Banksy has left his personal testimony against racial discrimination, in response to the death of George Floyd and protests that have spread all over the world. Publishing the new work for his 9.3 million Instagram followers, Banksy’s American flag is about to catch fire, lit by a candle placed next to a photo with a black silhouette.
Fear, More Than Hate, Feeds Online Bigotry and Real-World Violence
By Adam G. Klein, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Pace University. First published on The Conversation.
When a U.S. senator asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “Can you define hate speech?” it was arguably the most important question that social networks face: how to identify extremism inside their communities.
Hate crimes in the 21st century follow a familiar pattern in which an online tirade escalates into violent actions. Before opening fire in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the accused gunman had vented over far-right social network Gab about Honduran migrants traveling toward the U.S. border, and the alleged Jewish conspiracy behind it all. Then he declared, “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.” The pattern of extremists unloading their intolerance online has been a disturbing feature of some recent hate crimes. But most online hate isn’t that flagrant, or as easy to spot.
As I found in my 2017 study on extremism in social networks and political blogs, rather than overt bigotry, most online hate looks a lot like fear. It’s not expressed in racial slurs or calls for confrontation, but rather in unfounded allegations of Hispanic invaders pouring into the country, black-on-white crime or Sharia law infiltrating American cities. Hysterical narratives such as these have become the preferred vehicle for today’s extremists – and may be more effective at provoking real-world violence than stereotypical hate speech.
Above: Angelina Jolie at 2019 San Diego Comic Con International, for "The Eternals", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California.via Gage Skidmore. Bottom: Newly-released NAACP #WeAreDoneDying campaign.
Activist, Oscar winner, supermom Angelina Jolie celebrated her 45th birthday on June 4, the day after donating $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense fund. Jolie was joined by her six kids: Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and 11-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.
“Rights don’t belong to any one group to give to another. Discrimination and impunity cannot be tolerated, explained or justified. I hope we can come together as Americans to address the deep structural wrongs in our society,“ Jolie said in a press statement about her contribution. “I stand with the NAACP Fund in their fight for racial equality, social justice and their call for urgent legislative reform.”
Angelina Jolie Also Taking On Food Security for Kids in America
The activist and philanthropist is increasingly concerned about the lack of food security in America. She recently joined a Zoom call led by No Kid Hungry, devoted to feeding kids in America impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, writes People magazine.
Long known for her work as a UNHCR special envoy, Angelina Jolie now understands the scope of hunger in America.
“I knew that there were problems in America, that there was poverty, but I could not believe when I realized how many school children in America were dependent on a meal to not go hungry," she said on the call. "I was so disgusted that we have gotten to this point as a country and that we would let the most vulnerable be in such a state. I can’t imagine what it feels like for those parents.”
Appalled over cuts to America’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Jolie donated $1 million to No Kid Hungry, and wrote a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about cutbacks on food subsidies.
"While strengthening SNAP will not alleviate all of the challenges low-income families are facing during the public health emergency, it will help ensure that fewer children go to bed hungry in our country," she said
USA Today reported the letter, in which Jolie reminded America’s political leaders that vulnerable children in America have missed nearly 740 million meals at school, due to coronavirus closings. Jolie also gave specific examples of how food assistance policy used to work in America, prior to the Trump Administration. Republicans have sought to cut aid to hungry families for years, but the Trump Administration has been uniquely aggressive in the cuts — with a special focus on “able-bodied adults ages 18 to 49 — without dependents”. The administration insists that children’s needs have suffered with SNAP cuts.
Paper Magazine Creates Master Links to Bail Funds, BLM Groups Across the US
Paper Magazine is doing an outstanding job of tracking the waves of social unrest across America. They are not alone. Even IMG Models has a Black Lives Matter message on the front page. Alas, their link to the Change.org petition that I signed on Saturday is broken (does anybody check these things!!!).
It is hands down the biggest petition of 2020 and could become an all-time champion. On Tuesday 12:36 PM, 11,536,224 people have signed the petition: Justice for George Floyd. The point of the petition is to have the other three former officers involved in the homicide charged and hopefully, the current charges against fired officer Derek Chauvin increased from third-degree murder and manslaughter..
Dr. Allecia Wilson, one of the pathologists who conducted the independent autopsy, said Monday afternoon that Floyd died as a result of mechanical asphyxiation. CBS News writes:
By Lonnie G. Bunch III, SmithsonianMag.com
Like many Americans, watching multiple incidents of deadly violence against black people unfold before our eyes has left us feeling demoralized and distraught, aghast, and angry. Not only have we been forced to grapple with the impact of a global pandemic, we have been forced to confront the reality that, despite gains made in the past 50 years, we are still a nation riven by inequality and racial division. The state of our democracy feels fragile and precarious.
Once again, we struggle to make sense of the senseless. Once again, we bear witness to our country’s troubled history of racial violence, from Freddie Gray and Eric Garner to Sandra Bland and Trayvon Martin. Once again, we try to cope as best as we can, whether suffering in silence, participating in protests, or engaging in conversations that evoke all of our emotions. Once again, we try to explain to our children that which cannot be explained. Once again, we pray for justice and we pray for peace. Once again.
We express our deepest sympathy to the families and communities of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and the far too many preceding them whose needless deaths were brought about by unjustified violence. We hope that their pain and sorrow compel America to confront its tortured racial past, and that this moment becomes the impetus for our nation to address racism and social inequities in earnest.
Although it will be a monumental task, the past is replete with examples of ordinary people working together to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. History is a guide to a better future and demonstrates that we can become a better society—but only if we collectively demand it from each other and from the institutions responsible for administering justice.
Frederick Douglass famously said, “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground…. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle.” At this pivotal moment when the eyes of the nation and the world are upon Minneapolis, will we join the struggle to seek justice and equality? Will we heed the call of courageous figures throughout history who spoke out against slavery, marched on for voting rights, and sat in for basic equality? Will we challenge the nation to live up to its founding ideals? In the memory of those taken from us and for the good of the country, I hope that we do.
To create an equal society, and to commit to making unbiased choices and being antiracist in all aspects of our lives, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture offers the online portal, "Tips for Talking About Race."
Lonnie G. Bunch III is the Smithsonian's 14th Secretary and the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He is the author of more than a dozen books on history, race and museum scholarship.
Anne of Carversile is an influential fashion, design and culture news resource for creatives, brands and lifestye businesses since 2007.
All content Copyright © AnneofCarversville.com 2007-2024 or their respective owners where indicated.
