Why The 'Race Card' Is Played

@RealBillRussell takes a knee✊ The first NFL games kick off today, I want to show my continued support for the players & their decision to stand against  # socialinjustice . I thought about taking a new photo but was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get up this time @NFL @BostonGlobe @MSNBC @CNN  # ThursdayThoughts

1st. anniversary of 'The Charlottesville Protests' After the aborted rally, at around 1:45 p.m., a man drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, hitting several and slamming into a stopped sedan, which hit a stopped minivan that was in front of it. The impact of the crash pushed the sedan and the minivan further into the crowd. The man then reversed the car through the crowd and fled the scene. One person was killed (Heather Heyer) and 19 others were injured in what police have called a deliberate attack. In the wake of the Charleston church shooting in 2015, efforts were made across the country to remove Confederate monuments from public spaces and rename streets honoring notable figures from the Confederacy. While often successful, these efforts faced a backlash from people concerned about protecting their Confederate heritage. The August 11–12 rally was organized to protest the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue honoring the Confederate general in Emancipati

Virginia governor declares state of emergency for anniversary of Charlottesville protests Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and the city of Charlottesville have declared a state of emergency ahead of the anniversary of the violent Unite the Right rally. The first iteration of the group's rally took place in the sleepy Virginia town last August. On the anniversary on Sunday, large protests and parades are planned in Washington, D.C., as well as smaller memorial events in Charlottesville. On Aug. 12, 2017, Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when she was struck by a car that had plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters. Two Virginia State troopers were also killed that weekend when their helicopter crashed into woods nearby.

Retired police chief: Daniel Hambrick's killing is part of 'the long tradition of police officers shooting first' : On Wednesday, the Nashville, Tennessee District Attorney released a video showing the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick by Nashville police officer Andrew Delke. Hambrick was black, and Delke is white. The video shows Delke firing his gun as Hambrick runs away. One of the bullets hits him in the back and he collapses on a lawn. He was later pronounced dead. Prior to the release of the video, the department claimed that Hambrick had …

Racist couple attacks Black man with car, threatening to run him over for parking on their street Two St. Cloud, Minnesota residents are suspected of assaulting a Black man just for parking on their street. According to the  St. Cloud Times ,  Monday, 58-year-old  Aaron Charles Stevens  and his girlfriend,  Myrna Angelica Alanis , came running out of their home after they noticed a Black man had parked his car in their neighborhood. According to authorities, Stevens immediately attacked the Black man by throwing a bottle at his head, which ended up causing a laceration on his face. Stevens then began to yell racial slurs at the man while demanding he get off his property. Stevens then “charged at the man with a large tie strap with metal hooks,” while urging his 41-year-old girlfriend to get in his truck and run the man over. Alanis followed orders, got in the truck and revved up its engine while Stevens held the injured man on the ground.

John Hewson: We must continue to call out racism everywhere It has become a most disturbing and unfortunate feature of recent politics, particularly here and in the US and Europe, that many politicians – seeking short-term personal, political advantage – have played the race card. Sometimes it is little better than blatant racism, on other occasions they hide it behind a confected concern for some broader issue, such as immigration, or the activities of “Sudanese Gangs” or the “excesses” of multiculturalism. In particular, there has been a strong anti-immigration movement evident in most European elections in recent years, gaining significant momentum with the “flood” of refugees from Syria, Iraq, and North Africa. The Brexit vote in the UK was driven by concerns about the lack of an effective immigration policy, and the exaggerated threat of some 5 million refugees to hit their shores in the next few years. Trump has made a feast of anti-immigration sentiment, ever

Islam is not a race but singling out a community is racism – whether the right-wing say so or not    ‘I can’t be racist, Islam is not a race,’ is a regular argument used by those who, whenever accused of making remarks that stereotype and demonise Muslims, feel smug about falling back on. Playing semantics and blurring definitions is a sure-fire way of undermining the fight against bigotry, racism and hatred. It’s an argument that I have heard made often, the most recent being by Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, who, when appearing on Sky News to discuss Boris Johnson’s comments about the burka and people accusing him of playing into racial stereotypes, went on to say, ‘Well Islam isn’t a race, it’s a religion.’ This particular line of argument has been used by many, including Richard Dawkins, whenever there’s a debate about anti-Muslim prejudice. It’s also used by those on the far-right who explicitly use racialised tropes when promoting Islamophobia and hatred towards Muslim co