A Dickinson College junior explains why the Holocaust was “a good thing.” Source: Screenshot.
(JNS) A student from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., is facing an investigation by the school over anti-Semitic comments after he was filmed listing reasons why the Holocaust proved beneficial.
With an unseen cameraman heard laughing in the background, the student, identified as junior Shane Shuma, said “96 percent of Germans said that it made their lives much more positive … the other 4 percent said it only moderately improved their lives … it protected the German minorities; you know, they were being oppressed by the Jews out in Poland … it redistributed wealth, no more income inequality—a big problem … you can’t have racism when your state only has one race.”
The student ended the video by saying, “I think it did a lot of good things.”
The video was believed to be recorded in late January, although the university said it only learned of its existence in the last week. The administration confirmed to JNS that the student does attend Dickinson, a small liberal-arts college home to some 2,350 full-time students from some 40 states and nearly as many countries. According to one report, the cameraman is a high school student.
“This video is not only harmful to our campus community but is an anti-Semitic act. Any act of bias undermines our Dickinson values. As soon as we learned about this video, we took immediate action,” the statement signed by president Margee M. Ensign and other officials. “The college will be thoroughly investigating this matter and taking appropriate action in accordance with our policies and procedures.”
The statement, which was also sent to students, did not name the junior, nor was any information about the video shared. That led a small group of Jewish students to contact the organization StopAntisemitism.org to see if it could provide more information.
Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism.org, found a copy of the video and has since shared it on social media.
“We want people to see this, and be outraged and shocked. Something like this shouldn’t be sanitized and white-washed. This hatred that our families experienced 70 years ago is happening again, and we need to speak out,” she said.
Rez urged the school to “act swiftly,” and take decisive action against the student. According to Rez, nearly every day brings news of another anti-Semitic incident on a college campus, and she said the “increase we are seeing is tied to lackadaisical response to these college incidents.”
According to the AMCHA Initiative, which works to record and counter anti-Semitism on college and university campuses, more than 350 incidents of anti-Semitic expression, incidents or BDS activity occurred on U.S. college campuses in 2020. This comes despite the fact that many schools were at least partially closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Along those lines, Hillel at Dickinson College posted on Facebook: “These statements are meant to intimidate, and often cause anxiety and fear. At a time when anti-Semitic incidents in the United States are at their highest point since 1979, and anti-Semitic assaults and murders are at an all-time high, we cannot afford to take any incident of bias lightly. When people make anti-Semitic jokes, they send the message that they take the concerns of the Jewish community lightly and that they consider Jewish voices as unworthy of attention.”
A French Jew takes us on a tour of the ancient tomb of the biblical Queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai. Both Esther and Mordechai are featured prominently in the story of salvation and indomitable faith that is contained in Megillas Esther which is read publicly on the holiday of Purim. Purim falls on the 14th of Adar. The tomb of Esther and Mordechai is located at Hamadan in Iran, within a mausoleum believed to have been built in the 1600s, and is first attested in the 11th century.
Benjamin of Tudela visited the city, in which he reckoned there were 50,000 Jewish inhabitants, and described the tomb as in front of the synagogue. Shahin Shirazi, in his 14th century Ardashir-nāmah, was the first known Persian Jew to write of the dreams of Esther and Mordechai and of a journey they made to Hamadan, stating they died in the synagogue and within an hour of each other. The narrative of Shirazi may derive from earlier Judaeo-Persian sources, now vanished.
According to the National Library of Israel, a French explorer at the outset of the 20th century discovered jewels in a niche located in the mausoleum’s ceiling, and deposited them in the Louvre. A crown among the cache, it adds, are believed by the Hamadan Jewish community to have belonged to Esther.
In 1850 J. J. Benjamin visited the place, writing that some 500 Jewish families lived there, with three synagogues. The tombs he described as situated in a magnificent building just inside the city walls, which the local Jews visited monthly, and where on Purim the Book of Esther was read and the tombs were stuck with the faithful’s palms.
Ten years later, Yehiel Fischel Castelman also praised the tombs’ magnificence, quoting the locals’ tradition that it was built by one Cyrus, Esther’s son; a date was inscribed on the dome, but he was unable to read it.
Jakob Eduard Polak, in the same decade, described the shrine as the only place to which Persian Jews made pilgrimages and wrote of it as the center of the Jewish quarter and their sole national holy place in Persia. He recorded inscriptions on the oaken coffins inside: the final sections of the Book of Esther, together with names of three donors who had contributed to refurbishment, and a date of 1309/10 CE. In a separate room, the date 1140 CE was inscribed. The Irani government maintains that the current structure dates back to the Ilkhanate, and a Hebrew inscription dating the construction of the structure to “1-4-5-7” (albeit written incorrectly) was recorded by a traveler in 1910.
Arutz Sheva Staff- NBC on Wednesday pulled an episode of the show Nurses from its digital platforms amid criticism over a scene that has been widely condemned as anti-Semitic for the way it portrayed a Hasidic patient who refused a bone graft from non-Jews, an Arab or a woman, Fox News reports.
The scene in question appeared on a February 9 episode of Nurses and featured a Hasidic Jewish patient who needed a bone graft from a deceased donor in order to treat a serious leg injury. The patient’s father then chimes in, “A goyim leg. From anyone. An Arab, a woman?”
The scene was criticized by Jewish groups which called on NBC to take action.
“The portrayal of a Hasidic Jew making hateful remarks about ‘an Arab, a woman’ is gratuitous and inflammatory, and only validates longstanding antisemitic stereotypes. Additionally, the episode’s entire premise is wrong,” Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jason Greenblatt told Fox News on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, myths about Jewish religious beliefs and practices are far too commonplace, and this episode only serves to amplify such longstanding misperceptions about Jews. We have reached out to NBC executives and have requested that they pull the episode and review their standards for approving dramatic content so that this doesn’t happen in the future,” his statement read.
Greenblatt added that in Jewish law, “anything that is potentially lifesaving or health-preserving is not only permitted but indeed mandated.”
B’nai Brith Canada also called on the producers of Nurses to apologize and take action for the inaccurate and offensive stereotypes against Hasidic Jews. Nurses airs on NBC but is produced by Toronto’s ICF Films, Entertainment One and Corus Entertainment.
B’nai Brith Canada noted in a statement that in actuality, when a Jew receives a graft or organ donation from the dead, under Jewish law, the fact that the donor may be a non-Jew, a woman, an Arab or even a fellow Jew is irrelevant.
B’nai Brith’s view, it said, is that this inaccurate plot line perpetuates false and dangerous anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews – Hasidic and Orthodox Jews in particular – hating women, Arabs or non-Jews in general.
The organization has written to three companies responsible for producing the show, demanding an apology, a factual correction and the removal of the impugned episode until changes can be made.
“The disturbing stereotypes present in this episode of Nurses are deeply damaging to Jews, especially Orthodox practitioners,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “We call on the producers to act responsibly and take accountability for this outrage.
“All of this could have been avoided if producers had thought to consult members of the Orthodox Jewish community before depicting them in this false and slanderous light,” he added.
The controversy over the scene from Nurses comes as NBC is already under fire for a Saturday Night Live skit which wrongly suggested Israel is vaccinating only its Jewish citizens against COVID-19.
Approximately 70% of Israeli Arabs over 60 have already received the COVID-19 vaccine. Moreover, Israel transferred doses of the vaccine to the Palestinian Authority and even approved vaccine transfers to Gaza.
As former Ambassador Alan Baker pointed out in a recent interview with Arutz Sheva, Israel is in no way obligated to deliver vaccines to Palestinian Arabs or to residents of Gaza
By Rabbi Ari Enkin, Rabbinic Director, United with Israel
This year we find ourselves observing Purim on a Friday, and as such, there is much discussion as to when one should hold the seuda, the Purim Feast – one of the fundamental mitzvot (commandments) of the day.
As a general rule, one is not permitted to eat a large meal on Friday. This is in order to ensure that one has a hearty appetite for the Shabbat evening meal. In fact, there have been individuals in the past who would fast every Friday in order to build up a better appetite for the Shabbat dinner. For this reason, one should generally only eat light meals or snacks throughout the day on Friday.
Eating a meal of any size in the late afternoon is especially problematic. In fact, one should never eat a larger-than-usual meal on a Friday, not even early in the morning.
So, with this background, we need to discuss when to hold the Purim meal, since it is a large one and the holiday falls this year on Friday. What should we do?
On the specific issue regarding the timing of the Purim meal, the Code of Jewish Law is mysteriously silent. The Ashkenazi authorities, however, rule that when Purim falls on a Friday, the seuda is to be held in the morning, in order not to get too full before Shabbat. Most contemporary authorities concur with this view.
As such, it seems that one should hold the Friday Purim meal early in the day, preferably before noon. However, once one has begun the meal in the permissible “time zone,” he or she is permitted to extend the meal into the afternoon without worry. Indeed, those who conduct themselves in this manner are completely entitled to do so, even though they will likely have no appetite for the Shabbat meal.
Nevertheless, those who find themselves at a seuda on a Friday for a different reason, such as celebrating a brit (circumcision), should make an effort not to overeat in order to ensure an appetite for the Shabbat meal. One who, for whatever reason, is unable to begin the Purim meal early in the day should endeavor to eat less at the meal, especially with regard to the amount of bread, in order to leave room for the Shabbat meal.
There is, however, an alternative approach with regard to the timing of the Purim seuda, and this is to combine the Purim and Shabbat evening meals into one. According to this approach, one begins the Purim meal late Friday afternoon, after completing all of the Shabbat preparations. Then, shortly before sunset, one covers all the bread that is on the table, and the Kiddush is recited, thereby inaugurating Shabbat. After reciting Kiddush, one simply continues with the meal that has now become the Shabbat evening meal. The blessing upon wine is not recited during kiddush if it was already recited during the earlier part of the meal (what’s a Purim meal without wine?). So, too, the blessing upon bread is not recited again.
Nevertheless, a number of authorities oppose combining the Purim and Shabbat meals into one based on the halachic (Jewish legal) prohibition of “not bundling mitzvot together.” The is because doing so gives the problematic appearance that one is discharging both the Shabbat meal and the Purim meal with a single meal (i.e. bundling mitzvot together). There are additional logistical and halachic complications to doing so, such as when one should recite the Shabbat evening service.
Therefore, with regards to the Purim meal this year, here is what you should do (in order of preference): eat the meal in the morning (morning is defined as before midday), eat the meal after midday but as soon as possible, eat the meal before the 10th hour of the day, and, finally, combine the Purim and Shabbat meals into one (not recommended).
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) condemned the newly reopened camps used to detain unaccompanied minors until they can be transferred into the country. White House press secretary Jen Psaki stands firm with the Biden administration’s decision.
“This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay – no matter the administration or party,” the New York Congresswoman wrote on Wednesday:
Psaki responded by defending the decision by President Joe Biden’s administration to reopen detainment camps for unaccompanied minors detained at the Southern border.
“Our objective is to move these kids quickly from there to vetted, sponsored families, and to places where they can safely be,” she said.
Biden promised during his 2020 campaign that he would close the facilities holding detained unaccompanied migrant children.
Psaki reassured critics that the newly reopened facility run by Heath and Human Services in Texas had been remodeled since it was open during former President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump was accused of holding “kids in cages” in these facilities.
“This facility in Texas, which has been reopened, has been revamped, there are teachers, there’s medical facilities,” she said, repeatedly assuring critics that they were not separating children from their families at the border.
Customs and Border Protection apprehended 5,871 unaccompanied minors in January, up significantly from a low of only 741 in April 2020 during the Trump administration.
Psaki said that the Biden administration had chosen the “middle option” of the different extremes. One extreme, she said, was to send the minors back to their home countries or require them to wait in Mexico while their asylum claims were processed as former President Donald Trump’s administration did. She also said there were problems with sending unaccompanied minors immediately to unvetted sponsors.
Psaki admitted that some minors were held in Customs and Border Protection facilities longer than three days, prior to getting transferred to the facilities run by Health and Human Services but assured critics that the administration would work quickly to get them released.
“I think the difficulty is what I outlined earlier, we have kids coming across the border,” she said. “It is heartbreaking. I think we all as human beings are heartbroken … we only have a couple of choices.”
US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Wednesday blasted Israel for providing some of its excess COVID-19 vaccine to other countries while failing to vaccinate Palestinian Arabs.
Sanders retweeted a link to a New York Times article on the Israeli donation to other countries and wrote, “As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for the health of all the people under its control. It is outrageous that Netanyahu would use spare vaccines to reward his foreign allies while so many Palestinians in the occupied territories are still waiting.”
On Tuesday, Kan News reported that Israel would ship roughly 100,000 Moderna vaccines to 15 allies, as well as a number of countries in Africa that have strong or budding ties with Israel.
The countries that will receive the vaccines, according to reports, include Honduras, Guatemala and the Czech Republic.
Sanders becomes the latest US lawmaker to criticize Israel for failing to provide Palestinian Arabs with COVID-19 vaccines, even though Israel is not obligated to do so under the Oslo Accords.
Several lawmakers from the Democratic party had previously criticized Israel over this, most notably Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Rep. Joaquin Castro and Rep. Jamaal Bowman.
The criticism is unjustified, however, as Israel has already transferred thousands of doses of vaccines to the PA and even transferred vaccines to Gaza, whose Hamas rulers continue to hold the bodies of Israeli soldiers.
Sanders, who is Jewish and spent time in a Kibbutz when he was younger, has repeatedly criticized the Israeli government and has asserted that it is racist.
Last year, he added his name to a letter by Democrats against Israel’s plans to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Previously, he claimed that AIPAC provides a platform for “leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights” in justifying his decision not to address the conference.
In 2019, Sanders caused an uproar when he told the J Street conference that the US should redirect its aid to Israel and give it to Gaza instead.
Despite all these, he has refuted claims that he is anti-Israel and insisted that he is simply advocating for a foreign policy “that not only protects Israel, but deals with the suffering of the Palestinian people as well.”
Journalist Morgan Pehme alleged Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D-NY) office “terrorized” him for investigating his administration, according to an op-ed published Monday.
Pehme — a documentary producer known for co-directing Netflix’s Get Me Roger Stone — said he received a threatening call from Cuomo deputy Melissa DeRosa at 4:30 AM:
While the April 2014 call I received from DeRosa didn’t come directly from the governor, I knew it bore the full weight of his power. City & State, the New York politics magazine I edited at the time, was about to publish a story exposing Cuomo’s machinations to distort the final report issued by the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption.
Pehme said he received a “barrage of calls” as Cuomo’s media handlers” who vigorously “pushed me to spike the article, alternately approaching me with carrot (a hot exclusive to be named later) and stick.”
“Seven years later, I don’t recall precisely everything DeRosa hurled at me, though I’m positive she vowed to ‘destroy’ my career and take revenge on my publication. I remember vividly how I felt: scared,” Pehme said, adding that he had “no reason to think these were idle threats” as he was aware of Cuomo’s infamous “volcanic temper and track record of vindictiveness.”
He described the situation as a “gut check,” as he feared he could lose everything — but pressed on and published the piece. He said that is not always the case with other journalists and media outlets that see “editors kill legitimate stories because of his threats.”
“Reporters shy away from promising tips; sources stay silent,” he said, contending that members of the media are aware of Cuomo’s bullying tactics but shy away from exposing hit for a number of reasons — from fear to dismissal.
“Until last week, most New Yorkers didn’t know about Cuomo’s despicable ways. But they should have,” he concluded, calling on journalists to expose Cuomo and tell their stories.
The Cuomo administration has come under fire in recent weeks for allegedly covering up the number of coronavirus-related deaths in New York nursing homes out of fears of a federal investigation.
DeRosa reportedly made the admission during a call with Democrat legislators, apologizing for putting them in an unfair position. In the days following, New York Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Queens Democrat who has been critical of the governor, said Cuomo directly threatened to “destroy” him if he did not defend the administration amid the nursing home fallout.
“We need to check this governor. … And I think the only option that we have as the Assembly body is the exercise of impeachment,” he said during an appearance on The Hill’s Rising.
“And by the way, we have a duty, a constitutional duty, when there’s willful, corrupt conduct to — we are obligated to pursue impeachment. And that he clearly has done,” Kim said, urging officials to move forward “as soon as possible.”
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony honoring former Senator Bob Dole at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 17, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)
Former Vice President Mike Pence praised former President Donald Trump during a meeting with congressional Republicans this week, according to one of the lawmakers present.
“He spoke very favorably about his relationship with President Trump,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) told CNN. “I got the sense they speak often and maintain the same personal friendship and relationship now that they have for four years.”
Banks said a group from his Republican Study Committee convened with Pence in the Washington region at the fellow Indianan’s transition office.
They discussed the way forward for the GOP while also speaking about what the party accomplished in the past.
Banks, whose office didn’t respond to a request for more information, believes Pence will have a more public presence in the coming months, after speaking little since he and Trump left office last month.
“He’ll be launching an organization defending the successful Trump-Pence record of the last four years,” Banks said.
The former vice president has spoken to Trump in recent weeks, a former aide said last week.
“The president thanked the vice president for his service, told him he did a great job, and they’ve even had conservations since then, including even this week,” Marc Short, the former aide, said during an appearance on Fox News.
Trump and Pence accomplished a lot together, “and they should be proud about that,” Short added.
Pence is not planning to appear at the popular Conservative Political Action Conference this week, a departure from previous years. The director of the conference called it “a mistake.”
One report alleged Trump wouldn’t speak to the event if Pence didn’t attend, but a spokesman for the former president said the report was “patently false,” noting it relied on anonymous sources.
“No such demand or request was ever made by President Trump, and in fact, President Trump and Vice President Pence had a great call last week!” he wrote in a tweet.
Questions about the relationship between the former running mates arose last month, when they diverged on how to handle counting electoral votes during a joint session of Congress.
Trump, who continues to insist he won the 2020 election, wanted Pence to intervene during the session when votes from some states were brought up, because of laws declared unconstitutional by courts, or measures alleged to be unconstitutional, or allegations of voter or election fraud.
Pence declined, saying he thought the Constitution constrained him from intervening as such in his role as president of the Senate.
A group of House Republicans are calling on FBI Director Christopher Wray to provide a briefing on any past ties that Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., had with an alleged Chinese spy, Fox News reports.
Axios reported last December that an alleged Chinese spy named either Fang Fang or Christine Fang targeted Swalwell and other up-and-coming politicians in California and helped to fundraise for the congressman’s 2014 reelection campaign, though she did not actually make a donation.
“As our nation faces a growing security threat from the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) attempts to infiltrate and undermine the United States Government, we write to request a full briefing regarding counterintelligence threats to Members of Congress, including information related to Rep. Eric Swalwell’s ties to a suspected Chinese intelligence operative,” wrote the 14 GOP members of the House, which include Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C. and Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member John Katko, R-N.Y.
They note that Swalwell sits on the House Homeland Security Committee and receives classified information, including Top Secret information, “which by its very nature ‘could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security’ if subject to unauthorized disclosure.”
The group also point out that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., both received a classified briefing in December that raises questions “including how Rep. Swalwell could be re-appointed to the Committee on Homeland Security one month after this briefing.”
Swalwell told Politico in December that “What it appears though that this person — as the story reports — was unsuccessful in whatever they were trying to do. But if intelligence officials are trying to weaponize someone’s cooperation, they are essentially seeking to do what this person was not able to do, which is to try and discredit someone.”
(A.P) The foundation widely seen as a steward of the Black Lives Matter movement says it took in just over $90 million last year, according to a financial snapshot shared exclusively with The Associated Press.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is now building infrastructure to catch up to the speed of its funding and plans to use its endowment to become known for more than protests after Black Americans die at the hands of police or vigilantes.
“We want to uplift Black joy and liberation, not just Black death. We want to see Black communities thriving, not just surviving,” reads an impact report the foundation shared with the AP before releasing it
This marks the first time in the movement’s nearly eight-year history that BLM leaders have revealed a detailed look at their finances. The foundation’s coffers and influence grew immensely following the May 2020 death of George Floyd.
That growth also caused longstanding tensions to boil over between some of the movement’s grassroots organizers and national leaders — the former went public last fall with grievances about financial transparency, decision-making, and accountability.
The foundation said it committed $21.7 million in grant funding to official and unofficial BLM chapters, as well as 30 Black-led local organizations. It ended 2020 with a balance of more than $60 million, after spending nearly a quarter of its assets on the grant funds and other charitable giving.
In its report, the BLM foundation said individual donations via its main fundraising platform averaged $30.76. More than 10% of the donations were recurring. The report does not state who gave the money in 2020, and leaders declined to name prominent donors.
Last year, the foundation’s expenses were approximately $8.4 million — that includes staffing, operating and administrative costs, along with activities such as civic engagement, rapid response and crisis intervention.
One of its focuses for 2021 will be economic justice, particularly as it relates to the ongoing socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on Black communities.
The racial justice movement had a broad impact on philanthropic giving last year. According to an upcoming report by Candid and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, 35% of the $20.2 billion in U.S. funding dollars from corporations, foundations, public charities and high-net-worth individuals to address COVID-19 was explicitly designated for communities of color.
After the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida, BLM’s founders pledged to build a decentralized movement governed by the consensus of a members’ collective. In 2015, a network of chapters was formed, as support and donations poured in. But critics say the BLM Global Network Foundation has increasingly moved away from being a Black radical organizing hub and become a mainstream philanthropic and political organization run without democratic input from its earliest grassroots supporters.
BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors told the AP that the foundation is focused on a “need to reinvest into Black communities.”
Editors note: Cullors is an admitted Marxist.
“One of our biggest goals this year is taking the dollars we were able to raise in 2020 and building out the institution we’ve been trying to build for the last seven and a half years,” she said in an interview.
Cullors, who was already active in her native Los Angeles, where she created her own social justice organization, Power and Dignity Now, became the global foundation’s full-time executive director last year.
Fellow co-founders Alicia Garza, who is the principal at Black Futures Lab, and Opal Tometi, who created a Black new media and advocacy hub called Diaspora Rising, are not involved with the foundation. Garza and Tometi do continue to make appearances as movement co-founders.
In 2020, the foundation spun off its network of chapters as a sister collective called BLM Grassroots. The chapters, along with other Black-led local organizations, became eligible in July for financial resources through a $12 million grant fund. Although there are many groups that use “Black Lives Matter” or “BLM” in their names, less than a dozen are currently considered affiliates of the chapter network.
According to foundation records shared with the AP, several chapters, including in the cities of Washington, Philadelphia and Chicago, were notified last year of their eligibility to receive $500,000 each in funding under a multiyear agreement. Only one BLM group in Denver has signed the agreement and received its funds in September.
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CHAPTERS CALL FOR MORE TRANSPARENCY
A group of 10 chapters, called the #BLM10, rejected the foundation’s funding offer last year and complained publicly about the lack of donor transparency. Foundation leaders say only a few of the 10 chapters are recognized as network affiliates.
In a letter released Nov. 30, the #BLM10 claimed most chapters have received little to no financial resources from the BLM movement since its launch in 2013. That has had adverse consequences for the scope of their organizing work, local chapter leaders told the AP.
The chapters are simply asking for an equal say in “this thing that our names are attached to, that they are doing in our names,” said April Goggans, organizer of Black Lives Matter DC, which is part of the #BLM10 along with groups in Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, San Diego, Hudson Valley, New York, and elsewhere.
“We are BLM. We built this, each one of us,” she said.
Records show some chapters have received multiple rounds of funding in amounts ranging between $800 and $69,000, going back as far as 2016. The #BLM10 said the amounts given have been far from equitable when compared to how much BLM has raised over the years. But Cullors disagreed.
“Because the BLM movement was larger than life — and it is larger than life — people made very huge assumptions about what our actual finances looked like,” Cullors said. “We were often scraping for money, and this year was the first year where we were resourced in the way we deserved to be.”
Still, the #BLM10 members said reality didn’t match the picture movement founders were projecting around the world. In its early years, BLM disclosed receiving donations from A-list celebrities such as Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Prince, prior to his death in 2016.
Leaders at the BLM foundation admit that they have not been clear about the movement’s finances and governance over the years. But now the foundation is more open about such matters. It says the fiscal sponsor currently managing its money requires spending be approved by a collective action fund, which is a board made up of representatives from official BLM chapters.
After Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis, the surge of donations saw the foundation go from a small, scrappy movement to a maturing institution( Editors Note: highly editorialized phrasing, be aware). Last summer, leaders sought nonprofit status with the IRS, which was granted in December, allowing the organization to receive tax-deductible donations directly. In the near future, that also will require the foundation to file public 990 forms, revealing details of its organizational structure, employee compensation, programming, and expenses.
Brad Smith, president of Candid, an organization that provides information about philanthropic groups, said there are other ways for nonprofits to be transparent with the public besides federal disclosure forms. He said a philanthropic organization’s website is its best tool to show how willing it is to be held accountable.
“In exchange for getting tax-exempt status, you as an organization committed to providing a greater level of transparency to confirm you are fulfilling your mission,” he said.
It’s because of Cullors, Garza and Tometi’s vision, along with the work of so many Black organizers in the ecosystem, that the BLM movement finds itself at a new phase of its development, said Melina Abdullah, co-founder of BLM’s first ever chapter in Los Angeles.
“We’re turning a corner, recognizing that we have to build institutions that endure beyond us,” Abdullah told the AP.
A former aide accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) of unwanted sexual advances in a blog post published Wednesday.
Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to Cuomo, said Cuomo repeatedly touched her body, attempted to kiss her on the mouth, invited her to play “strip poker,” and overtly objectified her, documenting her experiences with screenshots of emails and texts in a Medium(LINK) post.
Boylan alleges that Cuomo’s top female staff members “normalized” the governor’s conduct. In 2018, she says, she began to “speak up” after Cuomo allegedly kissed her without consent, but her superiors “reprimanded” her:
After that, my fears worsened. I came to work nauseous every day. My relationship with his senior team — mostly women — grew hostile after I started speaking up for myself. I was reprimanded and told to get in line by his top aides, but I could no longer ignore it.
On September 26, 2018, I sent a mass email informing staff members of my resignation.
The allegations come as Cuomo’s administration is under investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn following reports that the governor’s top deputy told Democrat lawmakers that officials withheld the nursing home data, admitting that they “froze” due to fears that the figures could “be used against us” in a federal probe.
The New York Post first revealed the damning admission.
In response to the scandal, New York state lawmakers are calling for Cuomo’s emergency powers, granted for coronavirus pandemic, to be stripped from him.
There have been more than 13,000 confirmed and presumed-positive coronavirus deaths of nursing home residents since March 1, 2020, with about 4,091 of those deaths occurring after the resident was transported out of a nursing home, according to an update posted Monday on the health department’s website. There were also about 1,743 such deaths among residents of other adult-care facilities since March, the new data showed, with about 1,493 of those deaths occurring after the resident was transported elsewhere.
The UPI contributed to this report/ Breitbart News
(TJVNEWS) Metal fatigue in the jet engine fan blades played an essential role in the Boeing 777-200’s engine explosion over Denver Saturday, according to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Robert Sumwalt. Now the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is ordering immediate inspections of Boeing 777 planes with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines before further flights, according to Reuters.
A preliminary examination of the engine blade fragments suggests a crack expanded over time prompted the failure
FAA records show the Boeing 777-200 was more than two decades old. Sumwalt said investigators would try to determine how long the blades had suffered fatigue.
In a virtual news conference on Monday night, Sumwalt told reporters that United Flight 328 experienced engine issues that resulted in pieces of the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine raining down on Denver suburbs.
Sumwalt said passengers heard a loud bang, and the 777 started vibrating after takeoff from Denver International Airport. The incident occurred minutes into the flight at an altitude of about 12,000 feet.
Just when it seemed like the COVID pandemic may be subsiding, a new COVID strain has emerged in California that has the potential to change everything. According to tests conducted by Dr. Charles Chiu and his team, this new strain appears to result in more severe illness, and it also appears to result in more people dying from the virus. Even more troubling, Chiu’s team discovered that there is “a two- to four-fold reduction in the ability of antibodies to fend off the variant virus”. In other words, those that have already been vaccinated may or may not have protection against this new variant. When Californians start to figure out that the vaccines that they have been taking may not even be effective against the strain that is rapidly becoming dominant in their state, a lot of them won’t be happy.
Of course it is just a matter of time before this new strain travels to all of the other 49 states as well.
So what will happen if authorities are able to achieve their goal of vaccinating more than 100 million Americans but this new COVID strain continues to spread like wildfire?
Instead of this pandemic “coming to an end”, we could possibly be facing a frightening new chapter. According to two new studies that were just released, the California variant “causes severe disease and spreads quickly”…
Two studies released Monday reveal some alarming findings about a California variant of COVID-19. The strain is showing up in half of the samples in 44 California counties and there are signs that it causes severe disease and spreads quickly.
Dr. Charles Chiu and his team have been studying this new strain relentlessly, and he is referring to it as “the devil”…
In a study that helps explain the state’s dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths — and portends further trouble ahead — scientists at UC San Francisco said the cluster of mutations that characterizes the homegrown strain should mark it as a “variant of concern” on par with those from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.
“The devil is already here,” said Dr. Charles Chiu, who led the UCSF team of geneticists, epidemiologists, statisticians and other scientists in a wide-ranging analysis of the new variant, which they call B.1.427/B.1.429. “I wish it were different. But the science is the science.”
We are constantly being told to “follow the science”, and the science is telling us that this new variant will soon account for approximately 90 percent of all new infections in the state.
That is not good news at all.
Dr. Chiu’s team was particularly interested in determining whether existing vaccines would work against this particular variant, and what they discovered was quite alarming…
To test whether antibodies could fend off this new strain, Chiu’s team tested the cultured virus in the lab against antibodies from people who were either vaccinated or had already been infected with the virus, although not this strain. They found a two- to four-fold reduction in the ability of antibodies to fend off the variant virus. This means that vaccines might have to be re-tooled to stay effective.
In other words, scientists may have to go back to square one and develop an entirely new vaccine.
But the new strains that have emerged in South Africa and Brazil have also exhibited serious resistance to the existing vaccines as well.
So which strain should vaccine makers target?
The South African strain and the Brazilian strain have both reached the United States, and it appears that they will be spreading rapidly too.
Needless to say, having so many dangerous mutations running around could be a real nightmare for health authorities.
To learn whether the variant caused more severe disease, Chiu’s team studied the medical records of patients admitted for care at UCSF. After controlling for age, gender and ethnicity, it found that people infected with the variant had significantly higher odds of being admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and dying.
That doesn’t sound good at all.
So if this becomes the dominant strain all over the U.S., our hospitals could potentially be more overwhelmed than ever.
When they examined the virus, Dr. Chiu and his team identified three critical mutations, and one of them has never been seen anywhere else…
B.1.427/B.1.429’s genome includes three mutations that affect the crucial spike protein, which the virus uses to sneak into human cells and convert them into factories for its own production. One of those three mutations, dubbed L452R, affects the so-called receptor binding domain, helping the virus attach more firmly to target cells.
That adaptation has not been seen in coronavirus variants that have caused worry elsewhere.
Needless to say, this is not the end of the story.
If there is one thing that scientists agree upon, it is that COVID will continue to mutate.
In fact, one expert in California is warning that more COVID mutations will continue to emerge “forever”…
According to UCSF Epidemiologist Dr. George Rutherford, the California variant is one of four major ones circulating in the state.
“We’re going to keep seeing variants forever from this virus. Viruses mutate, they mutate all the time,” Dr. Rutherford said.
So if you were looking forward to the day when COVID would be completely wiped out, you can stop waiting.
Meanwhile, we just learned that the spread of a “flesh eating disease” is causing grave concern in Australia…
New cases of the Buruli ulcer were detected in Australia in the Essendon, Moonee Ponds, and Brunswick areas of Melbourne. The infection is usually detected in coastal areas but it is feared it is now spreading to non-coastal parts of the country. The horrific skin infection can result in lesions and sufferers may have to resort to extensive surgery if the disease is left untreated.
Researchers are still trying to discover how the Buruli ulcer spreads to humans.
I believe that we have entered a time when global outbreaks of disease will become increasingly common, and this is going to have very serious implications for all of us moving forward.
Unfortunately, most people still do not understand what is really going on, and many of them are simply not willing to accept that our lives will never “return to normal” ever again.
An Israel Air Force Boeing KC-46 tanker refuels an F-15 fighter jet in mid-air over the desert on February 22, 2021. Israel has made its first move under the recently approved procurement program over the weekend, signing an agreement for two Boeing KC-46 aerial refueling tankers. Photo Credit: GPO/Boeing
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Israel has made its first move under the recently approved procurement program over the weekend, signing an agreement for two Boeing KC-46 aerial refueling tankers.
Mishel Ben Baruch, head of the Israel Ministry of Defense Mission to the U.S., Brig. Gen. (Res.), signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) for two KC-46 Tanker Jets, to be manufactured by the Boeing Corporation. In the next phase, two additional tanker aircraft will be acquired out of a total of up to eight that will make up the future fleet.
As part of the agreement, the aircraft will be fitted with unique Israeli systems in accordance with the operational requirements of the Israeli Air Force (IAF). The first aircraft delivery is expected by the middle of this decade.
According to a report on thedrive.com web site, “the Israeli government has also given the green light to purchases of “advanced munitions” and a new heavy-lift helicopter, either a variant of the H-47 Chinook or CH-53K King Stallion.
The Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion is a heavy-lift cargo helicopter currently being produced by Sikorsky Aircraft for the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The design features three 7,500 shp (5,590 kW) engines, new composite rotor blades, and a wider aircraft cabin than previous CH-53 variants. It will be the largest and heaviest helicopter in the U.S. military. The USMC plans to receive 200 helicopters at a total cost of $25 billion. Ground Test Vehicle (GTV) testing started in April 2014; flight testing began with the maiden flight on 27 October 2015. In May 2018, the first CH-53K was delivered to the Marine Corps. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
The report on thedrive.com indicated that these purchases for the Israeli Air Force (IAF) will be “conducted via U.S. military channels, with funding provided by the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) initiative. In 2018, the Trump Administration approved a 10-year memorandum of understanding with Israel that covers $3.3 billion in FMF aid. FMF provides allies with block grants of money for military purchases, with the stipulation that a significant percentage is spent with U.S. companies.” The Israeli Ministry of Defense has confirmed that similar procurement processes will be launched to buy the additional F-35Is, new heavy-lift helicopters, and undisclosed armament.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said, “I welcome the progress in the procurement plan, which is critical at this point in time. It is a cornerstone of the IDF’s security concept.” Photo Credit: AP
Defense Minister Benny Gantz said, “I welcome the progress in the procurement plan, which is critical at this point in time. It is a cornerstone of the IDF’s security concept.
“I would like to thank our great friend the United States for supporting the State of Israel on all levels. We will continue to work to complete the agreements that will enable the IDF to fulfill its purpose and to move forward with the missions facing us in the various arenas, near and far, at sea, in the air, on land and in cyberspace.”
As part of the agreement, the tanker aircraft will be fitted with unique Israeli systems in accordance with the operational requirements of the Israeli Air Force (IAF). The first aircraft delivery is expected by the middle of this decade.
The procurement plan, based on U.S. security assistance, is crucial to strengthening the IAF and for the IDF’s QME (Quality Military Edge) in the decades to come, the IDF says.
The plan includes the procurement of a new fleet of F-35 aircraft, KC-46 refueling aircraft, helicopters to replace the “Yasur,” advanced munitions, air defense systems, marine and ground platforms, cyber systems and more.
Four new foreign orders for KC-46 tankers are welcomed news for Boeing and its Puget Sound region suppliers that make parts for the military variant of the 767 wide body jet, which is made in Everett and converted into a special military aircraft at a nearby modification center, according to an article on the bizjournal.com web site.
The report indicated that no delivery date has been specified for Israel’s tankers. The Boeing KC-46 aerial refueling tankers will replace Israel’s aging fleet of converted Boeing 707s, which are almost 60 years old. The exact number of converted 707s the IDF operates remains a state secret, according to the report on the bizjournal.com web site.
The KC-46 can carry some 95,000 kg (210,000 pounds) of fuel and boasts a range of 11,800 km (6,385 nautical miles).
The Israel Aerospace Industries’ Bedek Aviation Group Photo Credit: iai.co.il
Thedrive.com reported that Boeing faced “competition for Israeli orders from the Israel Aerospace Industries’ Bedek Aviation Group which had offered second-hand Boeing 767s converted into tankers. IAI had previously supplied similar 767 tanker conversions to Brazil and Colombia.”
The bizjournal.com report added that the deals are being financed using U.S. military aid — called security assistance inside Israel.
Earlier this month, however, a top U.S. Air Force commander lamented Boeing’s performance with the KC-46 program, according to the bizjournal.com report.
General Jacqueline Van Ovost, the head of Air Mobility Command, described the Pegasus as a “lemon,” according to thedrive.com report. It has ongoing problems that prevent it from performing its primary aerial refueling mission on a day-to-day basis. Full operational capability now won’t happen until late 2023 or 2024 at the earliest, according to officials. Photo Credit: US Air Force
Earlier this month, General Jacqueline Van Ovost, the head of Air Mobility Command, described the Pegasus as a “lemon,” according to thedrive.com report. It has ongoing problems that prevent it from performing its primary aerial refueling mission on a day-to-day basis. Full operational capability now won’t happen until late 2023 or 2024 at the earliest, according to officials.
The bizjournal report said that the KC-46 has been plagued by problems with its remote vision system that allows onboard operators to connect the jet’s fuel lines to incoming receiving aircraft. It is also experiencing electrical wiring woes, gas leaks and problems with its onboard cargo restraint devices. Altogether, special charges and write-downs have totaled more than $5 billion.
Still, Boeing CEO David Calhoun said in October the program is turning the corner.
The IAF could potentially acquire a Pegasus that differs significantly from the U.S. Air Force model and it should be noted that boom-equipped KC-767 tankers have been operating now for many years with both Italy and Japan, according to the report on thedrive.com
The IAF appears to have decided for now to focus on the F-35I — the local name “Adir” means “Mighty One” —rather than supplementing and/or upgrading its existing fleet of F-15s, according to the report on thedrive.com web site.
The drive.com report said that the F-35I models are broadly equivalent to the F-35A, but incorporate an increasing proportion of Israeli-made technology and weapons, with these local changes being trialed using a unique F-35I testbed that arrived in the country last November.
This sale marks the first time that the U.S. had ever allowed Israel to buy air-to-air refueling tankers. In March of 2020, the sale to Israel was approved by the State Department, with the support of the Trump administration. The sale of the four tankers were half the amount that Israel originally requested.
The report on the bizjournal.com web site indicated that the total value of the deal was about $2.2 billion. The purchases were delayed in Israel due to the lack of a national budget and some political infighting.
In December of 2020, Israel Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Eshel said that, “there is no country in the world that flies platforms that are this old.” He suggested that delaying the purchase would undermine Israel’s security, according to the report.
Speaking to reporters, Eshel said “To fly a refueler or a helicopter with more than 50 soldiers inside is not trivial. These are non-trivial risk levels. If God forbid something happens, what would we say to ourselves? Our operational and safety needs are paramount. There is no other way to present it.”
Also purchasing four KC-46 jets was Japan.
The bizjournal.com report also indicated that the IDF is planning to purchase another squadron of Boeing’s F-15 fighter jets. However, this St. Louis-made model is currently being upgraded by Boeing’s defense unit. Israel’s army prefers to wait until the improvements are completed, Haaretz reported.
Israeli airstrikes have hit dozens of Iran-linked targets in Syria in recent years and at least one in Iraq. The U.S. has said it has supported Israeli strikes in Syria.
One of the major reasons Israel has embarked on this military hardware acquisition is to send a strong message of “peace through strength” to Tehran and the powers that be in the rogue regime. Iran has consistently threatened to attack Israel with nuclear weapons and its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza (Hezbollah & Hamas, respectively) have echoed the same bellicose rhetoric over the years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Tuesday that Israel will not permit Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons to fulfill its oft-repeated goal of destroying Israel, according to a World Israel News report.
“On the eve of [the festival of] Purim, I would like to say to those who seek our lives, Iran and its proxies in the Middle East: 2,500 years ago, another Persian villain [Haman] tried to destroy the Jewish people and just as he failed then, so too will you fail today. We will not allow your extremist and aggressive regime to attain nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said during a speech at a memorial service in northern Israel.
“We have not made the journey of generations, of thousands of years, to return to the land of Israel in order to allow the delusional regime of the ayatollahs to end the story of the revival of the Jewish people,” the prime minister said.
“We are not pinning our hopes on any agreement with an extremist regime such as yours. We have already seen the quality of agreements with extremist regimes such as yours, in the past century and in this one, with the government of North Korea,” Netanyahu said.
The WIN report indicated that in the 1990s North Korea agreed to end its nuclear weapons program, but years later withdrew from the international Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and set off its first nuclear blast in 2006. North Korea is known to be giving extensive military support to Iran, including ballistic missile technology that can be used to deliver nuclear weapons.
“With or without agreements – we will do everything so that you will not arm yourselves with nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said at the ceremony marking the 100-year anniversary of the death of Zionist pioneer Joseph Trumpeldor and seven others defending the Jewish farming community of Tel Hai in the Upper Galilee in 1920.
The Purim festival celebrated each year recounts the story of how an evil advisor to the ancient king of Persia persuaded him to order the genocide of the Jewish people, but the king subsequently fell in love with a Jewish woman, Esther, who he took as his queen. Esther turned the tables on Haman, the evil advisor, and saved the Jews from destruction.
Iran’s political and military leaders have for decades said their national goal is to destroy Israel, which it calls a “cancer” that has to be removed from the Middle East.
WIN reported that Israel objected when world powers signed a deal with Iran in 2015 to restrict its nuclear activities, pointing out the numerous shortcomings of the agreement, particularly the fact that it didn’t address Iran’s murderous intentions, included ‘sunset clauses,’ and put limits on how the UN’s international nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, could inspect Iran’s nuclear sites.
Last month, Iran announced it was increasing the rate at which it enriches uranium in a clear violation of the agreement.
WIN reported that U.S. Central Command commander Gen. Frank McKenzie warned Iran against provocations during a visit to Oman on Sunday.
“I would think this would be a good time for everybody to behave soberly and cautiously, and see what happens,” McKenzie said in an interview with AFP.
He urged Iran not to engage in “nefarious activities.”
“I think they would want to be recognized as a responsible member of the family of nations and a stable member in the region,” McKenzie said, according to the WIN report.
It remains to be seen whether McKenzie’s words fall on deaf ears. Early signs aren’t encouraging. A rocket attack on Feb. 14 in northern Iraq targeting U.S. forces killed a military contractor, injured a U.S. soldier and wounded five other contractors.
A newly established group called Saraya Awliya al-Dam took responsibility. It’s not known for certain if this is an Iran-backed group but it claimed it was taking revenge for the death of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Qassem Soleimani, as was reported by WIN.
The Biden administration strongly condemned the attack, but stopped short of military retaliation until now. “The development represents an early test for President Biden in his role as commander in chief,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Separately, the Journal reports that Iran may have been reinvigorated by the Biden administration’s decision to remove the terrorist designation from the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which Iran supports. The Houthis have launched drone strikes on Saudi Arabia since. Also, Iran-backed rebels from Iraq have launched attacks on Saudi’s north.
WIN reported that Voices in the Arab press, compiled by the Gatestone Institute’s Khaled Abu Toameh, say that Iran is testing President Joe Biden, who is seen as a “pushover.”
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, former editor-in-chief of the Saudi newspaper Ashraq Al-Awsa, writes: “It has only been eight weeks since President Joe Biden was sworn into office, but Iran has already tested him on several fronts.”
Saudi columnist, Hella Al-Mashouh showed little optimism when she wrote, “Today, we are facing an imminent Iranian threat and a lenient American administration policy toward this danger. We will face this Iranian threat over the next four years.”
WIN reported that Sayed Zahra, deputy editor of the Gulf newspaper Akhbar Al-Khaleej, writes “The Iranian message to Biden is clear. It wants him to understand that Iran has many terrorist cards and can undermine security and stability in the region and present his administration with major challenges.
“The Iranian regime, in other words, wants to force the Biden administration to yield to its demands regarding sanctions and the nuclear agreement. The Iranian regime bases its calculations on the basis that Biden is weak with regard to the nuclear file.”
Saudi Arabia doesn’t appear to be waiting around to see if Biden passes the test. Reuters reports that the Saudis over the weekend announced they will invest more than $20 billion to establish their own domestic military industry. The move is reportedly to reduce their dependence on the U.S., which recently announced it was freezing certain arms sales to the Kingdom.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has subpoenaed a New York City property tax agency as part of a criminal probe into one of former President Donald Trump’s companies. Photo Credit: AP
By: Tom Ozimek
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has subpoenaed a New York City property tax agency as part of a criminal probe into one of former President Donald Trump’s companies.
New York City Tax Commission was issued the subpoena, the agency’s president Frances Henn confirmed to Reuters on Friday.
The move suggests that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. is examining the values Trump assigned to some commercial properties in tax filings and loan documents and looking for possible evidence of fraud.
Vance’s office and lawyers for the Trump Organization declined requests from Reuters to comment on the tax commission subpoena.
Citing grand jury secrecy rules, Vance’s office hasn’t publicly said what it is investigating, but some details have emerged in court filings that suggest prosecutors are seeking evidence of possible falsification of records as well as insurance and tax fraud.
Vance’s office sent subpoenas to local governments in the New York City suburbs last month, seeking information about a Westchester estate Trump owns there, and 158 acres of land he donated to a conservation land trust in order to qualify for an income tax deduction.
Earlier in the week, Vance’s office added Mark Pomerantz, a prominent former prosecutor, to bolster its team investigating possible fraud claims against Trump’s company, according to Danny Frost, a spokesman for the office, CNN reported.
Separately, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, is conducting a civil probe into whether the Trump Organization improperly manipulated the value of Trump’s assets on annual financial statements in order to secure loans and obtain tax benefits.
The Trump Organization has described the probe as politically-motivated and earlier accused James of “continued harassment.”
“While we have tried to cooperate in good faith with the investigation at every turn, the NYAG’s continued harassment of the company as we approach the election (and filing of this motion on the first day of the Republican National Convention) once again confirms that this investigation is all about politics,” a Trump Organization lawyer told news outlets last year.
James said in August 2020 that she had been probing the allegations since 2019 after Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testified before Congress. The investigation remained confidential for months.
With Trump now out of office, he no longer enjoys its protective cloak of immunity. A criminal conviction would be an unprecedented event in American history, with no ex-president ever even charged with a crime, much less convicted for one.
New York’s East Side Community School sent a letter to white parents last week, encouraging them to become “white traitors” so that whiteness could be abolished, never to reassert itself again. Photo Credit: Wikipedia.com
“They’re using this very deeply divisive, racialized language, not just for race itself, but to pursue this kind of radical Marxist political program,” said Christopher Rufo.
By: Josh Plank
New York’s East Side Community School sent a letter to white parents last week, encouraging them to become “white traitors” so that whiteness could be abolished, never to reassert itself again.
Christopher Rufo, director of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth and Poverty, was the first to report on the letter last week, calling it “the new language of public education.”
“The principal of East Side Community School in New York sent white parents this ‘tool for action,’ which tells them they must become ‘white traitors’ and then advocate for full ‘white abolition,’” tweeted Rufo, along with images of the material.
The graphic was given to parents by principal Mark Federman, published by the Slow Factory Foundation (SFF) and originally authored by Northwestern University Professor Barnor Hesse.
Hesse wrote, “There is a regime of whiteness, and there are action-oriented white identities. People who identify with whiteness are one of these. It’s about time we build an ethnography of whiteness, since white people have been the ones writing about and governing Others.”
The graphic lists “8 White Identities” ranked from red to yellow to green, beginning with White Supremacist, which is “clearly marked white society that preserves, names, and values white superiority,” and White Voyeurism, which “wouldn’t challenge a white supremacist” but “desires non-whiteness because it’s interesting.”
Parents were encouraged to move toward the green side of the chart with categories such as White Traitor, which intends to “subvert white authority,” and finally White Abolitionist, which is actively “dismantling whiteness, and not allowing whiteness to reassert itself.”
Rufo told Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson, “They’re using this very deeply divisive, racialized language, not just for race itself, but to pursue this kind of radical Marxist political program.”
Rufo made a careful distinction between equality and equity.
“It’s this shift away from equality, which was colorblindness and equal protection under the law, towards equity, which is active discrimination to rectify any racial disparities,” he said.
SFF defended the graphic as a “helpful tool for students and parents to look at their whiteness.”
“We will continue to translate complex information for the public and make accessible information necessary to dismantle white supremacy,” the organization tweeted.
Last week, SFF also suggested that calling for the end of the world’s only Jewish State is not anti-Semitic.
“Reminder: saying Free Palestine is not anti-Semitic,” SFF tweeted.
