Thursday, April 01, 2021
'Concrete Cowboy' shows Philadelphia's Black cowboy culture
NEW YORK — Historians estimate that 1 in 4 American cowboys were Black but you would be hard pressed to find a movie genre whiter than the Western.
NEW YORK — Historians estimate that 1 in 4 American cowboys were Black but you would be hard pressed to find a movie genre whiter than the Western.
“Concrete Cowboy,” an urban Western about African American riders in Philadelphia starring Idris Elba, is about an often unseen — and persisting — Black cowboy culture.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
“Concrete Cowboy" is a father-son drama set around Fletcher Street Stables, one of the oldest and last-remaining of Philadelphia's hardscrabble inner-city stables. It dates back more than 100 years to when horse-drawn wagons were used to deliver produce, laundry and milk. But through tenacity and improvisation, Fletcher Street has remained a cherished refuge and an ardent pastime for both kids and adults on the streets of Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion.
“That’s a tough neighbourhood but if you’re on top of horse, people literally look up to you,” says Gregory Neri, author of the novel “Ghetto Cowboy,” the basis for the film directed by Ricky Staub.
Neri first heard about the stables in 2008 when a friend sent him a link to a Life magazine article about Fletcher Street.
“The first image I saw was this Black kid on the back of a horse in the middle of the inner city in North Philly,” says Neri. “I had the reaction most people have, which is: ‘What is this? What’s going on here?’”
“Concrete Cowboy,” which premiered last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival and debuts Friday on Netflix, shines perhaps the brightest light yet on an abiding community of Black cowboys now facing an uncertain future. It was shot in the vacant lots Fletcher Street cowboys ride in, and its co-stars -- alongside a cast of Elba, Caleb McLaughlin, Method Man and Jharrel Jerome -- include many of the stables’ actual riders.
In a genre that’s been perpetually drawn to American myth and open plains, “Concrete Cowboy” is urban, contemporary and authentic.
“My dad was a big Western fan. I grew up sort of watching them with a side eye,” says Elba, also a producer. “It didn’t occur to me until the Bob Marley song ‘Buffalo Soldier,’ which opened my interest about Black cowboys. And it occurred to me: I’ve been making films forever and I’ve never been offered a Western. You realize there’s a deep history that spans America and Africa over decades, centuries in fact, that you’ve never seen in film.”
As film historian Mia Mask, introducing a series on Black Westerns for the Criterion Channel, has noted: “Hollywood definitely whitewashed the image of the frontier.” The word “cowboy,” itself, was a racist term for a Black ranch worker. (A white one was a cowhand.) John Wayne’s character in John Ford’s “The Searchers” was based on a Black man.
For the actors, encountering and enmeshing with the community was an eye-opening experience. McLaughlin, the 19-year-old “Stranger Things” star, plays Cole, a wayward 15-year-old sent by his mother to live with his estranged father, Harp (Elba).
“It was all a new experience,” says McLaughlin. “Being in Philly, there are actually horses that live in people’s homes there. It’s not just two blocks of people with horses. It’s a whole community. There are people with cowboy boots walking around. There are babies riding ponies. I was like, ‘Wow, this is different.’”
Staub, making his directorial debut, had initially planned to shoot the entire movie with local non-professional actors.
“Obviously, when Idris Elba shows interest in being in your movie, you pivot,” he says, chuckling. “When I was talking with Idris, it was probably a little brazen, I said, ‘I don’t want this to feel like Halloween, like you’re playing dress up. To me, you need to do the most work to fit into this world and not vice versa.’”
Staub first learned about Fletcher Street while living in Philadelphia. One rider that he befriended, Eric Miller, introduced him around and they began to conceive, a little quixotically, of a movie. Miller, who had once been set to play Harp, was shot and killed just a week before prep began on the film. “Concrete Cowboys” is dedicated to him. Still, Miller’s vision helped guide the production.
“Eric echoed something to me that really had a lot of impact. When he was growing up, he loved cowboy films. These guys even played cowboy videogames on their phones. Everything was about that cowboy life,” says Staub. “But he didn’t have a film growing up where cowboys looked like him. What Eric wanted to leave was essentially a Western reimagined with the Black community.”
On set, Staub was flanked by riders looking over his shoulder on the monitor or shouting lines to Elba. “I recognized this was their story to tell,” Staub says.
For Elba, who's also to star in the upcoming revenge Western “The Harder They Fall,” it was more like making a documentary.
“I’m very open to telling stories that have a common truth but a unique perspective,” Elba says. “People in London, in Hackney where I grew up, will watch ‘Concrete Cowboy’ thinking it might be a Western and go, ‘Oh man.’”
The Fletcher Street Stables are also imperiled. The vacant lot its riders had long used -- and which they’re seen riding through frequently in the film -- is currently being developed. To survive, Fletcher Street needs a more permanent home. To facilitate that, the filmmakers have helped organize a non-profit, the Philadelphia Urban Riding Academy, and a GoFundMe. They’re trying to raise money for an equestrian centre and to convince Philadelphia government officials that the Fletcher Street heritage is worth preserving.
“We’ve been losing these stables one by one to gentrification. Fletcher Street is one of the first and last. It’s kind of like our history is being erased,” says Erin Brown, director of the Philadelphia Urban Riding Academy.
Brown, who served as a consultant, extra and stunt rider on the film, first started riding as a 6-year-old. She vividly remembers, as a kid, watching the cowboys riding down the street from her great-aunt’s porch. Since then, Fletcher Street has been her home.
“You come to the stables and you feel this love,” says Brown. “It builds you as a person.”
___
Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
“Concrete Cowboy" is a father-son drama set around Fletcher Street Stables, one of the oldest and last-remaining of Philadelphia's hardscrabble inner-city stables. It dates back more than 100 years to when horse-drawn wagons were used to deliver produce, laundry and milk. But through tenacity and improvisation, Fletcher Street has remained a cherished refuge and an ardent pastime for both kids and adults on the streets of Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion.
“That’s a tough neighbourhood but if you’re on top of horse, people literally look up to you,” says Gregory Neri, author of the novel “Ghetto Cowboy,” the basis for the film directed by Ricky Staub.
Neri first heard about the stables in 2008 when a friend sent him a link to a Life magazine article about Fletcher Street.
“The first image I saw was this Black kid on the back of a horse in the middle of the inner city in North Philly,” says Neri. “I had the reaction most people have, which is: ‘What is this? What’s going on here?’”
“Concrete Cowboy,” which premiered last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival and debuts Friday on Netflix, shines perhaps the brightest light yet on an abiding community of Black cowboys now facing an uncertain future. It was shot in the vacant lots Fletcher Street cowboys ride in, and its co-stars -- alongside a cast of Elba, Caleb McLaughlin, Method Man and Jharrel Jerome -- include many of the stables’ actual riders.
In a genre that’s been perpetually drawn to American myth and open plains, “Concrete Cowboy” is urban, contemporary and authentic.
“My dad was a big Western fan. I grew up sort of watching them with a side eye,” says Elba, also a producer. “It didn’t occur to me until the Bob Marley song ‘Buffalo Soldier,’ which opened my interest about Black cowboys. And it occurred to me: I’ve been making films forever and I’ve never been offered a Western. You realize there’s a deep history that spans America and Africa over decades, centuries in fact, that you’ve never seen in film.”
As film historian Mia Mask, introducing a series on Black Westerns for the Criterion Channel, has noted: “Hollywood definitely whitewashed the image of the frontier.” The word “cowboy,” itself, was a racist term for a Black ranch worker. (A white one was a cowhand.) John Wayne’s character in John Ford’s “The Searchers” was based on a Black man.
For the actors, encountering and enmeshing with the community was an eye-opening experience. McLaughlin, the 19-year-old “Stranger Things” star, plays Cole, a wayward 15-year-old sent by his mother to live with his estranged father, Harp (Elba).
“It was all a new experience,” says McLaughlin. “Being in Philly, there are actually horses that live in people’s homes there. It’s not just two blocks of people with horses. It’s a whole community. There are people with cowboy boots walking around. There are babies riding ponies. I was like, ‘Wow, this is different.’”
Staub, making his directorial debut, had initially planned to shoot the entire movie with local non-professional actors.
“Obviously, when Idris Elba shows interest in being in your movie, you pivot,” he says, chuckling. “When I was talking with Idris, it was probably a little brazen, I said, ‘I don’t want this to feel like Halloween, like you’re playing dress up. To me, you need to do the most work to fit into this world and not vice versa.’”
Staub first learned about Fletcher Street while living in Philadelphia. One rider that he befriended, Eric Miller, introduced him around and they began to conceive, a little quixotically, of a movie. Miller, who had once been set to play Harp, was shot and killed just a week before prep began on the film. “Concrete Cowboys” is dedicated to him. Still, Miller’s vision helped guide the production.
“Eric echoed something to me that really had a lot of impact. When he was growing up, he loved cowboy films. These guys even played cowboy videogames on their phones. Everything was about that cowboy life,” says Staub. “But he didn’t have a film growing up where cowboys looked like him. What Eric wanted to leave was essentially a Western reimagined with the Black community.”
On set, Staub was flanked by riders looking over his shoulder on the monitor or shouting lines to Elba. “I recognized this was their story to tell,” Staub says.
For Elba, who's also to star in the upcoming revenge Western “The Harder They Fall,” it was more like making a documentary.
“I’m very open to telling stories that have a common truth but a unique perspective,” Elba says. “People in London, in Hackney where I grew up, will watch ‘Concrete Cowboy’ thinking it might be a Western and go, ‘Oh man.’”
The Fletcher Street Stables are also imperiled. The vacant lot its riders had long used -- and which they’re seen riding through frequently in the film -- is currently being developed. To survive, Fletcher Street needs a more permanent home. To facilitate that, the filmmakers have helped organize a non-profit, the Philadelphia Urban Riding Academy, and a GoFundMe. They’re trying to raise money for an equestrian centre and to convince Philadelphia government officials that the Fletcher Street heritage is worth preserving.
“We’ve been losing these stables one by one to gentrification. Fletcher Street is one of the first and last. It’s kind of like our history is being erased,” says Erin Brown, director of the Philadelphia Urban Riding Academy.
Brown, who served as a consultant, extra and stunt rider on the film, first started riding as a 6-year-old. She vividly remembers, as a kid, watching the cowboys riding down the street from her great-aunt’s porch. Since then, Fletcher Street has been her home.
“You come to the stables and you feel this love,” says Brown. “It builds you as a person.”
___
Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
Myanmar junta deepens violence with new air attacks in east
MAE SAM LAEP, Thailand — The military launched more airstrikes Tuesday in eastern Myanmar after earlier attacks forced thousands of ethnic Karen to flee into Thailand and further escalating violence two months after the junta seized power.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Thailand’s prime minister said the villagers who fled the weekend airstrikes returned home of their own accord, denying that his country’s security forces had forced them back.
But the situation in eastern Myanmar appeared to be getting more, not less, dangerous.
The Karen National Union, the main political body representing the Karen minority, said the airstrikes were the latest case of Myanmar's military breaking a cease-fire agreement and it would have to respond.
The attacks came as protests continued in Myanmar cities against the coup Feb. 1 that ousted an elected civilian government and reversed a decade of progress toward democracy in the Southeast Asian country. Hundreds of civilians have been killed by security forces trying to put down opposition to the coup.
The U.S. State Department on Tuesday ordered non-essential U.S. diplomats and their families to leave Myanmar, expecting the protests to continue. The U.S. earlier suspended a trade deal and imposed sanctions on junta leaders as well as restricted business with military holding companies.
Tuesday's air raids in eastern Myanmar killed six civilians and wounded 11, said Saw Taw Nee, head of the KNU's foreign affairs department.
Dave Eubank, a member of the Free Burma Rangers, which provides medical assistance in the region, provided the same information on casualties.
The KNU has been fighting for greater autonomy for the Karen people. It issued a statement from one of its armed units saying “military ground troops are advancing into our territories from all fronts” and vowing to respond.
“We have no other options left but to confront these serious threats posed by the illegitimate military junta’s army in order to defend our territory, our Karen peoples, and their self-determination rights,” said the statement, issued in the name of the KNU office for the district that was first attacked on Saturday.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, speaking before the latest air attacks, said his country is ready to shelter anyone who is escaping fighting, as Thailand has done many times for decades. His comments came a day after humanitarian groups said Thailand has been sending back some of the thousands of people who fled.
“There is no influx of refugees yet. We asked those who crossed to Thailand if they have any problem in their area. When they say no problem, we just asked them to return to their land first. We asked, we did not use any force,” Prayuth told reporters.
“We won’t push them back,” he said. ’If they are having fighting, how can we do so? But if they don’t have any fighting at the moment, can they go back first?”
The governor of Thailand's Mae Hong Son province, where as many as 3,000 refugees had sought shelter, said later that those still on Thai soil were expected to return to their own country in a day or two.
Video: Myanmar forces kill dozens to clear protesters (The Canadian Press)
Thailand’s prime minister said the villagers who fled the weekend airstrikes returned home of their own accord, denying that his country’s security forces had forced them back.
But the situation in eastern Myanmar appeared to be getting more, not less, dangerous.
The Karen National Union, the main political body representing the Karen minority, said the airstrikes were the latest case of Myanmar's military breaking a cease-fire agreement and it would have to respond.
The attacks came as protests continued in Myanmar cities against the coup Feb. 1 that ousted an elected civilian government and reversed a decade of progress toward democracy in the Southeast Asian country. Hundreds of civilians have been killed by security forces trying to put down opposition to the coup.
The U.S. State Department on Tuesday ordered non-essential U.S. diplomats and their families to leave Myanmar, expecting the protests to continue. The U.S. earlier suspended a trade deal and imposed sanctions on junta leaders as well as restricted business with military holding companies.
Tuesday's air raids in eastern Myanmar killed six civilians and wounded 11, said Saw Taw Nee, head of the KNU's foreign affairs department.
Dave Eubank, a member of the Free Burma Rangers, which provides medical assistance in the region, provided the same information on casualties.
The KNU has been fighting for greater autonomy for the Karen people. It issued a statement from one of its armed units saying “military ground troops are advancing into our territories from all fronts” and vowing to respond.
“We have no other options left but to confront these serious threats posed by the illegitimate military junta’s army in order to defend our territory, our Karen peoples, and their self-determination rights,” said the statement, issued in the name of the KNU office for the district that was first attacked on Saturday.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, speaking before the latest air attacks, said his country is ready to shelter anyone who is escaping fighting, as Thailand has done many times for decades. His comments came a day after humanitarian groups said Thailand has been sending back some of the thousands of people who fled.
“There is no influx of refugees yet. We asked those who crossed to Thailand if they have any problem in their area. When they say no problem, we just asked them to return to their land first. We asked, we did not use any force,” Prayuth told reporters.
“We won’t push them back,” he said. ’If they are having fighting, how can we do so? But if they don’t have any fighting at the moment, can they go back first?”
The governor of Thailand's Mae Hong Son province, where as many as 3,000 refugees had sought shelter, said later that those still on Thai soil were expected to return to their own country in a day or two.
Video: Myanmar forces kill dozens to clear protesters (The Canadian Press)
Protests against the junta continued in several Myanmar cities Tuesday despite its lethal crackdown that killed more than 100 people on Saturday alone.
Engineers, teachers and students from the technology university in the southern city of Dawei marched without incident.
The number of protesters killed in the city rose to eight with the announcement of the death of a teenager who was shot by soldiers on Saturday as he rode a motorbike with two friends. According to local media, a hospital certificate attributed his death to “serious injuries as he fell from a motorbike.”
Medical workers in Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city, honoured three of their colleagues who have been killed by security forces. The two doctors and a nurse were remembered in a simple ceremony in front of a banner with their photographs and the words “Rest In Power.”
At a cemetery in the biggest city, Yangon, three families gave their last farewells to relatives killed Monday in a night of chaos in the South Dagon neighbourhood. Residents said police and soldiers moved through the streets firing randomly with live ammunition.
At least 510 protesters have been killed since the coup, according to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which counts those it can document and says the actual toll is likely much higher. It says 2,574 people have been detained, a total that includes the deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party was reelected in the November elections by a landslide.
At Thailand’s Mae Sam Laep village along the Salween River, which forms the border with Myanmar, paramilitary Thai Rangers on Tuesday twice waved off a boat that had come from the other side carrying seven people, including one lying flat and another with a bandage on his head. But ambulances soon arrived on the Thai side and it landed anyway.
Thai villagers helped medical staff carry the injured people on stretchers to a small clinic at a nearby checkpoint. One man had large bruises on his back with open wounds, an injury one medical staffer said could have been caused by an explosion.
An elderly woman in the group had small cuts and scabs all over her face. Thai nurses in protective gear to guard against COVID-19 attended to her, testing her and others for the coronavirus.
Another villager from the boat, 48-year-old Aye Ja Bi, said he had been wounded by a bomb dropped by a plane. His legs were hit by shrapnel and his ears were ringing, he said, but he was unable to travel to get help until Tuesday.
The airstrikes appeared to be retaliation for an attack by guerrillas under the command of the KNU on a government military outpost in which they claimed to have killed 10 soldiers and captured eight. Tuesday's KNU statement charged that the strikes had been planned before that.
About 2,500-3,000 refugees crossed into Thailand on Sunday, according to several humanitarian aid agencies who have long worked with the Karen.
They said on Monday, however, that Thai soldiers had begun to force people to return to Myanmar.
“They told them it was safe to go back even though it is not safe. They were afraid to go back but they had no choice,” said a spokesperson for the Karen Peace Support Network, a group of Karen civil society organizations in Myanmar.
The army has restricted journalists’ access to the area where the villagers crossed the border.
Myanmar’s government has battled Karen guerrillas on and off for years — along with other ethnic minorities seeking more autonomy — but the airstrikes marked a major escalation of violence.
Political organizations representing the Karen and Kachin in northern Myanmar have warned in recent weeks that junta forces have been shooting protesters in their regions and threatening a response.
They were joined Tuesday by the Three Brothers Alliance, which represent the guerrilla armies of the Rakhine, Kokang and Ta-ang — also known as Palaung. The alliance said if the killing of protesters did not stop immediately, they would abandon a self-declared cease-fire and join with other groups to protect the people.
The statements from the various ethnic minority groups seemed to suggest their own militaries would respond within their home regions, not in the cities of central Myanmar where the protests and the junta's repression have been the strongest.
Supporters of the protest movement are hoping that the ethnic armed groups could help pressure the junta. Protest leaders in hiding say they have held talks, but there have been no commitments.
Tassanee Vejpongsa, The Associated Press
Blinken ends Trump rights plan promoting conservative agenda
WASHINGTON — In a sharp rebuke to Trump-era policies, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday formally scrapped a blueprint championed by his predecessor to limit U.S. promotion of human rights abroad to causes favoured by conservatives like religious freedom and property matters while dismissing reproductive and LGBTQ rights.
WASHINGTON — In a sharp rebuke to Trump-era policies, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday formally scrapped a blueprint championed by his predecessor to limit U.S. promotion of human rights abroad to causes favoured by conservatives like religious freedom and property matters while dismissing reproductive and LGBTQ rights.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Blinken said a report prepared for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that sought to pare down the number of freedoms prioritized in U.S. foreign policy was “unbalanced,” did not reflect Biden administration policies and would not guide them. The report from Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights had been harshly criticized by human rights groups.
“One of the core principles of human rights is that they are universal. All people are entitled to these rights, no matter where they’re born, what they believe, whom they love, or any other characteristic,” Blinken said. "Human rights are also co-equal; there is no hierarchy that makes some rights more important than others."
“Past unbalanced statements that suggest such a hierarchy, including those offered by a recently disbanded State Department advisory committee, do not represent a guiding document for this administration," he said. "At my confirmation hearing, I promised that the Biden-Harris Administration would repudiate those unbalanced views. We do so decisively today.”
Blinken also reversed a Trump administration decision to remove sections on reproductive rights from the State Department’s annual human rights reports on foreign countries. “Women’s rights — including sexual and reproductive rights — are human rights,” he said.
Blinken made the announcement repudiating the commission’s report as he rolled out the annual human rights reports. The reports, covering last year, highlighted a declining trend in human rights around the world and the impact that the coronavirus pandemic had on rights practices. It noted that some governments had “used the crisis as a pretext to restrict rights and consolidate authoritarian rule.”
Human rights advocates condemned the report from Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights when he unveiled it last year to great fanfare from religious and social conservatives. The report was part of a broader Trump administration effort to restore the primacy of what officials considered the values of America's Founding Fathers.
Pompeo had promoted the report at events from Pennsylvania to Indonesia and in numerous interviews with conservative media in the hope it would serve as a guide for future administrations.
Nearly all references to the commission’s report and Pompeo’s advocacy of it have been removed from the State Department’s website, although they remain available on archived pages.
The Biden administration has already repealed several Trump-era human rights decisions. Those have included reengaging with the U.N. Human Rights Council, abandoning the so-called Geneva Consensus and Mexico City rule that oppose abortion rights and restoring LGBTQ protections as a matter of administration policy.
Pompeo and many conservatives have long decried the expansion of the definition of “human rights” to include matters they believe are not God-given or made specifically sacrosanct in the U.S. Constitution.
The “international human rights project is in crisis,” Pompeo said when he unveiled the commission's report at an event in Philadelphia. He lamented that “too many human rights advocacy groups have traded proud principles for partisan politics" and that “even many well-intentioned people assert new and novels rights that often conflict.”
Human rights groups lashed out at the findings of the commission, which was chaired by a mentor of Pompeo's, conservative scholar and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Mary Ann Glendon, who has questioned the legitimacy of rights including same-sex marriage.
A two-week public comment period after the draft report was released in July 2020 was punctuated by angry denouncements of a pullback in the U.S. commitment to human rights, but the commission chose to make only minor revisions in response.
In presenting the annual human rights reports, which cover only 2020 and were largely prepared prior to President Joe Biden's inauguration under Trump administration guidelines, Blinken said he had instructed the State Department to restore sections on reproductive rights to future editions.
He ordered the department to prepare addendums to the 2020 reports that include information about maternal mortality, discrimination against women in accessing sexual and reproductive health care and government policies about access to contraception and skilled health care during pregnancy and childbirth.
The reports highlighted concerns about abuses in China, Iran, Russia, Myanmar, Belarus and other authoritarian nations.
Blinken said a report prepared for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that sought to pare down the number of freedoms prioritized in U.S. foreign policy was “unbalanced,” did not reflect Biden administration policies and would not guide them. The report from Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights had been harshly criticized by human rights groups.
“One of the core principles of human rights is that they are universal. All people are entitled to these rights, no matter where they’re born, what they believe, whom they love, or any other characteristic,” Blinken said. "Human rights are also co-equal; there is no hierarchy that makes some rights more important than others."
“Past unbalanced statements that suggest such a hierarchy, including those offered by a recently disbanded State Department advisory committee, do not represent a guiding document for this administration," he said. "At my confirmation hearing, I promised that the Biden-Harris Administration would repudiate those unbalanced views. We do so decisively today.”
Blinken also reversed a Trump administration decision to remove sections on reproductive rights from the State Department’s annual human rights reports on foreign countries. “Women’s rights — including sexual and reproductive rights — are human rights,” he said.
Blinken made the announcement repudiating the commission’s report as he rolled out the annual human rights reports. The reports, covering last year, highlighted a declining trend in human rights around the world and the impact that the coronavirus pandemic had on rights practices. It noted that some governments had “used the crisis as a pretext to restrict rights and consolidate authoritarian rule.”
Human rights advocates condemned the report from Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights when he unveiled it last year to great fanfare from religious and social conservatives. The report was part of a broader Trump administration effort to restore the primacy of what officials considered the values of America's Founding Fathers.
Pompeo had promoted the report at events from Pennsylvania to Indonesia and in numerous interviews with conservative media in the hope it would serve as a guide for future administrations.
Nearly all references to the commission’s report and Pompeo’s advocacy of it have been removed from the State Department’s website, although they remain available on archived pages.
The Biden administration has already repealed several Trump-era human rights decisions. Those have included reengaging with the U.N. Human Rights Council, abandoning the so-called Geneva Consensus and Mexico City rule that oppose abortion rights and restoring LGBTQ protections as a matter of administration policy.
Pompeo and many conservatives have long decried the expansion of the definition of “human rights” to include matters they believe are not God-given or made specifically sacrosanct in the U.S. Constitution.
The “international human rights project is in crisis,” Pompeo said when he unveiled the commission's report at an event in Philadelphia. He lamented that “too many human rights advocacy groups have traded proud principles for partisan politics" and that “even many well-intentioned people assert new and novels rights that often conflict.”
Human rights groups lashed out at the findings of the commission, which was chaired by a mentor of Pompeo's, conservative scholar and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Mary Ann Glendon, who has questioned the legitimacy of rights including same-sex marriage.
A two-week public comment period after the draft report was released in July 2020 was punctuated by angry denouncements of a pullback in the U.S. commitment to human rights, but the commission chose to make only minor revisions in response.
In presenting the annual human rights reports, which cover only 2020 and were largely prepared prior to President Joe Biden's inauguration under Trump administration guidelines, Blinken said he had instructed the State Department to restore sections on reproductive rights to future editions.
He ordered the department to prepare addendums to the 2020 reports that include information about maternal mortality, discrimination against women in accessing sexual and reproductive health care and government policies about access to contraception and skilled health care during pregnancy and childbirth.
The reports highlighted concerns about abuses in China, Iran, Russia, Myanmar, Belarus and other authoritarian nations.
AFTER FAILING TO CONFRONT SAUDI ARABIA AND MBS OVER ASSISSINATION OF AN SAUDI ARABIAN AMERICAN JOURNALIST
They called out China for committing what both the Trump and Biden administrations have characterized as “genocide" against Uighur Muslims and other minorities in China's western Xinjiang region. They identified continued atrocities committed against Syrians by President Bashar Assad's government and the devastating impact that the war in Yemen has had on human rights.
The reports also noted actions by the Russian government against political dissidents, like opposition figure Alexei Navalny, and peaceful protestors, continuing corruption by Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his top aides, and restrictions imposed on political speech by governments in Cuba, Nicaragua, Turkmenistan and Zimbabwe.
Matthew Lee, The Associated Press
They called out China for committing what both the Trump and Biden administrations have characterized as “genocide" against Uighur Muslims and other minorities in China's western Xinjiang region. They identified continued atrocities committed against Syrians by President Bashar Assad's government and the devastating impact that the war in Yemen has had on human rights.
The reports also noted actions by the Russian government against political dissidents, like opposition figure Alexei Navalny, and peaceful protestors, continuing corruption by Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his top aides, and restrictions imposed on political speech by governments in Cuba, Nicaragua, Turkmenistan and Zimbabwe.
Matthew Lee, The Associated Press
Lawyer: FBI enlisted Proud Boys leader to inform on Antifa
SAME FBI THAT WORRIED MORE ABOUT MLK THAN THE KKK
SAME FBI THAT WORRIED MORE ABOUT MLK THAN THE KKK
AND SLAUGHTERED FRED HAMPTON
FBI agents recruited a Proud Boys leader to provide them with information about antifa networks months before he was charged with storming the U.S. Capitol with other members of the far-right extremist group, a defence attorney says.
FBI agents recruited a Proud Boys leader to provide them with information about antifa networks months before he was charged with storming the U.S. Capitol with other members of the far-right extremist group, a defence attorney says.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Proud Boys “thought leader” and organizer Joseph Biggs agreed to provide the FBI with information about anti-fascist activists in Florida and elsewhere after an agent contacted him in late July 2020 and arranged to meet at a restaurant, Biggs’ lawyer, J. Daniel Hull, wrote Monday in a court filing.
The two agents who met with Biggs wanted to know what he was “seeing on the ground," Hull said. Over the next few weeks, Biggs answered an agent's follow-up questions in a series of phone calls.
"They spoke often," added Hull, who is petitioning a judge to keep Biggs out of jail pending trial.
The defence lawyer's claims buttress a widely held view among left-leaning ideological opponents of the Proud Boys that law enforcement has coddled them, condoned their violence and even protected them during their frequent street brawls with anti-fascists. The Proud Boys even have counted some law enforcement officers among their ranks, including a Connecticut police officer and a Louisiana sheriff's deputy.
Biggs also received “cautionary” phone calls from FBI agents and routinely spoke with local and federal law enforcement officials in Portland, Oregon, about rallies he was planning there in 2019 and 2020, according to Hull.
“These talks were intended both to inform law enforcement about Proud Boy activities in Portland on a courtesy basis but also to ask for advice on planned marches or demonstrations, i.e., what march routes to take on Portland streets, where to go, where not to go,” Hull wrote.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said there was no evidence that antifa was to blame for the Jan. 6 violence. But that hasn’t stopped some on the right from making the claims.
Antifa was the Trump administration's villainous scapegoat for much of last year's social unrest following the death of George Floyd. Trump and then-Attorney General William Barr blamed antifa activists for some of the violence at protests over police killings of Black people across the U.S.
The FBI and the Justice Department had launched a number of investigations into extremist groups around that time. They were focused on whether people were violating federal law by crossing state lines to commit violence or whether anyone was paying to send antifa followers to commit violence, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official could not discuss the investigations publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
FBI agents responded to police stations in several cities, including New York, to question suspects arrested during protests and focused on those who self-identified as followers of the movement, the official said.
But investigators struggled to make any cases, in part because there is no hierarchical structure to antifa; it's not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations, according to the official.
The FBI would not comment on why agents were meeting with Biggs or why the bureau was trying to solicit information about antifa through the Proud Boys.
Biggs, 37, of Ormond Beach, Florida, wouldn't be the first Proud Boys informant. The group's chairman and top leader, Enrique Tarrio, previously worked undercover and co-operated with investigators after he was accused of fraud in 2012, court documents show.
Eric Ward, executive director of the Portland-based Western States Center, which tracks hate groups, said it was “deeply concerning” to learn that Biggs had worked with the FBI, particularly because law enforcement has “frequently maintained inappropriately close relations with far-right groups." The Proud Boys actively promoted violence and street brawling at the rallies in Portland, he said, and Biggs “called for violence in the streets.”
“Law enforcement has no credible reason for working with someone like Biggs. It’s long past time for a clear accounting of institutional and professional law enforcement relationships with groups espousing political violence at home and abroad,” Ward wrote in an email.
Biggs and three other Proud Boys leaders were indicted March 10 on charges that they planned and carried out a co-ordinated attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. At least 20 others in the group have been charged in federal court with offences related to the riots out of about 350 people charged so far in the deadly riot.
Proud Boys members describe themselves as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.” Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a hate group. In response, the law centre said Proud Boys members often spread “outright bigotry” over the internet and have posted social media pictures of themselves with prominent Holocaust deniers, white nationalists and “known neo-Nazis.”
Justice Department prosecutors want to jail Biggs while he and the others await trial because he “presents a danger not only based on his own potential violence, but violence by others who undoubtedly still support him."
But Biggs' lawyer said the incarceration bid hinges on evidence that is speculative at best.
“Importantly, the FBI has known about his political commentary and role in planning events and counter-protests in Portland and other cities since at least July 2020 and arguably benefitted from that knowledge in efforts to gather intelligence about Antifa in Florida and Antifa networks operating across the United States,” Hull wrote.
The disclosures are reminiscent of an earlier collaboration between law enforcement and a right-wing group in Portland during repeated clashes between left- and right-wing demonstrators. The far-right group Patriot Prayer staged multiple rallies and marches in the liberal city, drawing out hundreds of residents to oppose its message in standoffs that sometimes ended in violence.
In 2019, Portland opened an internal investigation after more than 11,500 text messages between Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson and police Lt. Jeff Niiya became public. Niiya was cleared in the investigation, but the episode led to training and changes in the way liaison officers communicate with groups before and during planned protests.
Michael Kunzelman, Michael Balsamo And Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press
Proud Boys “thought leader” and organizer Joseph Biggs agreed to provide the FBI with information about anti-fascist activists in Florida and elsewhere after an agent contacted him in late July 2020 and arranged to meet at a restaurant, Biggs’ lawyer, J. Daniel Hull, wrote Monday in a court filing.
The two agents who met with Biggs wanted to know what he was “seeing on the ground," Hull said. Over the next few weeks, Biggs answered an agent's follow-up questions in a series of phone calls.
"They spoke often," added Hull, who is petitioning a judge to keep Biggs out of jail pending trial.
The defence lawyer's claims buttress a widely held view among left-leaning ideological opponents of the Proud Boys that law enforcement has coddled them, condoned their violence and even protected them during their frequent street brawls with anti-fascists. The Proud Boys even have counted some law enforcement officers among their ranks, including a Connecticut police officer and a Louisiana sheriff's deputy.
Biggs also received “cautionary” phone calls from FBI agents and routinely spoke with local and federal law enforcement officials in Portland, Oregon, about rallies he was planning there in 2019 and 2020, according to Hull.
“These talks were intended both to inform law enforcement about Proud Boy activities in Portland on a courtesy basis but also to ask for advice on planned marches or demonstrations, i.e., what march routes to take on Portland streets, where to go, where not to go,” Hull wrote.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said there was no evidence that antifa was to blame for the Jan. 6 violence. But that hasn’t stopped some on the right from making the claims.
Antifa was the Trump administration's villainous scapegoat for much of last year's social unrest following the death of George Floyd. Trump and then-Attorney General William Barr blamed antifa activists for some of the violence at protests over police killings of Black people across the U.S.
The FBI and the Justice Department had launched a number of investigations into extremist groups around that time. They were focused on whether people were violating federal law by crossing state lines to commit violence or whether anyone was paying to send antifa followers to commit violence, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official could not discuss the investigations publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
FBI agents responded to police stations in several cities, including New York, to question suspects arrested during protests and focused on those who self-identified as followers of the movement, the official said.
But investigators struggled to make any cases, in part because there is no hierarchical structure to antifa; it's not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations, according to the official.
The FBI would not comment on why agents were meeting with Biggs or why the bureau was trying to solicit information about antifa through the Proud Boys.
Biggs, 37, of Ormond Beach, Florida, wouldn't be the first Proud Boys informant. The group's chairman and top leader, Enrique Tarrio, previously worked undercover and co-operated with investigators after he was accused of fraud in 2012, court documents show.
Eric Ward, executive director of the Portland-based Western States Center, which tracks hate groups, said it was “deeply concerning” to learn that Biggs had worked with the FBI, particularly because law enforcement has “frequently maintained inappropriately close relations with far-right groups." The Proud Boys actively promoted violence and street brawling at the rallies in Portland, he said, and Biggs “called for violence in the streets.”
“Law enforcement has no credible reason for working with someone like Biggs. It’s long past time for a clear accounting of institutional and professional law enforcement relationships with groups espousing political violence at home and abroad,” Ward wrote in an email.
Biggs and three other Proud Boys leaders were indicted March 10 on charges that they planned and carried out a co-ordinated attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. At least 20 others in the group have been charged in federal court with offences related to the riots out of about 350 people charged so far in the deadly riot.
Proud Boys members describe themselves as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.” Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a hate group. In response, the law centre said Proud Boys members often spread “outright bigotry” over the internet and have posted social media pictures of themselves with prominent Holocaust deniers, white nationalists and “known neo-Nazis.”
Justice Department prosecutors want to jail Biggs while he and the others await trial because he “presents a danger not only based on his own potential violence, but violence by others who undoubtedly still support him."
But Biggs' lawyer said the incarceration bid hinges on evidence that is speculative at best.
“Importantly, the FBI has known about his political commentary and role in planning events and counter-protests in Portland and other cities since at least July 2020 and arguably benefitted from that knowledge in efforts to gather intelligence about Antifa in Florida and Antifa networks operating across the United States,” Hull wrote.
The disclosures are reminiscent of an earlier collaboration between law enforcement and a right-wing group in Portland during repeated clashes between left- and right-wing demonstrators. The far-right group Patriot Prayer staged multiple rallies and marches in the liberal city, drawing out hundreds of residents to oppose its message in standoffs that sometimes ended in violence.
In 2019, Portland opened an internal investigation after more than 11,500 text messages between Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson and police Lt. Jeff Niiya became public. Niiya was cleared in the investigation, but the episode led to training and changes in the way liaison officers communicate with groups before and during planned protests.
Michael Kunzelman, Michael Balsamo And Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press
Latest graphic novel about John Lewis coming in August
NEW YORK — The award-winning series of graphic novels about congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis will continue a year after his death.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Abrams announced Tuesday that “Run: Book One” will be published Aug. 3, just over a year after Lewis died at age 80. As with the “March” trilogy, which traced Lewis' growing involvement with the civil rights movement in the 1960s, “Run” features longtime collaborator Andrew Aydin and illustrator Nate Powell as they shape a narrative around Lewis' reflections. Comic artist L. Fury will assist with illustrations.
“Run: Book One" begins after the signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
“Lewis recounts the highs and lows of a movement fighting to harness their hard-won legal protections to become an electoral force as the Vietnam War consumes the American political landscape — all while the forces of white supremacy gather to mount a decades-long campaign to destroy the dream of the ‘Beloved Community’ that John Lewis, Dr. King, and so many others worked to build,” according to Abrams.
Lewis, Aydin and Powell shared a National Book Award in 2016 for the third volume of the “March” trilogy.
The Associated Press
Abrams announced Tuesday that “Run: Book One” will be published Aug. 3, just over a year after Lewis died at age 80. As with the “March” trilogy, which traced Lewis' growing involvement with the civil rights movement in the 1960s, “Run” features longtime collaborator Andrew Aydin and illustrator Nate Powell as they shape a narrative around Lewis' reflections. Comic artist L. Fury will assist with illustrations.
“Run: Book One" begins after the signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
“Lewis recounts the highs and lows of a movement fighting to harness their hard-won legal protections to become an electoral force as the Vietnam War consumes the American political landscape — all while the forces of white supremacy gather to mount a decades-long campaign to destroy the dream of the ‘Beloved Community’ that John Lewis, Dr. King, and so many others worked to build,” according to Abrams.
Lewis, Aydin and Powell shared a National Book Award in 2016 for the third volume of the “March” trilogy.
The Associated Press
Some medical experts unconvinced about holding Tokyo Games
80% OF TOKYO'S RESIDENTS OPPOSE HOLDING THE GAMES
TOKYO — The Tokyo Olympics open in under four months, and the torch relay has begun to crisscross Japan with 10,000 runners. Organizers say they are mitigating the risks, but some medical experts aren't convinced
.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
“It is best to not hold the Olympics given the considerable risks,” Dr. Norio Sugaya, an infectious diseases expert at Keiyu Hospital in Yokohama, told The Associated Press. “The risks are high in Japan. Japan is dangerous, not a safe place at all.”
Sugaya believes vaccinating 50-70% of the general public should be “a prerequisite” to safely hold the Olympics, a highly unlikely scenario given the slow vaccine rollout in Japan.
Fewer than 1% of the population has been vaccinated so far, and all are medical professionals. Most of the general public is not expected to be vaccinated by the time the Olympics open July 23.
“Tens of thousands of foreigners are going to be entering the country, including mass media, in a short period of time," Sugaya said, “the challenges are going to be enormous.”
The Japanese government and local Olympic organizers have said vaccination is not a prerequisite for the Olympics, although the International Olympic Committee is encouraging the 15,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes to be vaccinated when they enter Japan.
The number of COVID-19-related deaths in Japan is about 9,000 — far fewer than many countries — but Sugaya stressed the number is among the highest in Asia.
Hospital systems are stretched, especially in hardest hit areas such as Tokyo.
Japan never pushed PCR testing, meaning few mechanisms are in place to prevent infection clusters. There hasn't been a national lockdown, but the government has periodically issued a “state of emergency,” urging people to work from home and restaurants to close early.
Dr. Toshio Nakagawa, who heads the Japan Medical Association, expressed serious concern about what he called “a rebound” of coronavirus cases. He called for preventive measures.
“To prevent a fourth wave, we have to act forcefully and extremely quickly,” he told reporters earlier this month.
Taisuke Nakata and Daisuke Fujii, professors of economics at the University of Tokyo, have been carrying out projections for the spread of the coronavirus, adapting a standard epidemiological model but taking into account economic activity as measured by GDP and mobility data.
According to their projections, daily infection cases in Tokyo will total more than 1,000 people by May, peaking in July, right about the time the Olympics are on. Daily cases have hovered at about 300 people for Tokyo lately.
They say that’s an “optimistic” scenario that assumes vaccines will be gradually rolling out by then.
The other possible scenario has the government declaring a state of emergency as daily cases climb. That could mean the Olympics will be held in the middle of an “emergency.”
The professors declined to comment directly on the wisdom of holding the Olympics.
Despite the warnings, the Japanese government and Tokyo Olympics organizers remain determined to go ahead with the Games. Tokyo is officially spending $15.4 billion to prepare the Olympics, but several government audits say it might be twice that much. All but $6.7 billion is public money.
The chief driver of the Olympics is the IOC, which derives almost 75% of its income from broadcast rights and needs to get the games on television.
Organizers say they will hold a “safe and secure” Olympics by keeping athletes and officials in a “bubble,” administering periodic tests, and then getting everyone to leave Japan as soon as possible.
Last week the IOC said it would cut back on the number of accredited participants entering Japan, providing credentials only to those who “have essential and operational responsibilities.”
Japanese news agency Kyodo has reported, citing unidentified sources, that 90,000 people are expected to enter Japan from abroad. About 30,000 of those are Olympic and Paralympic athletes, coaches, staff and officials.
That leaves 60,000, and Kyodo said the plan is to cut that to about 30,000, many of whom would be news media.
In addition, organizers said all ticket holders from abroad would be banned from entering.
Public opinion surveys show most Japanese want the Tokyo Games cancelled or postponed again.
Taro Yamamoto, a former lawmaker, said Japan is not prepared to deal with an influx of travellers from abroad.
“If Japan has not been able to protect its own people, it cannot claim to be able to protect people from all over the world,” during the Olympics, he said. “To keep insisting the Games will go on is just madness.”
___
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
___
Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
Stephen Wade is on Twitter https://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP
Yuri Kageyama And Stephen Wade, The Associated Press
“It is best to not hold the Olympics given the considerable risks,” Dr. Norio Sugaya, an infectious diseases expert at Keiyu Hospital in Yokohama, told The Associated Press. “The risks are high in Japan. Japan is dangerous, not a safe place at all.”
Sugaya believes vaccinating 50-70% of the general public should be “a prerequisite” to safely hold the Olympics, a highly unlikely scenario given the slow vaccine rollout in Japan.
Fewer than 1% of the population has been vaccinated so far, and all are medical professionals. Most of the general public is not expected to be vaccinated by the time the Olympics open July 23.
“Tens of thousands of foreigners are going to be entering the country, including mass media, in a short period of time," Sugaya said, “the challenges are going to be enormous.”
The Japanese government and local Olympic organizers have said vaccination is not a prerequisite for the Olympics, although the International Olympic Committee is encouraging the 15,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes to be vaccinated when they enter Japan.
The number of COVID-19-related deaths in Japan is about 9,000 — far fewer than many countries — but Sugaya stressed the number is among the highest in Asia.
Hospital systems are stretched, especially in hardest hit areas such as Tokyo.
Japan never pushed PCR testing, meaning few mechanisms are in place to prevent infection clusters. There hasn't been a national lockdown, but the government has periodically issued a “state of emergency,” urging people to work from home and restaurants to close early.
Dr. Toshio Nakagawa, who heads the Japan Medical Association, expressed serious concern about what he called “a rebound” of coronavirus cases. He called for preventive measures.
“To prevent a fourth wave, we have to act forcefully and extremely quickly,” he told reporters earlier this month.
Taisuke Nakata and Daisuke Fujii, professors of economics at the University of Tokyo, have been carrying out projections for the spread of the coronavirus, adapting a standard epidemiological model but taking into account economic activity as measured by GDP and mobility data.
According to their projections, daily infection cases in Tokyo will total more than 1,000 people by May, peaking in July, right about the time the Olympics are on. Daily cases have hovered at about 300 people for Tokyo lately.
They say that’s an “optimistic” scenario that assumes vaccines will be gradually rolling out by then.
The other possible scenario has the government declaring a state of emergency as daily cases climb. That could mean the Olympics will be held in the middle of an “emergency.”
The professors declined to comment directly on the wisdom of holding the Olympics.
Despite the warnings, the Japanese government and Tokyo Olympics organizers remain determined to go ahead with the Games. Tokyo is officially spending $15.4 billion to prepare the Olympics, but several government audits say it might be twice that much. All but $6.7 billion is public money.
The chief driver of the Olympics is the IOC, which derives almost 75% of its income from broadcast rights and needs to get the games on television.
Organizers say they will hold a “safe and secure” Olympics by keeping athletes and officials in a “bubble,” administering periodic tests, and then getting everyone to leave Japan as soon as possible.
Last week the IOC said it would cut back on the number of accredited participants entering Japan, providing credentials only to those who “have essential and operational responsibilities.”
Japanese news agency Kyodo has reported, citing unidentified sources, that 90,000 people are expected to enter Japan from abroad. About 30,000 of those are Olympic and Paralympic athletes, coaches, staff and officials.
That leaves 60,000, and Kyodo said the plan is to cut that to about 30,000, many of whom would be news media.
In addition, organizers said all ticket holders from abroad would be banned from entering.
Public opinion surveys show most Japanese want the Tokyo Games cancelled or postponed again.
Taro Yamamoto, a former lawmaker, said Japan is not prepared to deal with an influx of travellers from abroad.
“If Japan has not been able to protect its own people, it cannot claim to be able to protect people from all over the world,” during the Olympics, he said. “To keep insisting the Games will go on is just madness.”
___
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
___
Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
Stephen Wade is on Twitter https://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP
Yuri Kageyama And Stephen Wade, The Associated Press
Naomi Osaka Condemns Anti-Asian Hate, ‘Sad That This Even Has To Be A Hashtag’
Naomi Osaka is adding her voice to the stop anti-Asian hate conversation.
© AP Photo/Andy Brownbill/CPImages Naomi Osaka
The tennis star, who is Japanese and Haitian, shared a message on Twitter.
"The amount of hate, racism, and blame for COVID towards the Asian community is disgusting. The fact that this topic is not very widely covered makes me concerned. I only found videos and information because I was scrolling through my IG feed and by some algorithm it appeared," she wrote.
She also posted on Instagram, adding, "#stopasianhate <- It’s really sad that this even has to be a hashtag/slogan. It should be common sense but it seems like common sense is uncommon in this world now."
The Women's Tennis Association posted a video in which Osaka and other tennis stars condemned hate against minorities.
There has been a rise against the Asian community including a shooting in Atlanta that left eight people dead.
A number of celebs including John Oliver, Ken Jeong and Daniel Dae Kim have spoken out.
ET Canada stands with the Asian community in working together to stop anti-Asian racism in Canada, the United States, and around the world to #StopAsianHate.
Canadians can stay informed by following community groups and leaders, including but not limited to: https://nextshark.com/, https://www.dearasianyouth.org/home,
https://www.thepeahceproject.com/ and https://www.asianmhc.org/instagram-partners.
If you or someone you know is experiencing hate-crimes related to xenophobic attacks in Canada you can file a report at: https://www.elimin8hate.org/fileareport.
Bystander intervention training to anti-Asian and xenophobic harassment is available at: ihollaback.org/bystanderintervention/.
The tennis star, who is Japanese and Haitian, shared a message on Twitter.
"The amount of hate, racism, and blame for COVID towards the Asian community is disgusting. The fact that this topic is not very widely covered makes me concerned. I only found videos and information because I was scrolling through my IG feed and by some algorithm it appeared," she wrote.
She also posted on Instagram, adding, "#stopasianhate <- It’s really sad that this even has to be a hashtag/slogan. It should be common sense but it seems like common sense is uncommon in this world now."
The Women's Tennis Association posted a video in which Osaka and other tennis stars condemned hate against minorities.
There has been a rise against the Asian community including a shooting in Atlanta that left eight people dead.
A number of celebs including John Oliver, Ken Jeong and Daniel Dae Kim have spoken out.
ET Canada stands with the Asian community in working together to stop anti-Asian racism in Canada, the United States, and around the world to #StopAsianHate.
Canadians can stay informed by following community groups and leaders, including but not limited to: https://nextshark.com/, https://www.dearasianyouth.org/home,
https://www.thepeahceproject.com/ and https://www.asianmhc.org/instagram-partners.
If you or someone you know is experiencing hate-crimes related to xenophobic attacks in Canada you can file a report at: https://www.elimin8hate.org/fileareport.
Bystander intervention training to anti-Asian and xenophobic harassment is available at: ihollaback.org/bystanderintervention/.
Power in numbers: Making visible the violence against racialized women
Miwa A. Takeuchi, Associate Professor,
Miwa A. Takeuchi, Associate Professor,
Learning Sciences, University of Calgary
Violence and pain change the way we experience our surroundings and the way our bodies move: our eyes become wide in search of potential dangers, our bodies become tense.
What is the power — both negative and positive — of understanding such violence and pain with numbers? There are dangers in reducing our pain to numbers, but at the same time, we can use mathematical literacy for social causes by revealing hidden violence, such as the violence against migrant racialized women.
Mathematical literacy doesn’t just mean mastering mathematics defined by school curriculum; it also means gaining a sense of how to apply mathematical concepts to everyday life, for social causes and gaining insight into how numbers and data have inherently political resonances. It can also provide us with the opportunity to listen to historically marginalized voices to analyze interlocking systems of violence and oppression.
Intersectionality and violence against women
The recent mass shooting in Atlanta that violently took the lives of eight people, six of which were Asian American women, sparked demonstrations against anti-Asian racism that have long been silenced through the model minority myth — which minimizes and undermines the experiences of racism among Asians.
Read more: The model minority myth hides the racist and sexist violence experienced by Asian women
The intersection of racism and sexism and other interlocking systems of oppression, like migration, geo-economic politics and the criminalization of sex work are considered to be at play in the violence that happened in Atlanta.
Read more: The Atlanta attacks were not just racist and misogynist, they painfully reflect the society we live in
A lens of intersectionality shines light on the violence against Black women, Indigenous women and racialized women at large. And it also reveals the violence against Asian women who have been stereotypically hypersexualized and deemed submissive, disposable and consumable.
The power of mobilizing mathematical literacy
Understanding intersectional violence through numbers can help make visible the invisible.
In an era of protests, the political neutrality of mathematics is being questioned.
The power of mobilizing mathematical literacy for local policy changes became evident in my work with Virgie Aquino Ishihara, a longtime volunteer and community activist, at the Filipino Migrants Center, in Japan.
The Filipino Migrants Center worked tirelessly with migrant communities to redress violence rooted in human trafficking in the urban entertainment industry. It countered official data on domestic and work-place violence that did not reveal historically marginalized voices and violence against their bodies, through the numeration of hidden violence. Mobilization of mathematical literacy became a powerful tool in the context of social movements to redress human trafficking associated with entertainer visas.
By analyzing the economic impact of remittance from migrants in relation to governmental policies, the Filipino Migrants Centre was able to contextualize what pushed women to migrate as entertainer visa holders. These big-picture understandings led the activists to see historical and macro-economic dilemmas around domestic and workplace violence against migrant women — something that has been historically construed as personal problems.
Dangers in putting numbers to our pain
When violence against racialized women’s bodies is reduced to a number (“one” incident), and discussed simply as one more violent act against an anonymous racialized woman, elements and stories that women embody begin to be erased.
In this light, movements such as #SayHerName are important in centring stories of Black women who have been victimized by racially charged police violence from becoming a number (as seen in the recent killing of Breonna Taylor). Journalist, Shiori Ito, who led Japan’s social movement to fight against sexual violence chose to de-anonymize herself in order to challenge media that reports and speaks for these “numbers” whose stories and bodies end up erased through anonymity.
Violence and pain change the way we experience our surroundings and the way our bodies move: our eyes become wide in search of potential dangers, our bodies become tense.
What is the power — both negative and positive — of understanding such violence and pain with numbers? There are dangers in reducing our pain to numbers, but at the same time, we can use mathematical literacy for social causes by revealing hidden violence, such as the violence against migrant racialized women.
Mathematical literacy doesn’t just mean mastering mathematics defined by school curriculum; it also means gaining a sense of how to apply mathematical concepts to everyday life, for social causes and gaining insight into how numbers and data have inherently political resonances. It can also provide us with the opportunity to listen to historically marginalized voices to analyze interlocking systems of violence and oppression.
Intersectionality and violence against women
The recent mass shooting in Atlanta that violently took the lives of eight people, six of which were Asian American women, sparked demonstrations against anti-Asian racism that have long been silenced through the model minority myth — which minimizes and undermines the experiences of racism among Asians.
Read more: The model minority myth hides the racist and sexist violence experienced by Asian women
The intersection of racism and sexism and other interlocking systems of oppression, like migration, geo-economic politics and the criminalization of sex work are considered to be at play in the violence that happened in Atlanta.
Read more: The Atlanta attacks were not just racist and misogynist, they painfully reflect the society we live in
A lens of intersectionality shines light on the violence against Black women, Indigenous women and racialized women at large. And it also reveals the violence against Asian women who have been stereotypically hypersexualized and deemed submissive, disposable and consumable.
The power of mobilizing mathematical literacy
Understanding intersectional violence through numbers can help make visible the invisible.
In an era of protests, the political neutrality of mathematics is being questioned.
The power of mobilizing mathematical literacy for local policy changes became evident in my work with Virgie Aquino Ishihara, a longtime volunteer and community activist, at the Filipino Migrants Center, in Japan.
The Filipino Migrants Center worked tirelessly with migrant communities to redress violence rooted in human trafficking in the urban entertainment industry. It countered official data on domestic and work-place violence that did not reveal historically marginalized voices and violence against their bodies, through the numeration of hidden violence. Mobilization of mathematical literacy became a powerful tool in the context of social movements to redress human trafficking associated with entertainer visas.
By analyzing the economic impact of remittance from migrants in relation to governmental policies, the Filipino Migrants Centre was able to contextualize what pushed women to migrate as entertainer visa holders. These big-picture understandings led the activists to see historical and macro-economic dilemmas around domestic and workplace violence against migrant women — something that has been historically construed as personal problems.
Dangers in putting numbers to our pain
When violence against racialized women’s bodies is reduced to a number (“one” incident), and discussed simply as one more violent act against an anonymous racialized woman, elements and stories that women embody begin to be erased.
In this light, movements such as #SayHerName are important in centring stories of Black women who have been victimized by racially charged police violence from becoming a number (as seen in the recent killing of Breonna Taylor). Journalist, Shiori Ito, who led Japan’s social movement to fight against sexual violence chose to de-anonymize herself in order to challenge media that reports and speaks for these “numbers” whose stories and bodies end up erased through anonymity.
© (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Freelance journalist Shiori Ito
talks to her supporters outside a courthouse, Dec. 18, 2019, in Tokyo.
Such politics of de-anonymization, however, should also respect the choice of silence. To stay silent and to endure the hardships toward dignity — a notion captured by the Japanese term shinbo — was a choice made by some Japanese Canadians and Japanese Americans who experienced internment during the Second World War.
Numeration can also risk reducing our intersectional histories and experiences to deterministic categories. Binary and categorical frameworks (e.g. women versus men) inscribed in statistics can perpetuate genderism and queerphobia that privileges those who can conform to gender norms, cisnormativity and heteronormativity.
The complexities of human stories and the voices that deviate from the norm shouldn’t be lost in the process of numeration and mathematization.
Healing our collective pain
In our study, the Filipino Migrants Centre’s efforts to make visible the invisible by exercising mathematical literacy brought consequential changes in the urban entertainment district.
As we walked around the district, we noticed significant changes that took place in the public park — migrant women and allies came together. And as people came together, resident-led safety efforts developed as an alternative to institutional policing and surveillance. Creating a safer outdoor place required changing the actions of bystanders who can intervene in violence.
Mathematical literacy can allow us to listen to historically marginalized voices that are less heard yet powerful and strong to analyze interlocking systems of violence and oppression. However, numeration and mathematization have to be done through a non-hierarchical distribution of power with people who are directly impacted by historical oppression with respect to pain that cannot be reduced to numbers.
Intentional design of spaces toward solidarity, backed up with ethical mobilization of mathematical literacy, could move us toward healing our collective pain of violence.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Miwa A. Takeuchi receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Such politics of de-anonymization, however, should also respect the choice of silence. To stay silent and to endure the hardships toward dignity — a notion captured by the Japanese term shinbo — was a choice made by some Japanese Canadians and Japanese Americans who experienced internment during the Second World War.
Numeration can also risk reducing our intersectional histories and experiences to deterministic categories. Binary and categorical frameworks (e.g. women versus men) inscribed in statistics can perpetuate genderism and queerphobia that privileges those who can conform to gender norms, cisnormativity and heteronormativity.
The complexities of human stories and the voices that deviate from the norm shouldn’t be lost in the process of numeration and mathematization.
Healing our collective pain
In our study, the Filipino Migrants Centre’s efforts to make visible the invisible by exercising mathematical literacy brought consequential changes in the urban entertainment district.
As we walked around the district, we noticed significant changes that took place in the public park — migrant women and allies came together. And as people came together, resident-led safety efforts developed as an alternative to institutional policing and surveillance. Creating a safer outdoor place required changing the actions of bystanders who can intervene in violence.
Mathematical literacy can allow us to listen to historically marginalized voices that are less heard yet powerful and strong to analyze interlocking systems of violence and oppression. However, numeration and mathematization have to be done through a non-hierarchical distribution of power with people who are directly impacted by historical oppression with respect to pain that cannot be reduced to numbers.
Intentional design of spaces toward solidarity, backed up with ethical mobilization of mathematical literacy, could move us toward healing our collective pain of violence.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Miwa A. Takeuchi receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Paris court convicts, fines pharma firm for deadly diet pill
PARIS — A French pharmaceutical company on Monday was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of euros in damages and fines for its role in one of the nation’s biggest modern health scandals, with a Paris court finding the firm guilty of manslaughter and other charges for selling a diabetes drug blamed for hundreds of deaths.
Paris court convicts, fines pharma firm for deadly diet pill
PARIS — A French pharmaceutical company on Monday was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of euros in damages and fines for its role in one of the nation’s biggest modern health scandals, with a Paris court finding the firm guilty of manslaughter and other charges for selling a diabetes drug blamed for hundreds of deaths.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
The ruling capped a judicial marathon targeting Servier Laboratories and involving more than 6,500 plaintiffs. The Paris tribunal took nearly three hours to read out its verdict totalling 1,988 pages.
The huge trial was spread over 10 months in 2019 and 2020, and nearly 400 lawyers worked on the case. Exceptionally, the Paris tribunal was also connected by video link Monday to a courthouse in Montpellier, southern France, so dozens of plaintiffs there could also see the delivery of the verdict.
The case centred on the diabetes drug Mediator. Servier was accused of putting profits ahead of patients’ welfare by allowing the drug to be widely and irresponsibly prescribed as a diet pill — with deadly consequences. Servier argued that it didn’t know about the drug’s dangers.
The court found Servier guilty of manslaughter, involuntary wounding and aggravated deception. The judges’ ruling said the firm hid the drug’s hunger-suppressant side effects from medical regulators. The court acquitted Servier of fraud.
Also found guilty and fined for manslaughter and unintentional injury was the French medicines agency, now reformed and renamed. It was accused of failing to take adequate measures to protect patients and of being too close to Servier. Lawyers for the agency said it acknowledged some responsibility but also was misled by Servier.
Judges handed Servier a fine of 2.7 million euros (nearly $3.2 million) and ordered it to pay hundreds of millions more in damages to be shared out among plaintiffs. Damages for aggravated deception alone totalled nearly 159 million euros. And other hefty payments were awarded for the manslaughter and wounding charges.
The court also handed a suspended four-year prison sentence and fines to the only surviving Servier executive accused of involvement, Dr. Jean-Philippe Seta.
A 2010 study said Mediator was suspected in up to 2,000 deaths, with doctors linking it to heart and lung problems, in the 33 years that it was on the market. Some survivors suffered severe health complications, requiring heart transplants and other medical procedures, after taking the drug as a hunger suppressant.
Irene Frachon, a whistleblowing doctor who was among the first to raise the alarm about the drug's effects, welcomed the guilty verdicts.
“The court clearly said there was deception and that Mediator was a hunger suppressant, an amphetamine, whose properties and, above all, toxicity were very deliberately hidden from consumers,” Frachon told French broadcaster BFM-TV. “This, very clearly, is white-collar crime.”
The pulmonologist in the western city of Brest investigated Mediator’s effects after treating a patient in 2007 who later died. Frachon was a witness in the trial.
One doctor flagged concerns as far back as 1998, and testified that he was bullied into retracting them. Facing questions about the drug’s side effects from medical authorities in Switzerland, Spain and Italy, Servier withdrew it from those markets between 1997 and 2004. The company suspended sales in its main market in France in 2009. Mediator wasn’t sold in the U.S.
Lawyers for Servier argued that the company wasn’t aware of the risks associated with Mediator before 2009, and said the company never claimed it was a diet pill. They had argued for acquittal.
The company’s CEO and founder, Jacques Servier, was indicted early in the legal process but died in 2014.
___
Nicolas Vaux-Montagny reported from Lyon. John Leicester contributed from Le Pecq.
Nicolas Vaux-Montagny And Francois Mori, The Associated Press
The ruling capped a judicial marathon targeting Servier Laboratories and involving more than 6,500 plaintiffs. The Paris tribunal took nearly three hours to read out its verdict totalling 1,988 pages.
The huge trial was spread over 10 months in 2019 and 2020, and nearly 400 lawyers worked on the case. Exceptionally, the Paris tribunal was also connected by video link Monday to a courthouse in Montpellier, southern France, so dozens of plaintiffs there could also see the delivery of the verdict.
The case centred on the diabetes drug Mediator. Servier was accused of putting profits ahead of patients’ welfare by allowing the drug to be widely and irresponsibly prescribed as a diet pill — with deadly consequences. Servier argued that it didn’t know about the drug’s dangers.
The court found Servier guilty of manslaughter, involuntary wounding and aggravated deception. The judges’ ruling said the firm hid the drug’s hunger-suppressant side effects from medical regulators. The court acquitted Servier of fraud.
Also found guilty and fined for manslaughter and unintentional injury was the French medicines agency, now reformed and renamed. It was accused of failing to take adequate measures to protect patients and of being too close to Servier. Lawyers for the agency said it acknowledged some responsibility but also was misled by Servier.
Judges handed Servier a fine of 2.7 million euros (nearly $3.2 million) and ordered it to pay hundreds of millions more in damages to be shared out among plaintiffs. Damages for aggravated deception alone totalled nearly 159 million euros. And other hefty payments were awarded for the manslaughter and wounding charges.
The court also handed a suspended four-year prison sentence and fines to the only surviving Servier executive accused of involvement, Dr. Jean-Philippe Seta.
A 2010 study said Mediator was suspected in up to 2,000 deaths, with doctors linking it to heart and lung problems, in the 33 years that it was on the market. Some survivors suffered severe health complications, requiring heart transplants and other medical procedures, after taking the drug as a hunger suppressant.
Irene Frachon, a whistleblowing doctor who was among the first to raise the alarm about the drug's effects, welcomed the guilty verdicts.
“The court clearly said there was deception and that Mediator was a hunger suppressant, an amphetamine, whose properties and, above all, toxicity were very deliberately hidden from consumers,” Frachon told French broadcaster BFM-TV. “This, very clearly, is white-collar crime.”
The pulmonologist in the western city of Brest investigated Mediator’s effects after treating a patient in 2007 who later died. Frachon was a witness in the trial.
One doctor flagged concerns as far back as 1998, and testified that he was bullied into retracting them. Facing questions about the drug’s side effects from medical authorities in Switzerland, Spain and Italy, Servier withdrew it from those markets between 1997 and 2004. The company suspended sales in its main market in France in 2009. Mediator wasn’t sold in the U.S.
Lawyers for Servier argued that the company wasn’t aware of the risks associated with Mediator before 2009, and said the company never claimed it was a diet pill. They had argued for acquittal.
The company’s CEO and founder, Jacques Servier, was indicted early in the legal process but died in 2014.
___
Nicolas Vaux-Montagny reported from Lyon. John Leicester contributed from Le Pecq.
Nicolas Vaux-Montagny And Francois Mori, The Associated Press
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