America has, once again, made it clear that it has no interest in doing even the bare minimum to make amends for the historic atrocities committed against Black people—even the Black people who experienced those atrocities firsthand.

According to CNN, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the remaining survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Wednesday, siding with a lower court’s ruling that the plaintiffs, who are both more than 100 years old now, shouldn’t get damages because “simply being connected to a historical event does not provide a person with unlimited rights to seek compensation.”

Imagine looking the only survivors of one of the worst and most notorious race massacres in America’s history right in the eye and telling them they aren’t owed anything for what they suffered. Imagine saying that to Black people who are seeking reparations, not as the descendants of the people who suffered, but as the sufferers themselves. The state Supreme Court even acknowledged that the “grievance with the social and economic inequities created by the Tulsa Race Massacre is legitimate and worthy of merit.” Did the justices even wince a little when they admitted this to 109-year-olds Viola Ford Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield Randle knowing they were about to add a huge “but” to the statement?

“However, the law does not permit us to extend the scope of our public nuisance doctrine beyond what the Legislature has authorized to afford Plaintiffs the justice they are seeking,” the court wrote in its decision. In other words: The lower court wouldn’t give them justice, and the Supreme Court “justices” won’t either.

Source: SMH: Reparations Lawsuit Filed By Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors Dismissed By Oklahoma Supreme Court

The Ohio-based homeschooling group has more than 3,000 subscribers and uses a social media platform to spread messages that are racist, pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic and homophobic.

A white supremacist online homeschooling organization is distributing Nazi resources, but Ohio law limits the state’s ability to intervene.

Following parents’ complaints about the organization spreading messages of white supremacy in educational tools, the Ohio Department of Education — which does not review or authorize home school curricula — began an investigation and examination of its compliance with statutory and regulatory standards, CNN reported.

The homeschooling group, created in October 2021, has more than 3,000 subscribers and uses a social media messaging platform to share information and lesson plans. Its first message states that they mostly share resources for curriculum recommendations for elementary-aged children.An alleged white supremacist online homeschooling organization based out of Ohio has been distributing Nazi resources to parents, and state officials, although frustrated, can do nothing. (Photo: Adobe Stock)

Since then, it has shared numerous messages that are racist, anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi and homophobic.

“We have fought hard for our right to homeschool the children,” a December post reads, according to CNN. “Without homeschooling the children, our children are left defenseless to the schools and the Gay Afro Zionist scum that run them.” Another displayed pages of handwritten Hitler quotes with a “Thanksgiving copywork” directive.

As Martin Luther King Jr. Day approached just last month, a user named Mrs. Saxon posted that it was their responsibility as parents to assure their children knew the late civil rights leader as “the deceitful, dishonest, riot-inciting negro he actually was.”

“He is the face of a movement which ethnically cleansed whites out of urban areas,” Mrs. Saxon continued, according to CNN, “and precipitated the anti-white regime that we are now fighting to free ourselves from.”

Source: A white supremacist homeschooling group distributes Nazi resources, and the state can’t do anything about it

Source: PABLO PORCIUNCULA / Getty

Brazilian voters rejected a second term of far-right rule Sunday evening. With over a two million vote lead, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as simply Lula, is now president-elect.

Lula beat Bolsonaro by approximately six million votes in the first round, but not enough to beat incumbent Jair Bolsonaro outright. Unlike the United States, the popular vote dictates the presidency. There is no Brazilian electoral college.

Lula was very popular during his last tour as president. Fifteen years ago, I traveled to Brazil as a part of a law school study abroad trip during Lula’s second term.

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Periodically following up with students I met during that time, Bolsonaro’s election brought deep concerns for hard-fought progress in the country. But Sunday night felt different for one friend who said she shed tears but for a different reason than four years earlier. She said they were tears of joy.

As we’ve seen in the U.S., defeating a far-right leader is only one step to combatting the global pull toward fascism. Brazil took a decisive step in the right direction Sunday.

Black and poor voters overwhelmingly Back Lula

Lula garnered most of his support from the northern part of the country. Northeastern Brazil overwhelmingly showed up for the leftist candidate who promised a new era of equity and justice.

A CNN report days before the election noted that Black women are a large component of the Brazilian electorate. They were expected to support Lula given his record of supporting issues that benefit Black Brazilian women and their families. Some may simply be rejecting the outrageous cuts to social programs under Bolsonaro.

Source: ARISSON MARINHO / Getty

Bahia, by some accounts Brazil’s blackest state, went 72 percent for Lula.Earlier this month, the Amsterdam News reported that advances Black Brazilians gained under Lula’s previous term were “swept away under Bolsonaro.”

The outlet also reported that Lula worked alongside the Unified Black Movement to implement various progressive equity measures.

Source: ARISSON MARINHO / Getty

Read: It’s Not Just Congress. Downballot Elections Need Your Attention This Cycle. 

Voter suppression is not a U.S. only phenomenon

While there was no evidence of widespread political violence on election day, a. viral clip shared by BreakThrough News, hosted by Eugene Puryear, shows emotions running high right before election day. Brazilian Karen was busted on video pulling a gun on a Black man who supported Lula.

“Yesterday, far-right Deputy Carla Zembelli pulled a gun in a crowded restaurant on a Lula supporter (a black man) after an argument,” tweeted BreakThrough News. “He told her ‘Tomorrow: Lula!’”

Source: Lula Wins Brazilian Election With Overwhelming Support Of Black Voters

A US Army soldier was kicked out after he said he enlisted in the service to become better at killing Black people following an FBI investigation.

CNN reports Killian M. Ryan was arrested on Aug. 26 and charged with one count of knowingly making a false statement on his application for a security clearance following an FBI investigation that revealed ties to white supremacist organizations and Nazi principles.

According to a Department of Defense official, Ryan was discharged after being charged with driving under the influence multiple times, but prosecutors found more serious issues in their investigation into the former soldier.

In addition to Ryan’s claim, prosecutors say the soldier operated social media accounts where he regularly communicated with extremists and made claims about joining the military to improve his ability to kill Black people.

Prosecutors also found that the former soldier lied on his application for a 2020 security clearance, saying he hadn’t talked to his father, who has been convicted of auto theft and drug charges, in more than a decade. But the FBI investigation found Ryan used numerous social media accounts registered to him that he used to contact his father. Investigators also found pictures of Ryan with his father.

The former soldier served as a Fire Support Specialist, gathering intelligence and enemy target positions to help the Army deploy and fire artillery, but had not been deployed.

Source: US Army Soldier Is Kicked Out After FBI Says He Joined To Be Better at Killing Black People

There is sad news coming from the CNN newsroom as it was reported that former anchor Bernard Shaw has passed away at the age of 82.

According to the news outlet, Shaw passed away from pneumonia on Wednesday, September 7.

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“In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Bernard Shaw Scholarship Fund at the University of Chicago. The Shaw family requests complete privacy at this time,” the family said in their written statement that has been provided by former CNN CEO Tom Johnson.

The family has stated that, although there will be a public memorial service planned for the future, the funeral services for the former CNN anchor will only be for family and invited guests only.

When the network first debuted on June 1, 1980, Shaw was CNN’s first chief anchor. Over 21 years later, he stepped away from the television screen on February 28, 2001. His resume included stints with CBS as a political reporter from 1971-1977, where he left to become a Latin America correspondent for ABC until 1979. The next year, he joined CNN for the launch of the new news network.

Some key moments from his long career at CNN:

On October 13, 1998, he moderated the second presidential debate between George H. W. Bushand Michael Dukakis.

April 27, 1991, is the date that The University of Illinois Foundation started the Bernard Shaw Endowment Fund.

In July 1991, Shaw became the first person who wasn’t German to receive the Eduard Rhein Foundation’s Cultural Journalistic Award.

He was also Inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame in 1991.

On November 10, 2000, Shaw informed the world that he was leaving CNN.

The next year, in 2001, the former anchor was given the Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement Award in Broadcasting.

February 28, 2001, was the day that Shaw officially retired from the CNN network.

He accepted the Chuck Stone Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Black Journalists in 2007.

Source: Breaking CNN’s First Anchor Bernard Shaw Passes Away at 82

Source: Handout / Getty

It’s been roughly 10 months since ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd. During that time, Chauvin has been thinking about his vile and murderous behavior as an officer of the law and rightfully accepting his fate and accountability for his actions.

Nah, just bullsh**ing—he’s appealing his sentence because he’s still an evil ex-cop who thinks he doesn’t deserve it.

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According to CNN, on Monday, attorneys for the ex-cop who used his knee as a murder weapon filed an 82-page appeal listing the reasons Chauvin didn’t get a fair shake during his criminal trial last year. It’s really just a rehashing of all the complaints Chauvin’s piss-poor legal team raised last year at the time of the trial.

Chauvin’s attorneys are arguing that his trial was “structurally defective” due to reasons that include “extensive pretrial publicity and protests outside the courthouse, as well as the city’s announcement during jury selection that it would pay a $27 million settlement to Floyd’s family,” CNN reports. Lawyers for the guy who thought “I can’t breathe” was Blackanese for “Please keep choking the life out of me” are also asking the appeals court to review issues such as whether the trial should have been moved to a different venue, whether the jury was fully sequestered and whether the trial should have been delayed due to extensive media coverage. (We can assume Chauvin’s attorneys have some semblance of common sense and know that, whenever the trial began, extensive media coverage would’ve been happening up to that date. It’s almost as if they’re just trying to get their client out of the mess he put himself in.)

Source: Derek Chauvin Appeals George Floyd Murder Conviction

Nearly five months after 10-year-old Isabella “Izzy” Tichenor’s death by suicide, an investigation reveals just how long her school allowed bullying “on any ground” to go unchecked.

A newly released investigative report commissioned by the Davis School District in Farmington, Utah, found that Tichenor had been bullied by her classmates and even teachers, CNN reports. But they found no “direct evidence” linking the bullying to race or her disability.

Tichenor’s mother claimed her daughter was dealing with constant ridicule at Foxboro Elementary because of her race and autism. While investigators found out that students and teachers said she smelled and needed to bathe, it was too “difficult” to determine if the child’s race and disability were a factor.

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“Issues relating to race, disability, and poverty sometimes intersect and when they do, can further complicate already challenging situations,” the review team of three people determined. “It can be very difficult to extricate one from the others.”

“When a student told Izzy she needed to wash her hair, this comment could have been borne out of racial animus, could have been an innocuous observation, or could have been a cloaked insult about poverty,” the report said.

The report also found that Foxboro failed to take action after Tichenor’s mother alleged the child was being bullied, NY Post reports. Investigators found that staff at Foxboro did not show “actual knowledge” of the district’s definition of “bullying,” and the school is accused of creating an environment “in which bullying…could go underreported, uninvestigated, and unaddressed.”

Source: Investigation Finds School Ignored 10-Year-Old Black Girl’s Complaints of Bullying Prior to Her Suicide

For 35 years, Joyce Watkins has maintained her innocence in the death of her 4-year-old great niece, for which she spent 27 years in prison.

On Jan. 12, the state of Tennessee finally acknowledged that she had been wrongly convicted, making Watkins the first Black woman – and only the third woman overall – to be exonerated by the state, CNN reports.

In June 1987, Watkins and her then boyfriend Charlie Dunn picked her great niece Brandi up from the Kentucky home of another aunt where the toddler had been living for two months. Nine hours later, after they had made their way back to Nashville, when she found the little girl unconscious, Watkins noticed blood in her underwear and bruising on her body.

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She rushed Brandi to Nashville Memorial Hospital, where doctors found signs of severe vaginal injury and head trauma. She died the next day.

The signs of sexual assault were used to charge Dunn and Watkins with first-degree murder and aggravated rape. They were convicted and sent to prison in August 1988.

Watkins was released on parole 27 years later and had to have her name listed on Tennessee’s Sex Offender Registry. Dunn, on the other hand, died in prison while awaiting parole.

Late last year, Watkins approached the Tennessee Innocence Project to help her clear her name as well as Dunn’s. In November, they filed an official request to have both convictions vacated.

“She just showed up at the office and said, ‘Let me tell you my story. I need your help’,” explained Jason Gichner, the Project’s senior legal counsel.

From there, the organization had the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office reopen the case. The DA’s Conviction Review Unit then proceeded to reexamine the evidence that had been used to convict Dunn and Watkins.

Source: 74-Year-Old Woman Wrongly Convicted Of Toddler’s Murder Exonerated After 35 Years

Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty on federal sex trafficking charges, NBC News reports.

The jury announced the verdict on Wednesday after six days of deliberations. Maxwell was associated with wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of sexually abusing teenage girls between 1994 and 2004, CNN reports. Epstein died by suicide in prison after being indicted on federal charges in 2019.

Maxwell, 60, was found guilty of five of the six federal charges and could face up to 65 years in prison.

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During the trial, the prosecution called 24 witnesses to the stand to testify. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York commended the women who testified in court.

“The road to justice has been far too long. But, today, justice has been done,” he said in a statement. “Their courage and willingness to face their abuser made this case, and today’s result, possible.”

“I also want to thank the career prosecutors of the Southern District of New York, who embraced the victims’ quest for justice and have worked tirelessly, day in and day out, to ensure that Maxwell was held accountable for her crimes. This Office will always stand with victims, will always follow the facts wherever they lead, and will always fight to ensure that no one, no matter how powerful and well connected, is above the law,” his statement continued.

During their testimony, the women said they were “groomed” by Maxwell to have sex with Epstein. One of the women, who was 14 at the time, said Epstein and Maxwell found her at a Michigan arts camp.

Prosecutors also argued that Maxwell and Epstein “never thought teenage girls would stand up to them.”

Source: Ghislaine Maxwell Found Guilty On Federal Sex Trafficking Charges