Why The 'Race Card' Is Played

Stand Your Ground: Racial disparity In 2012, in response to the Trayvon Martincase, the Tampa Bay Times compiled a report on the application of stand your ground, and also created a database of cases where defendants sought to invoke the law. Their report found no racial disparity in Florida cases in the way in which defendants claiming self-defense under the law are treated, with white subjects being charged and convicted at the same rate as black subjects, and results of mixed-race cases were similar for both white victims of black attackers and black victims of white attackers.[35] Shooters of black attackers overall were more successful at using the law than shooters of white attackers, regardless of the race of the victim claiming self-defense, but analysis showed that black attackers were also more likely to be armed and to be involved in committing a crime, such as burglary, when shot. A Texas A&M study found that when whites use the stand-your-ground defense against bl

This black victim of the ‘war on drugs’ has been sitting in jail for 4 years waiting for his trial After four years in jail, Marvin Louis Guy—the Kileen, Texas man who is facing capital murder charges for killing a narcotics officer during a no-knock drug raid in 2014—has yet to go to trial. But it isn’t because Guy’s main attorney, Carlos Garcia, hasn’t been trying to pin down a trial date. Last week on July 19—when Guy, Garcia and the prosecution met with Judge John Gauntt in a courtroom in Bell County, Texas for a status hearing—Garcia stressed that he was  ready to go to trial . “We’re ready,” Garcia told Judge Gauntt. “We’ve been ready. We’re ready to go. Give us a date.” But no trial date was set, although another status hearing has been set for Thursday, August 9. Guy is facing one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder for an incident that occurred on the morning of May 9, 2014, when he shot and killed narcotics officer Charles Dinwiddie. The pr

Police drew guns on Ving Rhames at his California home after neighbor called 911 Actor  Ving Rhames  took to the airwaves  on Friday  to recall a disturbing incident when he said police held him at gunpoint in his own home after a neighbor called the police and claimed that was committing a robbery,  PEOPLE   reports. READ MORE:  ‘Progress is not perfection!”: Michelle Williams feeling better after depression bout — The  Mission: Impossible — Fallout   star and Golden Globe winner said on SiriusXM’s  The Clay Cane Show , that he experienced a racist incident in his Santa Monica, California, home.

Black ‘hero’ firefighter saved kids but was demoted after complaining about racist abuse and threats: lawsuit A black firefighter who has been hailed as a hero for saving the lives of a family has filed a lawsuit saying that he was subjected to racist abuse and threats after he transferred to a busier firehouse,  the  New York Post  reports . In March, Roben Duge  saved a two children from a fire while off-duty . Despite the heroism, Duge says he has been discriminated against because he is black and is currently driving a truck for the department instead of fighting fires. Duge became a firefighter in 2013 but ran into problems when he transferred to a firehouse in a far-out Brooklyn neighborhood which was run by Capt. Daniel Florenco. Florenco allegedly demanded to know why Duge had been allowed to transfer into his firehouse and was told that he should have remained in “the neighborhood you live in.” Florenco allegedly refused to give Duge or another black firefight

Dallas Cowboys’ Dak Prescott calls national anthem protests inappropriate Dallas Cowboys quarterback  Dak Prescott  is going against the grain with his recent statement that kneeling during the national anthem at  NFL games is not the right place to protest, the  Star-Telegram  reports. READ MORE:  Omarosa warns Trump to ‘come clean’ before White House tell-all drops in August Prescott is one of few NFL players to publicly support the NFL’s new no kneeling policy. As the NFL and the players union work out the kinks of the deal that deals with penalties, Dallas Cowboys owner  Jerry Jones  doubled down  Wednesday  saying that his team must stand for the anthem, and can’t stay in the locker room.  

florida cop says his chief instructed him to frame  There is an ongoing federal investigation into the police department in Biscayne Park, Fla. Their former chief—52-year-old Raimundo Atesiano—and two other former police officers, Raul Fernandez and Charlie Dayoub, were indicted on a conspiracy charge after they pinned four unsolved home burglaries on an innocent black 16-year-old just so the chief could claim he had a perfect property crime clearance rate in 2013. Atesiano is said to have ordered the officers to frame the teenager by falsifying arrest affidavits.

Police stop and frisk black man — while looking for robbery suspect who’s white A Wisconsin black man on his way home from work was stopped and frisked by police looking for the perpetrator of an armed robbery—even though the suspect was white,  reports  the Steven’s Point Journal. Deandre Pettiford-Bates detailed his experience in a Facebook post. “I’m gonna start this post off by saying I respect police and all that they do but tonight was complete and utter bullshit,” he wrote. “I’m biking home listening to music when this cops pulls right in front of me and yells at me to get off my bike, I start off by asking if I did something wrong…he reply’s by saying “that’s what we’re figuring out” pats me down, asked if I had a gun, takes off my backpack and then 3 squad cars pull up…they dump my back pack on to the street grab my wallet out my back pocket and go through it.” When one of the cops asked him where he was coming from, Pettiford-Bates told him he was coming from w

Possible key to black boys' academic success: Hire black men as elementary school teachers Near the end of his freshman year at the  University of Illinois at Chicago , Ja’Waun Williams heard that a dean there had been a member of the fraternity Williams was pledging. After bonding over their shared affection for Alpha Phi Alpha, Dean Alfred Tatum persuaded Williams to shift his academic focus. Instead of preparing to teach high school math, Tatum suggested, why not major in urban elementary education?

African-American man kicked out of Bay Area store after trying on hats with his family   Anthony O'Neill took the cell video at Quest Casuals in Sausalito on Sunday. The video is 8 minutes long and has more than 90,000 views on Facebook. At the beginning of the video, the store owner, Hooshang Seda, can be seen and heard saying, "I am not after trouble Sir. I am asking you to leave because I refuse to do business with you."

Florida cops beat up and arrest black man just for telling them to do their jobs: lawsuit : A Florida man is suing the Miami-Dade Police Department after its officers allegedly beat him up and arrested him for yelling “do your f*cking job.” The Miami New-Times reported that Jose Farquaharson was standing on a street corner when a car sped past him.  Two police officers were standing across the road, and the angered 42-year-old yelled “do your f*cking job and stop the cars from speeding!” Luis Arcia, one of the officers Farquaharson yelled at, reportedly …

WATCH: Massive brawl breaks out between Trump supporters and protesters at defaced Walk of Fame star : A massive brawl broke out Thursday night between supporters and opponents of President Donald Trump who had gathered around the Trump Hollywood Walk of Fame star that had been defaced by a vandal earlier in the week. A video of the brawl, which was obtained by TMZ, shows Trump fans and anti-Trump protesters squaring off around the defaced star, with the protesters chanting “F*ck Donald Trump!” Eventually, chaos breaks out and both Trump supporters and …

Handgun-waving white man threatens to lynch blacks in Pennsylvania road-rage incident : Police have charged a white Pennsylvania man with a felony hate crime after he allegedly used a racial slur while waving a handgun out the window of his car — while threatening a lynching — during a road rage incident. Adam Kraus, 32, of Fayetteville, PA was charged with felony ethnic intimidation and misdemeanor simple assault and misdemeanor terroristic threats for the incident, The Sentinel reports. The victims reported the incident to police, including the …

‘My heart, it’s never been fuller’: All black team wins D.C. Little League title “It’s honestly overwhelming,” said Keith Barnes, the president of the Mamie Johnson Little League. “My heart,” said Charlie Sperduto, who directs the baseball and softball programs at the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy, “it’s never been fuller than it was last night.” The transactional information isn’t mind-blowing: Mamie Johnson beat Capitol Hill to win the District’s Little League championship. The tournament has been held annually for 31 years. Someone has to win it. Next stop for the 12 boys from Mamie Johnson: Bristol, Conn., for regionals, with the Little League World Series in sight beyond that.

Roseanne Barr makes TV apology for controversial tweet Speaking to Fox News on Thursday, she said her tweet comparing ex-Obama aide Valerie Jarrett - an African-American - to an ape had "cost her everything". Barr told host Sean Hannity her tweet was meant to address US-Iran nuclear policy and not Jarrett's ethnicity. Addressing Jarrett directly, the comic said she "never meant" to cause hurt. "I'm sorry you feel harmed," she added. Barr's tweet sparked outrage on social media in May and led ABC to cancel the reboot of her self-titled show about a working-class American family.

4 stupid fights lost because of racism Racism is all three of those things. Especially when a leader is about to send thousands — or even tens of thousands — of his most loyal troops into a situation they can't possibly win because that leader thinks victory is assured just because he's white. Or Chinese. Or Japanese. So, let's be honest with ourselves: The most spectacular examples of military leadership did not belong to any one race.

Outrage after video of police officer’s brutal arrest of 13-year-old boy and his little sister goes viral ‘I’m about to send this kid to the hospital!’ A case between a 13-year-old boy who reportedly has a mental disability who was manhandled by an angry cop is under review by the Baltimore police after the incident went viral. — Employee posts video of filthy Popeye’s restaurant with roaches and flies goes viral — The boy  Deontay , and his 11-year-old sister were reportedly looking for a cat in a neighbor’s yard when the police were called. A neighbor reported a potential burglary. In a video of the interaction, the officer can be seen trying to handcuff the 13-year-old. In another video, Deontay’s mother  Kimberly Townes  is trying to prevent the officer from taking her son,  Wbaltv reports. “He told them get on the ground. I said, ‘No, they ain’t getting on no ground,” Deontay’s mother, Townes said. “She 11 and he’s 13. They not getting on the ground. So I told them,

NYPD arrest and drag unconscious Black man as neighbors go off A disturbing video of New York City police officers dragging an unconscious Harlem man into a waiting police car has now sparked public outrage. According to  Patch.com , the clip shows community members having a shouting match with police over the July 16th arrest of  Keith Woody,  whose limp body can be seen being dragged from a house, then dropped on the street next to a police cruiser. Officers eventually lift the young man’s unresponsive torso into the backseat of the patrol car as horrified neighbors protest in disbelief and beg for officers to call an ambulance. “You don’t knock nobody out like that,” one woman pleads. “He’s out unconscious in 100 degree weather.” “He can’t even stand up,” another bystander yells, as officers dragged Woody’s body into the police car. “He did nothing wrong,” the crowd shouts. Even though police assured the public that an ambulance would be arriving, this ultimately

Bernie Sanders Takes on Unjust Cash Bail System, but Still Doesn't Make Direct Connection to Institutional Racism “In the mist of a broken criminal justice system, what is totally insane is that you’ve got around 400,000 people—perhaps 20 percent of people in jail today—in jail for the crime of being poor. That’s their crime,” Sanders told The Root. “We should not in the year of 2018 be locking up hundreds of thousands of people who have been convicted of nothing.”

This 1989 Artwork Asked Viewers to Step on the Flag. It Ignited a Firestorm That’s Still Raging Patriotic symbols, and those who protest them ,  are at the forefront of national news. President Donald J. Trump has verbally attacked Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players who refuse to stand for the national anthem at football games. In November 2016, Trump tweeted: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!” Politicians recently ordered the removal of  Josephine Meckseper ’s artfully stained flag from an exhibition at the University of Kansas. A simple piece of cloth can elicit very strong feelings.

Jerry Jones: Cowboys can't stay in locker room for anthem OXNARD, Calif. (AP) — Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doubled down Wednesday on insisting that his players stand for the national anthem, declaring that he wouldn't support anyone who chose to stay in the locker room. Speaking at his annual news conference to open training camp in California, the outspoken billionaire became the first owner to say publicly that his players would not be allowed to stay off the field during the anthem. "No," Jones said when asked if he would support players staying in the locker room. "Our policy is that you stand at the anthem, toe on the line."

A Sociologist Examines the “White Fragility” That Prevents White Americans from Confronting Racism In more than twenty years of running diversity-training and cultural-competency workshops for American companies, the academic and educator Robin DiAngelo has noticed that white people are sensationally, histrionically bad at discussing racism. Like waves on sand, their reactions form predictable patterns: they will insist that they “were taught to treat everyone the same,” that they are “color-blind,” that they “don’t care if you are pink, purple, or polka-dotted.” They will point to friends and family members of color, a history of civil-rights activism, or a more “salient” issue, such as class or gender. They will shout and bluster. They will cry. In 2011, DiAngelo coined the term “white fragility” to describe the disbelieving defensiveness that white people exhibit when their ideas about race and racism are challenged—and particularly when they feel implicated in white supre

The protests over Nia Wilson’s murder, explained Nia Wilson, 18, and her sister, 26-year-old Lahtifa, were simply changing trains at a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in Oakland, California, on Sunday when it happened: A man suddenly approached them, stabbed Nia, and wounded Lahtifa. Nia was pronounced dead at the scene. On Monday, John Lee Cowell, 27, was arrested for the attack, ending a one-day manhunt. But the attack has remained in the news throughout the week as the public conversation has shifted to whether the attack — and the authorities’ purportedly slow response to it — was racially motivated. To many people, the circumstances are obvious: Based on the reporting so far, Nia Wilson and her sister did nothing to provoke their attacker. Yet Cowell allegedly approached them and attacked anyway before running off. And since Cowell is white and Wilson is black, race has become the obvious motive in many people’s minds. The situation was further inflamed becaus

Potential 'red flag' law puts Republican lawmakers in tough spot Red flag laws in other states allow local judges to temporarily limit someone's access to firearms if they're proved to be a threat to themselves or others. (Click title for video)

When Violence Broke Out on Cleveland’s East Side 50 Years Ago?  several hours, gunfire engulfed the African-American neighborhood of Glenville on the east side of Cleveland. The Black Nationalists of New Libya exchanged shots with the Cleveland Police Department from apartments and homes. By the end of the night, seven men had been killed, including three police officers, three black nationalists, and one civilian. Several houses in the Glenville neighborhood were on fire, and at least 15 individuals were injured; more casualties may not have been reported due to neighborhood fears of police. Today, the story of the Glenville shootout is still contentious. It’s unclear who shot first, or what exactly sparked the eruption. But for all that remains a mystery, the incident undeniably continues to affect the citizens of the neighborhood as they grapple with a legacy of antagonistic relations with the police.

US Is ‘Least Racist, Least Xenophobic Country’ in History, Prager Says While speaking last year with a black man shining shoes at the airport in Newark, New Jersey, about his time in America, syndicated talk-radio host Dennis Prager said he asked the man whether he thinks America is racist. There was a tense pause as the man nervously looked around. “It was clear he was a little embarrassed to say, ‘No, it’s not racist at all. I love it here,’” recalled Prager, the founder of PragerU, a website that creates videos touting conservative values. “He felt like he was betraying what he was supposed to say because he was black.” Prager says that the man’s feeling of “embarrassment” shouldn’t be occurring in America today. “This is the least racist, least xenophobic, multiracial country in the history of the world,” Prager told about 800 15-to-18-year-olds at the High School Leadership Summit, an educational conference for young conservatives sponsored by  Turning Point USA .

Wealthy white teen who drove getaway car in LA gang murder of innocent black man goes free A wealthy white teen who was allegedly a member of a South Los Angeles street gang and participated in the murder of a black pedestrian has walked free after his lawyers argued that he was “open-minded” to “friends from different backgrounds,”  CBS Los Angeles reports. Cameron Terrell, 18, of tony Palos Verdes Estate was a member of a majority-black gang. His nickname was “White Boy” and he sometimes appeared in the background of rap videos. The white teen admitted that he was with two armed black teens that shot Justin Holmes, 22, because they suspected he was a member of a rival gang and on their turf. Holmes was not a gang member; he was a black college student. Terrell parked the getaway car—his father’s car—so that the other teens could sneak up on Holmes.

Georgia police investigate video of officers using force against 10-year-old Black child Athens, Georgia police are now investigating a disturbing video that depicts an incident between local police and a 10-year-old boy. Ariel Collins  posted the clip on Facebook, which has already received more than 15,000 shares and over 450,000 views. The video shows  Athens-Clarke County police   pinning a minor to the ground on July 20th. In the footage two officers are seen holding the boy face down as he attempts to respond to them. The Athens-Clarke County Police Department released a press release explaining that the child allegedly “lunged at one of the officers” after running past family members in an attempt to speak to his father, who was a suspect sitting in the back of the patrol vehicle.

“Black In Blue” Documentary Will Share Story Of How UK Football Broke Racial Barrier In The SEC African-Americans Nate Northington, Greg Page, Houston Hogg and Wilbur Hackett had to endure a lot to play football at Kentucky. Northington broke the color barrier in 1967 when he played in a game at Mississippi. Kentucky coach Mark Stoops will let his current players see the documentary when preseason practice starts and offensive line coach John Schlarman, a Kentuckian who played at UK, thinks it is important for the Cats to understand what happened at UK. “I think it is really important to bring that history to our guys and to all Kentucky fans. I didn’t understand the significance of that when I played here,” Schlarman said. “I think it is an amazing story and something Kentucky can be proud of. I am really looking forward to seeing the documentary because I am sure they did a great job with it.”

Latinos aren't reaching top military positions, study shows Hispanics have failed to reach top leadership positions in the military even as Latino participation in the armed forces overall has remained on par with the group's demographic growth, a study shows. The study by Casaba Group, a Hispanic veterans organization, showed that between 1995 and 2016, only one Latino had become a three-star general, even as the number of active-duty Hispanic officers more than doubled, from 6,117 to 15,033, during that period. 

Despite progress, HIV racial divide persists By the time Arthur Harris turned 17, he had already endured a childhood of grinding poverty in Hartford’s North End, the death of his mother, and the rejection of a community that viewed homosexuality as a sin. It should have come as no surprise to anyone, then, that he went searching for love and acceptance wherever he could find it — a search that landed him in the arms of a man nearly twice his age and, later, in the kinds of risky situations he’d been warned about in his high school health class. “I was looking for love like everybody else,” says Harris, now 26. “I thought the gay lifestyle would be a safe place.” But it wasn’t safe. Like thousands of other young, black men, Harris contracted HIV before he was 18. The virus, which can lead to AIDS if untreated, disproportionately affects African-Americans nationwide. This stubborn racial disparity persists in Connecticut and in neighboring New England states despite years