csmonitor--2020-06-10--Daily for June 10, 2020

Daily for June 10, 2020

They are names that may have remained unknown beyond the circle of family who bury them .
Now their memories are being invoked in marches , written in marker on cardboard signs , and commemorated across social media as victims of police brutality against racial and ethnic minorities that spans well beyond the United States .
The killing of George Floyd beneath the knee of a white police officer in Minnesota has not just fundamentally changed the American conversation on race .
Protests have spilled to several countries – and a gaze that has often been fixated on the deeply @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has shifted domestically .
In recent days , thousands of citizens have protested , from the German capital of Berlin to Barrie , Ontario , from Montreal to Mexico City .
While many march in rage at the death of Mr. Floyd , protesters also honor those victims who have died in the custody of their own law enforcement .
In Paris , nearly 20,000 people protested in the streets over the death of Adama Traoré , a 24-year-old Malian-Frenchman who died in 2016 after police pinned him down and suffocated him following @ @ @ @ @ @ @ check .
“ We live with these tragedies , and each subsequent tragedy brings us back to our own , ” says Amal Bentounsi , who lost her own brother in 2012 after he was shot in the back by police .
“ George Floyd ’ s death resurrected awareness about what is going on in France.
” In Toronto , in the days after video captured Derek Chauvin putting weight on Mr. Floyd ’ s neck for nearly nine minutes , a Black Canadian , Regis Korchinski-Paquet , fell to her death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the presence of police .
Though the details are unclear , the tragedy has led to a week of peaceful protest urging Canada to face up to its own racism .
“ This is happening all over the world , it ’ s not just a single situation in the U.S. , ” says Keenan McFoy , a university student in criminology , at one of several marches held in Toronto over the weekend .
And protesters and activists say they believe today ’ s anger and anguish , which has rarely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pivotal moment to renew proposals and policies – from mandating body cameras and collecting better race-based data to more politically divisive calls like “ defunding ” police – against the deafening silence of resignation and denial about racial discrimination worldwide .
For Ms. Bentounsi in France , decades of discrimination made her brother Amine , a young man of North African descent with multiple theft and drug charges , a perfect candidate for police violence in a country that has long been taught to fear those like him .
She is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ age of 13 , Mr. Bentounsi became the youngest French person to be imprisoned at the time , after setting a garbage can on fire outside a preschool .
He spent the next decade in and out of jail .
Then in 2012 , after going on the run during a prison leave , police were called on him in a Paris suburb .
When they approached him , he threw a fake grenade and police shot him as he ran .
He died at age 29 .
Ms. Bentounsi says it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his fate before everyone else .
His favorite song had been “ Hexagone , ” a 1975 French song that called France a police state .
When Ms. Bentounsi poked fun at him for humming the old-fashioned tune , her brother scoffed back , “ You don ’ t understand a thing.
” Just how often minorities like him are killed at the hands of police is a narrative without data , since the government does not track race-based killings and censuses on race or ethnicity are banned in France .
Instead anecdotes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , when minority youths were chased by police and two electrocuted after hiding in a power substation in the outskirts of Paris , it led to three weeks of rioting .
France was roiled anew in debates about the marginalization of ethnic minorities after the terrorist attacks in 2015 in Paris .
But little has moved to fully address the issue of inclusion in France and less to tackle race head-on .
Nacira Guénif-Souilamas , a socio-anthropologist at the University of Paris 8 , says the concept of the “ other ” traces @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a colonial power and slave state .
“ This idea of the ‘ other ’ was always entrenched in how the French state thought of itself and how it exerted power , ” she says .
Even today there has been an unwillingness for the government to recognize race as a central issue of poverty , crime , or discriminating police surveillance .
After the June 2 Paris protest , Christophe Castaner , France ’ s minister of the Interior , told the nation there was no structural racism within the French police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exploded across the nation , he reiterated that the police as a system was not racist , but said that there would be zero tolerance for officers who are .
Sebastian Roché , a sociologist of police and security at the French National Center for Scientific Research , says a growing alliance of intellectuals , leftists , and minority voices are challenging the traditional narrative .
“ There is a divorce between civil society and the state , ” he says .
That introspection is not limited to France .
Over the weekend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ peaceful marches across the United Kingdom , signs bearing Mr. Floyd ’ s name and Black Lives Matter shared space with those linking U.S. racism to British colonialism .
In Bristol , protesters tore down a controversial statue of a slave trader .
Ms. Bentounsi says now is the time to push changes that are garnering more mainstream attention beyond devastated families or activists .
Her nonprofit has created an app called UVP ( Urgence Violences Policieres , or Police Violence Emergency ) .
Because the use of body cameras by French police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ destroy phones or erase images taken by bystanders , the app would allow users to quickly upload images to the nonprofit to be reviewed by a lawyer to give society a broader view of discrimination at play .
“ We as a nonprofit are deeply hurt by the comments being made [ by the government or media ] about this racist crime taking place in the U.S. when no one is even talking about what is happening in France.
” In Canada , that kind of denial has been easier to promulgate with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where racial divides often rage to the surface .
Instead Canada promotes its tolerance and diversity as part of its national ethos , particularly in its biggest city , Toronto , which is among the world ’ s most multiethnic .
But that ’ s not the Canada that many indigenous and non-white Canadians experience .
Race-based data is not systematically collected in Canada either .
But the Ontario Human Rights Commission published a landmark report in 2018 that showed between 2013 and 2017 , a Black person in Toronto was nearly 20 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be involved in a fatal shooting by the Toronto Police Service , despite Black people making up only 8.8 % of Toronto ’ s population .
As protests mounted over the week eulogizing Ms. Korchinski-Paquet , Chantel Moore , a young First Nations woman living in New Brunswick , was shot by a police officer during a call to check on her well-being that is now under investigation .
Denise O ’ Neil Green , vice president of equity and community inclusion at Ryerson University in Toronto , says both cases have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ myth that racism doesn ’ t exist in Canada .
“ What I see here as a pivotal movement , not only in Canada but around the world , is that people see themselves reflected in this experience in terms of interactions with the police , ” she says .
“ This moment I really see as a catalyst for people to begin to speak their own truths and be critical of their institutions of policing and how to begin to disrupt that.
” It is a demand that is harder for leaders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about requiring law enforcement to wear body cameras or reprioritizing funds from police to more robust social services .
Last week the premiers of Quebec and Ontario denied systematic racism in their provinces , but under fire , Ontario Premier Doug Ford the next day walked back his statement .
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a knee at a protest in Ottawa in a sign of solidarity with protests in the Canadian capital .
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders did so on Friday , and then later announced he is resigning this summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some critics , other protesters say it ’ s a sign that white privilege can no longer remain unquestioned .
Clive McFoy , a hospital worker originally from Jamaica who was at the Toronto protest Friday , says he brought his two college-aged sons to bear witness to what could become a moment of “ social change.
” Says his son Keenan : “ When I saw the video of Floyd , I was so angered .
But I didn ’ t want to sit there and be angry , ” he says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. inspired me to want to do more .
They are doing a bunch of stuff , why can ’ t we ?
” The pandemic has ground the world to a halt .
But it has put racial and class divides in sharp relief as poor minorities have been among the worst hit by COVID-19 .
That has lent more urgency to the anti-racism movement that is growing internationally – and given police more room to abuse powers , the very tactics for which protesters are demanding justice .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bricklayer named Giovanni López was detained by police last month for reportedly not wearing a face mask .
He died after being taken into police custody .
Over the past several days , angry , mostly young protesters have taken to the streets calling for an end to police brutality – a movement that was inspired by protests in the U.S. “ If this news about Giovanni came out before [ the George Floyd demonstrations ] we probably wouldn ’ t have seen protests like this , ” says María Inclán , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Center for Research and Teaching in Economics ( CIDE ) who focuses on social movements .
Race has not risen to the fore at protests in Mexico , where the history of the Mexican Revolution defines all Mexicans as mestizo , a mix of indigenous and Spanish blood , history , and culture .
That narrative has long served to shut down conversations on race , even though darker-skinned Mexicans live a daily reality of discrimination .
“ It is based on this argument that we are all equal , ” says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Afro-Mexican women ’ s collective Flores de Jamaica , which was founded to draw attention to the realities of being Black in Mexico .
“ But when you start to see who can access higher education or who can stay home or maintain a healthy distance during COVID-19 , you realize in reality we are not equal.
” A 2017 study published by Vanderbilt University ’ s Latin American Public Opinion Project found that “ race is the single most important determinant of a Mexican citizen ’ s economic and educational attainment.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in educational achievement between the darkest- and lightest-skinned Mexicans , the report found .
Report co-author Daniel Zizumbo says that because racism doesn ’ t exist in the national discourse , there are few studies on how racial bias plays out in policing or the judicial system .
“ We know this [ bias ] happens in the U.S. , but in Mexico everyone assumes that we are colorblind .
And because of that , we don ’ t have the chance to study it profoundly or implement policies that cite these biases.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ for recognition of how much discrimination penetrates every facet of Mexican society , often with life-or-death stakes .
Celebrities like actor Gael García Bernal and director Guillermo del Toro have spoken out about police brutality and the need for justice in Mr. López ’ s death .
And individuals are trying to start conversations among their peers about the role of race in everyday life .
“ Are you against racism in the U.S.… ?
But in Mexico you say chacha [ infantilizing slang for a housekeeper ] , indio [ Indian ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indigenous actress ] Yalitzia [ Aparicio ] ... ” wrote Ana Carlota Hervel , a lawyer in Mexico City , on her Facebook page .
“ I have seen a lot of reactions here in Mexico [ to the George Floyd protests in the US ] that have surprised me , ” says Ms. Angola .
“ This wave of indignation has been ignited.
” In South Africa , some activists have drawn strength from the movement growing around the globe .
When a man named Collins Khosa was killed by soldiers enforcing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ April , there was an initial outcry .
But it grew in strength and intensity after protests began in the U.S. following the killing of Mr. Floyd .
Young Black activists like Tumi Moloto , who is referred to as they , said they saw it as their responsibility to speak out against both Mr. Khosa ’ s killing and that of Mr. Floyd .
Such international solidarity in the anti-apartheid movement was a crucial part of the fight , they say .
“ So we as South Africans need to see the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ struggle of Black people everywhere.
” “ The silver lining here is that what ’ s happening in the U.S. right now is showing us that a different world is possible .
The conversations are beginning in the U.S. and South Africa [ around police brutality ] , ” they add .
“ Maybe they are the start of that different world we ’ ve been dreaming of.
” But for many that global fight begins with the fight for justice for each individual life , including Mr. Traoré , Mr. Bentounsi , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ López , and Mr. Khosa .
It ’ s a movement that has also grown from Minneapolis , where Mr. Floyd was killed , across the world .
Activists in the American city have erected memorials shaped like tombstones across a green lawn , listing 100 African Americans who have died in the U.S. at the hands of police .
In white block letters laid out in the grass , three words that have become a rallying cry now around the world , spell clearly : “ Say Their Names.
” Editor ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ updated to correct names and misspellings .

‘Say Their Names’: Why the George Floyd protests resonate globally Collapse
Adama Traoré.
Amine Bentounsi.
Regis Korchinski-Paquet.
Chantel Moore.
Giovanni López.
Collins Khosa.
They are names that may have remained unknown beyond the circle of family who bury them. Now their memories are being invoked in marches, written in marker on cardboard signs, and commemorated across social media as victims of police brutality against racial and ethnic minorities that spans well beyond the United States.
The killing of George Floyd beneath the knee of a white police officer in Minnesota has not just fundamentally changed the American conversation on race. Protests have spilled to several countries – and a gaze that has often been fixated on the deeply entrenched racism and violence in the U.S. has shifted domestically.
In recent days, thousands of citizens have protested, from the German capital of Berlin to Barrie, Ontario, from Montreal to Mexico City. While many march in rage at the death of Mr. Floyd, protesters also honor those victims who have died in the custody of their own law enforcement.
In Paris, nearly 20,000 people protested in the streets over the death of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old Malian-Frenchman who died in 2016 after police pinned him down and suffocated him following a chase that ensued after an ID check. “We live with these tragedies, and each subsequent tragedy brings us back to our own,” says Amal Bentounsi, who lost her own brother in 2012 after he was shot in the back by police. “George Floyd’s death resurrected awareness about what is going on in France.”
In Toronto, in the days after video captured Derek Chauvin putting weight on Mr. Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, a Black Canadian, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, fell to her death from her high-rise apartment balcony in Toronto in the presence of police. Though the details are unclear, the tragedy has led to a week of peaceful protest urging Canada to face up to its own racism. “This is happening all over the world, it’s not just a single situation in the U.S.,” says Keenan McFoy, a university student in criminology, at one of several marches held in Toronto over the weekend.
And protesters and activists say they believe today’s anger and anguish, which has rarely garnered such international attention, could be a pivotal moment to renew proposals and policies – from mandating body cameras and collecting better race-based data to more politically divisive calls like “defunding” police – against the deafening silence of resignation and denial about racial discrimination worldwide.
***
For Ms. Bentounsi in France, decades of discrimination made her brother Amine, a young man of North African descent with multiple theft and drug charges, a perfect candidate for police violence in a country that has long been taught to fear those like him.
She is not naive about her brother. At the age of 13, Mr. Bentounsi became the youngest French person to be imprisoned at the time, after setting a garbage can on fire outside a preschool. He spent the next decade in and out of jail. Then in 2012, after going on the run during a prison leave, police were called on him in a Paris suburb.
When they approached him, he threw a fake grenade and police shot him as he ran. He died at age 29.
Ms. Bentounsi says it’s almost as if her brother knew his fate before everyone else. His favorite song had been “Hexagone,” a 1975 French song that called France a police state. When Ms. Bentounsi poked fun at him for humming the old-fashioned tune, her brother scoffed back, “You don’t understand a thing.”
Just how often minorities like him are killed at the hands of police is a narrative without data, since the government does not track race-based killings and censuses on race or ethnicity are banned in France. Instead anecdotes mount, often explosively.
In 2005, when minority youths were chased by police and two electrocuted after hiding in a power substation in the outskirts of Paris, it led to three weeks of rioting. France was roiled anew in debates about the marginalization of ethnic minorities after the terrorist attacks in 2015 in Paris. But little has moved to fully address the issue of inclusion in France and less to tackle race head-on.
Nacira Guénif-Souilamas, a socio-anthropologist at the University of Paris 8, says the concept of the “other” traces back to France’s foundation as a colonial power and slave state. “This idea of the ‘other’ was always entrenched in how the French state thought of itself and how it exerted power,” she says.
Even today there has been an unwillingness for the government to recognize race as a central issue of poverty, crime, or discriminating police surveillance. After the June 2 Paris protest, Christophe Castaner, France’s minister of the Interior, told the nation there was no structural racism within the French police. After a second week of protests exploded across the nation, he reiterated that the police as a system was not racist, but said that there would be zero tolerance for officers who are.
Sebastian Roché, a sociologist of police and security at the French National Center for Scientific Research, says a growing alliance of intellectuals, leftists, and minority voices are challenging the traditional narrative. “There is a divorce between civil society and the state,” he says.
That introspection is not limited to France. Over the weekend, as thousands took the streets in peaceful marches across the United Kingdom, signs bearing Mr. Floyd’s name and Black Lives Matter shared space with those linking U.S. racism to British colonialism. In Bristol, protesters tore down a controversial statue of a slave trader.
Ms. Bentounsi says now is the time to push changes that are garnering more mainstream attention beyond devastated families or activists. Her nonprofit has created an app called UVP (Urgence Violences Policieres, or Police Violence Emergency). Because the use of body cameras by French police has been spotty and victims complain they destroy phones or erase images taken by bystanders, the app would allow users to quickly upload images to the nonprofit to be reviewed by a lawyer to give society a broader view of discrimination at play.
“We as a nonprofit are deeply hurt by the comments being made [by the government or media] about this racist crime taking place in the U.S. when no one is even talking about what is happening in France.”
***
In Canada, that kind of denial has been easier to promulgate with its position next to the U.S., where racial divides often rage to the surface. Instead Canada promotes its tolerance and diversity as part of its national ethos, particularly in its biggest city, Toronto, which is among the world’s most multiethnic. But that’s not the Canada that many indigenous and non-white Canadians experience.
Race-based data is not systematically collected in Canada either. But the Ontario Human Rights Commission published a landmark report in 2018 that showed between 2013 and 2017, a Black person in Toronto was nearly 20 times more likely than a white person to be involved in a fatal shooting by the Toronto Police Service, despite Black people making up only 8.8% of Toronto’s population.
Blair Gable/Reuters View caption Hide caption Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wears a mask as he takes a knee during a rally against the killing of George Floyd, on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario, June 5, 2020.
As protests mounted over the week eulogizing Ms. Korchinski-Paquet, Chantel Moore, a young First Nations woman living in New Brunswick, was shot by a police officer during a call to check on her well-being that is now under investigation. Denise O’Neil Green, vice president of equity and community inclusion at Ryerson University in Toronto, says both cases have amplified the movement here, shattering the myth that racism doesn’t exist in Canada.
“What I see here as a pivotal movement, not only in Canada but around the world, is that people see themselves reflected in this experience in terms of interactions with the police,” she says. “This moment I really see as a catalyst for people to begin to speak their own truths and be critical of their institutions of policing and how to begin to disrupt that.”
It is a demand that is harder for leaders to ignore, as they field questions about requiring law enforcement to wear body cameras or reprioritizing funds from police to more robust social services. Last week the premiers of Quebec and Ontario denied systematic racism in their provinces, but under fire, Ontario Premier Doug Ford the next day walked back his statement.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a knee at a protest in Ottawa in a sign of solidarity with protests in the Canadian capital. Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders did so on Friday, and then later announced he is resigning this summer. Blasted as hollow publicity stunts by some critics, other protesters say it’s a sign that white privilege can no longer remain unquestioned. Clive McFoy, a hospital worker originally from Jamaica who was at the Toronto protest Friday, says he brought his two college-aged sons to bear witness to what could become a moment of “social change.”
Says his son Keenan: “When I saw the video of Floyd, I was so angered. But I didn’t want to sit there and be angry,” he says. “Seeing everything going on in the U.S. inspired me to want to do more. They are doing a bunch of stuff, why can’t we?”
***
The pandemic has ground the world to a halt. But it has put racial and class divides in sharp relief as poor minorities have been among the worst hit by COVID-19. That has lent more urgency to the anti-racism movement that is growing internationally – and given police more room to abuse powers, the very tactics for which protesters are demanding justice.
In the Mexican state of Jalisco, a young bricklayer named Giovanni López was detained by police last month for reportedly not wearing a face mask. He died after being taken into police custody. Over the past several days, angry, mostly young protesters have taken to the streets calling for an end to police brutality – a movement that was inspired by protests in the U.S. “If this news about Giovanni came out before [the George Floyd demonstrations] we probably wouldn’t have seen protests like this,” says María Inclán, a professor of political science at Mexico’s Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) who focuses on social movements.
Race has not risen to the fore at protests in Mexico, where the history of the Mexican Revolution defines all Mexicans as mestizo, a mix of indigenous and Spanish blood, history, and culture. That narrative has long served to shut down conversations on race, even though darker-skinned Mexicans live a daily reality of discrimination.
“It is based on this argument that we are all equal,” says Valeria Angola, a member of the Afro-Mexican women’s collective Flores de Jamaica, which was founded to draw attention to the realities of being Black in Mexico. “But when you start to see who can access higher education or who can stay home or maintain a healthy distance during COVID-19, you realize in reality we are not equal.”
Edgard Garrido/Reuters View caption Hide caption A man holds a candle during a demonstration against the killing of George Floyd, in front of the U.S embassy in Mexico City June 4, 2020.
A 2017 study published by Vanderbilt University’s Latin American Public Opinion Project found that “race is the single most important determinant of a Mexican citizen’s economic and educational attainment.” There’s a 45% gap in educational achievement between the darkest- and lightest-skinned Mexicans, the report found.
Report co-author Daniel Zizumbo says that because racism doesn’t exist in the national discourse, there are few studies on how racial bias plays out in policing or the judicial system. “We know this [bias] happens in the U.S., but in Mexico everyone assumes that we are colorblind. And because of that, we don’t have the chance to study it profoundly or implement policies that cite these biases.”
But now some Mexicans are calling for recognition of how much discrimination penetrates every facet of Mexican society, often with life-or-death stakes. Celebrities like actor Gael García Bernal and director Guillermo del Toro have spoken out about police brutality and the need for justice in Mr. López’s death. And individuals are trying to start conversations among their peers about the role of race in everyday life.
“Are you against racism in the U.S.… ? But in Mexico you say chacha [infantilizing slang for a housekeeper], indio [Indian], you make fun of [Oscar-nominated indigenous actress] Yalitzia [Aparicio] ...” wrote Ana Carlota Hervel, a lawyer in Mexico City, on her Facebook page.
“I have seen a lot of reactions here in Mexico [to the George Floyd protests in the US] that have surprised me,” says Ms. Angola. “This wave of indignation has been ignited.”
***
In South Africa, some activists have drawn strength from the movement growing around the globe.
When a man named Collins Khosa was killed by soldiers enforcing South Africa’s strict lockdown in April, there was an initial outcry. But it grew in strength and intensity after protests began in the U.S. following the killing of Mr. Floyd.
Young Black activists like Tumi Moloto, who is referred to as they, said they saw it as their responsibility to speak out against both Mr. Khosa’s killing and that of Mr. Floyd. Such international solidarity in the anti-apartheid movement was a crucial part of the fight, they say. “So we as South Africans need to see the struggle of Black people anywhere as the struggle of Black people everywhere.”
“The silver lining here is that what’s happening in the U.S. right now is showing us that a different world is possible. The conversations are beginning in the U.S. and South Africa [around police brutality],” they add. “Maybe they are the start of that different world we’ve been dreaming of.”
But for many that global fight begins with the fight for justice for each individual life, including Mr. Traoré, Mr. Bentounsi, Ms. Korchinski-Paquet, Ms. Moore, Mr. López, and Mr. Khosa. It’s a movement that has also grown from Minneapolis, where Mr. Floyd was killed, across the world. Activists in the American city have erected memorials shaped like tombstones across a green lawn, listing 100 African Americans who have died in the U.S. at the hands of police. In white block letters laid out in the grass, three words that have become a rallying cry now around the world, spell clearly: “Say Their Names.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct names and misspellings.


csmonitor--2020-06-11--'Truth hurts': Top brands reveal workforce racial makeup

After hitting the streets to protest racial injustices , Sharon Chuter was disillusioned by the number of corporate brands posting `` glossy '' messages spouting support for Black lives .
The founder of Uoma Beauty , a cosmetics company that caters to Black women , came up with a social media challenge to test the sincerity of the companies : She launched the # pulluporshutup campaign on Instagram to push brands to reveal the racial makeup of their corporate workforce and executives .
The hashtag has since gone viral , amassing nearly 100,000 Instagram followers in a week .
Ms. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for many businesses who could n't see or did n't take seriously enough the silent racism and prejudices that hold Black people back in their own workplaces .
`` Reflection is painful , '' Ms. Chuter said .
`` The truth hurts and I just felt like brands did n't want to do it . ''
As protests over police brutality have erupted across the country over the past two weeks , The Associated Press reviewed the diversity reports of some of the biggest companies pledging solidarity with their Black employees as well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that their efforts to recruit , maintain , and promote minorities within their own ranks have fallen short .
Microsoft has been posting powerful quotes on Twitter from Black employees describing how systemic racism takes a toll on their lives .
One employee , Phil Terrill , talked about the death of George Floyd , a handcuffed Black man who pleaded for air as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Mr. Floyd 's neck for several minutes , sparking protests around the globe .
`` It should not take the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to inspire everyone to be an ally , '' Mr. Terrill is quoted as saying .
Only 4.4 % of Microsoft 's global workforce across all brands , including retail and warehouse workers , identify as Black , and less than 3 % of its U.S. executives , directors , and managers are Black , according to the company 's 2019 diversity and inclusion report .
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addressed the issue in an email to employees , saying the company `` must change first '' if it wants to help change @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investing in its talent pipeline by expanding connections with Historically Black Colleges and Universities .
`` In order to be successful as a business in empowering everyone on the planet , we need to reflect the world we serve , '' Mr. Nadella said .
Amazon is prominently displaying `` Black lives matter '' on its platforms and its CEO Jeff Bezos has been posting on Instagram racist emails he 's received from consumers who are unhappy with the company for taking a stance .
But the company itself has been accused of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ warehouse workers during the coronavirus pandemic .
An AP analysis found that more than 60 % of warehouse and delivery workers in most cities are people of color .
Amazon 's 2019 workforce data shows about 8 % of its managers in the U.S. are Black , compared to nearly the 60 % of managers who are white .
Courtenay Brown , who sorts packages at the Amazon fulfillment center in Avenel , New Jersey , said she feels that Amazon 's messages supporting justice and equal opportunity for Black people are not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the employees she works with at the center are people of color , but the higher-ups are white .
`` As a Black woman , I feel like it is empty words , '' she said .
`` They do n't help our struggles .
Everyone wants to join in and profit from us . ''
In the U.S. , Black people account for 12 % of the overall workforce , but only 8 % of management jobs , said University of Virginia professor Laura Morgan Roberts .
The number of Black CEOs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with 12 .
Today there are just four .
Ms. Roberts ' research looking at the careers of Harvard business school graduates found Black alums got fewer prime opportunities , such as global assignments , than white graduates with the same degree .
`` They 're saying , 'We 've got the qualifications but we ca n't get into the inner circle , ' '' Ms. Roberts said .
Adidas , which responded to Mr. Floyd 's death and subsequent protests by crossing out the word `` Racism '' on an Instagram post @ @ @ @ @ @ @ growing group of employees called out the company for its lack of diversity .
On Tuesday , Adidas unveiled several moves to fight racial inequality , including a pledge to fill at least 30 % of all new positions in the U.S. at Adidas and Reebok with Black and Latino people .
It said it will also be announcing a goal aimed at increasing representation of Black and Latino people within its workforce in North America .
`` The events of the past two weeks have caused all of us to reflect on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cultural and systemic forces that sustain racism , '' said Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted in a statement .
`` We have had to look inward to ourselves as individuals and our organization and reflect on systems that disadvantage and silence Black individuals and communities . ''
The Germany-based company did n't provide a breakdown on the race or ethnicity of its workforce .
Nike has long been viewed as an `` insider '' brand among Black consumers because of its lucrative and high-profile sponsorship deals with prominent African American athletes .
The Portland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racial injustice issue head-on with its ad campaign featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick .
Last week , it revealed a new video ad in response to the protests that bore the words : `` For once , do n't do it . ''
The ad , a twist on its `` Do it '' motto , urged viewers not to `` pretend there 's not a problem in America . ''
Yet a look at who is leading the company shows a disconnect between what the brand projects and how it actually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ less than half – 43 % – of its total U.S. workforce , 77 % of its high-ranking vice presidents company-wide are white , according to Nike 's 2019 numbers on representation in its leadership .
Meanwhile , just under 10 % of vice presidents are Black .
But that is still a nearly 2 % improvement from the previous year .
CEO John Donahoe acknowledged that such progress was n't enough , saying in a memo to employees that its `` most important priority is to get our own house in order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Associated Press .
AP writer Anne D'Innocenzio contributed from New York .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage .
It ’ s free .

After hitting the streets to protest racial injustices, Sharon Chuter was disillusioned by the number of corporate brands posting "glossy" messages spouting support for Black lives.
The founder of Uoma Beauty, a cosmetics company that caters to Black women, came up with a social media challenge to test the sincerity of the companies: She launched the #pulluporshutup campaign on Instagram to push brands to reveal the racial makeup of their corporate workforce and executives.
The hashtag has since gone viral, amassing nearly 100,000 Instagram followers in a week. Ms. Chuter said it's a wake-up call for many businesses who couldn't see or didn't take seriously enough the silent racism and prejudices that hold Black people back in their own workplaces.
"Reflection is painful," Ms. Chuter said. "The truth hurts and I just felt like brands didn't want to do it."
As protests over police brutality have erupted across the country over the past two weeks, The Associated Press reviewed the diversity reports of some of the biggest companies pledging solidarity with their Black employees as well as the Black community, and found that their efforts to recruit, maintain, and promote minorities within their own ranks have fallen short.
Microsoft has been posting powerful quotes on Twitter from Black employees describing how systemic racism takes a toll on their lives. One employee, Phil Terrill, talked about the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed Black man who pleaded for air as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Mr. Floyd's neck for several minutes, sparking protests around the globe.
"It should not take the death of Black people at this magnitude to inspire everyone to be an ally," Mr. Terrill is quoted as saying.
Only 4.4% of Microsoft's global workforce across all brands, including retail and warehouse workers, identify as Black, and less than 3% of its U.S. executives, directors, and managers are Black, according to the company's 2019 diversity and inclusion report.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addressed the issue in an email to employees, saying the company "must change first" if it wants to help change the world, and that it's investing in its talent pipeline by expanding connections with Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
"In order to be successful as a business in empowering everyone on the planet, we need to reflect the world we serve," Mr. Nadella said.
Amazon is prominently displaying "Black lives matter" on its platforms and its CEO Jeff Bezos has been posting on Instagram racist emails he's received from consumers who are unhappy with the company for taking a stance.
But the company itself has been accused of hypocrisy for the troubling conditions reported by warehouse workers during the coronavirus pandemic. An AP analysis found that more than 60% of warehouse and delivery workers in most cities are people of color. Amazon's 2019 workforce data shows about 8% of its managers in the U.S. are Black, compared to nearly the 60% of managers who are white.
Courtenay Brown, who sorts packages at the Amazon fulfillment center in Avenel, New Jersey, said she feels that Amazon's messages supporting justice and equal opportunity for Black people are not genuine. She said that most of the employees she works with at the center are people of color, but the higher-ups are white.
"As a Black woman, I feel like it is empty words," she said. "They don't help our struggles. Everyone wants to join in and profit from us."
In the U.S., Black people account for 12% of the overall workforce, but only 8% of management jobs, said University of Virginia professor Laura Morgan Roberts. The number of Black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies peaked in 2002 with 12. Today there are just four.
Ms. Roberts' research looking at the careers of Harvard business school graduates found Black alums got fewer prime opportunities, such as global assignments, than white graduates with the same degree.
"They're saying, 'We've got the qualifications but we can't get into the inner circle,'" Ms. Roberts said.
Adidas, which responded to Mr. Floyd's death and subsequent protests by crossing out the word "Racism" on an Instagram post, acknowledged its own shortcomings after a growing group of employees called out the company for its lack of diversity.
On Tuesday, Adidas unveiled several moves to fight racial inequality, including a pledge to fill at least 30% of all new positions in the U.S. at Adidas and Reebok with Black and Latino people. It said it will also be announcing a goal aimed at increasing representation of Black and Latino people within its workforce in North America.
"The events of the past two weeks have caused all of us to reflect on what we can do to confront the cultural and systemic forces that sustain racism," said Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted in a statement. "We have had to look inward to ourselves as individuals and our organization and reflect on systems that disadvantage and silence Black individuals and communities."
The Germany-based company didn't provide a breakdown on the race or ethnicity of its workforce.
Nike has long been viewed as an "insider" brand among Black consumers because of its lucrative and high-profile sponsorship deals with prominent African American athletes.
The Portland, Oregon-area company famously took on the racial injustice issue head-on with its ad campaign featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Last week, it revealed a new video ad in response to the protests that bore the words: "For once, don't do it." The ad, a twist on its "Do it" motto, urged viewers not to "pretend there's not a problem in America."
Yet a look at who is leading the company shows a disconnect between what the brand projects and how it actually operates.
Though white people make up less than half – 43% – of its total U.S. workforce, 77% of its high-ranking vice presidents company-wide are white, according to Nike's 2019 numbers on representation in its leadership. Meanwhile, just under 10% of vice presidents are Black. But that is still a nearly 2% improvement from the previous year.
CEO John Donahoe acknowledged that such progress wasn't enough, saying in a memo to employees that its "most important priority is to get our own house in order."
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writer Anne D'Innocenzio contributed from New York.
Editor’s note: As a public service, the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage. It’s free.


csmonitor--2020-06-11--Will Minneapolis become the Selma of the North?

“ I don ’ t know if we can ever reach that level , ” says Cameron Kinghorn , who ’ s driven into the city to donate essential items .
“ But I think there ’ s a chance.
” The pressure has already begun to change the city in important ways , as the Minneapolis City Council has voted to replace the police department with a new public safety system .
In 2020 , a viral video of Mr. Floyd ’ s death under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis has ignited outrage and massive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in Selma , Alabama , state troopers and sheriff ’ s deputies clubbed and tear-gassed peaceful civil rights demonstrators .
The attack shocked the nation and prodded Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act .
“ What we ’ re seeing is a step forward , ” says Martin Rogers , a church elder , as he leaves a private memorial service for George Floyd in Minneapolis on a recent afternoon .
“ Change takes time , and I ’ m not sure everybody is ready to change .
Black people – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become the Selma of the North , a city whose tragedy produces important change ?
That ’ s what some residents hope as they look to the future .
The private memorial service for George Floyd had ended and Martin Rogers stepped out into the hazy afternoon light .
He walked across the street and sat down on an empty park bench , and from that vantage point , he looked back and ahead , to the struggle then and now for racial justice in America .
He recalled a recent trip to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who grew up there .
They visited the Edmund Pettus Bridge , where in 1965 state troopers and sheriff ’ s deputies armed with tear gas and billy clubs attacked peaceful demonstrators marching in support of voting rights for African Americans .
“ Bloody Sunday , ” as the confrontation became known , marked a seminal moment in the civil rights movement and prodded Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act that year .
“ Walking onto that bridge – that was powerful , ” says Mr. Rogers , a former grade-school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ history of what those marchers achieved.
” A Connecticut native who moved to Minneapolis in the early 1980s , he attended the memorial here for Mr. Floyd last week on behalf of the Christian church where he serves as an elder .
He heard the Rev .
Al Sharpton deliver a stirring eulogy for Mr. Floyd , the Black security guard who died on Memorial Day under the knee of a white police officer as other officers held him down .
“ What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and in every area of American life , ” Mr. Sharpton told mourners , his voice rising .
“ It ’ s time for us to stand up in George ’ s name and say , ‘ Get your knee off our necks !
’ ” The viral video of Mr. Floyd ’ s death ignited outrage and massive protests in Minneapolis that spread across the country , creating a groundswell that could represent the start of the nation ’ s largest grassroots movement since civil rights and the Vietnam War .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their city might emerge from an uprising born of tragedy as the Selma of the North .
“ What we ’ re seeing is a step forward , ” Mr. Rogers says .
“ Change takes time , and I ’ m not sure everybody is ready to change .
Black people – we ’ re ready .
What we need is for everyone to stay involved and stay passionate.
” Civil rights luminaries , religious leaders , and politicians joined Mr. Floyd ’ s family for the memorial to commemorate his life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sanctuary , a sound system carried the words of Mr. Sharpton and other speakers to hundreds of people gathered on the streets and in a nearby park .
The demonstrators bore messages of solidarity – “ Rest in Power George , ” “ Black Lives Matter , ” “ I Can ’ t Breathe ” – on T-shirts , face masks , and cardboard signs .
The deep tensions between people of color and the city ’ s predominantly white police force exploded after a bystander ’ s video surfaced of Officer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s neck for almost nine minutes .
Shonda Henderson , who has raised her six children in Minneapolis , warns her two teenage sons to avoid cops whenever possible , a concern rooted in the department ’ s reputation for abusive behavior .
“ I want to see the police violence against us stop and law enforcement start working for us , ” says Ms. Henderson , a housekeeper at a downtown hotel .
The demographics of the protesters – as much as the number and size of recent rallies – give her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moment could evolve into a sustained movement .
“ What ’ s different this time is I ’ m seeing everybody out here – Caucasians , Asians , Latinos .
It ’ s not just African Americans , ” she says .
“ We ’ re all sticking up for each other and realizing that these issues of equality affect every one of us.
” Millennials and Generation Z have supplied much of the energy and momentum behind the demand for racial justice in Minneapolis and elsewhere .
Mariana Noyola , who will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her parents to attend the gathering outside the memorial service .
“ It ’ s scary to be African American in America .
We ’ re looked at differently , we ’ re seen as dangerous , we feel more threatened , ” she says .
“ Other people feel like our Blackness is some kind of weapon.
” The teenager sounded weary beyond her years as she recited the names of Black men killed by police in Minneapolis and other cities the past few years : Jamar Clark , Philando Castile , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We don ’ t want this to keep happening , ” she says .
“ So we ’ re making sure that we ’ re heard and we ’ re seen so that our future doesn ’ t look like the past.
” The looting and destruction of hundreds of businesses hindered the first days of protests .
Along Lake Street in South Minneapolis , one of the most racially diverse and hardest-hit stretches in the city , many of the small-business owners are people of color and include immigrants from Somalia , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ countries .
Marvin Applewhite launched a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $ 53,000 to provide cleanup services for businesses in the area .
He considers his multicultural , multiethnic team of volunteers reflective of the communal will to remedy racial friction .
“ George Floyd ’ s death has brought people together who I ’ ve never seen coming together here , ” he says .
“ And now they ’ re coming together across the country.
” Near the end of his eulogy for Mr. Floyd last week , Mr. Sharpton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , George .
We going to keep marching , George .
We going to keep fighting , George.
” Shae Noyola , Mariana ’ s mother , added a coda intended for the city and country alike .
“ Don ’ t want change , ” she says .
“ Make change.
” A shrine has bloomed at the intersection where George Floyd gasped his final breaths outside a corner grocery store .
A mural of him adorns one of the shop ’ s exterior walls , his head encircled by a halo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Beneath the painting lies a welter of flower bouquets , handmade placards , photos , and other offerings of anguish , anger , and unity .
Around the corner , marking the spot of his death , a chalk drawing on the pavement shows a human figure with angel ’ s wings .
Visitors by the hundreds eddied through the site on the day of Mr. Floyd ’ s memorial as the mood drifted between block party and open-air wake .
Smoke from barbecue grills swirled in the air while volunteers served @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A series of speakers and musicians took to a stage erected in the middle of the street .
Almost every one of them yelled out to the crowd , “ What ’ s his name ?
” Each time the reply arrived like cracks of thunder : “ George !
Floyd !
” Here , at the junction of grief and catharsis , Lorraine Gurley felt at once downcast and uplifted .
Thirty years ago , responding to a report of a neighborhood party turned unruly , a white Minneapolis cop fatally shot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The case provoked racial animus and local protests .
But unlike the four officers involved in Mr. Floyd ’ s death , the patrolman who killed Tycel Nelson neither faced criminal charges nor lost his job , ascending to the rank of lieutenant over the ensuing two decades .
Ms. Gurley , a pastor at a church on the city ’ s north side , wonders whether Mr. Floyd would be alive if the city had imposed reforms on the department after her brother ’ s shooting .
She wants the next three @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country to bear little semblance to the past three .
“ There has been so much frustration , so much sorrow , so much loss and death in the Black community .
We have to change the system , ” she says .
A message written in chalk on the pavement behind her read , “ Together We Will Change The World.
” “ All the things we wish could ’ ve happened when my baby brother died – that ’ s what we hope will happen now.
” The pressure exerted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city policy .
A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council vowed this week to replace the police department with a new public safety system , and the police chief announced the department ’ s withdrawal from contract negotiations with the officers union .
At the same time , the demands for reform in Minneapolis and other cities extend beyond revamping law enforcement .
The surging movement encompasses a broader desire to redress racial inequality in employment and education , in housing and health care , in the culture of everyday American life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policies contrasts with wide economic disparities in Minneapolis between people of color and white residents , who make up about 60 % of the population .
The enduring inequities – magnified by the coronavirus pandemic – raise questions among some Black activists about the city ’ s potential to equal Selma ’ s legacy .
Shanene Herbert runs the healing justice program for the Minneapolis office of the American Friends Service Committee , a Quaker organization that promotes social equality .
Reacting to large corporations in Minnesota offering statements of support and pledges @ @ @ @ @ @ @ justice , she says , “ Why now ?
Do you need your name attached to it ?
Will you leave when the cameras go ?
” Yet if experience informs her skepticism , the huge wave of young adults powering the protests here and nationwide gives her a sense of optimism .
“ Our younger generation doesn ’ t have the patience of the older generations , ” Ms. Herbert says .
“ They ’ ve seen enough .
They ’ ve been traumatized and they ’ re not willing to wait @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racial lines .
Ella Masters grew up attending Trinity Lutheran Church in South Minneapolis , where last week organizers set up a distribution site for donated goods in the parking lot .
The area ’ s two grocery stores and largest department store were among several businesses damaged or destroyed by rioters .
Ms. Masters and her partner , Cameron Kinghorn , drove to the church from their home a few miles away to donate laundry detergent , diapers , and other essential items requested by organizers .
Without ignoring the toll on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ duration of the protests for forcing the city to reexamine its relationship with race .
“ A human life is more important than property , ” says Ms. Masters , who is white .
“ We need people to get out of their comfort zone and start acting to save lives .
Good intentions aren ’ t enough.
” Mr. Kinghorn , who is biracial , related that the recent upheaval has nudged some of his friends and acquaintances to reevaluate their passive advocacy for equality .
“ They ’ re looking for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he says .
He hopes more of his cohort will step forward to push Minneapolis in the direction of Selma as a historical symbol of racial justice .
“ I don ’ t know if we can ever reach that level , ” he says .
“ But I think there ’ s a chance , and I would not have said that a couple of weeks ago .
”

“I don’t know if we can ever reach that level,” says Cameron Kinghorn, who’s driven into the city to donate essential items. “But I think there’s a chance.”
The pressure has already begun to change the city in important ways, as the Minneapolis City Council has voted to replace the police department with a new public safety system.
In 2020, a viral video of Mr. Floyd’s death under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis has ignited outrage and massive protests across the nation.
In 1965, in Selma, Alabama, state troopers and sheriff’s deputies clubbed and tear-gassed peaceful civil rights demonstrators. The attack shocked the nation and prodded Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act.
Law enforcement violence against peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 shocked the U.S. and sparked social change. Is George Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis a similar inflection point?
“What we’re seeing is a step forward,” says Martin Rogers, a church elder, as he leaves a private memorial service for George Floyd in Minneapolis on a recent afternoon. “Change takes time, and I’m not sure everybody is ready to change. Black people – we’re ready.”
Will Minneapolis become the Selma of the North, a city whose tragedy produces important change? That’s what some residents hope as they look to the future.
The private memorial service for George Floyd had ended and Martin Rogers stepped out into the hazy afternoon light. He walked across the street and sat down on an empty park bench, and from that vantage point, he looked back and ahead, to the struggle then and now for racial justice in America.
He recalled a recent trip to Selma, Alabama, with his wife, who grew up there. They visited the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where in 1965 state troopers and sheriff’s deputies armed with tear gas and billy clubs attacked peaceful demonstrators marching in support of voting rights for African Americans. “Bloody Sunday,” as the confrontation became known, marked a seminal moment in the civil rights movement and prodded Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act that year.
“Walking onto that bridge – that was powerful,” says Mr. Rogers, a former grade-school teacher. “You could feel the history of what those marchers achieved.”
Why We Wrote This Law enforcement violence against peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 shocked the U.S. and sparked social change. Is George Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis a similar inflection point?
A Connecticut native who moved to Minneapolis in the early 1980s, he attended the memorial here for Mr. Floyd last week on behalf of the Christian church where he serves as an elder. He heard the Rev. Al Sharpton deliver a stirring eulogy for Mr. Floyd, the Black security guard who died on Memorial Day under the knee of a white police officer as other officers held him down.
“What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country – in education, in health services, and in every area of American life,” Mr. Sharpton told mourners, his voice rising. “It’s time for us to stand up in George’s name and say, ‘Get your knee off our necks!’”
The viral video of Mr. Floyd’s death ignited outrage and massive protests in Minneapolis that spread across the country, creating a groundswell that could represent the start of the nation’s largest grassroots movement since civil rights and the Vietnam War. The prospect inspires cautious hope among residents that their city might emerge from an uprising born of tragedy as the Selma of the North.
“What we’re seeing is a step forward,” Mr. Rogers says. “Change takes time, and I’m not sure everybody is ready to change. Black people – we’re ready. What we need is for everyone to stay involved and stay passionate.”
A different kind of movement
Civil rights luminaries, religious leaders, and politicians joined Mr. Floyd’s family for the memorial to commemorate his life and call for racial equality. Outside the sanctuary, a sound system carried the words of Mr. Sharpton and other speakers to hundreds of people gathered on the streets and in a nearby park. The demonstrators bore messages of solidarity – “Rest in Power George,” “Black Lives Matter,” “I Can’t Breathe” – on T-shirts, face masks, and cardboard signs.
Bebeto Matthews/AP View caption Hide caption George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd (right) and cousin Shareeduh Tate share memories of George during his funeral at North Central University, June 4, 2020, in Minneapolis.
The deep tensions between people of color and the city’s predominantly white police force exploded after a bystander’s video surfaced of Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes. Shonda Henderson, who has raised her six children in Minneapolis, warns her two teenage sons to avoid cops whenever possible, a concern rooted in the department’s reputation for abusive behavior.
“I want to see the police violence against us stop and law enforcement start working for us,” says Ms. Henderson, a housekeeper at a downtown hotel. The demographics of the protesters – as much as the number and size of recent rallies – give her reason to think the emotion of the moment could evolve into a sustained movement.
“What’s different this time is I’m seeing everybody out here – Caucasians, Asians, Latinos. It’s not just African Americans,” she says. “We’re all sticking up for each other and realizing that these issues of equality affect every one of us.”
Millennials and Generation Z have supplied much of the energy and momentum behind the demand for racial justice in Minneapolis and elsewhere. Mariana Noyola, who will enter ninth grade this fall, convinced her parents to attend the gathering outside the memorial service.
“It’s scary to be African American in America. We’re looked at differently, we’re seen as dangerous, we feel more threatened,” she says. “Other people feel like our Blackness is some kind of weapon.”
The teenager sounded weary beyond her years as she recited the names of Black men killed by police in Minneapolis and other cities the past few years: Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Michael Brown.
“We don’t want this to keep happening,” she says. “So we’re making sure that we’re heard and we’re seen so that our future doesn’t look like the past.”
The looting and destruction of hundreds of businesses hindered the first days of protests. Along Lake Street in South Minneapolis, one of the most racially diverse and hardest-hit stretches in the city, many of the small-business owners are people of color and include immigrants from Somalia, Laos, and an array of other countries.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters View caption Hide caption Members of the community volunteer to clean up the debris left after a building burned and collapsed during demonstrations in reaction to the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, May 30, 2020.
Marvin Applewhite launched a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $53,000 to provide cleanup services for businesses in the area. He considers his multicultural, multiethnic team of volunteers reflective of the communal will to remedy racial friction.
“George Floyd’s death has brought people together who I’ve never seen coming together here,” he says. “And now they’re coming together across the country.”
Near the end of his eulogy for Mr. Floyd last week, Mr. Sharpton declaimed, “You changed the world, George. We going to keep marching, George. We going to keep fighting, George.”
Shae Noyola, Mariana’s mother, added a coda intended for the city and country alike. “Don’t want change,” she says. “Make change.”
Grief and catharsis
A shrine has bloomed at the intersection where George Floyd gasped his final breaths outside a corner grocery store. A mural of him adorns one of the shop’s exterior walls, his head encircled by a halo of names of people killed by police. Beneath the painting lies a welter of flower bouquets, handmade placards, photos, and other offerings of anguish, anger, and unity.
Around the corner, marking the spot of his death, a chalk drawing on the pavement shows a human figure with angel’s wings.
Visitors by the hundreds eddied through the site on the day of Mr. Floyd’s memorial as the mood drifted between block party and open-air wake. Smoke from barbecue grills swirled in the air while volunteers served free food and distributed donated goods. A series of speakers and musicians took to a stage erected in the middle of the street. Almost every one of them yelled out to the crowd, “What’s his name?” Each time the reply arrived like cracks of thunder: “George! Floyd!”
Carlos Barria/Reuters View caption Hide caption A resident stands in front of a makeshift memorial honoring George Floyd, at the spot where he was taken into custody, in Minneapolis, June 1, 2020.
Here, at the junction of grief and catharsis, Lorraine Gurley felt at once downcast and uplifted. Thirty years ago, responding to a report of a neighborhood party turned unruly, a white Minneapolis cop fatally shot her unarmed brother in the back.
The case provoked racial animus and local protests. But unlike the four officers involved in Mr. Floyd’s death, the patrolman who killed Tycel Nelson neither faced criminal charges nor lost his job, ascending to the rank of lieutenant over the ensuing two decades.
Ms. Gurley, a pastor at a church on the city’s north side, wonders whether Mr. Floyd would be alive if the city had imposed reforms on the department after her brother’s shooting. She wants the next three decades of policing in Minneapolis and across the country to bear little semblance to the past three.
“There has been so much frustration, so much sorrow, so much loss and death in the Black community. We have to change the system,” she says. A message written in chalk on the pavement behind her read, “Together We Will Change The World.”
“All the things we wish could’ve happened when my baby brother died – that’s what we hope will happen now.”
“Good intentions aren’t enough”
The pressure exerted by the protests has begun to alter city policy. A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council vowed this week to replace the police department with a new public safety system, and the police chief announced the department’s withdrawal from contract negotiations with the officers union.
At the same time, the demands for reform in Minneapolis and other cities extend beyond revamping law enforcement. The surging movement encompasses a broader desire to redress racial inequality in employment and education, in housing and health care, in the culture of everyday American life.
A reputation for liberal politics and policies contrasts with wide economic disparities in Minneapolis between people of color and white residents, who make up about 60% of the population. The enduring inequities – magnified by the coronavirus pandemic – raise questions among some Black activists about the city’s potential to equal Selma’s legacy.
Shanene Herbert runs the healing justice program for the Minneapolis office of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that promotes social equality. Reacting to large corporations in Minnesota offering statements of support and pledges of funding for the cause of social justice, she says, “Why now? Do you need your name attached to it? Will you leave when the cameras go?”
Lucas Jackson/Reuters View caption Hide caption People raise their fists after a memorial service for George Floyd following his death in Minneapolis police custody, in Minneapolis, June 4, 2020.
Yet if experience informs her skepticism, the huge wave of young adults powering the protests here and nationwide gives her a sense of optimism. “Our younger generation doesn’t have the patience of the older generations,” Ms. Herbert says. “They’ve seen enough. They’ve been traumatized and they’re not willing to wait for change.”
The urgency cuts across racial lines. Ella Masters grew up attending Trinity Lutheran Church in South Minneapolis, where last week organizers set up a distribution site for donated goods in the parking lot. The area’s two grocery stores and largest department store were among several businesses damaged or destroyed by rioters.
Ms. Masters and her partner, Cameron Kinghorn, drove to the church from their home a few miles away to donate laundry detergent, diapers, and other essential items requested by organizers. Without ignoring the toll on businesses, they credit the scale and duration of the protests for forcing the city to reexamine its relationship with race.
“A human life is more important than property,” says Ms. Masters, who is white. “We need people to get out of their comfort zone and start acting to save lives. Good intentions aren’t enough.”
Mr. Kinghorn, who is biracial, related that the recent upheaval has nudged some of his friends and acquaintances to reevaluate their passive advocacy for equality. “They’re looking for ways they can actively help,” he says. He hopes more of his cohort will step forward to push Minneapolis in the direction of Selma as a historical symbol of racial justice.
“I don’t know if we can ever reach that level,” he says. “But I think there’s a chance, and I would not have said that a couple of weeks ago.”


csmonitor--2020-06-11--When college is online, where do international students go?

“ The crisis has made me appreciate my family and my loved ones , ” says Sultan Aldabal , from Saudi Arabia , who attends Northeastern University in Boston .
“ I ’ ve learned how to adjust , how to adapt through the [ fear ] , and it has given me a lot of time to think about my life.
” Students already attending school in the U.S. are still regrouping after the disruption caused by pandemic-related lockdowns .
Although a top destination , the U.S. has struggled to attract international students in recent years , with political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 29 , President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending some Chinese graduate students from entering the country .
Rufaida Zareer Shams , from Bangladesh , plans to enroll as a freshman at the University of San Francisco , even if the fall semester is online .
But she has reservations .
“ If a whole year is online , and it is the cost of a full year ’ s tuition , then no , I don ’ t think it ’ s worth it .
But I guess students ’ hands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ International students who study in the United States are navigating an unprecedented situation .
Not only has the pandemic exacerbated existing challenges , such as securing visas , but it also has created a new set of concerns .
Marta Biino from Turin , Italy , was excited when she first got the news that she had been accepted to Columbia University ’ s master ’ s degree program in journalism .
Living in New York City was a goal of hers and her acceptance into her dream school was an important accomplishment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she might not be able to attend classes in the fall – settled in .
Now she is planning to defer her enrollment until January 2021 , as uncertainty around campuses reopening continues in response to the pandemic .
Although Columbia has given students the option to attend in-person in the fall , Ms. Biino is postponing to gain the time she needs to get settled financially and to secure a visa .
She plans on working in Turin to help pay for her tuition .
“ Since the virus has started , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ less .
...
If I get a loan , I ’ m not sure when and how we ’ ll be able to repay it , ” she says .
“ I don ’ t know about paying $ 75,000 in tuition fees for a teaching quality which will obviously , despite best efforts , not be the same.
” Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .
International students who study in the United States are navigating an unprecedented situation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ existing challenges , such as securing visas , but it also has created a new set of concerns .
Besides weighing whether online classes justify expensive tuition , international students also don ’ t want to miss out on an integral part of the American university experience .
“ It was always my goal to go abroad for higher education , ” says Rufaida Zareer Shams , who lives in Dhaka , Bangladesh , and plans to enroll as a freshman at the University of San Francisco , even if the fall semester @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole year is online , and it is the cost of a full year ’ s tuition , then no , I don ’ t think it ’ s worth it .
But I guess students ’ hands are kind of tied right now.
” While international students are a sliver of the higher education population – 5.5 % , or about 1 million – they spend more than $ 40 billion a year , according to advocacy group the Institute of International Education ( IIE ) , citing Department of Commerce data @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of international students has basically flatlined , after more than a decade of growth , as the Trump administration tightens visa and immigration requirements , says Terry Hartle , senior vice president at the American Council on Education , an association of higher ed institutions and groups .
While the U.S. continues to attract the most students from other countries , more and more of them have begun to pick universities in Britain and Canada as hostilities mount and visas become increasingly harder to obtain .
“ International students are an important @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says Mr. Hartle , noting that they bring funds and diversity to U.S. schools .
“ Based on conversations with college and university officials , we ’ re projecting a 20 % to 25 % decline in the number of international students who will come here this fall.
” The U.S. is typically a popular choice for students from China , accounting for 33.7 % of the international student body , based on IIE figures .
On May 29 , U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending some Chinese graduate students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ planning to revoke the visas of students and researchers affiliated with educational institutions linked to the People ’ s Liberation Army over concerns about intellectual property theft .
The move comes in response to rising tensions between Washington and Beijing on matters concerning the pandemic , trade , and the status of Hong Kong .
Students already attending school in the U.S. are still regrouping after the disruption caused by the pandemic-related lockdowns .
According to the responses from 441 institutions to an IIE survey administered during April and early May , 92 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or in the U.S .
Universities worked to provide housing , health care support , and online tutoring to them .
Sultan Aldabal , a rising senior studying political science and economics at Northeastern University in Boston , was at first unable to fly home to Saudi Arabia in early March due to cancelled flights .
He has recently returned after months of being stuck in his Boston apartment .
Although happy to be home , he is concerned that he may not be able to secure a visa to return to campus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the situation has given him time to reflect .
“ The crisis has made me appreciate my family and my loved ones .
… It really makes you look at things in a different perspective , ” he says .
“ I ’ ve learned how to adjust , how to adapt through the [ fear ] , and it has given me a lot of time to think about my life.
” Takato Watabe was finishing his junior year at the University of California , Los Angeles when the school ended in-person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the news about transitioning to an online format , and he and his friends celebrated by playing Nintendo video games .
But then reality hit .
Mr. Watabe , who returned home to Yokohama , Japan , on March 30 , says he quickly missed the flurry of activity on his sprawling campus .
“ The coronavirus has taught me a lot of things , like the importance of spending time , physically , with my friends and how important my time studying abroad was , ” he says .
Some students say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that American students did , missing their routines and social circles in the U.S. “ Being independent , that was the motivation behind going to college for me , ” says Ushna Arshad Khan , a rising junior from Lahore , Pakistan , studying mathematical economics at the University of Richmond in Virginia .
“ As a girl in Pakistan , you can ’ t do whatever you want or go wherever you want .
In the U.S. , it ’ s a lot better because you can basically carve out your day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Also , when you ’ re in college , you ’ re surrounded by people doing the same things as you , so it ’ s easier to keep on track.
” Those students who couldn ’ t return home found ways to build communities and support systems on their abandoned campuses – many of which helped them cope with the stress of the pandemic .
Atri Hassan , a rising senior from Bangladesh studying psychology at Clark University in Worcester , Massachusetts , found comfort in the small cohort of students who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ international student organizations .
“ I think having friends and roommates who are international really helped because we could at least talk to one another and update each other on what was going on , ” says Ms. Hassan .
For Grea Lee , who just finished her first year at Amherst College , also in Massachusetts , the pandemic was manageable because of the college ’ s decision to move all remaining students into three central dorms .
Although in-person interactions were discouraged , the move helped build solidarity and a sense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fact that we were living in these dorms just sort of made people feel some kind of unity , ” says Ms. Lee , who recently returned home to Suwon , South Korea .
“ Even if we didn ’ t really see each other that often , just the fact that we were sharing a living space together still made us feel like we were part of a community.
” Mr. Watabe , who usually is busy with coursework and internships in the U.S. , now is spending valuable time with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that make him happy , such as reading books and hiking .
He plans to return in the fall if he can get a visa ; otherwise he will take classes online from Japan .
The crisis has given him a new appreciation for his American experience .
“ I was in the States for almost three years , and that life in America became kind of normal .
But it wasn ’ t .
It was very , very rare and a valuable experience and the coronavirus taught me this .
… @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in America was.
” Staff writers Nusmila Lohani and Cassandre Coyer and correspondent Ryan Yu contributed to this report .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .

“The crisis has made me appreciate my family and my loved ones,” says Sultan Aldabal, from Saudi Arabia, who attends Northeastern University in Boston. “I’ve learned how to adjust, how to adapt through the [fear], and it has given me a lot of time to think about my life.”
Students already attending school in the U.S. are still regrouping after the disruption caused by pandemic-related lockdowns.
Although a top destination, the U.S. has struggled to attract international students in recent years, with political tensions being a factor. On May 29, President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending some Chinese graduate students from entering the country.
Students from other countries come to the U.S. not just to study, but to take in a different culture. COVID-19 has changed the campus experience, leaving international collegegoers pondering, “Is it worth it?”
Rufaida Zareer Shams, from Bangladesh, plans to enroll as a freshman at the University of San Francisco, even if the fall semester is online. But she has reservations. “If a whole year is online, and it is the cost of a full year’s tuition, then no, I don’t think it’s worth it. But I guess students’ hands are kind of tied right now.”
International students who study in the United States are navigating an unprecedented situation. Not only has the pandemic exacerbated existing challenges, such as securing visas, but it also has created a new set of concerns.
Marta Biino from Turin, Italy, was excited when she first got the news that she had been accepted to Columbia University’s master’s degree program in journalism. Living in New York City was a goal of hers and her acceptance into her dream school was an important accomplishment. But then the reality – that she might not be able to attend classes in the fall – settled in.
Now she is planning to defer her enrollment until January 2021, as uncertainty around campuses reopening continues in response to the pandemic. Although Columbia has given students the option to attend in-person in the fall, Ms. Biino is postponing to gain the time she needs to get settled financially and to secure a visa. She plans on working in Turin to help pay for her tuition.
“Since the virus has started, my parents have been working a lot less. ... If I get a loan, I’m not sure when and how we’ll be able to repay it,” she says. “I don’t know about paying $75,000 in tuition fees for a teaching quality which will obviously, despite best efforts, not be the same.”
Why We Wrote This Students from other countries come to the U.S. not just to study, but to take in a different culture. COVID-19 has changed the campus experience, leaving international collegegoers pondering, “Is it worth it?”
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.
International students who study in the United States are navigating an unprecedented situation. Not only has the pandemic exacerbated existing challenges, such as securing visas, but it also has created a new set of concerns. Besides weighing whether online classes justify expensive tuition, international students also don’t want to miss out on an integral part of the American university experience.
“It was always my goal to go abroad for higher education,” says Rufaida Zareer Shams, who lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and plans to enroll as a freshman at the University of San Francisco, even if the fall semester is online. “But if a whole year is online, and it is the cost of a full year’s tuition, then no, I don’t think it’s worth it. But I guess students’ hands are kind of tied right now.”
Anticipating a further decline
While international students are a sliver of the higher education population – 5.5%, or about 1 million – they spend more than $40 billion a year, according to advocacy group the Institute of International Education (IIE), citing Department of Commerce data.
In the past few years the number of international students has basically flatlined, after more than a decade of growth, as the Trump administration tightens visa and immigration requirements, says Terry Hartle, senior vice president at the American Council on Education, an association of higher ed institutions and groups. While the U.S. continues to attract the most students from other countries, more and more of them have begun to pick universities in Britain and Canada as hostilities mount and visas become increasingly harder to obtain.
“International students are an important part of American higher education,” says Mr. Hartle, noting that they bring funds and diversity to U.S. schools. “Based on conversations with college and university officials, we’re projecting a 20% to 25% decline in the number of international students who will come here this fall.”
The U.S. is typically a popular choice for students from China, accounting for 33.7% of the international student body, based on IIE figures. On May 29, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending some Chinese graduate students from entering the country. Officials are planning to revoke the visas of students and researchers affiliated with educational institutions linked to the People’s Liberation Army over concerns about intellectual property theft. The move comes in response to rising tensions between Washington and Beijing on matters concerning the pandemic, trade, and the status of Hong Kong.
Plans upended by the pandemic
Students already attending school in the U.S. are still regrouping after the disruption caused by the pandemic-related lockdowns. According to the responses from 441 institutions to an IIE survey administered during April and early May, 92% of international students remained on campus or in the U.S. Universities worked to provide housing, health care support, and online tutoring to them.
Sultan Aldabal, a rising senior studying political science and economics at Northeastern University in Boston, was at first unable to fly home to Saudi Arabia in early March due to cancelled flights. He has recently returned after months of being stuck in his Boston apartment. Although happy to be home, he is concerned that he may not be able to secure a visa to return to campus for his final semester. Still, the situation has given him time to reflect.
“The crisis has made me appreciate my family and my loved ones. … It really makes you look at things in a different perspective,” he says. “I’ve learned how to adjust, how to adapt through the [fear], and it has given me a lot of time to think about my life.”
Takato Watabe was finishing his junior year at the University of California, Los Angeles when the school ended in-person classes. The economics major initially welcomed the news about transitioning to an online format, and he and his friends celebrated by playing Nintendo video games. But then reality hit. Mr. Watabe, who returned home to Yokohama, Japan, on March 30, says he quickly missed the flurry of activity on his sprawling campus.
“The coronavirus has taught me a lot of things, like the importance of spending time, physically, with my friends and how important my time studying abroad was,” he says.
Unmoored, but resilient
Some students say they felt the same sense of unmooring that American students did, missing their routines and social circles in the U.S.
“Being independent, that was the motivation behind going to college for me,” says Ushna Arshad Khan, a rising junior from Lahore, Pakistan, studying mathematical economics at the University of Richmond in Virginia. “As a girl in Pakistan, you can’t do whatever you want or go wherever you want. In the U.S., it’s a lot better because you can basically carve out your day and not have anyone influence that. Also, when you’re in college, you’re surrounded by people doing the same things as you, so it’s easier to keep on track.”
Those students who couldn’t return home found ways to build communities and support systems on their abandoned campuses – many of which helped them cope with the stress of the pandemic.
Atri Hassan, a rising senior from Bangladesh studying psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, found comfort in the small cohort of students who stayed behind, and from professors and international student organizations.
“I think having friends and roommates who are international really helped because we could at least talk to one another and update each other on what was going on,” says Ms. Hassan.
For Grea Lee, who just finished her first year at Amherst College, also in Massachusetts, the pandemic was manageable because of the college’s decision to move all remaining students into three central dorms. Although in-person interactions were discouraged, the move helped build solidarity and a sense of normalcy.
“I think just the fact that we were living in these dorms just sort of made people feel some kind of unity,” says Ms. Lee, who recently returned home to Suwon, South Korea. “Even if we didn’t really see each other that often, just the fact that we were sharing a living space together still made us feel like we were part of a community.”
Mr. Watabe, who usually is busy with coursework and internships in the U.S., now is spending valuable time with his family in Japan and on activities that make him happy, such as reading books and hiking. He plans to return in the fall if he can get a visa; otherwise he will take classes online from Japan. The crisis has given him a new appreciation for his American experience.
“I was in the States for almost three years, and that life in America became kind of normal. But it wasn’t. It was very, very rare and a valuable experience and the coronavirus taught me this. … It taught me how important my life in America was.”
Staff writers Nusmila Lohani and Cassandre Coyer and correspondent Ryan Yu contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.


csmonitor--2020-05-20--Home theater: A feast for foodies and film fans

I love movies featuring lavish displays of food but am always confronted with the same decision : Should I see the film when I ’ m hungry or full ?
If I am famished while watching a mouth-watering banquet scene , I may not make it through the movie .
On the other hand , if I ’ ve just had a heavy dinner , all that onscreen scrumptiousness may not provoke the desired response .
After much trial and error , I believe I have hit on the proper solution : Eat a big late lunch .
Editor ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .
Everyone has favorite food films , or food scenes .
To an extent , these choices are , literally , a matter of taste .
Some of the titles cited most often include “ Like Water For Chocolate , ” “ Eat Drink Man Woman , ” “ Soul Food , ” “ Chef , ” and even the animated “ Ratatouille.
” All of these movies , the good and the not so good , are prime candidates for my late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ movies , the delicacies may be eye-popping but it ’ s the people preparing and consuming them that rightfully take center stage .
Before I move on to my “ main course ” selections , I ’ d like to suggest a few cinematic hors d ’ oeuvres that whetted both my culinary and filmic appetites .
“ The Lunchbox ” ( 2013 ) is a lovely little charmer from India about a lonely housewife whose delicious lunchboxes are mistakenly delivered each day not to her husband but to a widower , eventually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stories of their lives .
The widower is played by the great Indian actor Irrfan Khan , who passed away last month .
It ’ s one of his finest performances .
( Rated PG ; English subtitles ) “ The Hundred-Foot Journey ” ( 2014 ) , set in a small French village , is engagingly hokey but what gives it heft , besides the close-ups of fine cuisine , is the pairing of those two world-class actors , Helen Mirren and the late Om Puri .
She plays the proprietor of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an Indian family opens a restaurant across the street – 100 feet away – from hers .
It ’ s all rather predictable but then again , isn ’ t predictability what we crave from comfort food movies ?
( Rated PG ) And as long as people are citing “ Ratatouille ” as a foodie classic , I ’ m going to go with the spaghetti and meatballs love fest in Disney ’ s “ Lady and the Tramp ” ( 1955 ) .
The cocker spaniel and the stray mutt are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like a stolen kiss .
( Rated G ) And now for the entrees .
Set in the late 1950 ’ s on the New Jersey shore , “ Big Night ” ( 1996 ) is a marvelous movie about two Italian immigrant brothers , perfectionist master chef Primo ( Tony Shalhoub ) and restaurant manager Secondo ( Stanley Tucci ) , who open a fancy authentic eatery that does almost no business .
This is because their food , unlike the popular Americanized Italian joint nearby , caters to gourmets .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in close-up , his famous timpano , a baked concoction packed with eggs , sausage , meatballs , rigatoni , salami , and marinara sauce .
The final scene , shot in one wordless take , when Secondo makes up with his irate brother by cooking a perfect omelette , is as quietly beautiful as any fade-out in movies .
( Rated R ) “ Babette ’ s Feast ” ( 1987 ) is on just about everybody ’ s list of best food movies .
This austere drama , set in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the serving of the eponymous feast prepared by Stéphane Audran ’ s Babette , once a great Parisian chef , now housemaid to two spinster sisters .
No other movie conveys with such loving exactitude the artistry of a great cuisinier .
If you can gaze upon the rum sponge cake with figs and candied cherries without weeping , you are made of sterner stuff than I .
( Rated G ; English subtitles ) Billed at the time as a “ ramen Western , ” “ Tampopo ” ( 1985 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of movie genres is like no other film , foodie or otherwise .
A surly trucker teams with a widowed noodle shop owner and together they search for the perfect ramen .
Spoiler alert : Search successful .
( Not rated ; English subtitles ) These films are available to rent or buy on at least one of these platforms : Amazon Prime Video , YouTube , Google Play , iTunes .

I love movies featuring lavish displays of food but am always confronted with the same decision: Should I see the film when I’m hungry or full? If I am famished while watching a mouth-watering banquet scene, I may not make it through the movie. On the other hand, if I’ve just had a heavy dinner, all that onscreen scrumptiousness may not provoke the desired response. After much trial and error, I believe I have hit on the proper solution: Eat a big late lunch.
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.
Everyone has favorite food films, or food scenes. To an extent, these choices are, literally, a matter of taste. Some of the titles cited most often include “Like Water For Chocolate,” “Eat Drink Man Woman,” “Soul Food,” “Chef,” and even the animated “Ratatouille.” All of these movies, the good and the not so good, are prime candidates for my late lunch admonition.
Why We Wrote This Especially in the past few months, people have turned to food for comfort. Film critic Peter Rainer suggests that movies featuring great meals and good acting can also offer a balm, and a dilemma: “Should I see the film when I’m hungry or full?”
In the best food movies, the delicacies may be eye-popping but it’s the people preparing and consuming them that rightfully take center stage. Before I move on to my “main course” selections, I’d like to suggest a few cinematic hors d’oeuvres that whetted both my culinary and filmic appetites.
Appetizers
“The Lunchbox” (2013) is a lovely little charmer from India about a lonely housewife whose delicious lunchboxes are mistakenly delivered each day not to her husband but to a widower, eventually prompting an exchange of ardent letters sharing stories of their lives. The widower is played by the great Indian actor Irrfan Khan, who passed away last month. It’s one of his finest performances. (Rated PG; English subtitles)
“The Hundred-Foot Journey” (2014), set in a small French village, is engagingly hokey but what gives it heft, besides the close-ups of fine cuisine, is the pairing of those two world-class actors, Helen Mirren and the late Om Puri. She plays the proprietor of an upscale establishment who is outraged when an Indian family opens a restaurant across the street – 100 feet away – from hers. It’s all rather predictable but then again, isn’t predictability what we crave from comfort food movies? (Rated PG)
And as long as people are citing “Ratatouille” as a foodie classic, I’m going to go with the spaghetti and meatballs love fest in Disney’s “Lady and the Tramp” (1955). The cocker spaniel and the stray mutt are so smitten that each spaghetti slurp is like a stolen kiss. (Rated G)
And now for the entrees.
Main course
Set in the late 1950’s on the New Jersey shore, “Big Night” (1996) is a marvelous movie about two Italian immigrant brothers, perfectionist master chef Primo (Tony Shalhoub) and restaurant manager Secondo (Stanley Tucci), who open a fancy authentic eatery that does almost no business. This is because their food, unlike the popular Americanized Italian joint nearby, caters to gourmets. The grand finale arrives when Primo prepares, in close-up, his famous timpano, a baked concoction packed with eggs, sausage, meatballs, rigatoni, salami, and marinara sauce. The final scene, shot in one wordless take, when Secondo makes up with his irate brother by cooking a perfect omelette, is as quietly beautiful as any fade-out in movies. (Rated R)
“Babette’s Feast” (1987) is on just about everybody’s list of best food movies. This austere drama, set in a remote 19th century Danish village, culminates in the serving of the eponymous feast prepared by Stéphane Audran’s Babette, once a great Parisian chef, now housemaid to two spinster sisters. No other movie conveys with such loving exactitude the artistry of a great cuisinier. If you can gaze upon the rum sponge cake with figs and candied cherries without weeping, you are made of sterner stuff than I. (Rated G; English subtitles)
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
Billed at the time as a “ramen Western,” “Tampopo” (1985), Juzo Itami’s racy jamboree of movie genres is like no other film, foodie or otherwise. A surly trucker teams with a widowed noodle shop owner and together they search for the perfect ramen. Spoiler alert: Search successful. (Not rated; English subtitles)
These films are available to rent or buy on at least one of these platforms: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes.