thenation--2020-06-16--Buffalo’s Police Brutality Didn’t Start With Martin Gugino

uffalo—On June 4 , two cops shoved this segregated and poor city into the center of the month-long national uprising precipitated by the killing of George Floyd .
The spotlight—the harsh glare that erases nuance—has moved on to new outrages in bigger cities .
The local aftermath has fallen into familiar and frustrating tropes : police circling the wagons , a package of ill-defined reform proposals , and attempts at scapegoating that serve politics rather than progress .
The particulars of the incident have been well covered .
Shortly after 8 that night , the Buffalo Police Department ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the square in front of City Hall .
In response to unruly protests the weekend before—some isolated vandalism on the city ’ s relatively affluent and predominantly white West Side , a violent and chaotic police charge on the city ’ s predominantly black East Side—Mayor Byron Brown had imposed a weeklong curfew .
As they had each night that week , a handful of protesters , all of them peaceful , took their time complying .
Among them was Martin Gugino , 75 , a Catholic Worker active with the Western New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ motorcycle helmet in one hand and a cellphone in the other , stood before the ERT ’ s advancing line , engaging a couple of cops—maybe taunting them , maybe asking questions , definitely too close for comfort .
One of the cops , Aaron Torgalski , cross-checked Gugino with his club .
Another , Robert McCabe , shoved Gugino with one hand .
Gugino fell backward , struck his head on the pavement , and began bleeding from one ear .
He lay stiff and still , except for his fingers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ skull was fractured .
Torgalski , McCabe , and other ERT members marched past Gugino ’ s prone body .
One broke ranks momentarily , intending to see to Gugino .
He was stopped by another officer , John Losi , who pulled the errant cop back into line .
Just the day before Losi had made local news by taking a knee in Niagara Square with protesters—the first Buffalo cop to take part in that symbolic ritual .
He ’ d presented the act as a transaction : I ’ ll kneel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Losi told demonstrators , if in exchange you ’ ll clear out at curfew .
No such bargain was on offer the following evening .
New York State Police medics , following ERT ’ s advance , put Gugino into an ambulance , which took him to a trauma center .
Two weeks later , he remains hospitalized .
The police department ’ s communications director—who is also the mayor ’ s communications director—quickly issued an explanation of the incident : Gugino “ tripped and fell.
” That lie was exposed before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole scene—the shove , the fall , the seemingly callous march forward , the would-be good Samaritan whose generous instinct was thwarted—was captured on video by a reporter for WBFO , the local NPR affiliate .
The video circulated widely on social media and local news sites .
The mayor ’ s communications director reversed and apologized for the initial lie , explaining that police officials had not seen the video , which was quickly going viral .
The mayor repeated that explanation first to local media and then in a succession of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s Chris Cuomo , MSNBC ’ s Rachel Maddow , and CBS ’ s Jeff Glor , a Buffalo native .
The mayor also used those media opportunities to identify the root problem with policing in Buffalo : He blamed the police union .
“ The police union is on the wrong side of history , ” Brown told Maddow .
“ This union has been on the wrong side of history for a very long period of time .
And they have been a real barrier to the reform of policing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Buffalo ’ s police union stubbornly defends officers accused of unwarranted violence .
And the union and its attorneys take full advantage of a contract—and New York State civil service laws—that make it difficult to discipline or fire police .
But according to activists circulating a petition demanding his immediate resignation , Brown has never demonstrated an inclination to change the way police operate .
In fact , those activists say , the opposite is true .
Under three police commissioners named by Brown in his 14 years as mayor , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brand of racism that fuels protests across the country .
§ Setting up police checkpoints in poor , mostly black and Latino neighborhoods , which were discontinued after their constitutionality was challenged in a lawsuit .
§ Raising revenue for Brown ’ s cash-strapped administration by targeting motorists in those same neighborhoods for minor infractions—busted headlights , expired registrations or insurance cards , rolling stops .
§ Creating special units with a reputation for brutality and disregard for the Fourth Amendment .
More to the point , in the past three years alone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ men of color under questionable circumstances—Wardel “ Meech ” Davis , Jose Hernandez-Rossy , Rafael “ Pito ” Rivera , and Marcus Neal—with no consequences to the officers involved .
Earlier this year , the city paid $ 4.5 million to settle a lawsuit by Wilson Morales , who was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by Buffalo police officers in 2012 .
The 17-year-old was out picking up pizza .
The officers who shot him have since been promoted ; one made captain last year .
Indeed , the creation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unit whose members fractured Gugino ’ s skull— belies any frustrated reformist agenda .
The ERT unit was formed in response to the 2014 local protests over the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson , Mo .
In some cities , Ferguson precipitated a hard look at racist and militaristic policing practices .
Here in Buffalo , the Brown administration invested in a new crowd control unit .
The ERT is a kind of junior varsity to the department ’ s SWAT team , according to John Evans , president of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 57 members are trained for three days at a FEMA camp in how to hold their clubs , march in a phalanx , and make mass arrests .
It ’ s an on-call unit , not a permanent one : Most of its members are young patrol officers looking for a little bump in their paychecks by pulling extra duty .
The ERT is seldom deployed .
After the first weekend of protests in Buffalo , Evans said his officers were ill prepared to deal with demonstrators .
Within hours of the incident @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pay .
The next day , Erie County District Attorney John Flynn announced that he would charge the officers with assault .
More than 200 officers from law enforcement agencies across the region showed up at the arraignment of Torgalski and McCabe .
Fire engines with lights flashing blocked traffic , allowing their supporters to spill into the street .
Some came with umbrellas that they opened in front of TV camera crews to prevent them from capturing Torgalski and McCabe exiting the city court building .
Evans said in an e-mail to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ executing orders ” and the suspensions and charges were an attempt to “ fuck over these guys.
” Evans also warned his members that the union was not in a financial position to pay legal fees for officers charged in civil suits as a result of such incidents .
In response , all 57 members of the ERT resigned from the unit , though not from the police force .
Brown blamed the union for the resignations , saying Evans had effectively blackmailed ERT members to refuse to work the protests .
Here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complicated .
In the past , the City of Buffalo has assumed legal costs for police officers facing civil suits .
Last November , however , the state ’ s Court of Appeals ruled the city was not obligated to pay for the civil defense of an officer caught on video in 2014 striking a man repeatedly with a baton outside a bar .
Because the officer , Corey Krug , violated the department ’ s use-of-force policies , the court ruled , he was not working within the scope of his duty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out of providing his defense , though the city would remain on the hook to pay if the plaintiff won a judgment .
But complexity has no place in a campaign fought by press release , which is what the Brown administration seems to have in mind as it seeks a way around this crisis .
When Brown released some tepid reform proposals last week—at a press event that included NFL players and a pair of singing cops—among them was a pledge that the department would no longer deploy the ERT to quell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t : The ERT had disbanded itself five days earlier .
And that , it turned out , is a cause for celebration .
In the days since , the city ’ s demonstrations—whether large or small , contained to downtown or sprawling into marches through the city ’ s neighborhoods—have been peaceful .
There has been no violence , no vandalism .
And zero arrests .

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B uffalo—On June 4, two cops shoved this segregated and poor city into the center of the month-long national uprising precipitated by the killing of George Floyd.
The spotlight—the harsh glare that erases nuance—has moved on to new outrages in bigger cities. The local aftermath has fallen into familiar and frustrating tropes: police circling the wagons, a package of ill-defined reform proposals, and attempts at scapegoating that serve politics rather than progress.
The particulars of the incident have been well covered.
Shortly after 8 that night, the Buffalo Police Department’s Emergency Response Team was ordered to clear the square in front of City Hall. In response to unruly protests the weekend before—some isolated vandalism on the city’s relatively affluent and predominantly white West Side, a violent and chaotic police charge on the city’s predominantly black East Side—Mayor Byron Brown had imposed a weeklong curfew.
As they had each night that week, a handful of protesters, all of them peaceful, took their time complying.
Among them was Martin Gugino, 75, a Catholic Worker active with the Western New York Peace Center. Gugino, a motorcycle helmet in one hand and a cellphone in the other, stood before the ERT’s advancing line, engaging a couple of cops—maybe taunting them, maybe asking questions, definitely too close for comfort.
One of the cops, Aaron Torgalski, cross-checked Gugino with his club. Another, Robert McCabe, shoved Gugino with one hand. Gugino fell backward, struck his head on the pavement, and began bleeding from one ear. He lay stiff and still, except for his fingers, which curled and uncurled eerily. His skull was fractured. Current Issue View our current issue
Torgalski, McCabe, and other ERT members marched past Gugino’s prone body. One broke ranks momentarily, intending to see to Gugino. He was stopped by another officer, John Losi, who pulled the errant cop back into line. Just the day before Losi had made local news by taking a knee in Niagara Square with protesters—the first Buffalo cop to take part in that symbolic ritual. He’d presented the act as a transaction: I’ll kneel with you if you want me to, Losi told demonstrators, if in exchange you’ll clear out at curfew.
No such bargain was on offer the following evening.
New York State Police medics, following ERT’s advance, put Gugino into an ambulance, which took him to a trauma center. Two weeks later, he remains hospitalized. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
The police department’s communications director—who is also the mayor’s communications director—quickly issued an explanation of the incident: Gugino “tripped and fell.”
That lie was exposed before it had even been told.
The whole scene—the shove, the fall, the seemingly callous march forward, the would-be good Samaritan whose generous instinct was thwarted—was captured on video by a reporter for WBFO, the local NPR affiliate. The video circulated widely on social media and local news sites.
The mayor’s communications director reversed and apologized for the initial lie, explaining that police officials had not seen the video, which was quickly going viral. The mayor repeated that explanation first to local media and then in a succession of appearances on national television: with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, and CBS’s Jeff Glor, a Buffalo native.
The mayor also used those media opportunities to identify the root problem with policing in Buffalo: He blamed the police union.
“The police union is on the wrong side of history,” Brown told Maddow. “This union has been on the wrong side of history for a very long period of time. And they have been a real barrier to the reform of policing in the City of Buffalo.”
Certainly, Buffalo’s police union stubbornly defends officers accused of unwarranted violence. And the union and its attorneys take full advantage of a contract—and New York State civil service laws—that make it difficult to discipline or fire police.
But according to activists circulating a petition demanding his immediate resignation, Brown has never demonstrated an inclination to change the way police operate.
In fact, those activists say, the opposite is true. Under three police commissioners named by Brown in his 14 years as mayor, the department has instituted policies embodying the specific brand of racism that fuels protests across the country.
Some examples:
§ Setting up police checkpoints in poor, mostly black and Latino neighborhoods, which were discontinued after their constitutionality was challenged in a lawsuit.
§ Raising revenue for Brown’s cash-strapped administration by targeting motorists in those same neighborhoods for minor infractions—busted headlights, expired registrations or insurance cards, rolling stops.
§ Creating special units with a reputation for brutality and disregard for the Fourth Amendment.
More to the point, in the past three years alone, Buffalo police have killed four young men of color under questionable circumstances—Wardel “Meech” Davis, Jose Hernandez-Rossy, Rafael “Pito” Rivera, and Marcus Neal—with no consequences to the officers involved. Earlier this year, the city paid $4.5 million to settle a lawsuit by Wilson Morales, who was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by Buffalo police officers in 2012. The 17-year-old was out picking up pizza. The officers who shot him have since been promoted; one made captain last year.
Indeed, the creation of Buffalo’s Emergency Response Team—the unit whose members fractured Gugino’s skull— belies any frustrated reformist agenda. The ERT unit was formed in response to the 2014 local protests over the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
In some cities, Ferguson precipitated a hard look at racist and militaristic policing practices.
Here in Buffalo, the Brown administration invested in a new crowd control unit.
The ERT is a kind of junior varsity to the department’s SWAT team, according to John Evans, president of the city’s police union. Its 57 members are trained for three days at a FEMA camp in how to hold their clubs, march in a phalanx, and make mass arrests.
It’s an on-call unit, not a permanent one: Most of its members are young patrol officers looking for a little bump in their paychecks by pulling extra duty. The ERT is seldom deployed. After the first weekend of protests in Buffalo, Evans said his officers were ill prepared to deal with demonstrators.
Within hours of the incident, Torgalski and McCabe were suspended without pay. The next day, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn announced that he would charge the officers with assault.
More than 200 officers from law enforcement agencies across the region showed up at the arraignment of Torgalski and McCabe. Fire engines with lights flashing blocked traffic, allowing their supporters to spill into the street. Some came with umbrellas that they opened in front of TV camera crews to prevent them from capturing Torgalski and McCabe exiting the city court building.
Evans said in an e-mail to union membership the officers were “simply executing orders” and the suspensions and charges were an attempt to “fuck over these guys.” Evans also warned his members that the union was not in a financial position to pay legal fees for officers charged in civil suits as a result of such incidents.
In response, all 57 members of the ERT resigned from the unit, though not from the police force. Brown blamed the union for the resignations, saying Evans had effectively blackmailed ERT members to refuse to work the protests.
Here, too, the truth is more complicated.
In the past, the City of Buffalo has assumed legal costs for police officers facing civil suits. Last November, however, the state’s Court of Appeals ruled the city was not obligated to pay for the civil defense of an officer caught on video in 2014 striking a man repeatedly with a baton outside a bar.
Because the officer, Corey Krug, violated the department’s use-of-force policies, the court ruled, he was not working within the scope of his duty. Therefore, the city could opt out of providing his defense, though the city would remain on the hook to pay if the plaintiff won a judgment.
But complexity has no place in a campaign fought by press release, which is what the Brown administration seems to have in mind as it seeks a way around this crisis. When Brown released some tepid reform proposals last week—at a press event that included NFL players and a pair of singing cops—among them was a pledge that the department would no longer deploy the ERT to quell protests.
Of course, it wouldn’t: The ERT had disbanded itself five days earlier.
And that, it turned out, is a cause for celebration. In the days since, the city’s demonstrations—whether large or small, contained to downtown or sprawling into marches through the city’s neighborhoods—have been peaceful. There has been no violence, no vandalism. And zero arrests.


thenation--2020-06-16--The Black Lives Matter Protests Are a Tipping Point in US History

They were relegated to the protest equivalent of a ghetto .
Their assigned route shunted them to the far fringes of the city .
Their demonstration was destined for an ignominious demise far from any main thoroughfare , out of sight of most apartment buildings , out of earshot of most homes , best viewed from a dinghy bobbing in the Hudson River .
Those at the head of the march had other ideas .
After a brief stop at city hall , they turned the crowd onto the main drag , Washington Street , and for the next few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through Hoboken , N.J. “ Whose streets ?
Our streets !
” is a well-worn activist chant , but for a little while it was true as Hoboken ’ s motorcycle cops played catch-up and the march turned this way and that—first , uptown on Washington , where a conspicuous minority of businesses were boarded up , expecting trouble that never came .
Then , a left onto Sixth , another onto Jackson .
Monroe .
Park .
Finally , back to Washington and onward .
All the while , the voices of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in call-and-response chants mainly by people of color , rang through the streets and echoed off high-rent low-rises .
As an ever-more middle-aged white guy who , a decade ago , traded covering US protests for reporting from African war zones , I have little of substance to add to the superlative coverage of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that have erupted across the country in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd .
For that , read some of the journalists who are on the front lines innovating and elevating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stahl ’ s real-time eyewitness observations , incisive interviews , and on-the-fly fact-checking , while marching for miles and miles through the streets of Brooklyn , N.Y .
Instead , bear with me while I ruminate about something I said to Tom Engelhardt , the editor of this website , TomDispatch , at the beginning of March when our lives changed forever .
Instead of simply bemoaning the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic—however devastating and deadly it might prove to be—I uncharacteristically looked on the bright side , suggesting that this could be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shifts the world ’ s axis and leads to revolutionary change .
I bring this up not to brag about my prescience , but to point out the very opposite—how little foresight I actually had .
It ’ s desperately difficult for any of us to predict the future and yet , thanks so often to the long , hard , and sometimes remarkably dangerous work of organizers and activists , even the most seemingly immutable things can change over time and under the right conditions .
Despite my comments to Tom , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the span of a few months , a novel coronavirus that dates back only to last year and systemic American racism that dates back to 1619 would somehow intersect , I wouldn ’ t have believed it .
If you had told me that a man named George Floyd would survive Covid-19 only to be murdered by the police and that his brutal death would spark a worldwide movement , leading the council members of a major American city to announce their intent to defund the police and Europeans halfway across the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 19 century monarch who slaughtered Africans , I would have dismissed you .
But history works in mysterious ways .
Four hundred years of racism , systemic abuse of authority , unpunished police misconduct , white skin privilege , and a host of other evils at the dark core of America gave a white Minneapolis police officer the license to press a black man ’ s face to the pavement and jam a knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes .
For allegedly attempting to buy a pack of cigarettes with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was killed at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis , Minn. , by police officer Derek Chauvin .
At the beginning of the last century , whites could murder a black man , woman , or child in this country as part of a public celebration , memorialize it on postcards , and mail them to friends .
Between 1877 and 1950 , nearly 4,000 blacks were lynched in the American South , more than a death a week for 73 years .
But the murders of blacks , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the 17th , 18th , and 19th centuries or of unaccountable fellow Americans in the latter 19th and 20th centuries never ended despite changes in some attitudes , significant federal legislation , and the notable successes of the protests , marches , and activism of the civil rights movement of the 1960s .
From 2006 to 2012 , in fact , a white police officer killed a black person in America almost twice a week , according to FBI statistics .
And less than a month before we watched the last moments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we witnessed a modern-day version of a lynching when Ahmaud Arbery , a 25-year-old black man , was gunned down while jogging on a suburban street in Glynn County , Ga. Gregory McMichael , a 64-year-old white retired district attorney , investigator , and police detective , and his son Travis , 34 , were eventually arrested and charged with his murder .
Without the Covid-19 pandemic and the Trump administration ’ s botched response to it , without black Americans ’ dying of the disease at three times the rate of whites @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that have always consigned people of color to die at elevated rates , without a confluence of so many horrors that the black community in America has suffered for so long coupled with those of a new virus , would we be in the place we ’ re in today ?
If President Trump hadn ’ t cheered on the efforts of mostly older white protesters to end pandemic shutdowns and “ liberate ” their states and then echoed a racist Miami police chief of the 1960s who promised “ when the looting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ essentially calling for young black protesters to be gunned down , would the present movement have taken off in such a way ?
And would these protests have been as powerful if people who had avoided outside contact for weeks hadn ’ t suddenly decided to risk their own lives and those of others around them because this murder was too brazen , too likely to end in injustice for private handwringing and public hashtags ?
In Minneapolis , where George Floyd drew his last embattled breath , a veto-proof majority of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disbanding the city ’ s police department .
As council president Lisa Bender put it : “ We ’ re here because we hear you .
We are here today because George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis police .
We are here because here in Minneapolis and in cities across the United States it is clear that our existing system of policing and public safety is not keeping our communities safe .
Our efforts at incremental reform have failed .
Period.
” A month ago , such a statement by almost any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ similar sentiments voiced across the nation—would have been essentially unthinkable .
Only small numbers of activists working away with tiny chisels on a mountain of official intransigence could even have imagined such a thing and they would have been dismissed by the punditocracy as delusional .
But the reverberations of George Floyd ’ s death have hardly been confined to the city where he was slain or even the country whose systemic bigotry put a target on his back for 46 years .
His death and America ’ s rampant racism have led @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protests against discrimination and police brutality from Australia to Germany , Argentina to Kenya .
In Ghent , Belgium , a bust honoring King Leopold II was defaced and covered with a hood bearing Floyd ’ s dying plea : “ I can ’ t breathe.
” In Antwerp , Leopold ’ s statue was set on fire and later removed .
It was Leopold , as TomDispatch regular Adam Hochschild so memorably documented in King Leopold ’ s Ghost , who , in the late 19th century , seized the vast territory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looted its rubber , brutalized its people , and presided over a fin de siècle holocaust that took the lives of as many as 10 million people , roughly half the Congo ’ s population .
Belgian activists are now calling for all the country ’ s statues and monuments to the murderous monarch to be torn down .
Like the island off its coast , Hoboken was born of a great swindle .
In 1658 , the Dutch governor of Manhattan reportedly bought the tract of land that now includes that mile-square @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for some wampum , cloth , kettles , blankets , six guns and—fittingly enough , given Hoboken ’ s startling bars-to-area ratio—half a barrel of beer .
In other words , the city where I covered that demonstration is part and parcel of the settler colonialism , slavery , and racism that forms the bedrock of this nation .
But even in that white enclave , that bastion of 21st century gentrification , in the midst of a lethal global pandemic with no cure , 10,000 people flooded its parks and streets , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic , too ” and “ Covid is not the only killer ” that would have made little sense six months ago .
There were also posters that would have been shocking in Hoboken only several weeks ago , but didn ’ t cause anyone to bat an eye , like “ ACAB ” ( an acronym for “ All Cops are Bastards ” ) or Not to mention dozens and dozens of signs reading “ Defund the Police ” or “ Abolish the Police.
” Suddenly—to most of us , at least—such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reality , social change rarely occurs by accident or chance .
It usually comes in the wake of years of relentless , thankless , grinding activism .
It also takes a willingness to head for the barricades when history has illuminated the dangers of doing so .
It requires persistence in the face of weariness and distraction , and courage in the face of abject adversity .
Where this movement goes , how it changes this nation , and what it spawns around the world will be won or lost on the streets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an America that inches closer to long-articulated but never remotely approached ideals , or usher in a backlash that leads to a wave of politicians in the Trumpian mold ?
In moments like this , there ’ s no way of knowing whether you ’ re on the cusp of a cultural renaissance or a societal Black Death .
It takes a long time , but Earth ’ s orbit and axis do change , and once they do , things are never the same again .
Already , from Minneapolis to Antwerp @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not what it was just a short while ago .
A man forced to die with his face pressed to the ground may yet shift the earth under your feet .

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.
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They were relegated to the protest equivalent of a ghetto. Their assigned route shunted them to the far fringes of the city. Their demonstration was destined for an ignominious demise far from any main thoroughfare, out of sight of most apartment buildings, out of earshot of most homes, best viewed from a dinghy bobbing in the Hudson River.
Those at the head of the march had other ideas. After a brief stop at city hall, they turned the crowd onto the main drag, Washington Street, and for the next few hours, a parade of protesters snaked through Hoboken, N.J.
“Whose streets? Our streets!” is a well-worn activist chant, but for a little while it was true as Hoboken’s motorcycle cops played catch-up and the march turned this way and that—first, uptown on Washington, where a conspicuous minority of businesses were boarded up, expecting trouble that never came. Then, a left onto Sixth, another onto Jackson. Monroe. Park. Finally, back to Washington and onward.
All the while, the voices of the mostly white marchers, being led in call-and-response chants mainly by people of color, rang through the streets and echoed off high-rent low-rises.
“Hands up! Don’t shoot!”
“No justice! No peace!”
“Say his name! George Floyd!” Current Issue View our current issue
As an ever-more middle-aged white guy who, a decade ago, traded covering US protests for reporting from African war zones, I have little of substance to add to the superlative coverage of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that have erupted across the country in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. For that, read some of the journalists who are on the front lines innovating and elevating the craft, like the great Aviva Stahl’s real-time eyewitness observations, incisive interviews, and on-the-fly fact-checking, while marching for miles and miles through the streets of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Instead, bear with me while I ruminate about something I said to Tom Engelhardt, the editor of this website, TomDispatch, at the beginning of March when our lives changed forever. Instead of simply bemoaning the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic—however devastating and deadly it might prove to be—I uncharacteristically looked on the bright side, suggesting that this could be one of those rare transformative moments that shifts the world’s axis and leads to revolutionary change. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
I bring this up not to brag about my prescience, but to point out the very opposite—how little foresight I actually had. It’s desperately difficult for any of us to predict the future and yet, thanks so often to the long, hard, and sometimes remarkably dangerous work of organizers and activists, even the most seemingly immutable things can change over time and under the right conditions.
A Latter-Day Lynching
Despite my comments to Tom, if you had told me that, in the span of a few months, a novel coronavirus that dates back only to last year and systemic American racism that dates back to 1619 would somehow intersect, I wouldn’t have believed it. If you had told me that a man named George Floyd would survive Covid-19 only to be murdered by the police and that his brutal death would spark a worldwide movement, leading the council members of a major American city to announce their intent to defund the police and Europeans halfway across the planet to deface monuments to a murderous 19 century monarch who slaughtered Africans, I would have dismissed you. But history works in mysterious ways.
Four hundred years of racism, systemic abuse of authority, unpunished police misconduct, white skin privilege, and a host of other evils at the dark core of America gave a white Minneapolis police officer the license to press a black man’s face to the pavement and jam a knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes. For allegedly attempting to buy a pack of cigarettes with a phony $20 bill, George Floyd was killed at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, Minn., by police officer Derek Chauvin.
At the beginning of the last century, whites could murder a black man, woman, or child in this country as part of a public celebration, memorialize it on postcards, and mail them to friends. Between 1877 and 1950, nearly 4,000 blacks were lynched in the American South, more than a death a week for 73 years. But the murders of blacks, whether at the hands of their owners in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries or of unaccountable fellow Americans in the latter 19th and 20th centuries never ended despite changes in some attitudes, significant federal legislation, and the notable successes of the protests, marches, and activism of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
From 2006 to 2012, in fact, a white police officer killed a black person in America almost twice a week, according to FBI statistics. And less than a month before we watched the last moments of George Floyd’s life, we witnessed a modern-day version of a lynching when Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was gunned down while jogging on a suburban street in Glynn County, Ga. Gregory McMichael, a 64-year-old white retired district attorney, investigator, and police detective, and his son Travis, 34, were eventually arrested and charged with his murder.
Without the Covid-19 pandemic and the Trump administration’s botched response to it, without black Americans’ dying of the disease at three times the rate of whites, without the suddenly spotlighted health disparities that have always consigned people of color to die at elevated rates, without a confluence of so many horrors that the black community in America has suffered for so long coupled with those of a new virus, would we be in the place we’re in today?
If President Trump hadn’t cheered on the efforts of mostly older white protesters to end pandemic shutdowns and “liberate” their states and then echoed a racist Miami police chief of the 1960s who promised “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” essentially calling for young black protesters to be gunned down, would the present movement have taken off in such a way? And would these protests have been as powerful if people who had avoided outside contact for weeks hadn’t suddenly decided to risk their own lives and those of others around them because this murder was too brazen, too likely to end in injustice for private handwringing and public hashtags?
In Minneapolis, where George Floyd drew his last embattled breath, a veto-proof majority of the city council recently announced their commitment to disbanding the city’s police department. As council president Lisa Bender put it:
“We’re here because we hear you. We are here today because George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis police. We are here because here in Minneapolis and in cities across the United States it is clear that our existing system of policing and public safety is not keeping our communities safe. Our efforts at incremental reform have failed. Period.”
A month ago, such a statement by almost any council chief in any American city—much less similar sentiments voiced across the nation—would have been essentially unthinkable. Only small numbers of activists working away with tiny chisels on a mountain of official intransigence could even have imagined such a thing and they would have been dismissed by the punditocracy as delusional.
But the reverberations of George Floyd’s death have hardly been confined to the city where he was slain or even the country whose systemic bigotry put a target on his back for 46 years. His death and America’s rampant racism have led to soul-searching across the globe, sparking protests against discrimination and police brutality from Australia to Germany, Argentina to Kenya. In Ghent, Belgium, a bust honoring King Leopold II was defaced and covered with a hood bearing Floyd’s dying plea: “I can’t breathe.” In Antwerp, Leopold’s statue was set on fire and later removed.
It was Leopold, as TomDispatch regular Adam Hochschild so memorably documented in King Leopold’s Ghost, who, in the late 19th century, seized the vast territory surrounding Africa’s Congo River, looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and presided over a fin de siècle holocaust that took the lives of as many as 10 million people, roughly half the Congo’s population. Belgian activists are now calling for all the country’s statues and monuments to the murderous monarch to be torn down.
A Cultural Renaissance or a Societal Black Death?
Like the island off its coast, Hoboken was born of a great swindle. In 1658, the Dutch governor of Manhattan reportedly bought the tract of land that now includes that mile-square New Jersey city from the Lenape people for some wampum, cloth, kettles, blankets, six guns and—fittingly enough, given Hoboken’s startling bars-to-area ratio—half a barrel of beer.
In other words, the city where I covered that demonstration is part and parcel of the settler colonialism, slavery, and racism that forms the bedrock of this nation. But even in that white enclave, that bastion of 21st century gentrification, in the midst of a lethal global pandemic with no cure, 10,000 people flooded its parks and streets, carrying signs like “Racism is a pandemic, too” and “Covid is not the only killer” that would have made little sense six months ago.
There were also posters that would have been shocking in Hoboken only several weeks ago, but didn’t cause anyone to bat an eye, like “ACAB” (an acronym for “All Cops are Bastards”) or
Are you a: [ ] Killer cop [ ] Complicit Cop
Not to mention dozens and dozens of signs reading “Defund the Police” or “Abolish the Police.” Suddenly—to most of us, at least—such proposals were on the table.
In reality, social change rarely occurs by accident or chance. It usually comes in the wake of years of relentless, thankless, grinding activism. It also takes a willingness to head for the barricades when history has illuminated the dangers of doing so. It requires persistence in the face of weariness and distraction, and courage in the face of abject adversity.
Where this movement goes, how it changes this nation, and what it spawns around the world will be won or lost on the streets of our tomorrows. Will it mean an America that inches closer to long-articulated but never remotely approached ideals, or usher in a backlash that leads to a wave of politicians in the Trumpian mold? In moments like this, there’s no way of knowing whether you’re on the cusp of a cultural renaissance or a societal Black Death.
It takes a long time, but Earth’s orbit and axis do change, and once they do, things are never the same again. Already, from Minneapolis to Antwerp to modest Hoboken, this world is not what it was just a short while ago. A man forced to die with his face pressed to the ground may yet shift the earth under your feet.


thenation--2020-06-16--This Isn’t the Way to Push Warren as Biden’s VP

Let me say this first : I don ’ t know who Joe Biden should pick as his running mate .
If you forced me to choose , I ’ d say Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris .
Or Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren .
Just in case you count my choice to list one first as evidence of my real preference .
I honestly don ’ t have one .
And I acknowledge : Biden might pick someone else who is equally good , or better .
Or worse .
I ’ m terrible at VP prognosticating .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I know that Warren and Harris are serious picks who meet Biden ’ s widely reported top qualification : that they can be president on day one ( or any other day the then-78-year-old president needs them ) .
I followed Warren on the campaign trail last year and this ; I could not admire her more .
I couldn ’ t follow Harris on the campaign trail ; my daughter worked for her .
But I covered her in California for years , and I ’ m now free to state : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The part of me that wants Biden to pick Warren—the lefty part of me , who prays that Warren as VP would bring over discouraged Bernie Sanders voters—was nonetheless put off by this letter to Biden making the case for Warren .
( Organizers tell me it was not organized or endorsed by Warren or her campaign . )
Charles Booker Is Changing the Thinking About Who Beats Mitch Phara Souffrant Forrest Wants to Cancel Your Rent Jamaal Bowman Wants to Spend Less on the Pentagon and More on the Bronx According to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the 100 who signed the letter are “ people of color ” —though those voters make up more than 40 percent of the Democratic electorate .
It ’ s pretty much always wrong for white people to play “ count the black people , ” but I tried anyway , and as far as I could tell , there were very few .
That is particularly problematic in the wake of George Floyd ’ s murder , and the movement that has erupted in protest .
Literally , as I was writing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ professor ( and generally a progressive hero ) Laurence Tribe went viral : “ I think African Americans above all would be the first to say they are more interested in results than cosmetics.
” Representation is not cosmetics .
Tribe apologized a few hours ago .
But this part of the letter bothered me particularly : “ Anyone can speculate about who could most help your ticket politically in swing mid-western states or with people of color , both areas where you ’ re already strong .
Another big variable is who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to vote for your ticket.
” The idea that Biden is “ already strong ” with “ people of color ” is what advances not just Warren but also moderate white candidates like Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer .
Those two have fallen back , according to most reporting , but they could still be Biden ’ s pick if he accepts that framing .
Former New York City public advocate Mark Green , who helped organize the letter , acknowledges the racial issue .
“ Race surely is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he e-mailed me .
“ But in fact—for VP , in a race against Trump and Trumpism—there are two schools of thought on what Biden should do to win and govern .
And this one was getting ignored.
” He ’ s mostly right .
There have been black women lobbying for black women candidates , but no organized force pushing for Warren .
And as a progressive who admires Warren , I get that .
I also like , even love , some of the signatories , from The Nation ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ irreplaceable health care activist Ady Barkan .
Yet progressives especially should remember four years back : Hillary Clinton was “ already strong ” with “ people of color , ” as the letter states , back in 2016—but an alarming number didn ’ t vote .
That is the trend that Biden has to combat .
Democratic activist Karen Finney , who endorsed no candidate and has expressed a lot of admiration for Warren , told me , “ It ’ s doubtful the authors of this letter realize how offensive it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more about racial justice , the systemic racism that pervades the bones of all our systems creating mass inequality , than a black woman .
Nor do they seem to understand the message of this historic moment .
Black people are tired of being told to wait our turn .
And if we ’ re being honest , the progressive movement has been part of sending that message to black people for generations , while expecting loyalty even when it didn ’ t serve our interests.
” She added—and wanted to make sure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clear—I say this as a black woman progressive raised by a white liberal who has had to straddle all of these interests and issues my whole life .
And I ’ m a Warren fan.
” In fact , Warren has an impressive number of black female supporters , from Representative Ayanna Pressley to Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza , to Working Families Party leader Nelini Stamp , plus the members of Black Womxn For , who endorsed her .
Unfortunately , in my experience , outreach to these women often gets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But right now , I think the letter is divisive , and Warren deserves better .

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Let me say this first: I don’t know who Joe Biden should pick as his running mate. If you forced me to choose, I’d say Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris. Or Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren. Just in case you count my choice to list one first as evidence of my real preference.
I honestly don’t have one. And I acknowledge: Biden might pick someone else who is equally good, or better. Or worse. I’m terrible at VP prognosticating. I mostly don’t try.
But I know that Warren and Harris are serious picks who meet Biden’s widely reported top qualification: that they can be president on day one (or any other day the then-78-year-old president needs them). I followed Warren on the campaign trail last year and this; I could not admire her more. I couldn’t follow Harris on the campaign trail; my daughter worked for her. But I covered her in California for years, and I’m now free to state: I deeply admire her as well.
The part of me that wants Biden to pick Warren—the lefty part of me, who prays that Warren as VP would bring over discouraged Bernie Sanders voters—was nonetheless put off by this letter to Biden making the case for Warren. (Organizers tell me it was not organized or endorsed by Warren or her campaign.) Election 2020 Interview: Stacey Abrams Breaks Down Georgia’s (Latest) Election Meltdown Joan Walsh Charles Booker Is Changing the Thinking About Who Beats Mitch John Nichols Phara Souffrant Forrest Wants to Cancel Your Rent Sara Baig Jamaal Bowman Wants to Spend Less on the Pentagon and More on the Bronx John Nichols
According to The Washington Post, roughly 20 percent of the 100 who signed the letter are “people of color”—though those voters make up more than 40 percent of the Democratic electorate. It’s pretty much always wrong for white people to play “count the black people,” but I tried anyway, and as far as I could tell, there were very few. That is particularly problematic in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, and the movement that has erupted in protest.
Literally, as I was writing, this quote from pro-Warren Harvard Law professor (and generally a progressive hero) Laurence Tribe went viral: “I think African Americans above all would be the first to say they are more interested in results than cosmetics.”
Representation is not cosmetics. Tribe apologized a few hours ago.
But this part of the letter bothered me particularly: “Anyone can speculate about who could most help your ticket politically in swing mid-western states or with people of color, both areas where you’re already strong. Another big variable is who could persuade millions of disappointed Sanders supporters to vote for your ticket.”
The idea that Biden is “already strong” with “people of color” is what advances not just Warren but also moderate white candidates like Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Those two have fallen back, according to most reporting, but they could still be Biden’s pick if he accepts that framing. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
Former New York City public advocate Mark Green, who helped organize the letter, acknowledges the racial issue. “Race surely is our original and enduring sin,” he e-mailed me. “But in fact—for VP, in a race against Trump and Trumpism—there are two schools of thought on what Biden should do to win and govern. And this one was getting ignored.”
He’s mostly right. There have been black women lobbying for black women candidates, but no organized force pushing for Warren. And as a progressive who admires Warren, I get that. I also like, even love, some of the signatories, from The Nation’s Victor Navasky to Jane Fonda to the irreplaceable health care activist Ady Barkan.
Yet progressives especially should remember four years back: Hillary Clinton was “already strong” with “people of color,” as the letter states, back in 2016—but an alarming number didn’t vote. That is the trend that Biden has to combat.
Democratic activist Karen Finney, who endorsed no candidate and has expressed a lot of admiration for Warren, told me, “It’s doubtful the authors of this letter realize how offensive it is to essentially say a white woman knows more about racial justice, the systemic racism that pervades the bones of all our systems creating mass inequality, than a black woman. Nor do they seem to understand the message of this historic moment. Black people are tired of being told to wait our turn. And if we’re being honest, the progressive movement has been part of sending that message to black people for generations, while expecting loyalty even when it didn’t serve our interests.”
She added—and wanted to make sure I included this: “To be clear—I say this as a black woman progressive raised by a white liberal who has had to straddle all of these interests and issues my whole life. And I’m a Warren fan.”
In fact, Warren has an impressive number of black female supporters, from Representative Ayanna Pressley to Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza, to Working Families Party leader Nelini Stamp, plus the members of Black Womxn For, who endorsed her.
Unfortunately, in my experience, outreach to these women often gets skipped. I could be wrong here. But right now, I think the letter is divisive, and Warren deserves better.


thenation--2020-06-16--NBA Players Face the Question: To Boycott or Not to Boycott

Kyrie Irving , the All-Star point guard for the Brooklyn Nets , is often mocked in the press for being , shall we say , “ out there ” with his opinions on a wide array of subjects .
It ’ s been debated whether he has been sincere or engaged in performance art , mocking the media ’ s willingness to take him seriously and furtively chase like mice whatever crumbs he throws in their direction .
Yet there is nothing performative—not a hint of artifice—in the ideas that Irving is currently expressing .
Irving has organized a coalition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ militantly opposed to restarting the NBA season during the ongoing pandemic as sequestered employees in a bubble in Orlando .
With news of recent coronavirus spikes in Florida , some players believe that resuming the season is fundamentally unsafe .
But others , including Irving , have a different reason not to take the court right now : the national movement against racist police violence .
These players think the issues of racial justice and stopping police violence are so pressing at the moment that the NBA runs the risk of becoming a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
On a conference call with around 80 players , Irving said that he would be “ willing to give up everything ” for the cause .
He also said , “ I don ’ t support going into Orlando .
I ’ m not with the systematic racism and bullshit .
Something smells a little fishy .
Whether we want to admit it or not , we are targeted as black men every day we wake up.
” He isn ’ t alone in the belief that now is not the time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stephen Jackson , who was friends with George Floyd and has been leading struggle in the streets , said on Instagram : These players are serious about the politics of what they are proposing , and the risks .
Also on the conference call with players was 1968 Olympic bronze medalist Dr. John Carlos , who gave them an earful about the need for the struggles of the past .
Carlos also gave his firsthand account of deciding whether to boycott or bring the politics to the field of play : the fundamental @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lead up to the 1968 games .
The group of rebels , which includes players from the WNBA and people who work in the entertainment industry , issued a statement to Adrian Wojnarowski at ESPN that reads in part : We are a group of men and women from different teams and industries that are normally painted as opponents , but have put our egos and differences aside to make sure we stand united and demand honesty during this uncertain time .
Native indigenous African Caribbean men and women entertaining the world , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and platforms for positive change and truth .
We are truly at an inflection point in history where as a collective community , we can band together—UNIFY—and move as one .
We need all our people with us and we will stand together in solidarity .
As an oppressed community we are going on 500-plus years of being systemically targeted , used for our IP [ intellectual property ] /Talent , and also still being killed by the very people that are supposed to “ protect and serve ” us .
This effort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Two of the biggest mouths in sports media , Stephen A. Smith and Charles Barkley , have voiced their displeasure with Irving .
Fans are up in arms .
And , of course , there are NBA players , including union President Chris Paul and—the most powerful of them all—LeBron James , who all want to get back to the season .
The players who want to play say they want to use the rest of the season to promote social justice initiatives .
And that ’ s what is most encouraging .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ shut up and dribble .
It ’ s a tactical argument about what would make the greater impact : playing and spreading the message to fans about what needs to be done , or not playing and having the absence of the NBA speak louder than any on-court demonstration in the Orlando bubble ever could .
Why NASCAR ’ s New Ban on the Confederate Flag Is Such a Big Deal It ’ s Time for White NFL Players to Take the Knee Olympian Gwen Berry to the USOC : ‘ Where ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ particularly fascinating is that it is not NBA Commissioner Adam Silver or union Executive Director Michele Roberts who are going to make the final decision .
Silver has even said , “ If a player chooses not to come , it ’ s not a breach of his contract .
We accept that.
” This will ultimately come down to what players want and how they feel they can most effectively agitate for change .

Kyrie Irving, the All-Star point guard for the Brooklyn Nets, is often mocked in the press for being, shall we say, “out there” with his opinions on a wide array of subjects. It’s been debated whether he has been sincere or engaged in performance art, mocking the media’s willingness to take him seriously and furtively chase like mice whatever crumbs he throws in their direction. Yet there is nothing performative—not a hint of artifice—in the ideas that Irving is currently expressing.
Irving has organized a coalition of players who range from hesitant to militantly opposed to restarting the NBA season during the ongoing pandemic as sequestered employees in a bubble in Orlando. With news of recent coronavirus spikes in Florida, some players believe that resuming the season is fundamentally unsafe. But others, including Irving, have a different reason not to take the court right now: the national movement against racist police violence. These players think the issues of racial justice and stopping police violence are so pressing at the moment that the NBA runs the risk of becoming a distraction to the movement in the streets.
On a conference call with around 80 players, Irving said that he would be “willing to give up everything” for the cause. He also said, “I don’t support going into Orlando. I’m not with the systematic racism and bullshit. Something smells a little fishy. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are targeted as black men every day we wake up.”
He isn’t alone in the belief that now is not the time for pro basketball. Former NBA player Stephen Jackson, who was friends with George Floyd and has been leading struggle in the streets, said on Instagram:
I love the NBA, man. Now ain’t the time to be playing basketball, y’all. Playing basketball is going to do one thing: take all the attention away from the task at hand right now and what we’re fighting for.
These players are serious about the politics of what they are proposing, and the risks. Also on the conference call with players was 1968 Olympic bronze medalist Dr. John Carlos, who gave them an earful about the need for the struggles of the past. Carlos also gave his firsthand account of deciding whether to boycott or bring the politics to the field of play: the fundamental question that black athletes faced in the lead up to the 1968 games.
The group of rebels, which includes players from the WNBA and people who work in the entertainment industry, issued a statement to Adrian Wojnarowski at ESPN that reads in part:
We are a group of men and women from different teams and industries that are normally painted as opponents, but have put our egos and differences aside to make sure we stand united and demand honesty during this uncertain time. Native indigenous African Caribbean men and women entertaining the world, we will continue to use our voices and platforms for positive change and truth. We are truly at an inflection point in history where as a collective community, we can band together—UNIFY—and move as one. We need all our people with us and we will stand together in solidarity. As an oppressed community we are going on 500-plus years of being systemically targeted, used for our IP [intellectual property]/Talent, and also still being killed by the very people that are supposed to “protect and serve” us. WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!
This effort is already running up against obstacles. Two of the biggest mouths in sports media, Stephen A. Smith and Charles Barkley, have voiced their displeasure with Irving. Fans are up in arms. And, of course, there are NBA players, including union President Chris Paul and—the most powerful of them all—LeBron James, who all want to get back to the season.
The players who want to play say they want to use the rest of the season to promote social justice initiatives. And that’s what is most encouraging. No one is saying that they should shut up and dribble. It’s a tactical argument about what would make the greater impact: playing and spreading the message to fans about what needs to be done, or not playing and having the absence of the NBA speak louder than any on-court demonstration in the Orlando bubble ever could. More From Dave Zirin “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash August 15, 2023 Why the Right Wanted the USWNT to Lose August 10, 2023 Carli Lloyd’s Attacks on the USWNT Are Personal—and Political August 1, 2023
What is particularly fascinating is that it is not NBA Commissioner Adam Silver or union Executive Director Michele Roberts who are going to make the final decision. Silver has even said, “If a player chooses not to come, it’s not a breach of his contract. We accept that.” This will ultimately come down to what players want and how they feel they can most effectively agitate for change.


thenation--2020-06-16--The Supreme Court, Capital, and Queer Equality

Most LGBTQ+ advocates did not expect this to be a celebratory Pride month .
Parades across the country have been canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic .
Just last Friday—on the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre—the Health and Human Services Department announced the surprise elimination of civil rights protections for trans persons seeking health care .
Over the weekend , ACLU attorneys and many others nervously bit their fingernails wondering—fretting over—how the Supreme Court ’ s conservative majority might rule in the employment discrimination cases it heard last fall .
To great shock , the court began this week @ @ @ @ @ @ @ despair with its decision in Bostock v. Clayton County .
In a 6-3 majority opinion penned by Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts ( a George W. Bush appointee ) , the court extended federal civil rights law protections not only to gay and lesbian workers but trans ones as well .
The majority did so by interpreting “ sex ” in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to mean both “ sexual orientation ” and “ gender identity , ” therein granting a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ LGBTQ+ persons who were previously uncovered by state or municipal laws .
This victory can not be easily overstated .
More than one in four trans Americans have been fired , not hired , or passed up for promotion because of their gender identity or expression .
And nearly half of LGBTQ-identified persons remain closeted at work , fearing the discrimination that being out might invite .
These increased workplace protections will also be a boon for queer workers attempting to unionize .
Workers with UNITE HERE , for instance , have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discriminatory treatment of its LGBTQ+ and black workers .
The Bostock decision also marks a monumental shift in the scope of the Supreme Court ’ s decision-making since its same-sex marriage rulings in 2015 .
Two years ago , the court appeared to be putting a lid on rights expansions in the infamous Masterpiece Cakeshop decision .
Though that case was ultimately decided on a technicality , longtime gay rights advocate Justice Anthony Kennedy gave some credence to Jack Baker ’ s claim that his First Amendment rights to artistic expression and religious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to gay couples seeking wedding cakes .
Such religious liberty–themed defenses of discrimination have proliferated in recent years—see the Texas GOP ’ s absurdly named “ Save Chick-fil-A ” legislation—and are likely to return to the court ’ s docket one day soon .
Though new dangers loom , the Bostock decision makes clear that the court ’ s 2015 marriage decision was not the last of its major rights declarations for queer people .
With Kennedy off the bench and the federal judiciary looking increasingly Trumpian , how might we explain the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ How is it that not one but two conservative justices ruled in favor of the LGBTQ+ litigants ?
Neil Gorsuch Stuns the Nation , Does the Right Thing For one answer , we can look to the text .
In his majority opinion , Gorsuch reconciled the interpretative style of his predecessor , archconservative and reviled opponent of LGBTQ+ equality Justice Antonin Scalia , and his former mentor Kennedy ’ s sympathies for queer rights .
In Bostock , Gorsuch employed a textualist approach to Title VII .
Like Scalia , the junior @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drafters ’ intentions .
Instead , Gorsuch attended to the textual meaning of sex , which he read as prohibiting an employer from firing “ an individual merely for being gay or transgender ” because such an action is , at its roots , motivated by sex .
If a boss fires a lesbian worker for marrying someone of the “ wrong ” sex or a trans or non-binary person for expressing themselves with the gendered garb of the presumed “ opposite ” sex , then that employer has engaged in impermissible sex @ @ @ @ @ @ @ explain Roberts ’ s vote .
Though the chief justice previously lambasted the court ’ s same-sex marriage decision in Obergefell v. Hodges for its reliance on 14th Amendment substantive due process—i.e.
, the rationale for cases like Roe v. Wade that are generally condemned by conservatives for having “ invented ” new rights—Bostock ’ s textualist basis is less anathema to Roberts ’ s understanding of his judicial role .
Outside of the realm of legal theory , Gorsuch and Roberts also appear to have heeded corporate America ’ s newfound desire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a slew of amicus briefs , hundreds of corporations and business associations implored the court to rule in favor of the LGBTQ+ plaintiffs .
A coalition of businesses with an annual revenue of over $ 5 trillion , for example , argued that federal legal protections create a corporate climate that “ boosts productivity , ” “ reduces administrative burdens , ” and “ benefits employers ’ ability to attract and retain employees.
” In one particularly pithy phrase , a group of CEOs and boards of directors warned that discrimination “ would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Like Kennedy , Gorsuch has had little trouble squaring his personal—and now political—support for his gay colleagues and friends with his faithful devotion to the forces of capital that brought him to the bench .
Both Gorsuch and Kennedy , for instance , have long track records of voting against labor and in support of anti-regulation schemes .
The chief justice , too , has a knack for reading a political room .
In his 2012 opinion upholding the Affordable Care Act , Roberts bucked the conservative partisan opposition to “ Obamacare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was at once bipartisan and catered to the health care insurance industry , which had largely benefited from market-based health care reform .
In the wake of this latest pro-LGBTQ+ rights Supreme Court ruling , what can be said definitively is this : Antidiscrimination is now a bipartisan issue—or at the very least , is rapidly becoming a one—in what is otherwise a highly unequal polity defined by vast economic inequality and corporate rule .
As evidence of the cross-ideological support for equal rights , a 2019 poll revealed that over 90 percent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and lesbians .
Another found that only one-fifth of Americans think that a boss should be able to terminate a worker for their gender identity .
The public ’ s overwhelming support , combined with capital ’ s obvious preference , may explain Trump ’ s mild , acquiescent statement on the court ’ s decision .
Thus , the promise of equality of opportunity under the law for gay and trans Americans has never been more fulfilled—and it only took until the advent of the Second Gilded Age to achieve it .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ here ?
The answer to that question might be less the province of the judiciary and more that of the union hall .
The organizing of those LGBTQ+ Starbucks workers was about more than just exposing the hypocrisy of the coffee giant ’ s cheap and cynical equality talk or efforts to pose as a queer ally .
It was about more than just being paid the same meager wages of their cis , straight , and white coworkers .
Throughout their union campaign , the Starbucks workers called for an end to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , better wages , and adequate protections on the job for all workers .
Taken together , these demands are the real stuff of dignity and equality .
They are the things that an antidiscrimination policy or judicial ruling are powerless on their own to provide .
These workers and others reckoning with pandemic-induced levels of unemployment , stagnant wages , and eviscerated collective bargaining rights give voice to a much fuller sense of equality than the Supreme Court could ever grant .
Accordingly , the future of equality will be fought at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , before labor boards , and in strikes against the boss as it will be in the chambers of the Supreme Court .

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Most LGBTQ+ advocates did not expect this to be a celebratory Pride month. Parades across the country have been canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Just last Friday—on the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre—the Health and Human Services Department announced the surprise elimination of civil rights protections for trans persons seeking health care. Over the weekend, ACLU attorneys and many others nervously bit their fingernails wondering—fretting over—how the Supreme Court’s conservative majority might rule in the employment discrimination cases it heard last fall.
To great shock, the court began this week by rolling back the tide of queer despair with its decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. In a 6-3 majority opinion penned by Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts (a George W. Bush appointee), the court extended federal civil rights law protections not only to gay and lesbian workers but trans ones as well. The majority did so by interpreting “sex” in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to mean both “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” therein granting a civil rights remedy to over 3.9 million LGBTQ+ persons who were previously uncovered by state or municipal laws.
This victory cannot be easily overstated. More than one in four trans Americans have been fired, not hired, or passed up for promotion because of their gender identity or expression. And nearly half of LGBTQ-identified persons remain closeted at work, fearing the discrimination that being out might invite. These increased workplace protections will also be a boon for queer workers attempting to unionize. Workers with UNITE HERE, for instance, have been organizing for months against Starbucks’ alleged discriminatory treatment of its LGBTQ+ and black workers.
The Bostock decision also marks a monumental shift in the scope of the Supreme Court’s decision-making since its same-sex marriage rulings in 2015. Two years ago, the court appeared to be putting a lid on rights expansions in the infamous Masterpiece Cakeshop decision. Though that case was ultimately decided on a technicality, longtime gay rights advocate Justice Anthony Kennedy gave some credence to Jack Baker’s claim that his First Amendment rights to artistic expression and religious free exercise allowed him to refuse service to gay couples seeking wedding cakes. Such religious liberty–themed defenses of discrimination have proliferated in recent years—see the Texas GOP’s absurdly named “Save Chick-fil-A” legislation—and are likely to return to the court’s docket one day soon. Though new dangers loom, the Bostock decision makes clear that the court’s 2015 marriage decision was not the last of its major rights declarations for queer people. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
With Kennedy off the bench and the federal judiciary looking increasingly Trumpian, how might we explain the court’s ruling in Bostock? How is it that not one but two conservative justices ruled in favor of the LGBTQ+ litigants? Related Article Neil Gorsuch Stuns the Nation, Does the Right Thing Elie Mystal
For one answer, we can look to the text. In his majority opinion, Gorsuch reconciled the interpretative style of his predecessor, archconservative and reviled opponent of LGBTQ+ equality Justice Antonin Scalia, and his former mentor Kennedy’s sympathies for queer rights. In Bostock, Gorsuch employed a textualist approach to Title VII. Like Scalia, the junior justice eschewed the search for the original drafters’ intentions. Instead, Gorsuch attended to the textual meaning of sex, which he read as prohibiting an employer from firing “an individual merely for being gay or transgender” because such an action is, at its roots, motivated by sex. If a boss fires a lesbian worker for marrying someone of the “wrong” sex or a trans or non-binary person for expressing themselves with the gendered garb of the presumed “opposite” sex, then that employer has engaged in impermissible sex discrimination.
This logic might also partly explain Roberts’s vote. Though the chief justice previously lambasted the court’s same-sex marriage decision in Obergefell v. Hodges for its reliance on 14th Amendment substantive due process—i.e., the rationale for cases like Roe v. Wade that are generally condemned by conservatives for having “invented” new rights—Bostock’s textualist basis is less anathema to Roberts’s understanding of his judicial role. Current Issue View our current issue
Outside of the realm of legal theory, Gorsuch and Roberts also appear to have heeded corporate America’s newfound desire for a politics of tolerance. In a slew of amicus briefs, hundreds of corporations and business associations implored the court to rule in favor of the LGBTQ+ plaintiffs. A coalition of businesses with an annual revenue of over $5 trillion, for example, argued that federal legal protections create a corporate climate that “boosts productivity,” “reduces administrative burdens,” and “benefits employers’ ability to attract and retain employees.” In one particularly pithy phrase, a group of CEOs and boards of directors warned that discrimination “would undermine the nation’s business interests.”
Like Kennedy, Gorsuch has had little trouble squaring his personal—and now political—support for his gay colleagues and friends with his faithful devotion to the forces of capital that brought him to the bench. Both Gorsuch and Kennedy, for instance, have long track records of voting against labor and in support of anti-regulation schemes. The chief justice, too, has a knack for reading a political room. In his 2012 opinion upholding the Affordable Care Act, Roberts bucked the conservative partisan opposition to “Obamacare” and ruled in a manner that was at once bipartisan and catered to the health care insurance industry, which had largely benefited from market-based health care reform.
In the wake of this latest pro-LGBTQ+ rights Supreme Court ruling, what can be said definitively is this: Antidiscrimination is now a bipartisan issue—or at the very least, is rapidly becoming a one—in what is otherwise a highly unequal polity defined by vast economic inequality and corporate rule. As evidence of the cross-ideological support for equal rights, a 2019 poll revealed that over 90 percent of Americans supported antidiscrimination measures for gays and lesbians. Another found that only one-fifth of Americans think that a boss should be able to terminate a worker for their gender identity. The public’s overwhelming support, combined with capital’s obvious preference, may explain Trump’s mild, acquiescent statement on the court’s decision. Thus, the promise of equality of opportunity under the law for gay and trans Americans has never been more fulfilled—and it only took until the advent of the Second Gilded Age to achieve it. So, where do we go from here?
The answer to that question might be less the province of the judiciary and more that of the union hall. The organizing of those LGBTQ+ Starbucks workers was about more than just exposing the hypocrisy of the coffee giant’s cheap and cynical equality talk or efforts to pose as a queer ally. It was about more than just being paid the same meager wages of their cis, straight, and white coworkers. Throughout their union campaign, the Starbucks workers called for an end to unequal treatment—but they also demanded more benefits, better wages, and adequate protections on the job for all workers.
Taken together, these demands are the real stuff of dignity and equality. They are the things that an antidiscrimination policy or judicial ruling are powerless on their own to provide. These workers and others reckoning with pandemic-induced levels of unemployment, stagnant wages, and eviscerated collective bargaining rights give voice to a much fuller sense of equality than the Supreme Court could ever grant. Accordingly, the future of equality will be fought at least as much in shop floor struggles, before labor boards, and in strikes against the boss as it will be in the chambers of the Supreme Court.


thenation--2020-06-16--Even in the Darkest Days of Trump’s Misrule, Hope Is Still Alive

Across the nation , protesters fill the streets outraged by police brutality and systemic racism .
At least 114,000 and @ @ @ @ @ novel coronavirus .
Thirty million have been tossed out of work .
Thousands of businesses @ @ @ @ @ forever .
Midland , Mich. , is flooded by a collapsing dam .
And hurricane @ @ @ @ @ to come .
Events feel increasingly biblical : plagues , fires , floods , chaos—a @ @ @ @ @ Make America Great Again ” this is not .
President Trump has managed to make @ @ @ @ @ worse .
He chose tax cuts for the rich and corporations over the promise to @ @ @ @ @ extreme weather caused by climate change .
He mishandled the pandemic , denying its import @ @ @ @ @ the economy without a clue about how to manage the damage .
He defames even @ @ @ @ @ sweeping national horror at the death of George Floyd led him only to double down @ @ @ @ @ .
Read the full text of Katrina ’ s column here .

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
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Across the nation, protesters fill the streets outraged by police brutality and systemic racism. At least 114,000 and counting lie dead from the novel coronavirus. Thirty million have been tossed out of work. Thousands of businesses large and small have closed forever. Midland, Mich., is flooded by a collapsing dam. And hurricane and wildfire seasons are still to come. Events feel increasingly biblical: plagues, fires, floods, chaos—a reckoning of sorts. “Make America Great Again” this is not.
President Trump has managed to make each of these overlapping crises worse. He chose tax cuts for the rich and corporations over the promise to rebuild America. He ignores extreme weather caused by climate change. He mishandled the pandemic, denying its import early, then shutting down the economy without a clue about how to manage the damage. He defames even common-sense electoral reforms. The sweeping national horror at the death of George Floyd led him only to double down on his race-baiting divisive politics.
Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.