills

africanunionpresidentweahatecowasmeeting

Pres. Weah at Ecowas meeting

(TriceEdneyWire.com/GIN) – The African Union made up of 55 countries is the continental body designated to achieve unity, cohesion and solidarity. But the lofty goals are apt to dissolve when countries are late in paying their bills.

Liberia is currently in their crosshairs with a debt of $1.6 million. Full membership privileges have been withdrawn, leaving the cash-strapped West African nation with a lesser observer status.

Observers lack the ability to vote or propose resolutions, observed the Liberian FrontPageAfrica in a recent news story. “It is with this in mind that Liberia must return as quickly as possible to full membership in the Africa Union for the good of the nation, her people and humanity!”

According to a recent news report, former President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson found a hefty unpaid bill when she took office in 2006. Liberia was already under sanctions, deprived of voting rights and full membership privileges at virtually all international organizations, with unpaid dues dating as far back as the early 1990s.

The Sirleaf-led government negotiated payment plans, budgeted and made annual payments of its arrears in accordance with an agreed-upon payment plan. By the end of 2008, the Government had restored full rights for Liberia in all membership organizations.

If misery loves company, Liberia need not worry about facing sanctions alone. Other countries suspended by the African Union include South Sudan for failing to pay $9 million over the past three years, and the West African nation of Mali, suspended after insurgent soldiers ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar, the Prime Minister, and several government officials for a crumbling economy and decrepit public services and schools, along with a widely shared perception of government corruption.

Expulsions also face Burundi and South Sudan for defaulting on their annual dues to the East African Community (EAC), an intergovernmental organization of six countries. Member states pay $8 million a year to the bloc but according to The East African news, Burundi had arrears of some $15 million by June 10 while South Sudan owes $27.8 million.

Other EAC states with arrears include Uganda ($1.6 million), Rwanda ($2.7 million) and Tanzania ($4.2 million). Kenya is the only country out of the six members that has fully paid its annual dues.

In other news from Liberia, the U.S. State Dept. has blacklisted former Passport Director Andrew Wonplo and his entire family from entry to the U.S. for selling Liberian passports to foreign nationals. Wonplo was found innocent but the judgment was seen as flawed by the American government.

GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK creates and distributes news and feature articles on current affairs in Africa to media outlets, scholars, students and activists in the U.S. and Canada. Our goal is to introduce important new voices on topics relevant to Americans, to increase the perspectives available to readers in North America and to bring into their view information about global issues that are overlooked or under-reported by mainstream media.

Black Households Earned 61 Cents for Every Dollar of White Median Incomes Police Violence Linked to Segregated Housing By Charlene Crowell

Sept. 15, 2020

Black Households Earned 61 Cents for Every Dollar of White Median Incomes

Police Violence Linked to Segregated Housing

By Charlene Crowell

black-white gap

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The August 23 police shooting of an unarmed Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, triggered yet another round of community protests and national news coverage of a Black man. A series of multiple gunshots fired by a local police officer, were not fatal for 29-year old Jacob Blake; but may have permanently paralyzed him from the waist down.

Days later on August 28, the National Action Network served as a major organizer for a Commitment March, rededicating the yet unaddressed dreams of the historic 1963 March on Washington. Assembled again at Washington’s Lincoln Memorial, the day’s speakers spanned nationally-known leaders like Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, and Attorney Ben Crump to the family members of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake and others.

The irony is that despite the passage of nearly 60 years between the original march and its 2020 recommitment, many of the issues that have plagued Black America remain the same. Black America and other people of color still cry for justice, equality, and freedom. Yet noticeably, what formerly focused national attention on events in Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham have now emanated from Ferguson, to Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland and other locales.

Why measurable forward strides in policing, or economic progress have remained elusive after decades of calls for reforms may partly be explained by the findings of a new policy analysis by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis. Using U.S. Census Bureau data, Ana Hernandez Kent, a policy analyst with the St. Louis Fed, found that America’s racial poverty gap continues to suppress social and economic justice. Moreover, Wisconsin, not a southern state, claims the dubious distinction of having the largest poverty gap in the nation.

Nationally the St. Louis Fed found that in 2018, Black households earned 61 cents for every $1 of White household median income. Further, the Black/White median household income gaps ranged from 87 cents per dollar in Maine and Hawaii, down to 32 cents per dollar in the District of Columbia. The disparity in median translates into 22 percent of all Black Americans living in poverty, a gap of 13 percent compared to Whites who are poor. Wisconsin’s gap is 23 percent.

“In noting the socioeconomic indicators of median income, poverty rates and health insurance rates, I found that White people had more favorable outcomes than Black people in every state,” wrote Hernandez Kent.

Poverty’s racial disparity extends to other key measures such as median incomes, homeownership and retirement.

Even with the enactment of the Fair Housing Act more than 50 years ago, today’s Black homeownership rate is dwindling. According to Ohio State University professor, Trevon Logan, “The homeownership gap between Blacks and whites is higher today in percentage terms than it was in 1900.”

Prof. Logan’s position is bolstered by findings from a 2020 report by the National Association of Realtors, A Snapshot of Race and Homebuying in America that found:

62 percent of Black mortgage applicants were rejected because of their debt to income ratio, compared to only 5 percent of whites; and

51 percent of Blacks are first-time homeowners, compared to only 30% of Whites.

Moreover, since the Great Recession that heavily hit Black homeowners a decade ago, today’s Black homeownership rate has yet to return to pre-recession levels.

With lower and life-long disparities in median income earnings, the ability to prepare for retirement is hindered as well. Social Security figures each worker’s retirement benefit on the basis of a taxpayer’s 35 highest-earning years. With lower incomes and a corresponding lack of monies available for savings or retirement, Black Americans rely on Social Security more than other races and/or ethnicities. Now, for much of Black America, Social Security is a financial lifeline and often the major retirement benefit.

In sum, it seems that in 2020, historic ills remain virtually unchanged. A key component of what continues is police violence against Black America.

In 1963, escalating racial tensions that worsened with growing numbers of peaceful protests that became violent by counter-protesters and led to multiple arrests, prompted President John F. Kennedy to deliver a nationally televised address on America’s racial reckoning.

“One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free”, he continued. “They are not free from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.”

Fast forward and it is nearly inconceivable that the current president would deliver such an address. In fact, President Trump and HUD Secretary Ben Carson co-authored a recent op ed in the Wall Street Journal that portrayed mixed income neighborhoods as “social engineering”. The redlining of Black communities, racial covenants, real estate steering and restrictive zoning laws that together perpetuated segregated housing were never acknowledged in the guest column.

In response, Nikitra Bailey’s the Center for Responsible Lending recently spoke with ABC News saying that the suburbs “intentionally created opportunities for White families while holding back opportunities for families of color…What we are really talking about is opportunity in our nation.”

With escalated violence in a growing number of cities occurring just months before an election, everyday citizens and scholars are echoing community and national leaders on the connection between key policies like housing segregation to violent eruptions.

Last December, the Journal of the National Medical Association, the professional organization of Black physicians, published an article titled, The Relationship between Racial Residential Segregation and Black-White Disparities in Fatal Police Shootings at the City Level, 2013–2017.

The authors concluded that “Racial residential segregation is a significant predictor of the magnitude of the Black-White disparity in fatal police shootings at the city level. Efforts to ameliorate the problem of fatal police violence must move beyond the individual level and consider the interaction between law enforcement officers and the neighborhoods that they police.”

Before the thousands gathered this August, Rev. Sharpton also spoke to this same concern.

“It’s time we have a conversation with America. We need to have a conversation about your racism, about your bigotry, about your hate, about how you would put your knee on our neck while we cry our lives. We need a new conversation…You act like it’s no trouble to shoot us in the back. You act like it’s no trouble to put a choke hold on us while we scream, ‘I can’t breathe,’ 11 times. You act like it’s no trouble to hold a man down on the ground until you squeeze the life out of him.”

“Our vote is dipped in blood,” he continued. “Our vote is dipped in those that went to their grave. We don’t care how long the line, we don’t care what you do, we’re going to vote, not for one candidate or the other, but we going to vote for a nation that’ll stop the George Floyds, that’ll stop the Breonna Taylors.”

Charlene Crowell is a senior fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Trump Leads by Division, While Biden Leads by Multiplication By Jesse Jackson

Sept. 14, 2020

Trump Leads by Division, While Biden Leads by Multiplication
By Jesse Jackson

(TriceEdneyWire.com) As the presidential campaigns heat up, Americans are provided with a stark choice of leaders. The visits to Kenosha of Donald Trump and Joe Biden provide clear contrasts for all to see. Kenosha erupted after a white policeman shot an unarmed Black man, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Demonstrators have marched night after night demanding justice.

The protests were marred by vandalism, with some stores looted and burned. Informally organized, armed, right-wing militia groups came in looking for a fight. President Trump came to Kenosha despite the objections of local officials that his presence would be provocative. That didn’t deter him because he came to provoke. He met with local police, toured some of the businesses that were burned down, and condemned the demonstrators. He refused to meet with the mother of Jacob Blake or to talk with Blake himself. Asked about the scourge of racism in our criminal justice system that has sparked unprecedented demonstrations across the country, he dismissed that as “the opposite subject.”

That wasn’t his message. He wanted to focus on “the kind of violence we’ve seen in Portland and here and other places. The fact is that we’ve seen tremendous violence and we will put it out very, very quickly if given the chance.”

He attributed the repeated police killings to the notion that the police “choke” under pressure, like a golfer choking and missing a short putt. For George Floyd or Eric Garner, the only choking came from the choke holds police used to take their lives. Trump bizarrely points to the chaos engulfing the country on his watch and warns that this is what will happen if his opponent is elected. While scorning the governor and local officials as weak,

Trump took credit for ordering in the National Guard, though he had nothing to do with it. They were ordered in by the governor at the request of local officials. Trump offers no hope for reform. He acts only to fan fears and division in the hope it will help him in the election. Joe Biden came to Kenosha two days later. He met in a church with representatives of the community, with firefighters and with local officials.

He heard the pain of those living with fears of police violence in the Black community, and expressed his concern at the systemic racism in our criminal justice system. He spent an hour with Blake’s family and talked with Jacob Blake on the phone. He promised that he would work to bring reform, to address the scourge of racism that still scars our nation. He has condemned the violence, the vandals and the vigilantes, even as he praised those peacefully demonstrating for justice. He called for reform of the police, even as he distinguished the large number of dedicated police from the lawless few who should be held accountable. He quoted Jacob Blake’s mother who told him: “I’m praying for Jacob, but I’m praying for the policemen as well. I’m praying that things change.”

The contrast was clear. Trump leads by subtraction and division; Biden by addition and multiplication. One fans polarization, the other seeks reconciliation. One peddles fears; the other offers hope. Trump refuses to condemn the right-wing vigilantes, even offering a defense of the 17-yearold Trump supporter who traveled to Kenosha with an assault weapon, and shot and killed two people, wounding another.

Trump refuses to acknowledge the provocations that lead unprecedented numbers of people to protest peacefully for justice, dismissing them as “anarchists.” Campaigning in 2016, he encouraged police to mistreat suspects, suggesting a little brutality would be a good thing. In the face of demonstrations marred by violence and vandalism, Biden chose not to abandon those demanding justice.

He condemned lawless actions on both right and left and called on Trump to do the same. At the same time, he reached out to the victim, and acknowledged the provocations that lead citizens to march for justice. Trump sees the demonstrations as a political opportunity that he can use to scare those in the suburbs, to stand as the law-and-order candidate. He pretends that if re-elected he can bring order, ignoring that fact that he is president as the disorder spreads. Biden, in contrast, has felt the pain of losing a child. He hears the agony of African Americans who want safe neighborhoods and at the same time, live with real fears for the safety of their sons or daughters from the very forces tasked with protecting them.

In 1960 in the midst of a presidential campaign, Martin Luther King was arrested in Birmingham for leading peaceful protests for equal rights. He was denounced as an outside agitator, a radical, a communist. John F. Kennedy made a dramatic call to King in his jail cell, making it clear that he understood the justice of his cause. That call had a dramatic effect on his razor-thin margin over Richard Nixon.

It also set the stage for the civil rights reforms that came after Kennedy’s assassination. Biden’s trip to Kenosha — at a time when Trump is desperately peddling fear and division to bolster his election changes — reminds me of Kennedy’s courage. Americans must choose whether they want a leader who promises only to drive us apart or one who offers the possibility of bringing us together.