vox--2020-06-21--Report: Nonwhite jail officers were not allowed to guard George Floyd’s killer

Eight nonwhite corrections officers who worked at the jail holding Derek Chauvin , the Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd , have filed discrimination charges with Minnesota ’ s Department of Human Rights claiming that they were prevented from guarding or having contact with Chauvin on the basis of their race .
The accusations are likely to intensify already-fierce criticism of the city ’ s criminal justice system as tainted by personnel and policies that discriminate against the city ’ s black residents .
According to the Star Tribune , which obtained a copy of the charges , Chauvin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the day he was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter for asphyxiating Floyd with his knee .
All officers of color were told they could potentially be a “ liability ” in handling Chauvin and were ordered to work on a separate floor , according to the Star Tribune .
The charges also allege that a black acting sergeant who is usually tasked with overseeing high-profile inmates was told to stop patting down Chauvin and replaced with white officers .
A white officer reportedly allowed Chauvin to use her cellphone , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understood that the decision to segregate us had been made because we could not be trusted to carry out our work responsibilities professionally around the high-profile inmate — solely because of the color of our skin , ” wrote one black acting sergeant in the charges .
“ I am not aware of a similar situation where white officers were segregated from an inmate.
” The attorney representing the eight officers of color , Bonnie Smith , said it was a blow to the morale of the officers as it signaled mistrust based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they deserve to have employment decisions made based on performance and behavior , ” she said , per the Star Tribune .
“ Their main goal is to make sure this never happens again.
” The Ramsey County Sheriff ’ s Office initially denied reports on social media that nonwhite officers were barred from contact with Chauvin .
Jail Superintendent Steve Lydon reportedly told his superiors that his steps to remove nonwhite officers from around Chauvin were meant to “ protect and support ” them .
He has since been demoted .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without the comfort of time , I made a decision to limit exposure to employees of color to a murder suspect who could potentially aggravate those feelings , ” Lydon said in a statement given during an internal investigation , according to the Star Tribune .
The alleged actions by jail officials implicitly suggest that some leaders in the metro area corrections system place more trust in white officers than nonwhite officers to act professionally .
And they are likely to further increase scrutiny of the criminal justice system in Minneapolis .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread in Minneapolis and across the globe , the state ’ s Department of Human Rights launched an inquiry into allegations of racial bias in the Minneapolis Police Department .
Now , an inquiry into the Ramsey County corrections agency is expected as well , the Star Tribune reports .
According to the New York Times , black people make up 20 percent of Minneapolis ’ s population , but are more likely to be “ pulled over , arrested and have force used against them than white residents.
” And more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shootings in the city between 2009 and 2019 were black .
MinnPost reported in 2015 that “ Black people make up less than 6 percent of Minnesota ’ s population ... but made up 35 percent of the prison population.
” “ The truth is we do not have a good history , ” Jamar Nelson , a community activist , told the Times in May in the wake of Floyd ’ s death .
“ The biggest complaint is that the community feels the Police Department is racist , bigoted and uncaring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legislation in the state stalled this weekend as Republicans and Democrats could not come to an agreement .
Critics say the police union has promoted a toxic culture among law enforcement in Minneapolis , as racial justice activists Kandace Montgomery and Miski Noor have explained : Montgomery and Noor have called for a radical reorganization of criminal justice in the city .
“ [ We ] believe that it is time for Minneapolis to divest from violent policing infrastructure and invest in strengthening Black communities , ” they wrote .
Every day at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
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Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
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Eight nonwhite corrections officers who worked at the jail holding Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd, have filed discrimination charges with Minnesota’s Department of Human Rights claiming that they were prevented from guarding or having contact with Chauvin on the basis of their race.
The accusations are likely to intensify already-fierce criticism of the city’s criminal justice system as tainted by personnel and policies that discriminate against the city’s black residents.
According to the Star Tribune, which obtained a copy of the charges, Chauvin was booked at the Ramsey County jail on the day he was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter for asphyxiating Floyd with his knee.
All officers of color were told they could potentially be a “liability” in handling Chauvin and were ordered to work on a separate floor, according to the Star Tribune.
The charges also allege that a black acting sergeant who is usually tasked with overseeing high-profile inmates was told to stop patting down Chauvin and replaced with white officers. A white officer reportedly allowed Chauvin to use her cellphone, in violation of jail protocol.
“I understood that the decision to segregate us had been made because we could not be trusted to carry out our work responsibilities professionally around the high-profile inmate — solely because of the color of our skin,” wrote one black acting sergeant in the charges. “I am not aware of a similar situation where white officers were segregated from an inmate.”
The attorney representing the eight officers of color, Bonnie Smith, said it was a blow to the morale of the officers as it signaled mistrust based on their race.
“I think they deserve to have employment decisions made based on performance and behavior,” she said, per the Star Tribune. “Their main goal is to make sure this never happens again.”
The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office initially denied reports on social media that nonwhite officers were barred from contact with Chauvin. Jail Superintendent Steve Lydon reportedly told his superiors that his steps to remove nonwhite officers from around Chauvin were meant to “protect and support” them. He has since been demoted.
“Out of care and concern, and without the comfort of time, I made a decision to limit exposure to employees of color to a murder suspect who could potentially aggravate those feelings,” Lydon said in a statement given during an internal investigation, according to the Star Tribune.
The alleged actions by jail officials implicitly suggest that some leaders in the metro area corrections system place more trust in white officers than nonwhite officers to act professionally. And they are likely to further increase scrutiny of the criminal justice system in Minneapolis.
As protests over the death of George Floyd spread in Minneapolis and across the globe, the state’s Department of Human Rights launched an inquiry into allegations of racial bias in the Minneapolis Police Department. Now, an inquiry into the Ramsey County corrections agency is expected as well, the Star Tribune reports.
According to the New York Times, black people make up 20 percent of Minneapolis’s population, but are more likely to be “pulled over, arrested and have force used against them than white residents.” And more than 60 percent of the victims in police shootings in the city between 2009 and 2019 were black. MinnPost reported in 2015 that “Black people make up less than 6 percent of Minnesota’s population ... but made up 35 percent of the prison population.”
“The truth is we do not have a good history,” Jamar Nelson, a community activist, told the Times in May in the wake of Floyd’s death. “The biggest complaint is that the community feels the Police Department is racist, bigoted and uncaring about the black community.”
Police reform legislation in the state stalled this weekend as Republicans and Democrats could not come to an agreement. Critics say the police union has promoted a toxic culture among law enforcement in Minneapolis, as racial justice activists Kandace Montgomery and Miski Noor have explained:
Racism in the Minneapolis Police Department is far from hidden. A 2007 racial discrimination lawsuit brought by Black police officers (including current Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, before he became the branch’s leader) stated that the head of the police union openly wore a white power patch on his motorcycle jacket. This is the same lieutenant who called Black Lives Matter a “terrorist organization” and hosted the police union’s “Cops for Trump” T-shirt fundraiser.
Montgomery and Noor have called for a radical reorganization of criminal justice in the city. “[We] believe that it is time for Minneapolis to divest from violent policing infrastructure and invest in strengthening Black communities,” they wrote.


vox--2020-06-21--Trump saw his Tulsa rally as a chance to reset his reelection campaign. It did not go well.

President Donald Trump had anticipated his campaign rally in Tulsa , Oklahoma , on Saturday as the “ real launch ” of his 2020 reelection campaign , and his staff boasted that more than a million people had registered for tickets to an event they promised would be a “ wild evening.
” But on Saturday night , the numbers turned out to be a tiny fraction of that : The Bank of Oklahoma Center Arena Trump spoke in was roughly two-thirds empty , and plans for a second speech to an outdoor crowd in an overflow space were scrapped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Ultimately , the most notable news from the event ended up being that half a dozen members of the advance team for his campaign tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of the rally .
The flopped event — dogged by controversy from its announcement due to Tulsa ’ s history of racist violence — marks a substantial blow to Trump ’ s agenda to regain reelection momentum after months of pausing his campaign rallies due to the coronavirus pandemic , and comes as presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden soars in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At the rally , Trump reiterated some past campaign themes , but at times seemed more focused on defending himself from criticism in the media than on attacking his presumed opponent .
At one point , he called testing for the coronavirus a “ double-edged sword ” — because it reveals more cases of the virus — and said that he had told “ his people to slow the testing down.
” The White House later said the president was joking , but the remark drew condemnation from Democrats .
The federal government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s skepticism of it are well documented .
More than 2.2 million coronavirus cases have been recorded in the US to date , and new cases are on the rise in a number of states .
While the Trump campaign had bragged for weeks about hot ticket sales and not having enough space to contain the crowds , the actual showing on Saturday night was strikingly small .
The arena Trump spoke in seats 19,200 people , but fewer than 6,200 came .
Trump was also expected to give a second address @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in an outdoor overflow space , according to CNN , but after a report from staff that the area held only a couple dozen people hours before the event , that speech was canceled .
It ’ s unclear what exactly explains the disconnect between the Trump campaign ’ s reports of high registration numbers and the low turnout .
The Trump campaign complained about anti-Trump protesters blocking entrances , but reporters on the ground said protests were modest in size and entrances were not blocked .
According to the New York Times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fans of Korean pop music say they banded together online to flood ticket registrations in a bid to inflate the numbers and deny Trump supporters seats in the arena .
Videos with instructions to register for tickets — which were free — and then not show up received millions of views online .
The political prank took hold among parts of the TikTok and K-pop scene which sometimes leverage their social media networks for online activism .
It ’ s unclear if the efforts to overwhelm ticket registrations began early enough to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were reserved on a first-come , first-served basis , but it could explain why the ticket requests were so high for an event meant to cater to only tens of thousands of people .
There are reasons to think other factors may have influenced the poor turnout .
This is Trump ’ s first campaign rally as the coronavirus pandemic rages , and Tulsa has seen a surge in cases in recent weeks .
It ’ s possible that not very many people who had plans to attend ever registered , or that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weighing concerns about contracting the virus , especially after news broke that six campaign staffers had tested positive for the coronavirus the day of the rally .
( According to the Times , two members of the Secret Service in Tulsa also tested positive . )
Those who did attend had to sign a liability waiver saying they couldn ’ t sue Trump ’ s campaign if they contracted the coronavirus .
Trump was cavalier about the safety of the crowd in advance of the event .
The Trump campaign handed out masks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made it clear he had no expectation that people wear them .
In an interview with Axios on Friday he said he recommended “ people do what they want ” when it came to mask-wearing , and even floated the false claim that wearing a mask could harm people .
“ You know , there was a time when people thought it was worse wearing a mask , ” he told Axios .
“ I let people make up their own decision.
” While Trump declines to wear a mask in public , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who wear masks favorably , and just 45 percent of people who approve of the job he ’ s doing think it ’ s a good idea to hold large political events and campaign rallies right now .
Photos of the event showed that many people didn ’ t wear masks and sat close to each other in the lower parts of the arena .
Trump ’ s campaign rally was also tainted by controversy since it was originally set to take place on Juneteenth — a holiday marking the effective end @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amid ongoing racial justice protests triggered by the police killing of George Floyd .
After a backlash , Trump changed the date , but his choice to hold the rally in Tulsa still drew criticism since it is the site of one of the bloodiest episodes of racist violence in American history .
Trump tried to claim victory after the event despite the poor turnout .
“ THE SILENT MAJORITY IS STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE !
” he tweeted , attaching photos that were cropped to make the arena look more filled up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

President Donald Trump had anticipated his campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday as the “real launch” of his 2020 reelection campaign, and his staff boasted that more than a million people had registered for tickets to an event they promised would be a “wild evening.”
But on Saturday night, the numbers turned out to be a tiny fraction of that: The Bank of Oklahoma Center Arena Trump spoke in was roughly two-thirds empty, and plans for a second speech to an outdoor crowd in an overflow space were scrapped because the outdoor area was sparsely populated. Ultimately, the most notable news from the event ended up being that half a dozen members of the advance team for his campaign tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of the rally.
The flopped event — dogged by controversy from its announcement due to Tulsa’s history of racist violence — marks a substantial blow to Trump’s agenda to regain reelection momentum after months of pausing his campaign rallies due to the coronavirus pandemic, and comes as presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden soars in the polls and outstrips Trump in fundraising.
At the rally, Trump reiterated some past campaign themes, but at times seemed more focused on defending himself from criticism in the media than on attacking his presumed opponent.
At one point, he called testing for the coronavirus a “double-edged sword” — because it reveals more cases of the virus — and said that he had told “his people to slow the testing down.” The White House later said the president was joking, but the remark drew condemnation from Democrats. The federal government’s failures on testing and Trump’s skepticism of it are well documented. More than 2.2 million coronavirus cases have been recorded in the US to date, and new cases are on the rise in a number of states.
While the Trump campaign had bragged for weeks about hot ticket sales and not having enough space to contain the crowds, the actual showing on Saturday night was strikingly small. The arena Trump spoke in seats 19,200 people, but fewer than 6,200 came.
Trump was also expected to give a second address to a crowd of more than 40,000 in an outdoor overflow space, according to CNN, but after a report from staff that the area held only a couple dozen people hours before the event, that speech was canceled.
It’s unclear what exactly explains the disconnect between the Trump campaign’s reports of high registration numbers and the low turnout. The Trump campaign complained about anti-Trump protesters blocking entrances, but reporters on the ground said protests were modest in size and entrances were not blocked.
According to the New York Times, hundreds of teenagers who use TikTok and fans of Korean pop music say they banded together online to flood ticket registrations in a bid to inflate the numbers and deny Trump supporters seats in the arena. Videos with instructions to register for tickets — which were free — and then not show up received millions of views online. The political prank took hold among parts of the TikTok and K-pop scene that sometimes leverage their social media networks for online activism.
A thread of some of the TikTokers/Zoomers who reserved tickets to Trump’s rally to shrink the crowd today in Oklahoma pic.twitter.com/ITz4NAbeTD — Jenna Amatulli (@ohheyjenna) June 21, 2020
It’s unclear if the efforts to overwhelm ticket registrations began early enough to deny people seats, since arena seats were reserved on a first-come, first-served basis, but it could explain why the ticket requests were so high for an event meant to cater to only tens of thousands of people.
There are reasons to think other factors may have influenced the poor turnout. This is Trump’s first campaign rally as the coronavirus pandemic rages, and Tulsa has seen a surge in cases in recent weeks. It’s possible that not very many people who had plans to attend ever registered, or that people who registered decided against coming after weighing concerns about contracting the virus, especially after news broke that six campaign staffers had tested positive for the coronavirus the day of the rally. (According to the Times, two members of the Secret Service in Tulsa also tested positive.) Those who did attend had to sign a liability waiver saying they couldn’t sue Trump’s campaign if they contracted the coronavirus.
Trump was cavalier about the safety of the crowd in advance of the event. The Trump campaign handed out masks to rally attendees, but the president made it clear he had no expectation that people wear them.
In an interview with Axios on Friday, he said he recommended “people do what they want” when it came to mask-wearing, and even floated the false claim that wearing a mask could harm people. “You know, there was a time when people thought it was worse wearing a mask,” he told Axios. “I let people make up their own decision.”
While Trump declines to wear a mask in public, recent polling indicates that most Republicans view people who wear masks favorably, and just 45 percent of people who approve of the job he’s doing think it’s a good idea to hold large political events and campaign rallies right now.
How did Trump fail to fill an arena in an ultra-red state?
Only 45% of his supporters think rallies are a good idea. Just 23% have an unfavorable opinion of wearing masks.
Tulsa is seeing its highest #COVID19 numbers to date.
Not everyone is in a suicide pact with the guy. — Dylan McLemore (@voiceofD) June 21, 2020
Photos of the event showed that many people didn’t wear masks and sat close to each other in the lower parts of the arena.
Trump’s campaign rally was also tainted by controversy since it was originally set to take place on Juneteenth — a holiday marking the effective end of slavery in the US — and amid ongoing racial justice protests triggered by the police killing of George Floyd. After a backlash, Trump changed the date, but his choice to hold the rally in Tulsa still drew criticism since it is the site of one of the bloodiest episodes of racist violence in American history.
Trump tried to claim victory after the event despite the poor turnout. “THE SILENT MAJORITY IS STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” he tweeted, attaching photos that were cropped to make the arena look more filled up than it was.


vox--2020-06-21--A Siberian town near the Arctic Circle just recorded a 100-degree temperature

A small town in Siberia reached a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday , which , if verified , would mark the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle .
Temperatures have jumped in recent months to levels rarely seen in the Russian region , and it ’ s a sign of a broader trend of human-caused climate change that ’ s transforming weather patterns in the Arctic Circle .
The town of Verkhoyansk is one of the coldest towns on Earth — temperatures dropped to nearly 60 degrees below zero there this past November — and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ degrees .
The 100.4 reading in Verkhoyansk , which sits farther north than Fairbanks , Alaska , would be the northernmost 100-degree reading ever observed .
The Washington Post reports that while there are questions about the accuracy of the record temperature , a Saturday weather balloon launch that found unusually high temperatures in the lower atmosphere supports the reading .
And on Sunday , the town reached 95.3 degrees , according to the Post .
CBS News meteorologist and climate specialist Jeff Berardelli wrote on Saturday that 100-degree temperatures in or near @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Before Saturday , Siberia was already experiencing an extraordinary heat wave .
Surface temperatures in Siberia were 18 degrees higher than average in May , making it the hottest May in the region since record-keeping began in 1979 , according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service .
“ It is undoubtedly an alarming sign , but not only May was unusually warm in this region , ” said Freja Vamborg , a senior scientist at the Copernicus Climate Change Service , in a statement about the finding .
“ The whole of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ higher-than-average surface air temperatures.
” Climate scientist Martin Stendel said on Twitter that the temperatures recorded in northwestern Siberia last month would be a 1-in-100,000-year event — if not for climate change .
Berardelli said the average heat across Russia between January and May actually matches what current models project to be normal for the region in 2100 , if carbon emissions continue .
“ Due to heat trapping greenhouse gases that result from the burning of fossil fuels and feedback loops , the Arctic is warming at more than two times the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he explained in his analysis of the Verkhoyansk reading .
“ This phenomenon is known as Arctic Amplification , which is leading to the decline of sea ice , and in some cases snow cover , due to rapidly warming temperatures.
” He noted that if the climate continues to heat up , extreme heat waves will become more of the norm .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

A small town in Siberia reached a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, which, if verified, would mark the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle.
Temperatures have jumped in recent months to levels rarely seen in the Russian region, and it’s a sign of a broader trend of human-caused climate change that’s transforming weather patterns in the Arctic Circle.
The town of Verkhoyansk is one of the coldest towns on Earth — temperatures dropped to nearly 60 degrees below zero there this past November — and the average June high temperature is 68 degrees.
The 100.4 reading in Verkhoyansk, which sits farther north than Fairbanks, Alaska, would be the northernmost 100-degree reading ever observed.
The Washington Post reports that while there are questions about the accuracy of the record temperature, a Saturday weather balloon launch that found unusually high temperatures in the lower atmosphere supports the reading. And on Sunday, the town reached 95.3 degrees, according to the Post.
CBS News meteorologist and climate specialist Jeff Berardelli wrote on Saturday that 100-degree temperatures in or near the Arctic are “almost unheard of.”
Before Saturday, Siberia was already experiencing an extraordinary heat wave. Surface temperatures in Siberia were 18 degrees higher than average in May, making it the hottest May in the region since record-keeping began in 1979, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“It is undoubtedly an alarming sign, but not only May was unusually warm in this region,” said Freja Vamborg, a senior scientist at the Copernicus Climate Change Service, in a statement about the finding. “The whole of winter and spring had repeated periods of higher-than-average surface air temperatures.”
Climate scientist Martin Stendel said on Twitter that the temperatures recorded in northwestern Siberia last month would be a 1-in-100,000-year event — if not for climate change.
Berardelli said the average heat across Russia between January and May actually matches what current models project to be normal for the region in 2100, if carbon emissions continue.
“Due to heat trapping greenhouse gases that result from the burning of fossil fuels and feedback loops, the Arctic is warming at more than two times the average rate of the globe,” he explained in his analysis of the Verkhoyansk reading. “This phenomenon is known as Arctic Amplification, which is leading to the decline of sea ice, and in some cases snow cover, due to rapidly warming temperatures.”
He noted that if the climate continues to heat up, extreme heat waves will become more of the norm.


vox--2020-06-22--DC is closer to becoming a state now than it has ever been

If the House of Representatives passes a bill granting statehood to the District of Columbia on June 26 , as is expected , it will be the first time in the nation ’ s history that either house of Congress approved legislation granting full statehood and congressional representation to DC ’ s more than 700,000 residents .
For at least the next several months , the bill is highly unlikely to travel far beyond the House .
There ’ s little chance that the Republican-controlled Senate will agree to give two senators to an overwhelmingly Democratic city .
And even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Senate , President Donald Trump has said that Republicans would be “ very , very stupid ” to allow DC statehood .
He ’ s all but certain to veto the bill .
But statehood for the District of Columbia , whose residents pay federal taxes but have no vote in Congress , is arguably closer than it ’ s ever been .
Trump trails Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden , who endorsed DC statehood in 2015 , by more than 8 points , according to the Real Clear Politics polling average @ @ @ @ @ @ @ favored to regain the Senate as well , despite malapportionment that gives Republicans an unfair advantage in the fight for control of Congress ’ upper house .
Not that long ago , DC statehood found little support within the halls of Congress .
The last time the House voted on statehood , in 1993 , the bill failed 153-277 .
Democrats , in what now looks like an extraordinary act of political malpractice , did not push statehood when they last controlled both houses of Congress and the White House in 2009-2010 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ statehood until 2014 .
But Democratic support for statehood swelled as the party was forced to confront the impact of a malapportioned Senate that overrepresents white and rural states , effectively giving extra seats to Republicans .
Among other things , that malapportionment cost Democrats control of the Supreme Court .
If the Senate were fairly apportioned , Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland would be a justice right now .
The recent protests against police violence , and Trump ’ s decision to deploy federal law enforcement and national guard personnel to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bolstered the case for statehood — because DC has less autonomy than a state , it is more subject to the whims of federal leaders .
As DC Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote in the Washington Post , “ this blatant degradation of our home right before my own eyes offered another reminder — a particularly powerful one — of why we need statehood for the District.
” Indeed , many statehood advocates view their cause as part of the broader struggle that animates the protesters .
“ The protests across America isn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” according to Stasha Rhodes , campaign director for 51 for 51 , an organization pushing for DC statehood .
The protests are “ also a call to challenge the very institutions that allow white supremacy and racism .
The fact that over 700,000 mostly black and brown people do not have a vote in Congress is racism.
” But even if Democrats dominate November ’ s election and win majorities in both houses , DC statehood still faces two significant obstacles .
One is the filibuster , which could potentially allow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ votes in the 100-member Senate .
If the filibuster is overcome , moreover , it is likely that Republicans will file a lawsuit seeking to strip DC of its statehood .
With Republicans controlling the judiciary , that lawsuit has a shot at prevailing , even if it rests on weak legal arguments .
The filibuster may be the biggest obstacle to DC statehood The filibuster , a practice that allows a minority of the Senate to block legislation , is one of the most consequential accidents in American history .
In 1805 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a duel , Vice President Aaron Burr returned to the Senate to deliver a farewell speech .
In that speech , Burr suggested that the Senate make changes to its rules , including eliminating something called the “ previous question motion , ” a process that was rarely used prior to Burr ’ s speech .
The Senate followed Burr ’ s advice in 1806 .
But eliminating the previous question motion turned out to be a horrible mistake , because this motion was the only process allowing the Senate to cut @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one recognized Burr ’ s error for 35 years , until 1841 , when the first filibuster occurred .
Without a way to end debate , rogue senators could delay Senate action indefinitely by insisting on “ debating ” a proposal forever .
Since this first filibuster , the Senate has changed its rules several times to make it harder to sustain a filibuster .
Current rules permit a bloc of 60 senators to end a filibuster using a process known as “ cloture , ” and invoking cloture to confirm a presidential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simple majority .
A process known as “ reconciliation ” also allows some legislation to pass with only 51 votes , but reconciliation is typically limited to fiscal legislation and is subject to a complicated set of rules .
Absent a very creative interpretation of the rules governing reconciliation , in other words , the DC statehood bill would likely require 60 votes to pass the Senate .
So , unless Democrats utterly crush Republicans in November , picking up at least 13 seats , Republicans will almost certainly have enough Senate seats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ activists , including some powerful left-of-center organizations , have made overcoming the filibuster their mission .
More than two dozen have united under the banner of 51 for 51 , a coalition that includes old guard unions like American Federation of Teachers , and rising young organizations such as Indivisible and the judicial reform group Demand Justice .
Their goal is to “ make DC the 51st state with 51 votes in the Senate.
” “ It is no longer enough to just voice your support for DC statehood , ” Rhodes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , told me .
“ You have to have the courage to change the rules , and stand up for the people of Washington.
” Eliminating the filibuster entirely will be difficult .
In 2017 , 61 senators signed a letter asking Senate leadership to oppose “ any effort to curtail the existing rights and prerogatives of Senators to engage in full , robust , and extended debate as we consider legislation before this body in the future.
” The effort was led by Sens .
Susan Collins ( R-ME ) and Chris @ @ @ @ @ @ @ joined by more than two dozen Democrats .
Biden ’ s views on the filibuster are somewhat complicated .
51 for 51 claims him as a supporter , pointing to a video where he agrees with a tracker who asks him if he supports making DC a state “ with 51 votes in the Senate.
” But Biden also told the New York Times editorial board that he does not support “ abolishing the legislative filibuster.
” These two statements , however , are not necessarily in tension .
There is a middle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ permitting Republicans to filibuster DC statehood — treat statehood bills like confirmation votes .
The ostensible purpose of the filibuster is to allow senators to continue debating a legislative proposal , and potentially to make changes to that proposal .
This is one reason why it makes sense to exempt confirmation votes from the filibuster ’ s supermajority requirement .
Legislation can be debated and amended by senators , but it ’ s not like senators can amend a nominee .
There is much less for senators to debate when their only choice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ no ” on a particular individual nominated for a high-level job .
A similar logic could be applied to statehood bills .
Such bills aren ’ t entirely beyond debate — senators might quibble about what to name a state , or its precise borders — but the primary question before the Senate in the DC statehood bill is whether DC should be a state or not .
Statehood is not a subject like , say , health reform , where lawmakers will have strong feelings about details such as whether health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the right amount to spend on training nurse practitioners .
So the Senate could amend its rules to allow new states to be admitted with a simple majority vote , while leaving in place the filibuster for ordinary legislation .
Without some tweaks to the Senate rules to prevent Republicans from filibustering statehood , however , it is likely that DC statehood is doomed .
Republicans will probably ask the Supreme Court to strike down DC statehood The primary advantage of statehood is that it grants federal representation to the residents of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the voices of DC residents will be ignored by Congress .
But DC is not entirely bereft of power in federal elections .
The 23rd Amendment effectively grants three Electoral College votes to “ the District constituting the seat of Government of the United States.
” Under this amendment , which was ratified in 1961 , DC has as much say in presidential elections as the “ least populous State.
” Should DC become a state , however , it is likely that Republicans will seize upon this nearly 60-year-old effort to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disenfranchise those same votes .
And , with the Supreme Court controlled by a Republican majority that is often very hostile to voting rights , it is possible that five justices will cite the 23rd Amendment as a reason to deny statehood to DC .
In 1993 , the conservative Heritage Foundation published a paper by lawyer R. Hewitt Pate , arguing that DC could not be admitted as a state without a new constitutional amendment .
The 23rd Amendment , Pate argued , presents “ perhaps the most difficult constitutional problem ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the 23rd Amendment ’ s reference to “ the District constituting the seat of Government ” establishes the current District of Columbia as a “ permanent constitutional entity.
” He also suggested that the 23rd Amendment ’ s language limiting DC ’ s electoral votes to the number controlled by the “ least populous State ” permanently prevents DC from holding more than three electoral votes .
But Pate ’ s argument makes a hash out of the 23rd Amendment ’ s text .
Though the Amendment states that “ the District @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct .
.
.
a number of electors ” ( federal and DC law establish that these electors are chosen in a popular election ) , the amendment never states that the boundaries of this district can not be expanded or contracted by statehood legislation .
Indeed , the DC statehood bill does not eliminate the “ District constituting the seat of Government , ” it merely shrinks it to a much smaller area that includes many of the buildings where the federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Amendment does create one potential anomaly .
If the DC statehood bill passes , the new state would be entitled to representation in the Electoral College just like any other state .
Meanwhile , the rump federal district would also be entitled to three electoral votes under the 23rd Amendment .
But there ’ s an easy fix for this problem .
Because the 23rd Amendment provides that the federal district ’ s electors shall be appointed “ in such manner as Congress may direct , ” Congress could simply pass a law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go to whichever presidential candidate would otherwise win the Electoral College — or , even better , Congress could award these three votes to the national popular vote winner , thus reducing the likelihood that the loser of the popular vote will become president .
There is , in other words , no good constitutional argument against DC statehood .
As Viet Dinh , a former assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush , told a Senate hearing in 2014 , “ nothing in the Twenty-Third Amendment prohibits the admission of [ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the [ DC statehood bill ] will preserve a federal ‘ District constituting the seat of Government of the United States.
’ ” Nevertheless , the Supreme Court is controlled by Republicans — and the Court ’ s Republican majority is often hostile to voting rights legislation .
So there is at least some risk that the Court ’ s current majority might strike down DC statehood .
Admitting DC would make the United States more democratic The strongest argument against admitting DC as a state is that DC statehood would , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Senate malapportionment .
If DC does become a state , it would be the third-least populous state in the nation .
Only Wyoming and Vermont have fewer residents .
As a practical matter , however , admitting the bright blue District of Columbia as a state would help counterbalance the advantage malapportionment gives to Senate Republicans .
And it would ensure that hundreds of thousands of Americans are not denied their right to vote .
“ From our perspective the Senate is broken and undemocratic , ” Rhodes told me .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but the most blatant example is that 700,000 residents of Washington , DC , are not allowed to participate in the democracy that surrounds them.
” In the current Senate , Democrats actually control a majority ( 26-24 ) of seats from the most populous half of the states .
Republicans owe their Senate majority to their crushing 29-21 lead in the least populous half of the states .
The GOP ’ s advantage , moreover , is only likely to grow with time .
Right now , more than half the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
By 2040 , according to a University of Virginia analysis , half the country is expected to live in just eight states .
About 70 percent of the country will live in 16 states — meaning that 30 percent of the population will control 68 percent of the Senate .
Meanwhile , one of the best predictors of partisan voting patterns is population density .
Dense regions tend to prefer Democrats , while sparsely populated regions prefer Republicans .
As Stanford political scientist Jonathan Rodden describes this phenomenon , “ as you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through the suburbs and into rural areas , you traverse in a linear fashion from Democratic to Republican places.
” Barring a political realignment , in other words , the United States may be barreling toward a future where Republicans enjoy a permanent majority in the Senate — regardless of who a majority of the country wishes to lead them .
Admitting a single urban state probably won ’ t be enough to level the playing field between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate , but it will mitigate the problem .
Nor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that controls Congress to admit states for political reasons .
In 1864 , Republican President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation admitting Nevada , then a barely-populated desert with a few thousand residents , into the union as a state .
Nevada didn ’ t have many people , but the few people who did live there were overwhelmingly Republican .
A dozen years later , President Ulysses Grant , also a Republican , signed legislation admitting the state of Colorado .
According to the most recent census , Colorado had fewer than 40,00 residents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was also dominated by Republicans at the time .
After Republicans defeated Democratic President Grover Cleveland in the 1888 election , they celebrated by splitting the GOP-dominated Dakota into two territories and admitting both of them as states .
Today , there are still two Dakotas because Gilded Age Republicans wanted four senators instead of just two .
Meanwhile , Republicans successfully blocked New Mexico from becoming a state until 1912 .
Cleveland ’ s Democrats had hoped to admit New Mexico , which favored Cleveland ’ s party .
These sorts of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that political parties have freely embraced in a nation that , nonsensically , gives two senators to every state regardless of population .
It would be best if the Senate were abolished , or at least apportioned by population .
But , until that day comes , admitting DC as a state would make the United States more small-d democratic .
It would mean that over 700,000 DC residents were no longer disenfranchised .
And it would provide a counterbalance to the arbitrary and anti-democratic advantage that Senate Republicans currently enjoy .
Every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

The House of Representatives voted 232-180 to grant statehood to the District of Columbia on Friday. That marks the first time in the nation’s history that either house of Congress approved legislation granting full statehood and congressional representation to DC’s more than 700,000 residents.
For at least the next several months, the bill is highly unlikely to travel far beyond the House. There’s little chance that the Republican-controlled Senate will agree to give two senators to an overwhelmingly Democratic city. And even if the bill somehow managed to pass the Senate, President Donald Trump has said that Republicans would be “very, very stupid” to allow DC statehood. He’s all but certain to veto the bill.
But statehood for the District of Columbia, whose residents pay federal taxes but have no vote in Congress, is arguably closer than it’s ever been. Trump trails Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who endorsed DC statehood in 2015, by more than 8 points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. Polls now indicate that Democrats have a good chance to regain the Senate as well, despite malapportionment that gives Republicans an unfair advantage in the fight for control of Congress’ upper house.
Not that long ago, DC statehood found little support within the halls of Congress. The last time the House voted on statehood, in 1993, the bill failed 153-277. Democrats, in what now looks like an extraordinary act of political malpractice, did not push statehood when they last controlled both houses of Congress and the White House in 2009-2010. President Barack Obama did not endorse DC statehood until 2014.
But Democratic support for statehood swelled as the party was forced to confront the impact of a malapportioned Senate that overrepresents white and rural states, effectively giving extra seats to Republicans. Among other things, that malapportionment cost Democrats control of the Supreme Court. If the Senate were fairly apportioned, Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland would be a justice right now.
The recent protests against police violence, and Trump’s decision to deploy federal law enforcement and national guard personnel to the nation’s capital, also bolstered the case for statehood — because DC has less autonomy than a state, it is more subject to the whims of federal leaders. As DC Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote in the Washington Post, “this blatant degradation of our home right before my own eyes offered another reminder — a particularly powerful one — of why we need statehood for the District.”
Indeed, many statehood advocates view their cause as part of the broader struggle that animates the protesters. “The protests across America isn’t just a call for policing reform,” according to Stasha Rhodes, campaign director for 51 for 51, an organization pushing for DC statehood. The protests are “also a call to challenge the very institutions that allow white supremacy and racism. The fact that over 700,000 mostly black and brown people do not have a vote in Congress is racism.”
But even if Democrats dominate November’s election and win majorities in both houses, DC statehood still faces two significant obstacles. One is the filibuster, which could potentially allow Republicans to block statehood with just 41 votes in the 100-member Senate.
If the filibuster is overcome, moreover, it is likely that Republicans will file a lawsuit seeking to strip DC of its statehood. With Republicans controlling the judiciary, that lawsuit has a shot at prevailing, even if it rests on weak legal arguments.
The filibuster may be the biggest obstacle to DC statehood
The filibuster, a practice that allows a minority of the Senate to block legislation, is one of the most consequential accidents in American history. In 1805, shortly after he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, Vice President Aaron Burr returned to the Senate to deliver a farewell speech. In that speech, Burr suggested that the Senate make changes to its rules, including eliminating something called the “previous question motion,” a process that was rarely used prior to Burr’s speech. The Senate followed Burr’s advice in 1806.
But eliminating the previous question motion turned out to be a horrible mistake, because this motion was the only process allowing the Senate to cut off debate among its members. No one recognized Burr’s error for 35 years, until 1841, when the first filibuster occurred. Without a way to end debate, rogue senators could delay Senate action indefinitely by insisting on “debating” a proposal forever.
Since this first filibuster, the Senate has changed its rules several times to make it harder to sustain a filibuster. Current rules permit a bloc of 60 senators to end a filibuster using a process known as “cloture,” and invoking cloture to confirm a presidential nominee only requires 51 votes — a simple majority. A process known as “reconciliation” also allows some legislation to pass with only 51 votes, but reconciliation is typically limited to fiscal legislation and is subject to a complicated set of rules.
Absent a very creative interpretation of the rules governing reconciliation, in other words, the DC statehood bill would likely require 60 votes to pass the Senate. So unless Democrats utterly crush Republicans in November, picking up at least 13 seats, Republicans will almost certainly have enough Senate seats to filibuster DC statehood.
Many statehood activists, including some powerful left-of-center organizations, have made overcoming the filibuster their mission. More than two dozen have united under the banner of 51 for 51, a coalition that includes old guard unions like American Federation of Teachers, and rising young organizations such as Indivisible and the judicial reform group Demand Justice. Their goal is to “make DC the 51st state with 51 votes in the Senate.”
“It is no longer enough to just voice your support for DC statehood,” Rhodes, 51 for 51’s campaign director, told me. “You have to have the courage to change the rules, and stand up for the people of Washington.”
Eliminating the filibuster entirely will be difficult. In 2017, 61 senators signed a letter asking Senate leadership to oppose “any effort to curtail the existing rights and prerogatives of Senators to engage in full, robust, and extended debate as we consider legislation before this body in the future.” The effort was led by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Chris Coons (D-DE), and was joined by more than two dozen Democrats.
Biden’s views on the filibuster are somewhat complicated. 51 for 51 claims him as a supporter, pointing to a video where he agrees with a tracker who asks him if he supports making DC a state “with 51 votes in the Senate.”
BREAKING: @JoeBiden endorsed D.C. becoming the 51st state by bypassing the filibuster to give over 700,000 D.C. residents full voting rights and representation in Congress.
Thank you! We're grateful for your support! #DCStatehood #51for51 pic.twitter.com/ww1wkzFwRT — 51 for 51 (@51for51) February 25, 2020
But Biden also told the New York Times editorial board that he does not support “abolishing the legislative filibuster.”
These two statements, however, are not necessarily in tension. There is a middle path between eliminating the filibuster entirely and permitting Republicans to filibuster DC statehood — treat statehood bills like confirmation votes.
The ostensible purpose of the filibuster is to allow senators to continue debating a legislative proposal, and potentially to make changes to that proposal. This is one reason it makes sense to exempt confirmation votes from the filibuster’s supermajority requirement. Legislation can be debated and amended by senators, but it’s not like senators can amend a nominee. There is much less for senators to debate when their only choice is to vote “yes” or “no” on a particular individual nominated for a high-level job.
A similar logic could be applied to statehood bills. Such bills aren’t entirely beyond debate — senators might quibble about what to name a state, or its precise borders — but the primary question before the Senate in the DC statehood bill is whether DC should be a state. Statehood is not a subject like, say, health reform, where lawmakers will have strong feelings about details such as whether health plans should cover contraceptive care, or the right amount to spend on training nurse practitioners.
So the Senate could amend its rules to allow new states to be admitted with a simple majority vote, while leaving in place the filibuster for ordinary legislation.
Without some tweaks to the Senate rules to prevent Republicans from filibustering statehood, however, it is likely that DC statehood is doomed.
Republicans will probably ask the Supreme Court to strike down DC statehood
The primary advantage of statehood is that it grants federal representation to the residents of the state. Statehood makes it less likely that the voices of DC residents will be ignored by Congress.
But DC is not entirely bereft of power in federal elections. The 23rd Amendment effectively grants three Electoral College votes to “the District constituting the seat of Government of the United States.” Under this amendment, which was ratified in 1961, DC has as much say in presidential elections as the “least populous State.”
Should DC become a state, however, it is likely that Republicans will seize on this nearly 60-year-old effort to enfranchise DC residents as a reason to disenfranchise those same votes. And, with the Supreme Court controlled by a Republican majority that is often very hostile to voting rights, it is possible that five justices will cite the 23rd Amendment as a reason to deny statehood to DC.
In 1993, the conservative Heritage Foundation published a paper by lawyer R. Hewitt Pate, arguing that DC could not be admitted as a state without a new constitutional amendment. The 23rd Amendment, Pate argued, presents “perhaps the most difficult constitutional problem” facing DC statehood advocates.
Pate claimed that the 23rd Amendment’s reference to “the District constituting the seat of Government” establishes the current District of Columbia as a “permanent constitutional entity.” He also suggested that the 23rd Amendment’s language limiting DC’s electoral votes to the number controlled by the “least populous State” permanently prevents DC from holding more than three electoral votes.
But Pate’s argument makes a hash out of the 23rd Amendment’s text. Though the amendment states that “the District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct . . . a number of electors” (federal and DC law establish that these electors are chosen in a popular election), the amendment never states that the boundaries of this district cannot be expanded or contracted by statehood legislation.
Indeed, the DC statehood bill does not eliminate the “District constituting the seat of Government,” it merely shrinks it to a much smaller area that includes many of the buildings where the federal government conducts official business.
The 23rd Amendment does create one potential anomaly. If the DC statehood bill passes, the new state would be entitled to representation in the Electoral College just like any other state. Meanwhile, the rump federal district would also be entitled to three electoral votes under the 23rd Amendment.
But there’s an easy fix for this problem. Because the 23rd Amendment provides that the federal district’s electors shall be appointed “in such manner as Congress may direct,” Congress could simply pass a law providing that these three electoral votes will go to whichever presidential candidate would otherwise win the Electoral College — or, even better, Congress could award these three votes to the national popular vote winner, thus reducing the likelihood that the loser of the popular vote will become president.
There is, in other words, no good constitutional argument against DC statehood. As Viet Dinh, who served as an assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush, told a Senate hearing in 2014, “nothing in the Twenty-Third Amendment prohibits the admission of [DC as a state]. Because the [DC statehood bill] will preserve a federal ‘District constituting the seat of Government of the United States.’”
Nevertheless, the Supreme Court is controlled by Republicans — and the Court’s Republican majority is often hostile to voting rights legislation. So there is at least some risk that the Court’s current majority might strike down DC statehood.
Admitting DC would make the United States more democratic
The strongest argument against admitting DC as a state is that DC statehood would, at least on paper, exacerbate the problem of Senate malapportionment. If DC does become a state, it would be the third-least-populous state in the nation. Only Wyoming and Vermont have fewer residents.
As a practical matter, however, admitting the bright blue District of Columbia as a state would help counterbalance the advantage malapportionment gives to Senate Republicans. And it would ensure that hundreds of thousands of Americans are not denied their right to vote.
“From our perspective, the Senate is broken and undemocratic,” Rhodes told me. “There are many examples of this, but the most blatant example is that 700,000 residents of Washington, DC, are not allowed to participate in the democracy that surrounds them.”
In the current Senate, Democrats actually control a majority (26-24) of seats from the most populous half of the states. Republicans owe their Senate majority to their crushing 29-21 lead in the least populous half of the states.
The GOP’s advantage, moreover, is only likely to grow with time. Right now, more than half the country lives in the nine most populous states. By 2040, according to a University of Virginia analysis, half the country is expected to live in just eight states. About 70 percent of the country will live in 16 states — meaning that 30 percent of the population will control 68 percent of the Senate.
Meanwhile, one of the best predictors of partisan voting patterns is population density. Dense regions tend to prefer Democrats, while sparsely populated regions prefer Republicans. As Stanford political scientist Jonathan Rodden describes this phenomenon, “as you go from the center of cities out through the suburbs and into rural areas, you traverse in a linear fashion from Democratic to Republican places.”
Barring a political realignment, in other words, the United States may be barreling toward a future where Republicans enjoy a permanent majority in the Senate — regardless of whom a majority of the country wishes to lead them. Admitting a single urban state probably won’t be enough to level the playing field between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, but it will mitigate the problem.
Nor is it especially unusual for the party that controls Congress to admit states for political reasons. In 1864, Republican President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation admitting Nevada, then a barely populated desert with a few thousand residents, into the union as a state. Nevada didn’t have many people, but the few people who did live there were overwhelmingly Republican.
A dozen years later, President Ulysses Grant, also a Republican, signed legislation admitting the state of Colorado. According to the most recent census, Colorado had fewer than 40,00 residents when it became a state. Colorado was also dominated by Republicans at the time.
After Republicans defeated Democratic President Grover Cleveland in the 1888 election, they celebrated by splitting the GOP-dominated Dakota into two territories and admitting both of them as states. Today, there are still two Dakotas because Gilded Age Republicans wanted four senators instead of just two.
Meanwhile, Republicans successfully blocked New Mexico from becoming a state until 1912. Cleveland’s Democrats had hoped to admit New Mexico, which favored Cleveland’s party.
These sorts of tactics are the kind of constitutional hardball that political parties have freely embraced in a nation that, nonsensically, gives two senators to every state regardless of population. It would be best if the Senate were abolished, or at least apportioned by population.
But, until that day comes, admitting DC as a state would make the United States more small-d democratic. It would mean that over 700,000 DC residents were no longer disenfranchised. And it would provide a counterbalance to the arbitrary and anti-democratic advantage that Senate Republicans currently enjoy.


vox--2020-06-22--How young people are combating anti-black racism in their immigrant communities

Alyssa Pham , a 20-year-old American , has held progressive beliefs for years .
Meanwhile , her parents , who are South Vietnamese refugees , have tended to lean conservative .
In spite of this political rift , the Pham household has developed a habit of watching Vietnamese news segments together at dinnertime most evenings , which , as of late , has facilitated their conversations about the Black Lives Matter movement .
For Pham ’ s family , like many immigrant households , it can be easy for American politics to remain a sidebar in daily conversation .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ second-generation children who are fluent in English but possess only a rudimentary grasp of their parents ’ native tongue .
Then there are the cultural dynamics , which further complicate any type of discussion that can give rise to uncomfortable disagreement .
“ As a child , explaining something to your parents or elders can be considered disrespectful , even when you ’ re not trying to come off as so , ” Pham , who is fluent in Vietnamese , told me .
“ You ’ re not supposed to be the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any dialogue from starting.
” But through these factual news programs , Pham sensed that her parents were becoming active listeners to new ideas , since they weren ’ t pushed to respond to or refute her directly .
“ The segments have a lot of rich and in-depth history that I myself am not 100 percent knowledgeable on and provide really reliable resources to back up what I ’ m trying to tell them , ” she said .
Pham , then , was able to “ productively open the conversation ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in ways she hadn ’ t expected .
They even appeared more receptive to her views during their discussion .
Pham recently shared these news segments on “ Việt Solidarity & Action Network , ” a Facebook group with over 2,500 progressive members that has evolved from a network of US-based grassroots activists with over 45 years of experience .
Many members are , for the first time , attempting to engage with not just their immediate family , but the Vietnamese community at large on social justice issues .
The informal network @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for leftist and progressive Vietnamese organizers and activists , is just one example of how Asian Americans and Latino Americans are having conversations within their ethnic enclaves on how to encourage allyship and solidarity with the black community .
These online spaces are where second-generation immigrants congregate to share translated educational resources , combat disinformation ( sometimes published in foreign languages ) , and discuss ways to engage with family and community members about systemic racism , anti-blackness , and other social topics that often require a broader context of American society and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to dissect the long-held racial tensions between black and white Americans , as well as race relations between varying minority groups .
With the ineluctable wave of protests over police brutality and racism continuing to dominate the national conversation , young people of color like Pham no longer see silence as an option .
Despite how tensely frustrating these conversations can be — and how hard it can be to acknowledge the deep-rooted prejudices and racist beliefs held by those closest to them — many organizers believe this work is crucial , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for younger ones as well .
“ A majority of our parents are senior citizens , and in many ways , they ’ re stuck in their beliefs , but the least we can do is try , ” said Liya Thachil , an organizer with Malayalees for Black Lives Matter .
“ Our focus is to help the next generation who are raising kids in America to be better allies , and to me , that ’ s a better win because you ’ re setting up for the entire future.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be the authority , which prevents good communication and any dialogue from starting ” Many Mayali Americans ( who are a subset of the Indian diaspora ) tend to vote Republican and are very economically similar to white Americans , Thachil told me .
Historically , South Asian immigrants have benefited from a skills-based visa program that allowed them to “ walk off the plane with a college degree , an education , and a job opportunity , ” she said .
“ As a result , we were able to navigate the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ black counterparts , but certain parts of our history — such as , how South Asians were once considered undesirables , how we benefited from the civil rights movement — aren ’ t often spoken about.
” For decades , mainstream news outlets and white pundits have portrayed ethnic minorities , including Asian Americans and Latinos , as a voting monolith , conveniently assuming that they share similar social and political beliefs in their respective communities .
Yet they contain a spectrum of political beliefs and , in some cases , vast social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ older generations and between those who received an American or Western-centric education and those who studied overseas .
Many progressive activists tend to be younger — millennials or Gen Zs who grew up in America — and are explicit in acknowledging the economic and cultural challenges that first-generation immigrants struggle with .
Many try to establish a somewhat tenuous connection between the immigrant experience ( citing instances of overt racism or otherness in white America ) as context for understanding the centuries-long struggle that black Americans face .
And while second-generation Americans acknowledge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diminish their parents ’ lived experiences , they believe it ’ s crucial to bridge the knowledge gap .
They want older generations to engage in their community ’ s role in American history and rectify long-standing prejudiced beliefs , especially those held against black Americans .
There are no anti-racist “ guides ” for immigrants .
Second-generation activists are translating and even making their own .
For white , English-speaking Americans , books like White Fragility and How to Be an Antiracist are presented as racial dialogue “ guides , ” which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( although as Lauren Michele Jackson points out in Vulture , for these books to do good , “ something keener than ‘ anti-racism ’ must be sought ” in the mind of a white reader ) .
Those books don ’ t apply to immigrants , said Maricela Becerra , an assistant adjunct professor at UCLA .
Becerra , who received a doctorate in Hispanic languages and literature , created a simple guide with key Spanish words and translations to explain the Black Lives Matter movement to native speakers .
“ In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we call effective translation , ” she told me .
“ That means you have to go beyond just literally translating the words by providing additional context and explanations that would make understanding easier.
” Becerra doesn ’ t expect her translation guide to change anyone ’ s ideas about racism or their political beliefs , but providing the language and terms is a crucial first step to starting any type of dialogue .
“ You have to see this not as a fight , ” she added , “ but as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we grew up with and the systems that oppress us.
” Becerra and other second-generation activists acknowledge that it ’ s difficult for older immigrants to unlearn the institutionalized racism , colorism , and colonialism that persist in their home countries and the US .
In Latino cultures , for example , people were “ taught to seek partners that have a certain European or white phenotype or lighter skin to lighten their family trees , ” Jasmine Haywood , an Afro-Latina who has studied anti-black Latino racism , told NBC News @ @ @ @ @ @ @ similarly venerate whiteness as an aspiration — in socioeconomic status and appearance , as lighter skin tones are often deemed more desirable .
“ You have to see this not as a fight but as a commitment to conversation about our own beliefs that we grew up with ” “ Many Afro-Latino folks aren ’ t considered when we talk about Latinos , ” Becerra said .
“ I have to remind my Mexican family that we have an Afro-Mexican community that has been ignored , that racism isn ’ t just an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ America , but that opinion isn ’ t always well received.
” In 2016 , a group of organizers , predominantly from Asian and Pacific Islander backgrounds , started the Letters for Black Lives initiative after the death of Philando Castile , a black man who was shot by police during a traffic stop in Minneapolis .
The project sought to crowdsource dozens of translations of an open letter , which addressed anti-Blackness and racism in America and Canada , aimed at non-English speaking relatives .
“ Mom , Dad , Uncle , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ starts the letter .
“ We need to talk.
” In the wake of the George Floyd protests , the organizers came together to pen a second letter , which purposefully delivered a more forceful message than the first .
“ We wanted the 2020 letter to not be a sort of step two from the 2016 letter , ” said Katherine Pan , one of the project ’ s 2016 organizers .
“ Public sentiment has shifted , the news is reporting these events differently , and we wanted the 2020 letter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The 2020 letter is available in more than 30 translations with specific American and Canadian editions , although translators say it isn ’ t exactly a one-to-one translation from the original English letter .
Some cited specific examples of oppression from their cultural backgrounds to provide context .
Divya Goel , who worked on the Hindi translation of the South Asian English letter , told me : “ The audience of these letters might not have learned Black history or American history , so they are more familiar with [ the Indian Independence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with it .
So drawing that parallel was important for us in creating another entry point for the reader.
” Yet , as historian Andy Liu points out in his critique of these letters , the template for discussions about racism appears to come from an assimilationist framework , which encourages an immigrant group to blend their “ views into the norms and values of white liberals , namely , guilt and privilege-talk.
” For Liu , children of immigrants must recognize that their parents ’ “ ideas about racial difference were shaped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and their white American friends — that these racist beliefs are generated through specific historical circumstances and should be examined through a lens that involves labor and class relations , in addition to race .
Perhaps that ’ s why people like Pan , who has spent years involved with the Letters for Black Lives campaign , see these letters as conversation starters — language aids for a child to convey vulnerability and emotion to their parents .
“ It ’ s not a one-and-done thing , ” she told me .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ follow-up conversations to show how this is an important topic to you.
” Organizers say this is an opportunity to not just educate , but to politically motivate voters in their community Advocacy work doesn ’ t just stop at providing translations ; organizers are actively identifying and combating misinformation , especially on Facebook .
While mainstream news outlets have frequently reported on English-language “ fake news ” and right-wing propaganda , immigrant communities and their information networks , which are also plagued with partisan media and rampant misinformation , have fallen under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ published by the Columbia Journalism Review , researcher Chi Zhang discovered that misinformation found on Chinese social media , specifically on WeChat , mirrors what is found in American , English-language media .
But , “ what ’ s especially worrisome in information ecosystems like these , ” Zhang wrote , “ is their central influence on the first-generation immigrant experience and integration with US society.
” Almost every person I spoke to acknowledged how social media , specifically Facebook , has a role in shaping their community ’ s political beliefs and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ circles on WhatsApp , Becerra said there were viral videos being shared that attempted to discredit the Black Lives Matter protests , overwhelmingly focusing on images of violence and looting .
“ The information shown by some Spanish media is very selective , and oftentimes it goes with very conservative narratives , ” she added .
Similarly , on WeChat discussion groups populated by first-generation Chinese immigrants , users have focused on the demonstrations ’ violence and argued that Chinese American youth were being “ brainwashed ” into identity politics by American institutions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Network group ( which I am a member of ) , people frequently share Facebook pages or YouTube videos that contain false or partisan news , alerting others to report the page and to advise their parents to avoid such content .
After hitting a language barrier while discussing recent events with her immigrant father , who tends to consume partisan news , Cookie Duong started a news aggregator website , The Interpreter , to translate reputable English-language news into Vietnamese .
To her surprise , she found it “ scratched a cultural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ news , racism , and generational distance.
” The site has since gained more than 600 Facebook “ Likes ” within a few weeks , and Duong is hopeful that her translation work can lead to more political empowerment and engagement .
In spite of these obstacles — from fake news to a lack of political engagement — a groundswell of diverse young activists are mobilizing to make political gains , or at the very least , to encourage civic participation and to increase voter turnout within their respective communities .
For some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s unspoken prejudices is only the beginning .
Becerra told me she ’ s heartened by how involved some Latinx academics appear to be in helping compile resources and historical texts .
Many Latinx community organizations and advocacy groups , which were established before the protests , have offered mental health resources , protest tips , and support groups for those who feel overwhelmed or unsafe during this time , in addition to demonstrating solidarity with Black Lives Matter .
Thachil , the organizer with Malayalees for Black Lives Matter , said that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ education , but its long-term plan includes more advocacy work and a focus on improving voter turnout within the South Asian community .
“ We hope to join coalition forces to ask for changes in legislation , pursuing progressive candidates that support policies of reform , and speaking up and uplifting those in the African American community , ” she said .
“ We need to focus on solidifying and uniting the first and second-generation so they ’ re able to break the cycle , to do the right type of work and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thachil hopes the energy behind the Black Lives Matter protests will be a “ turning point ” — for allyship among ethnic minorities and the Black community , and for voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election and beyond .
“ We as a community — and I ’ m sure this goes for many immigrants — have avoided politics for so long , ” she said .
“ And I ’ m hopeful that we can create the change we wish for by being activated at home.
” Every day at Vox @ @ @ @ @ @ @ important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
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Alyssa Pham, a 20-year-old American, has held progressive beliefs for years. Meanwhile, her parents, who are South Vietnamese refugees, have tended to lean conservative. In spite of this political rift, the Pham household has developed a habit of watching Vietnamese news segments together at dinnertime most evenings, which, as of late, has facilitated their conversations about the Black Lives Matter movement.
For Pham’s family, like many immigrant households, it can be easy for American politics to remain a sidebar in daily conversation. The language barrier is a hurdle for many second-generation children who are fluent in English but possess only a rudimentary grasp of their parents’ native tongue. Then there are the cultural dynamics, which further complicate any type of discussion that can give rise to uncomfortable disagreement.
“As a child, explaining something to your parents or elders can be considered disrespectful, even when you’re not trying to come off as so,” Pham, who is fluent in Vietnamese, told me. “You’re not supposed to be the authority, which prevents good communication and any dialogue from starting.”
But through these factual news programs, Pham sensed that her parents were becoming active listeners to new ideas, since they weren’t pushed to respond to or refute her directly. “The segments have a lot of rich and in-depth history that I myself am not 100 percent knowledgeable on and provide really reliable resources to back up what I’m trying to tell them,” she said. Pham, then, was able to “productively open the conversation” about Black Lives Matter with her parents in ways she hadn’t expected. They even appeared more receptive to her views during their discussion.
Pham recently shared these news segments on “Việt Solidarity & Action Network,” a Facebook group with over 2,500 progressive members that has evolved from a network of US-based grassroots activists with over 45 years of experience. Many members are, for the first time, attempting to engage with not just their immediate family, but the Vietnamese community at large on social justice issues. The informal network, which describes itself as a space for leftist and progressive Vietnamese organizers and activists, is just one example of how Asian Americans and Latino Americans are having conversations within their ethnic enclaves on how to encourage allyship and solidarity with the black community.
These online spaces are where second-generation immigrants congregate to share translated educational resources, combat disinformation (sometimes published in foreign languages), and discuss ways to engage with family and community members about systemic racism, anti-blackness, and other social topics that often require a broader context of American society and history to fully comprehend. They attempt to dissect the long-held racial tensions between black and white Americans, as well as race relations between varying minority groups. With the ineluctable wave of protests over police brutality and racism continuing to dominate the national conversation, young people of color like Pham no longer see silence as an option.
Despite how tensely frustrating these conversations can be — and how hard it can be to acknowledge the deep-rooted prejudices and racist beliefs held by those closest to them — many organizers believe this work is crucial, not just for older family members, but for younger ones as well.
“A majority of our parents are senior citizens, and in many ways, they’re stuck in their beliefs, but the least we can do is try,” said Liya Thachil, an organizer with Malayalees for Black Lives Matter. “Our focus is to help the next generation who are raising kids in America to be better allies, and to me, that’s a better win because you’re setting up for the entire future.”
“You’re not supposed to be the authority, which prevents good communication and any dialogue from starting”
Many Mayali Americans (who are a subset of the Indian diaspora) tend to vote Republican and are very economically similar to white Americans, Thachil told me. Historically, South Asian immigrants have benefited from a skills-based visa program that allowed them to “walk off the plane with a college degree, an education, and a job opportunity,” she said. “As a result, we were able to navigate the opportunities of America much easier than our black counterparts, but certain parts of our history — such as, how South Asians were once considered undesirables, how we benefited from the civil rights movement — aren’t often spoken about.”
For decades, mainstream news outlets and white pundits have portrayed ethnic minorities, including Asian Americans and Latinos, as a voting monolith, conveniently assuming that they share similar social and political beliefs in their respective communities. Yet they contain a spectrum of political beliefs and, in some cases, vast social differences — particularly between the younger and older generations and between those who received an American or Western-centric education and those who studied overseas.
Many progressive activists tend to be younger — millennials or Gen Zs who grew up in America — and are explicit in acknowledging the economic and cultural challenges that first-generation immigrants struggle with. Many try to establish a somewhat tenuous connection between the immigrant experience (citing instances of overt racism or otherness in white America) as context for understanding the centuries-long struggle that black Americans face.
And while second-generation Americans acknowledge how they don’t wish to diminish their parents’ lived experiences, they believe it’s crucial to bridge the knowledge gap. They want older generations to engage in their community’s role in American history and rectify long-standing prejudiced beliefs, especially those held against black Americans.
There are no anti-racist “guides” for immigrants. Second-generation activists are translating and even making their own.
For white, English-speaking Americans, books like White Fragility and How to Be an Antiracist are presented as racial dialogue “guides,” which can help start conversations with family members (although as Lauren Michele Jackson points out in Vulture, for these books to do good, “something keener than ‘anti-racism’ must be sought” in the mind of a white reader). Those books don’t apply to immigrants, said Maricela Becerra, an assistant adjunct professor at UCLA.
Becerra, who received a doctorate in Hispanic languages and literature, created a simple guide with key Spanish words and translations to explain the Black Lives Matter movement to native speakers.
“In my field, there’s something we call effective translation,” she told me. “That means you have to go beyond just literally translating the words by providing additional context and explanations that would make understanding easier.”
Becerra doesn’t expect her translation guide to change anyone’s ideas about racism or their political beliefs, but providing the language and terms is a crucial first step to starting any type of dialogue. “You have to see this not as a fight,” she added, “but as a commitment to conversation about our own beliefs that we grew up with and the systems that oppress us.”
Becerra and other second-generation activists acknowledge that it’s difficult for older immigrants to unlearn the institutionalized racism, colorism, and colonialism that persist in their home countries and the US. In Latino cultures, for example, people were “taught to seek partners that have a certain European or white phenotype or lighter skin to lighten their family trees,” Jasmine Haywood, an Afro-Latina who has studied anti-black Latino racism, told NBC News. East Asian and South Asian cultures similarly venerate whiteness as an aspiration — in socioeconomic status and appearance, as lighter skin tones are often deemed more desirable.
“You have to see this not as a fight but as a commitment to conversation about our own beliefs that we grew up with”
“Many Afro-Latino folks aren’t considered when we talk about Latinos,” Becerra said. “I have to remind my Mexican family that we have an Afro-Mexican community that has been ignored, that racism isn’t just an ‘us versus them’ problem in America, but that opinion isn’t always well received.”
In 2016, a group of organizers, predominantly from Asian and Pacific Islander backgrounds, started the Letters for Black Lives initiative after the death of Philando Castile, a black man who was shot by police during a traffic stop in Minneapolis. The project sought to crowdsource dozens of translations of an open letter, which addressed anti-Blackness and racism in America and Canada, aimed at non-English speaking relatives. “Mom, Dad, Uncle, Auntie, Grandfather, Grandmother,” starts the letter. “We need to talk.”
In the wake of the George Floyd protests, the organizers came together to pen a second letter, which purposefully delivered a more forceful message than the first.
“We wanted the 2020 letter to not be a sort of step two from the 2016 letter,” said Katherine Pan, one of the project’s 2016 organizers. “Public sentiment has shifted, the news is reporting these events differently, and we wanted the 2020 letter to convey that difference in tone.”
The 2020 letter is available in more than 30 translations with specific American and Canadian editions, although translators say it isn’t exactly a one-to-one translation from the original English letter. Some cited specific examples of oppression from their cultural backgrounds to provide context.
Divya Goel, who worked on the Hindi translation of the South Asian English letter, told me: “The audience of these letters might not have learned Black history or American history, so they are more familiar with [the Indian Independence] movement and probably have positive associations with it. So drawing that parallel was important for us in creating another entry point for the reader.”
To our beloved families—We need to talk about anti-Blackness in our own homes because #blacklivesmatter.
The first twenty-six languages of the new #LettersforBlackLives are up https://t.co/IVLLlr5mML pic.twitter.com/bRDMIjK4Sm — LettersForBlackLives (@LettersForBL) June 8, 2020
Yet, as historian Andy Liu points out in his critique of these letters, the template for discussions about racism appears to come from an assimilationist framework, which encourages an immigrant group to blend their “views into the norms and values of white liberals, namely, guilt and privilege-talk.” For Liu, children of immigrants must recognize that their parents’ “ideas about racial difference were shaped by experiences wholly distinct” from theirs and their white American friends — that these racist beliefs are generated through specific historical circumstances and should be examined through a lens that involves labor and class relations, in addition to race.
Perhaps that’s why people like Pan, who has spent years involved with the Letters for Black Lives campaign, see these letters as conversation starters — language aids for a child to convey vulnerability and emotion to their parents. “It’s not a one-and-done thing,” she told me. “It takes work, time, and follow-up conversations to show how this is an important topic to you.”
Organizers say this is an opportunity to not just educate, but to politically motivate voters in their community
Advocacy work doesn’t just stop at providing translations; organizers are actively identifying and combating misinformation, especially on Facebook. While mainstream news outlets have frequently reported on English-language “fake news” and right-wing propaganda, immigrant communities and their information networks, which are also plagued with partisan media and rampant misinformation, have fallen under the radar.
In a 2018 study published by the Columbia Journalism Review, researcher Chi Zhang discovered that misinformation found on Chinese social media, specifically on WeChat, mirrors what is found in American, English-language media. But, “what’s especially worrisome in information ecosystems like these,” Zhang wrote, “is their central influence on the first-generation immigrant experience and integration with US society.”
Almost every person I spoke to acknowledged how social media, specifically Facebook, has a role in shaping their community’s political beliefs and sometimes radicalizing them. Within certain Spanish-speaking circles on WhatsApp, Becerra said there were viral videos being shared that attempted to discredit the Black Lives Matter protests, overwhelmingly focusing on images of violence and looting. “The information shown by some Spanish media is very selective, and oftentimes it goes with very conservative narratives,” she added.
Similarly, on WeChat discussion groups populated by first-generation Chinese immigrants, users have focused on the demonstrations’ violence and argued that Chinese American youth were being “brainwashed” into identity politics by American institutions. In the Việt Solidarity & Action Network group (which I am a member of), people frequently share Facebook pages or YouTube videos that contain false or partisan news, alerting others to report the page and to advise their parents to avoid such content.
After hitting a language barrier while discussing recent events with her immigrant father, who tends to consume partisan news, Cookie Duong started a news aggregator website, The Interpreter, to translate reputable English-language news into Vietnamese. To her surprise, she found it “scratched a cultural itch within the Viet diaspora regarding fake news, racism, and generational distance.” The site has since gained more than 600 Facebook “Likes” within a few weeks, and Duong is hopeful that her translation work can lead to more political empowerment and engagement.
In spite of these obstacles — from fake news to a lack of political engagement — a groundswell of diverse young activists are mobilizing to make political gains, or at the very least, to encourage civic participation and to increase voter turnout within their respective communities.
For some, tackling anti-blackness and their community’s unspoken prejudices is only the beginning. Becerra told me she’s heartened by how involved some Latinx academics appear to be in helping compile resources and historical texts. Many Latinx community organizations and advocacy groups, which were established before the protests, have offered mental health resources, protest tips, and support groups for those who feel overwhelmed or unsafe during this time, in addition to demonstrating solidarity with Black Lives Matter.
Thachil, the organizer with Malayalees for Black Lives Matter, said that the group’s current mission is education, but its long-term plan includes more advocacy work and a focus on improving voter turnout within the South Asian community. “We hope to join coalition forces to ask for changes in legislation, pursuing progressive candidates that support policies of reform, and speaking up and uplifting those in the African American community,” she said. “We need to focus on solidifying and uniting the first and second-generation so they’re able to break the cycle, to do the right type of work and send the right type of message.”
Thachil hopes the energy behind the Black Lives Matter protests will be a “turning point” — for allyship among ethnic minorities and the Black community, and for voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election and beyond. “We as a community — and I’m sure this goes for many immigrants — have avoided politics for so long,” she said. “And I’m hopeful that we can create the change we wish for by being activated at home.”