Category Archives: Racism

As US Election Looms, 3 of 4 Voters Fear Political Violence

“This most recent poll shows that voters want to vote more than ever despite, or perhaps because, our democracy is threatened with the dark cloud of election denial and violence.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 10-7-2024 by Common Dreams

A man wearing a “Proud Boys” shirt waves a flag at a pro-Trump rally outside the Minnesota Governor’s mansion on November 14th, 2020.. Photo: Chad Davis/flickr/CC

Polling released Monday, less than a month away from the November 5 election, shows that nearly three-quarters of U.S. voters are worried about political violence and believe it is likely because some people will not accept the results.

The latest Civil Rights Monitor Poll, commissioned by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, is based on responses from 1,000 likely voters across the country, who were surveyed September 3-8.

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How the 14th Amendment prevents state legislatures from subverting popular presidential elections

By Eric Eisner and David B. Froomkin. Published 8-29-2024 by The Conversation

Photo: Thomas Cizauskas/flickr/cc

Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election not only failed, but some of them also rested on a misreading of the U.S. Constitution, as our new analysis argues. The relevant constitutional provision dates back to just after the Civil War, and contemporaries recognized it as a key protection of American democracy.

In November 2020, as it became clear that Trump had lost the popular vote and would lose the Electoral College, Trump and his supporters mounted a pressure campaign to convince legislatures in several states whose citizens voted for Joe Biden to appoint electors who would support Trump’s reelection in the Electoral College votes.

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Federal Judge Gives Louisiana Polluters a ‘Free Pass’ to Harm Communities of Color

“Louisiana has given industrial polluters open license to poison Black and brown communities for generations,” and the new ruling from a Trump-appointed judge will only magnify the problem, a campaigner said.

By Edward Carver. Published 8-23-2024 by Common Dreams

Cancer Alley. Photo: Gines A. Sanchez/flickr/CC

A right-wing federal judge in Louisiana on Thursday permanently blocked two federal agencies from enforcing civil rights legislation that could protect Black communities from disproportionate pollution in the state, drawing condemnation from environmental justice advocates.

The two-page ruling, issued by U.S. District Court Judge James Cain, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2019 by then-President Donald Trump, is a setback in the push for accountability for corporate polluters, most notably in “Cancer Alley,” a roughly 85-mile stretch that runs along the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

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Pro-Democracy Coalition Urges Media to ‘Rise to the Occasion’ to Defeat Autocratic Threats

“Now is the time to refuse to cover politics with soundbites that place profit over people’s understanding of the stakes. Media must be a watchdog for the people right now.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 8-15-2024 by Common Dreams

Former President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with attendees at The People’s Convention at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan June 2024. Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr/CC

Pushing back against calls for the media to “refrain from covering mounting authoritarianism” in the United States since the Republican nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trumpsurvived an assassination attempt, a coalition on Thursday urged news outlets “to wholeheartedly reject such a dereliction of journalistic duty, and to rigorously report threats to our democracy.”

“Media coverage shapes both public discourse and people’s understanding of events of the day,” states the coalition’s open letter. “This is particularly critical during contentious and extreme times such as these. Media coverage can invite public engagement and robust participation in the democratic process. It can also be manipulated to promote falsehoods for political gain, to silence dissent, and stoke racism.”

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FEC Blasted Over Decision Not to Regulate Deepfakes Ahead of Election

“The FEC is the nation’s election protection agency and it has authority to regulate deepfakes as part of its existing authority to prohibit fraudulent misrepresentations,” said Robert Weissman of Public Citizen.

By Julia Conley. Published 8-8-2024 by Common Dreams

Screenshot: CNN

An announcement by the U.S. Federal Election Commission on Thursday that it will not take action to regulate artificial intelligence-generated “deepfakes” in political ads before the November elections amounted to “a shameful abrogation of its responsibilities,” said a leading critic of the technology.

A year after consumer advocate Public Citizen filed a petition with the FEC to demand rulemaking that would prohibit a political candidate or advocacy group from misrepresenting political opponents using deliberately deceptive deepfakes—fake images generated with AI—FEC Chair Sean Cooksey told Axios the commission will not propose any new rules this year.

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Far-Right UK Riots Spark ‘Stand Up to Racism’ Counterprotests

“The majority of people in Britain abhor Robinson and the far right,” says one joint statement. “We are the majority, they are the few.”

By Jessica Corbett, Published 8-7-2024 by Common Dreams

Antifascist protesters march in Bristol Photo: Tristan Cork Post/X

From Birmingham, Brighton, and Bristol, to Liverpool, London, Newcastle, and Northampton, counterprotesters gathered across the United Kingdom on Wednesday to decry far-right riots and attacks against immigrants and Muslims.

Since the weekend, far-right protesters have targeted mosques, libraries, and even a hotel housing asylum-seekers—responding at least in part to online disinformation about the suspect in a deadly stabbing attack on a children’s dance class. The demonstrations and expectations they would continue Wednesday evening drew anti-racists to the streets in several U.K. cities.

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5 Years After El Paso Shooting, Calls for Fighting Gun Violence and Racism

“When politicians use ‘great replacement’ conspiracies and xenophobia to stoke fear and divide us, real people pay the price in blood,” said Democratic Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 8-4-2024 by Common Dreams

The remnants in January 2020 of the makeshift memorial erected after the August 3, 2019 mass shooting at the Cielo Vista Walmart. Photo: TomStar81/Wikimedia Commons/CC

Saturday marked five years since a self-described white nationalist killed 23 people and injured 22 others with an AK-47-style semiautomatic rifle at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and the anniversary sparked fresh calls for efforts to combat gun violence and racism.

“Five years after a man armed with hate and a gun drove into our community and stole the lives of 23 of our friends and neighbors, we still feel the pain of their absence,” said Myndi Luevanos, a volunteer with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action in El Paso, in a statement. “Since the shooting, our leaders have refused to meet the moment, failing to enact common-sense gun safety measures that could save lives and address the disproportionate rate of gun violence faced by the Latinx community in Texas.”

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US Voter Registrations Surge as Republicans Try to Limit Ballot Access

One group said it has registered over 100,000 new voters since U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.

By Brett Wilkins Published 7-26-2024 by Common Dreams

Voting rights activists participate in a voting rights rally in Washington DC on 8-27-2021. Photo: Edward Kimmel/flickr/CC

The group behind a popular get-out-the-vote technology platform said Friday that it’s registered more than 100,000 new U.S. voters since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, a surge that came amid mounting Republican efforts to make it harder to register and vote.

Vote.org said that 84% of voters registered in the new wave are under age 35. Nearly 1 in 5 new registrees is 18 years old. Andrea Hailey, the group’s CEO, said that “since 2020, we have led the largest voter registration drive in U.S. history,” with more than 7.8 million people registered.

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Teamsters President Urged to Cancel Republican Convention Speech

One Teamsters official warned the union leader’s scheduled appearance “only normalizes and makes the most anti-union party and president I’ve seen in my lifetime seem palatable.”

By Jake Johnson. Published 7-12-2024 by Common Dreams

Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien testified at a hearing held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) in 2023. Photo: Teamsters

Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien is facing mounting internal pressure to cancel his planned speech to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next week, with the union’s vice president at large accusing the labor leader of kowtowing to a viciously anti-worker party and a GOP presidential hopeful whose first four years in the White House were marked by open attacks on the labor movement.

John Palmer, the Teamsters’ vice president at large, wrote in an op-ed in New Politics earlier this week that O’Brien’s scheduled appearance at Donald Trump’s invitation “only normalizes and makes the most anti-union party and president I’ve seen in my lifetime seem palatable.”

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Led by Left Coalition, French Election Shows ‘How You Defeat the Far Right’

France’s left-of-center parties held off a far-right advance in the country’s parliamentary elections by building a progressive platform and forming strategic alliances, their supporters say.

By Edward Carver. Published 7-8-2024 by Common Dreams

Supporters of La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) part of The Nouveau Front Populaire coalition, celebrate the election results. Screenshot: CNN

Political figures from across the world congratulated France’s left-of-center coalition following parliamentary elections on Sunday in which it gained the most seats of any group, outperforming the far-right party that many feared would take control of the National Assembly, in what The Washington Post called “one of the greatest political upsets in recent French history.”

In the second and final round of voting, the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) won roughly 180 out of the 577 seats in the assembly, far from a majority but more than President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition, which won about 160, or Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN), which won about 140 or 145.

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