No news on US journalist detained in Myanmar one week on: employer

Agence France-Presse
May 31, 2021

Myanmar has been in uproar since the military seized power in a February 1 putsch, with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement STR AFP

The employers of an American journalist detained by Myanmar authorities said Monday they were yet to receive any information on his whereabouts or wellbeing, a week after he was detained.

Managing editor of news outlet Frontier Myanmar Danny Fenster, a US citizen, was detained on May 24 as he attempted to board a plane to leave military-ruled Myanmar.

"Despite multiple attempts, Frontier has still not been able to confirm with the authorities why Danny has been detained," the outlet said in a statement Monday.

"We have not been told what charges he is facing, if any, and have not been able to contact him. We have received no information whatsoever from the authorities about his detention."

Myanmar has been in uproar since the military seized power in a February 1 putsch, with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement.

More than 800 people have been killed by the military, according to a local monitoring group.

The press has been caught in the crackdown as the junta tries to tighten control over the flow of information, throttling internet access and revoking the licences of local media outlets.

The US State Department has said it is "deeply concerned" about Fenster, and demanded his release.

Frontier said it understood Fenster was being held in Yangon's Insein prison.

"We know that Danny has done nothing wrong and we demand his immediate and unconditional release," its Monday statement added.

Fenster, 37, had been working for the outlet for around a year and was heading home to see his family, Frontier's chief editor, Thomas Kean, told AFP.

Japanese reporter Yuki Kitazumi was detained by authorities in Myanmar in April and was also held in Insein until being freed earlier this month.

In March, a BBC journalist was briefly detained after being seized by plainclothes officers while reporting outside a court in the capital Naypyidaw.

Separately, Polish photojournalist Robert Bociaga -- who was also arrested while covering protests -- was released in March after nearly two weeks in detention.

In the 2021 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, Myanmar ranked 140 out of 180 countries.

Since the coup, journalists in Myanmar "face systematic arrest campaigns and censorship", the watchdog said.

"Many will resign themselves to working clandestinely in order to be free to report what is happening and to evade the police," it added.

© 2021 AFP

USA

Unions are horrified at the mask mandate rollback — and fear workers' lives are at risk again

Unions that rep frontline workers say they'll pay the price for a policy that forces them to play "vaccine police"

"This will trump asbestos for healthcare workers," she predicted

By BOB HENNELLY
PUBLISHED MAY 29, 2021 

Yellow cab taxi drivers block traffic in a protest demanding debt forgiveness for cabbies hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, in New York City on February 10, 2021. - New York City taxi cab drivers held a day of action calling for debt forgiveness for loss of income amid work shortage due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

On May 13, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted the indoor mask mandate for people who say they are vaccinated. Individually, many of those who were vaccinated celebrated the news at what seemed like a step towards a pre-pandemic normalcy. Yet public health experts and unions alike were horrified.

In a May 17 tweet, the New York State Nurses Association, which represents 40,000 Registered Nurses, warned "the rushed CDC mask guidance is a rollback on patients' & workers' protections across the country. The path to stop the virus is more than the vaccine alone. This guidance will push communities to remove their masks sooner than recommended — risking lives."

Indeed, the unions that represent healthcare professionals and essential frontline workers are speaking out about the CDC's walkback on masks. These workers, they say, have paid for and will continue to pay for the nation's scandalous lack of preparation for this totally foreseeable event.
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The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), which represents 1.3 million food and retail workers, also blasted the CDC's new guidance, saying it would force retail workers to play "vaccination police" to sort out which customers needed to wear masks.

The union stated: "Since March 1, UFCW reports a nearly 35-percent increase in grocery-worker deaths and a nearly 30 percent increase in grocery workers infected or exposed following supermarket outbreaks at Whole Foods, Costco, Trader Joe's and other chains across the country."

The union estimated at least 185 grocery workers and 132 meatpacking workers have died from the virus, with tens of thousands of other union members infected or exposed, incurring potential long-term health risks.

A key concern among unions is that in the neighborhoods of color hardest hit by the coronavirus, where a large portion of the essential workforce resides, the rate of vaccination is well below the 50 percent threshold found in whiter, more-affluent areas.

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During a May 19 press briefing, epidemiologist Dr. Celine Gounder echoed the New York State Nurses Association's concerns about the rollback of the indoor-mask mandate. She told reporters the CDC should have coordinated the shift in guidance with "stakeholders" including labor unions and the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

She was sharply critical of the CDC's decision to rely on the "honor system" when it came to waiving the mask and social-distancing requirements for those that are vaccinated.

"You need to take into consideration other questions: for example, how can you be sure somebody has truly been vaccinated?" she said. "There's a reason somebody goes into a bar and we card them when they want to buy alcohol."

Dr. Gounder also noted that "some of those who have been most resistant to wearing a mask are also those who unfortunately may be most resistant to getting vaccinated right now. And so that does really pose a risk to other people."

According to the former Biden administration COVID advisor, slightly more than one in four Black Americans are vaccinated, with the rate for Hispanics just a few percentage points higher. She maintained that the CDC should have waited for the vaccination rate in communities of color to hit the 50 percent mark before rolling back the requirements.

"It is the duty of public health not to just look out for the individual, but the population and specifically the most vulnerable among us," Dr. Gounder said at press briefing held after the CDC rollback.

Throughout this pandemic, the political and commercial interests have ignored the warnings from health care unions and then failed to admit when the union predictions came to pass.

It was the nurse unions that warned the CDC's watering down of workplace protections that require the disposal of N-95 masks after each encounter with a patient — done to stretch personal protective equipment inventory — would result in nurses dying and the hospitals where they worked becoming vectors for the virus.

Both things happened. Yet even now, we continue to ignore what these professionals we supposedly honor.

In New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy, who had originally resisted following the CDC mask reset, fell into line on May 23 when he told reporters that he was concerned that New Jersey businesses would lose money because residents would choose to cross the Hudson or Delaware to patronize businesses in neighboring states where there was no longer an indoor mask requirement.

Debbie White, a registered nurse and president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees, New Jersey's largest healthcare union, had initially praised Murphy's holding off and keeping the indoor mask mandate in place.

In an interview, before Murphy's reversal, she said her members will yet again pay the price for expedient CDC guidance.

"It is so alarming because you know it is on the honor system," White said. "We have no way to prove [people are vaccinated]. There's no tracking device that you can scan."

White added that politicians are caving in on the mandate "just because people are just so afraid of losing business, even though it puts food workers and frontline worker at risk again."

White says her union has lost at least seven members to the virus, but that the failure of hospitals to be transparent she really has no way of discerning the actual number. That's important, she says, to be able to flag the failures in infection control to better prepare for the next pandemic.

"We have kept track in our state and across the country of so many different groups where there are outbreaks—we've kept track of Little League teams and communities where there were outbreaks that occurred, but it is not an accident we have not tracked data for health care workers," White said.

Even after New Jersey passed a law earlier this year requiring hospitals be more transparent, White says some are resisting.

"This will trump asbestos for healthcare workers," she predicted

We know that at least 115,000 health care workers have been killed globally by COVID and the spectacular failure of infection control which has meant their families and neighborhoods also paid a price.

Here in the U.S. there's no official government registry of healthcarae workers that passed away of COVID-19. A joint reporting project by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News found that more than 3,600 healthcare workers died from COVID-19 — with 700 of those from New Jersey and New York.

The government's cavalier response to this catastrophic death toll is eerily reminiscent of other comparable historical incidents in which workers were treated as dispoable; for instance, when the Pentagon staged above-ground atomic bomb testing which exposed American soldiers to radiation. The Pentagon justified it as just a cost of doing business.

The ripple effects of healthcare workers' deaths extend beyond these tens of thousands of graves, and will be generational in consequence for the lucky survivors.

On April 6, the medical journal The Lancet Psychiatry published a study of more than 230,000 medical records of surviving COVID patients that indicated one in three COVID-19 survivors were diagnosed with 14 different neurological or psychiatric conditions within six months of their infection.

"Thirty-four percent of survivors were diagnosed with at least one of these conditions, with 13 percent of these people being their first recorded neurological or psychiatric diagnosis," reported Yahoo News. "Mental-health diagnoses were most common among patients, with 17 percent diagnosed with anxiety and 14 percent diagnosed with a mood disorder."

Consider the finding by the New York the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, a non-profit, that 250,000 essential workers in New York state were sidelined by the virus, with another 150,000 experiencing an asymptomatic infection, which health experts warn may have long-term health consequences as described by Lancet Psychiatry.

Ignoring the lived experience of medical professionals and their unions is not just something we do here in the US.

In Japan, the Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association (TMPA), which represents 6,000 medical professionals, recently sent a dire warning to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, and Olympic officials, noting that their country was already in the midst of its fourth and worst spike yet of the virus.

"Viruses are spread by people's movements," wrote the TMPA. "Japan will hold a heavy responsibility if the Olympics and Paralympics work to worsen the pandemic, increasing the number of those who must suffer and die."

The sobering letter continued:

"The medical systems responding to COVID-19 are stretched thin, almost to their limits. The reality is that the entire medical system faces an almost insurmountable hardship in trying our best to respond with coronavirus measures…The doctors and nurses of the medical system who are being asked to respond are already at this point exhausted, and there is absolutely no extra manpower or facility for treatment."
Healthcare workers in Japan are under tremendous strain. As the Guardian reported, "a recent poll by a national hospital workers' union found that more than half of nurses working in Japanese coronavirus wards had considered leaving the profession, with many citing stress, fatigue and fear of infection."

According to the Guardian, the response to the local public health call for cancelation by the IOC was an "insistence that 'sacrifices' must be made to ensure the Games go ahead in Tokyo regardless of the coronavirus situation in Japan" that "sparked a backlash and more calls for them to be cancelled.


Bob Hennelly has written and reported for the Village Voice, Pacifica Radio, WNYC, CBS MoneyWatch and other outlets. He is now a reporter for the Chief-Leader, covering public unions and the civil service in New York City. Follow him on Twitter: @stucknation

How Black Lives Matter is changing the conversation on Palestine

May 31, 2021 

When videos of George Floyd’s killing in the US went viral last year, something world-changing happened: a movement fighting against structural injustice became internationally visible.

While statistics in America and Australia have long shown disproportionate numbers of Black deaths in police custody, too often these numbers have been obscured through institutional counter-claims.

But on May 25, 2020, nine minutes and 29 seconds of footage transformed the rules about what makes news news. Floyd’s killing convinced journalists that a story can tackle the root causes of a violent action, and doing so is crucial to understanding the broader framework of violence in which such actions occur.

Those few minutes made it impossible for others to re-write the history of Floyd’s death: his murder as a product of systemic violence was unambiguous.

Read more: Pain of police killings ripples outward to traumatize Black people and communities across US

When #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) began, it insisted on a conversation that reached into America’s racist past to explain atrocities in the present.

Its power lies in this deeper engagement with systemic issues, amplified through the capacity of social media to reach wider audiences. One example is citizen support for actions defacing public statues of slave traders and colonisers, which have been recognised as symbols of exclusionary and violent national cultures.

Protesters marked the first anniversary of Floyd’s killing last week. Sarah Reingewirtz/AP

BLM highlights Palestinian rights

Now, the tenets of BLM are amplifying the struggles of Palestinians and making them more visible and understandable to a global audience.

Just as BLM is forcing a reckoning with systemic racism, there is new attention being paid to the origins of the Palestinians’ struggles: settler-colonialism, asymmetric power relations and racial discrimination.

This is central to explaining why public opinion and the media’s reporting on Palestine have shifted profoundly in recent weeks.

This shift can be seen with the #SaveSheikhJarrah campaign on social media, which aimed to bring greater attention to the attempted expulsions of Palestinians from their homes in a neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah.

Sheikh Jarrah became a common theme at protests after the Israel-Hamas violence broke out earlier this month. Etienne Laurent/EPA

The campaign created new awareness of the context behind these actions, in part triggered by a widely shared video on social media depicting a Jewish settler telling a Palestinian resident, “If I don’t steal your home someone else will steal it”.

This repudiates Israel’s insistence the broader conflict between Israel and the Palestinians be relegated to the past. The context around the expulsions has become inseparable from the violence itself, making history central to the present crisis.

Read more: Israel-Palestinian violence: why East Jerusalem has become a flashpoint in a decades-old conflict

This new style of messaging has also elevated the voices of people like writer Mohammed El-Kurd, one of the spokespeople for the campaign, who has appeared on major American news outlets describing the issue in terms of settler-colonialism and apartheid. After interviews on CNN and MSBNC, he was detained by Israeli security forces.

El-Kurd previously told his story in the 2012 documentary about Sheikh Jarrah, My Neighbourhood, at the age of 11. His articulate explanations and poise in interviews have resonated with audiences, bringing new clarity to millions about the situation Palestinians face.

Recognition of Palestinian Struggle

Through all of this, Israel’s claim of self-defence to explain its actions in Gaza is being challenged by a wider recognition of the government’s violations of international law.

Just as BLM has garnered increasing public support beyond the African American community in the past year, a broader alliance of prominent voices is rallying behind the Palestinian cause, as well.

The Black Lives Movement itself has tweeted its support for “Palestinian liberation” and ending settler colonialism in all forms.

And Palestinians are finding support from a wide spectrum of political figures, celebrities, athletes and other prominent individuals, wising up to the contradiction of progressive politics that exclude Palestine.

The alt-rock band Garbage, who rejected calls to cancel shows in Israel in 2016, have now used Instagram to support the Palestinians. Another band, Rage Against the Machine, has dismissed criticism from some fans to express its solidarity with Palestinians.

Many prominent figures have avoided wading into politics in the past because they can face a backlash when they do and don’t speak out on issues. But there’s a greater willingness among some to be more vocal on these issues now, a choice that parallels the ethical questions raised by BLM.

In a recent Instagram Live post with El-Kurd, actor and model Indya Moore, for instance, talked about the importance of solidarity between African Americans, Palestinians and Indigenous peoples in their mutual struggles against settler-colonialism and systemic racism.



In the UK, soccer players from Manchester United and Leicester City displayed Palestinian flags on the field after matches and [faced not disciplinary action but applause].

This is striking because not long ago, athletes were threatened with punishments for taking political stands such as kneeling during the national anthem before football games in the US. BLM has changed this — it allowed those with a public platform to advocate on behalf of others without fear of recriminations.
After the ceasefire

The latest ceasefire between Israel and Hamas seems to be holding. But there is a growing recognition ceasefires and calm are not the end of the story in a situation that has dragged on for decades.

The calls for change are continuing. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said after the ceasefire it’s time for the “root causes” of the conflict to be addressed. And Palestinian solidarity rallies have seen huge turnouts since the ceasefire went into effect.

Read more: As the Palestinian minority takes to the streets, Israel is having its own Black Lives Matter moment

All these changes owe a debt to the impact BLM has had on public understanding, combined with the success of First Nations people’s “nothing about us without us” campaign on representation. This has forced the issue in Australia, highlighting the systemic bias of media coverage that ignores Palestinian voices.

However, change will not only require the sustained efforts by Palestinian people themselves, but also through the deep-rooted solidarity they have forged with other marginalised communities. That work continues.

AUTHOR

Micaela Sahhar
Lecturer, History of Ideas, Trinity College, The University of Melbourne
Disclosure statement

Micaela Sahhar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Partners

Mandryk: Kamloops gives us a chance to better understand residential school wrongs

Murray Mandryk 

REGINA LEADER POST

Maybe it’s because we’ve had a few decades to learn about the horrors of Canadian residential schools — an entire generation has been taught in our classrooms — that we are finally starting to understand.

© Provided by Leader Post Children's shoes in a display to represent children who died while in Canada's residential school program are seen on the steps of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building in Regina on May 31, 2021. BRANDON HARDER/ Regina Leader-Post

First Nations have been trying to teach us their story for decades . Maybe those of us who weren’t taught in school can learn now. We’re never too old.

Maybe it’s because people are suddenly getting that we have been talking about children as young as three years old — little kids placed in shackles and ripped from their parents’ arms for the sole purpose of being taught to be ashamed of who they were.

It is those children who lie in the 215 graves at that former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. — discovered by the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation via ground-penetrating radar. Across this nation, there are thousands more such graves.

There’s something about the grave of a child. We’re all moved by a child’s grave marker, but, evidently, we’re also moved when it isn’t there.

Maybe it’s the very absence of crosses and other such markers that’s making some heed a call to action that was previously ignored.

“There are hundreds of children here in Saskatchewan that also did not return home from residential schools and sanitoriums across the province,” Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron said in a statement.

“It is time that governments follow through with their words of reconciliation and give these families the closure they deserve.”

Maybe this time, we are listening.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has asked for the flags at Parliament Hill and at legislatures across the country, including at the Saskatchewan legislature, to be flown at half staff. Former Saskatchewan justice minister Don Morgan eloquently described it as a reminder that “215 souls haunt us and forever serve as a voice telling us of their loss and how much more each of us must do.”

Monday was Orange Shirt Day, which now commemorates residential school survivors. Hashtags #remember215 and #215children were trending on Twitter. We are seeing an online petition to — as Morgan suggested — follow the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Maybe it’s because the past 15 months of a pandemic have made us a little more sensitive to human suffering, but we may be getting it in a way we once didn’t.

Whatever the reason, very ordinary folk have been sincerely moved by the Kamloops story. They want to do something … or at least better understand.

We should be under no illusion this will come easy.

Less than a year ago, th e Saskatchewan Party government went to court to kick Tristen Durocher and those teepees off its legislative lawn because the grass was more important than his message about Indigenous youth suicides that link directly to families still struggling with their residential school history.

It was also less than a year ago that deposed federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer offered his spirited defence of good ol’ Sir John A.’s statue that people wanted out of Regina’s Victoria Park because of his residential school policy.

Few human instincts are worse than the blind need to defend all aspects of the cultural history to which one identifies.

Maybe now is the time to stop memorializing Nicholas Flood Davin (the Leader-Post’s founder, namesake of the former Davin School and the person who recommended Macdonald use the U.S. model of Indian residential schools), Edgar Dewdey (Indian Commissioner at the time) or Bishop Vital Grandin (of Bishop Grandin Boulevard that runs through Winnipeg’s St. Vital neighbourhood) who said in 1875 that the goal of residential schools was so Indigenous kids would “be humiliated when reminded of their origin.”

And maybe Kamloops will force us to confront our living history.

The residential school legacy includes the Gordon First Nation School near Punnichy, once run by the Anglican Church, and its former director William Peniston Starr, who pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sexual abuse as recently as 1993.

Maybe those graves in Kamloops have people thinking about residential schools in a way they haven’t before.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

THE LIBERALS PROMISE THE NDP MAKES 'EM DELIVER

Trudeau vows ‘concrete action’ after discovery of 215 bodies at former residential school site

Rachel Gilmore 

GLOBAL NEWS

Warning: Some of the details in this story may be disturbing to some readers. Discretion is advised.

© Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press Delhia Nahanee, of the Squamish Nation, places a rose on one of 215 pairs of children's shoes on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery as a memorial to the 215 children whose remains have been found buried at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, in Vancouver, on Friday, May 28, 2021. Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation said in a news release Thursday that the remains were confirmed last weekend with the help of a ground-penetrating radar specialist.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is vowing to act after the bodies of 215 children, some as young as three years old, were discovered in unmarked graves at a former B.C. residential school site.

The discovery has led to calls for action from Indigenous leaders, politicians, and residential school survivors alike, with many saying that similar searches should be conducted at the sites of other residential schools.

"We are looking for how we can support Indigenous communities in their grief and in their request for answers," Trudeau said during a Monday press conference.

"I know there will be many, many discussions to be had in the coming days and weeks about how we can best support these communities and get to the truth."

Read more: Grief, sorrow after discovery of 215 bodies, unmarked graves at former B.C. residential school site

Trudeau added that he plans to speak to his cabinet ministers about "the next and further things we need to do to support survivors and the community."

"We promised concrete action, and that’s how we’ll support survivors, families, and Indigenous peoples," he said

Duration 3:15

‘We’re going to fight for justice for you’: Jagmeet Singh on residential school burial sites


The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in Kamloops announced Thursday that ground-penetrating radar uncovered the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

In existence from 1890 to 1978, and with a wide regional grasp, Kamloops had the largest school in the Indian Affairs residential school system. One report says enrollment peaked in the early 1950s at 500 students.

The community "had knowledge" of the missing children, according to Tk’emlups Chief Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir.

“Some were as young as three years old,” Casimir said.

"We sought out a way to confirm that knowing out of deepest respect and love for those lost children and their families, understanding that Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is the final resting place of these children.”

Read more: ‘Every site checked’: FSIN demand governments search residential school sites for remains

But this discovery may simply be scratching the surface, according to Cindy Blackstock, who serves as executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.

"They need to fully fund the work that needs to be done to identify the unmarked graves of children across Canada, because there are many, many more," Blackstock said.

That was exactly the recommendation made in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 2009 report, which called on the federal government to fund a search for further unmarked graves to the tune of $1.5 million. The government in power at the time, led by former prime minister Stephen Harper, refused the demand.

Video: ‘The country is reeling’: Singh comments on discovery of children’s remains at site of former B.C. residential school

In the 2019 budget, the federal government infused over $33 million into developing and maintaining a registry of residential school deaths, as well as working to maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries.

And as the conversation about searching other residential school sites continues, Trudeau says he's bracing for further discoveries.

"I fear, but also hope that we are going to see similar actions from other governments across the country that will lead to discoveries of even further tragedies," he said.

more to come

— with files from Global News' Doyle Potenteau

BLACK STAKEHOLDER CAPITALI$M

Black Economic Consciousness: Using the Greenwood District model as the blueprint

Opinion: O.W. Gurley’s investments in Greenwood's Black Wall Street is an economic model of community determination, economic power, and resilience

Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon
May 31, 2021

The “Black Wall Street” sign is seen during the Juneteenth celebration in the Greenwood District on June 19, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)

When O.W. Gurley, a wealthy African American from Arkansas, moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and purchased over 40 acres of land, he committed to selling said land to Black people only. His investments would become an economic model of community determination, economic power, and resilience known now to us as Black Wall Street.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Black dollar circulated 19 to 36 times, staying in the community for almost a year. Black prosperity was a lived experience for thousands of Black Oklahomans, many transplants, seeking refuge and liberation from the suffocating grip of the South.

When I saw the 2018 film Black Panther, I saw a futuristic version of those all-Black American towns that embodied the core principles of Black Wall Street — wealth circulation and creating an economic system that was for us, by us. However, Black Wall Street was not solely derived from imagination. It was an economically thriving community, built from necessity and sheer determination.

Historian Hannibal Johnson describes the experience for Black residents in many cities across the country as one where we “were shut out of the mainstream economy.” The Greenwood District, comprising 35 blocks, was derived from a vision to intentionally create pathways for economic stability and acceleration for the Black residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Vision and intentionality led Greenwood District to become one the most successful — and until recently — lesser-known Black enclaves in America’s history.

Greenwood District also known as “Black Wall Street.”

 (Photo: Black Wall Street Times)

I first learned of Black Wall Street during my matriculation at Tougaloo College, a private HBCU in Jackson, Mississippi. I remember sitting in Dr. William Woods‘s African American history class. He, the quintessential HBCU professor, shared his genius, often with a book in hand that he never opened. With gentle candor, he painted the colorful history of this prosperous district in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I can still see how his voice lifted Black banks, Black theaters, Black insurance agencies, Black beauty salons, and Black ownership from the ashes of a massacre and made them come to life for a class of hungry and deprived minds.

Yet, as Dr. Woods’s lectures reminded us, America’s history has proven that as Black communities ascend, peril is imminent and wholly devastating.

On May 30, 1921, I imagine the day started like many days before. It was Spring. Birds chirped. Rudbeckias, irises, and peonies were in full bloom. Business owners opened their shops. Fathers read The Tulsa Star. Handshakes, head nods, loved ones were kissed, boys ragging on each other, children running up and down the street, mothers calling do not mess up your school clothes, shoes being shined, and babies coming into a world innocent and unaware were born.

Wikimedia: Tulsa Race Riot

America is filled with juxtaposition.

Also on May 30, 1921, Dick Rowland would be accused of assaulting a white woman on an elevator. Within the next 48 hours, led by a bigoted white mob, one of the most horrific massacres in America’s history would take place. Hundreds of Black people killed, flames dancing across family photos as thousands of homes burned to the ground. Hundreds of businesses were destroyed as hate ripped a community and an economy apart. The final insult –erasure from American history books.

The consistent under-told narrative in America’s history entails the horrific aftermaths of white resentment when white American’s economic power is threatened. As detailed in The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap, whether it be Tulsa, Oklahoma, Durham or Wilmington, North Carolina, when Black people have done the impossible act of pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps, we have been bombed, our dreams have been burned. Policies have been written to create seemingly impassable barriers and oppressive infrastructure has been built to dismantle our progression. We find ourselves endeavoring, always yet again striving to create legacies from trauma and ashes.

Read More: 100 years after Tulsa Massacre, fight remains for insurance companies to pay up

Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “the more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.” Knowing my history led to my current work as the CEO and founder of the Village Market. Black Wall Street is my blueprint. I am driven by O.W. Gurley’s prolific example of collective consciousness and upward mobility.

Without hard numbers, based on the economic strength of the Greenwood District, it is still evident that the greater money circulation in a community, advances economic mobility and opportunities for land, commercial, business, homeownership and wealth creation within a community. 

Home construction continues at a housing development where building had been dramatically slowed during the recession on December 22, 2009 in Santa Clarita, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Black ecosystem building is not a thing of the past. It’s what Black Americans should presently lean into and many are. Establishing a community-driven model that is focused on boosting the Black economy has facilitated the exchange of $5.3 million from the Village Market directly to Black businesses. As businesses shuttered during the pandemic, the Village Market opened a collective retail space, the Village Retail, that houses over 30 rotating Black-owned businesses in one of the most successful shopping districts in Atlanta.

It’s thriving. It’s thriving because it’s built intentionally for the advancement of Black businesses with verticals in place that directly connect the businesses to tangible resources, provide access to industry leaders, and open knowledge sharing by way of our retail readiness academy and our ELEVATE program. During the pandemic, businesses have witnessed a surge in sales and an increase in social engagement.

One company indicates that before joining Village Retail, their average sales were between $300 to $500 per month. Being featured in the retail store, the sales skyrocketed by 3761.7%, with an average monthly sales of $11,585 in November and December. In 2021, the monthly sales average so far is $7,804, still a significant increase from prior sales before participation in Village Retail (2501.3%).

Weathered Not Worn data indicates, 175% increase in sales and Love Ground shares that their website page views have also increased by 65.7%. We are positioning Black businesses directly to a larger ecosystem of consumers. More importantly, Black businesses experience the safety of a beloved community that only aspires for collective success.

Intentionally building and buying Black are two important ways to ensure Black communities survive. Community land trust and community ownership models such as the Guild and organizations like Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative and RICE are pathways to build community wealth and preserve historic Black neighborhoods. Establishing funds such as the Fearless Fund and Collab Capital ensures that Black founders receive the capital they need to scale their businesses. Shared ownership models are another way to create wealth, establish ownership and determine what happens within a community.

Tracey Pickett, founder and CEO of Hairbrella and Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner of Collab Capital, and I partnered to purchase a commercial property in Castleberry District, which is a historic Black community in Atlanta. Moving Black communities from surviving to thriving, takes collective ingenuity, collaboration, and the willingness to strategically build in tandem.

What I know to be true, vision is often rooted in our ancestors who whisper to us in dream states, telling us what to build and how to build. Always in my dreams, I see shared prosperity, and us building like O.W. Gurley did — intentionally together.



Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon is a transformational leader, speaker, educator and the Founder and CEO of The Village Market, an Atlanta based business dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs by connecting them to engaged consumers, impactful resources and investors. A leader in bringing national exposure to black-owned businesses, The Village Market reaches small businesses in 21 states and 4 countries and has an official partnership with The Bahamas.

SEE PROUDHON ON PEOPLES BANKING 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36744742-proudhon-and-his-bank-of-the-people

BREAD & ROSES

French feminists use baguettes to raise awareness about domestic violence

The French eat 10 billion baguettes every year.

By Ibtissem Guenfoud
31 May 2021,

Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
Woman hold placards during a protest march denouncing violence against women in Paris, Sept. 3, 2019.

French feminist collective uses baguettes to fight domestic violence
The French feminist group #NousToutes -- the equivalent of #MeToo in France -- is leading an a...

PARIS -- A French feminist organization is using the favored French bread as a means to fight against domestic violence. The "NousToutes" ("MeToo" in French) collective is leading an awareness campaign called "Baguettes against domestic violence," which has already reached 1,000 bakeries across France, according to the campaign’s founder.

MORE: French women use code words at pharmacies to escape domestic violence during coronavirus lockdown

The bags the loaves come in feature information on hotlines to call, as well as educational messages to help identify domestic abuse.

Every year, 225,000 women report being victims of physical or sexual violence in France, according to the French government.

The coronavirus crisis also led to an increase in reports of domestic violence in Europe, according to a preliminary overview published by the European Institute for Gender Equality during the three national lockdowns.

Sexual violence hotlines saw a 70% increase in calls in 2020 alone, the director of the National Federation of Women’s Solidarity, Françoise Brié, told ABC News.

The choice of the bread bag as a communication medium is far from trivial. The French eat 10 billion baguettes every year, according to France's Bread Observatory. Bakeries may be some of the most accessible places for vulnerable women in the country, as even the most isolated of them typically leave the house to buy their morning bread.

MORE: City fined for hiring too many women

The three-month old initiative is already crossing borders, with activists in Belgium, Poland, Italy and Switzerland planning a launch in their cities, according to NousToutes member Laura Jovignot.

"140 mayors already reached out to ask for similar operations to be done in their towns and cities," Jovignot told ABC News. Jovignot, 23, had launched a crowdfunding campaign after coming up with the idea of the campaign, and in a few weeks raised nearly $40,000 for the operation.

Overconfidence in news judgement

New study shows that overconfidence in news judgment is associated with false news susceptibility

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

Research News

 

A new study published in Proceedings of National Academics of Sciences finds that individuals who falsely believe they are able to identify false news are more likely to fall victim to it. In the article published today, Ben Lyons, assistant professor of communication at the University of Utah, and his colleagues examine the concern about the public's susceptibility to false news due to their inability to recognize their own limitations in identifying such information.

"Though Americans believe confusion caused by false news is extensive, relatively few indicate having seen or shared it," said Lyons. "If people incorrectly see themselves as highly skilled at identifying false news, they may unwittingly be more likely to consume, believe and share it, especially if it conforms to their worldview."

Lyons and his colleagues used two large nationally representative surveys with a total of 8,285 respondents. Individuals were asked to evaluate the accuracy of a series of Facebook headlines and then rate their own abilities to discern false news content. Lyons used these two measures to assess overconfidence among respondents and how it is related to beliefs and behaviors.

"Our results paint a worrying picture. Many people are simply unaware of their own vulnerability to misinformation."

The vast majority of respondents--about 90 percent--reported they are above average in their ability to discern false and legitimate news headlines. Three in four individuals overestimated their ability to distinguish between legitimate and false news headlines and respondents placed themselves 22 percentiles higher than their score warranted, on average. About 20 percent of respondents rated themselves 50 or more percentiles higher than their score warranted.

"Using data measuring respondents' online behavior, we show that those who overrate their ability more frequently visit websites known to spread false or misleading news. These overconfident respondents are also less able to distinguish between true and false claims about current events and report higher willingness to share false content, especially when it aligns with their political leanings."

Prior research suggests it may be individuals' lack of skill itself that drives engagement with false news and finds that people who are worse at discerning between legitimate and false news are worse at doing so in their browsing habits. However, Lyons' analysis also shows that inflated perceptions of ability are independently associated with engaging with misinformation, suggesting the perceptual gaps are an additional source of vulnerability.

These results provide new evidence of an important potential mechanism by which people may fall victim to misinformation and disseminate it online. Although the design does not identify the causal effect of overconfidence, these findings suggest that the mismatch between one's perceived ability to spot false stories and people's actual abilities may play an important and previously unrecognized role in the spread of false information online.

After publication, find the full study here.

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Sri Lanka police investigate fire on ship off Colombo

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A special Sri Lankan police team has begun investigating a fire on a ship anchored off its capital, as the government seeks to take legal action against the vessel's owners over the incident, which has caused severe marine pollution, officials said Monday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The fire on the MV X-Press Pearl has been burning since May 20, ravaging the ship, which officials said is only about five months old.

Navy spokesman Capt. Indika de Silva said the flames are still burning but have been reduced to “small spot fires” in the aft of the ship. Firefighting tugboats continue to spray the vessel, with support from vessels from the Sri Lankan navy and Indian coast guard.

Police spokesperson Ajith Rohana said a special 10-member team from the police Criminal Investigation Department has been assigned the probe. It is to question the ship's captain and chief engineer on Monday.

The vessel’s 25-member crew was evacuated on May 25 after an explosion. It includes Philippine, Chinese, Indian and Russian nationals.

The navy believes the fire was caused by chemicals being transported on the Singapore-flagged ship. It was carrying 1,486 containers, including 25 tons of nitric acid and other chemicals that were loaded at the port of Hazira, India, on May 15. The fire has destroyed most of the ship’s cargo.

Debris — including several tons of plastic pellets used to make plastic bags — from the burning ship has washed ashore and is causing severe pollution on beaches. The government has banned fishing along about 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the coast.

Authorities have also warned residents not to touch the debris because it could be contaminated with harmful chemicals.

The government’s Marine Environment Protection Authority says chemicals have mixed with the seawater and could cause severe damage to marine species and coral reefs.

Local television channels are showing dead fish, turtles and other marine life that has washed ashore in recent days.

The X-Press Pearl was anchored about 9.5 nautical miles (18 kilometers) northwest of Colombo and waiting to enter its port when the fire began.

X-Press Feeders, the operator of the ship, said on Sunday that the vessel’s hull remains structurally intact and there has been no loss of oil into the port’s waters.

Bharatha Mallawarachi, The Associated Press

Sri Lanka faces disaster as burning ship spills chemicals on beaches

Hannah Ellis-Petersen South Asia correspondent 

Sri Lanka is facing the worst environmental disaster in its history after a cargo ship carrying chemicals caught fire off its coast, spilling microplastics across the country’s pristine beaches and killing marine life.

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

The fire on MV X-Press Pearl, a Singapore-registered ship, broke out on 20 May and has been burning ever since. The Sri Lankan navy and Indian coastguard have been trying to reduce the flames for more than 10 days.

The 25-person crew was evacuated but the firefighting operation has been complicated by monsoon winds and the highly flammable and poisonous cargo. The ship was carrying 25 tonnes of nitric acid, sodium hydroxide and other dangerous chemicals as well as 28 containers of raw materials used to make plastic bags. It also had more than 300 tonnes of fuel in its tanks.

Though officials said the worst of the fire had been extinguished, explosions continued to be heard and thick smoke and small flames could be seen from the vessel over the weekend, which is anchored nine miles off the capital, Colombo.

It is feared the chemical spill has already caused untold damage to Sri Lanka’s coastline, including the popular tourist resorts of Negombo and Kalutara, with beaches thickly coated in microplastics and an oil slick visible in the surrounding ocean. The plastic pellets used to make plastic bags can be fatal to marine life and dead sea turtles, fish and birds have already begun washing up on beaches.

© Provided by The Guardian An Indian coastguard ship tries to douse the fire as smoke billows from MV X-Press Pearl. Photograph: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images

Local people have been told not to touch any of the debris as it could be highly toxic and fishing has been banned within a 50-mile radius of the scene.

“With the available information so far, this can be described as the worst disaster in my lifetime,” said Dharshani Lahandapura, the chair of the Marine Environment Protection Authority. The MEPA said the chemicals had leaked into the sea and contaminated the water, probably causing ecological damage to coral reefs, lagoons and mangroves that could take decades to repair.

© Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images Members of the Sri Lankan navy work to remove debris washed ashore from the MV X-Press Pearl in Colombo.

Thousands of navy personnel in protective gear have been deployed on a cleanup operation to remove the thick layer of plastic pollution and chemical waste that has begun coating the shores, with bulldozers used to move the waste.

The government has promised an investigation into the disaster and a special police team has been assembled to question the captain and crew. Authorities believe the disaster was caused by a nitric acid leak.

Sri Lanka questions burning cargo ship crew as ecological devastation assessed

Sri Lanka's criminal investigators began questioning the crew of a burning cargo ship Monday, as the Singapore-registered carrier smouldered for a 12th straight day in one of the island's worst-ever marine ecological disasters.