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Tag: ethnicity
Nichols Family Speaks Out As Disturbing Tape Of Police Beating Shocks America

Nichols Family Speaks Out As Disturbing Tape Of Police Beating Shocks America

As the nation continues to reel over the disturbing footage of Tyre Nichols' deadly beating, his parents are now speaking out to share their reaction as well as their take on the course of action being taken to hold the officers involved accountable.

On Saturday, January 28, Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, and his stepfather Rodney Wells appeared on Good Morning America alongside their attorney Ben Crump. During the interview, GMA anchor Janai Norman asked RowVaughn Wells about the part of the footage where her son could be heard calling her name in agony as he was beaten by police officers.

Reacting to that part of the footage, she said, "It was very difficult. As a mother, you want to always be there when your children need you. So when I heard that my son was calling my name and I wasn't there for him, that just hurt my heart."

She also shared her take on the charges brought against the Memphis police officers involved.

"After the charges were explained to me, I'm actually okay with the charges," she said. "The district attorney and the Chief of police has done an excellent job in getting this done quickly and swiftly, and we still have more to do."

At one point during the interview, Nichols' stepfather also weighed in when he was asked about the other first responders and officers who were also on the scene.

"Mr. Well, what do you think of the other first responders who were there, the sheriff's deputies who have since been relieved of duty?" Norman asked. "Do you think that there are others who should also be charged?"

"When asked whether or not some of them should face charges," Rodney Wells said, "Most definitely. It looks as though it may be maybe five, six other police officers that should be charged in this case."

So far, there are five Black police officers facing charges in connection with Nichols' deadly beating. However, Rodney Wells has also raised about the white officer who was also involved as he wondered why he hasn't been charged.

"There was also at the initial encounter with my son, there was a white officer that was tasing my son," he said. "And we don't understand how come his name was not put out there or mentioned in this whole fiasco. So, yes, I think that there should be quite a few additional charges."

Crump also shed light on the dominant issue that continues to plague communities across the country.

"It's institutionalized police culture that continues to have implicit bias whether the office is black, Hispanic, or white, where the excessive force continues to be exerted against black people and brown people," Crump explained. "We don't see our white brothers and sisters who are unarmed, brutalized like this by police, and we have to finally get police reforms. Rovan continues to pray like so many."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Fox News Mainstreams White Nationalist Conspiracy Theory

Fox News Mainstreams White Nationalist Conspiracy Theory

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

Adding to its pattern of mainstreaming toxic extremism, Fox News regularly echoes and sanitizes the dangerous white supremacist conspiracy theory that non-white immigrants represent the threat of “replacement” to white populations. This racist talking point has already inspired massacres and hate crimes around the world.

On March 15, an avowed white supremacist shot and killed at least 50 Muslims and injured many others at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Prior to the massacre, the shooter allegedly wrote and promoted online a manifesto titled “The Great Replacement,” seemingly a reference to a popular white supremacist conspiracy theory fearmongering about white populations being replaced in majority-white countries due to demographic changes. The same sentiment was echoed during a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA, in which white supremacists holding torches chanted, “You will not replace us.”

Proponents of the conspiracy theory often scapegoat immigration as the central cause by which white people are being “replaced,” and they blame politicians and elites, saying they are intent on changing the demographics of predominantly white nations to dilute the political power of white populations. A mass shooting believed to be deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history — in which a gunman opened fire in October 2018 inside of a Pittsburgh, PA, synagogue, murdering 11 people — was also motivated by the replacement conspiracy theory, with the alleged shooter accusing Jewish people of bringing in “invaders” to “kill our people.”

While the replacement conspiracy theory has long been a mainstay in white supremacist circles, Fox News has been mainstreaming the concept by consistently fearmongering about the threat of replacement via changing demographics in the United States.

Angry Kellyanne Conway Demands To Know Reporter’s ‘Ethnicity‘

Angry Kellyanne Conway Demands To Know Reporter’s ‘Ethnicity‘

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

As President Donald Trump is still being hammered under the firestorm he started with his racist attacks on Democratic lawmakers, Kellyanne Conway dug the White House in even deeper on Tuesday in a combative exchange with a reporter.

Speaking in the White House driveway, reporter Andrew Feinberg of Breakfast Media asked Conway what the president was referring to when he said that progressive lawmakers — three out of four of whom were born in the United States — should “go back” to their countries.

In response, Conway demanded to know the reporter’s ethnicity.

“What’s your ethnicity?” she said.

“Why is that relevant?” Feinberg responded, taken aback.

“No, no — because I’m asking a question,” she said, doubling down on her shocking question. “My ancestors are from Ireland and Italy.”

“My own ethnicity is not relevant to the question I’m asking,” said Feinberg.

“No, it is,” Conway said, digging her heels in on her outrageous demand. “Because you’re asking about — he said ‘originally.’ He said ‘originally from.’”

She seemed to be implying that it was reasonable for the president to tell Democratic congresswoman — all of whom are people of color — to go back to the countries of their ancestors. Conway’s claim, though, that this is somehow implied in the phrase “originally from” is just wrong. She is not “originally from” Ireland or Italy if she wasn’t born there and never lived there. And even if she had been born elsewhere, it would still be wildly inappropriate to tell her that as an American citizen that she should now go back. And of course, the fact that the president made his claims originally about women of color, implying they don’t really belong in the United States, is a demonstration of outright racist bigotry.

Conway’s demand to know a reporter’s ethnicity just because he is asking a question about the president’s remarks is likewise wildly inappropriate. If her point was to demonstrate that most or many Americans can trace their heritage to another country as a defense of Trump’s wildly racist attack, she’s layering an offensive demand on top of a desperate defense of the president’s bigotry.

Feinberg also noted:

After Feinberg repeatedly made clear that her question was inappropriate, Conway seemed to realize that she may have crossed a line and overcompensated by lashing out.

“A lot of us are sick and tired in this country of America coming last to people who swore an oath of office!” she said. “Sick and tired of our military being denigrated. Sick and tired of the Customs and Border Protection people I was with — who were overwhelmingly Hispanic, by the way, in McAllen, Texas — sick and tired of them — no, you don’t understand, ’cause you didn’t go! — being criticized. Being doxxed! By a bunch of Hollywood D-listers who have nothing else to do but sit on their asses on Twitter all day and try to dox brave men and women who are diving into the Rio Grande to save people who are drowning. Who are taking other people’s babies into custody! And diapering them and feeding them.”

At that, Conway had clearly lost all perspective, demanding that CBP be thanked for taking away babies from parents and separating families.

Watch the clip below: