It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Luxury Boston hotel lets go workers, even as it reopens Itsva Serrano, front office manager at the Sheraton Commander Hotel, in Cambridge, Mass., opens a door at the front entrance to the hotel near a sign with a coronavirus health advisory, Wednesday, June 10, 2020. In phase 2 of the state's plan to reopen the state, beginning Monday, June 8, hotels and motels are allowed to accept all guests, not just essential workers. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) 1/4 https://apnews.com/add226250d5cc6863ca450200bcbe428
BOSTON (AP) — One of Boston’s most luxurious hotels has let go about half its staff even though hotels in Massachusetts are now allowed to reopen under phase 2 of Gov. Charlie Baker’s coronavirus economic recovery plan.
The nearly 200 workers laid off by the Four Seasons were told they would be able to reapply for their jobs, but some tell The Boston Globe they received less than half the severance they were entitled to.
The hotel, located on Boylston Street and overlooking the Public Garden, furloughed employees after closing March 24, then conducted the layoffs last month. It is currently taking reservations starting June 23.
The state’s hotels were allowed to reopen to guests on Monday, but still aren’t allowed to schedule any events, functions or meetings.
“The impact of COVID-19 on the travel and hospitality industry has been devastating and Four Seasons Hotel Boston is not immune,” hotel management said in a statement. “The extreme loss of revenues has forced us to make some difficult decisions to reduce costs while managing the short- and long-term business realities. This includes permanent layoffs.”
Unite Here Local 26 President Carlos Aramayo is concerned that the layoffs are the beginning of widespread terminations in the lodging industry in an attempt to permanently eliminate jobs or start over with a lower-paid workforce. The hospitality workers’ union is assisting the Four Seasons staff, which is not unionized.
Mass layoffs in the industry would disproportionately affect people of color, he said.
With the help of the union, 46 former Four Seasons employees sent a letter to hotel management rejecting the “disrespectful, even insulting” severance offer.
DUH OH! Milley says he was wrong to accompany Trump on church walk In this June 1, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump departs the White House to visit outside St. John's Church, in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night. Walking behind Trump from left are, Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Milley says his presence “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” He called it “a mistake” that he has learned from. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Army Gen. Mark Milley, the nation’s top military officer, said Thursday he was wrong to accompany President Donald Trump on a walk through Lafayette Square that ended in a photo op at a church. He said his presence “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”
“I should not have been there,” the Joint Chiefs chairman said in remarks to a National Defense University commencement ceremony.
Trump’s June 1 walk through the park to pose with a Bible at a church came after authorities used pepper spray and flash bangs to clear the park and streets of largely peaceful protesters demonstrating in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minnesota in police custody Milley’s statement risked the wrath of a president sensitive to anything hinting of criticism of events he has staged. It comes as Pentagon leaders’ relations with the White House are still tense after a disagreement last week over Trump’s threat to use federal troops to quell civil unrest triggered by Floyd’s death.
Milley said his presence and the photographs compromised his commitment to a military divorced from politics.
“My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics,” Milley said. “As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”
After protesters were cleared from the Lafayette Square area, Trump led an entourage that included Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper to St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he held up a Bible for photographers and then returned to the White House.
Esper had not said publicly that he erred by being with Trump at that moment. He told a news conference last week that when they left the White House he thought they were going to inspect damage in the Square and at the church and to mingle with National Guard troops in the area.
The public uproar following Floyd’s death has created multiple layers of extraordinary tension between Trump and senior Pentagon officials. When Esper told reporters on June 3 that he had opposed Trump bringing active-duty troops on the streets of the nation’s capital to confront protesters and potential looters, Trump castigated him in a face-to-face meeting.
Just this week, Esper and Milley let it be known through their spokesmen that they were open to a “bipartisan discussion” of whether the 10 Army bases named for Confederate Army officers should be renamed as a gesture aimed at disassociating the military from the racist legacy of the Civil War.
The Marine Corps last week moved ahead with a ban on public displays of the Confederate Army battle flag on its bases, and the Navy this week said it plans a similar ban applied to its bases, ships and planes. Trump has not commented publicly on those moves, which do not require White House or congressional approval.
Milley used his commencement address, which was prerecorded and presented as a video message in line with social distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic, to raise the matter of his presence with Trump in Lafayette Square. He introduced the subject to his audience of military officers and civilian officials in the context of advice from an Army officer and combat veteran who has spent 40 years in uniform
He said all senior military leaders must be aware that their words and actions will be closely watched.
“And I am not immune,” he said, noting the photograph of him at Lafayette Square. “That sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society.” He expressed regret at having been there and said the lesson to be taken from that moment is that all in uniform are not just soldiers but also citizens.
“We must hold dear the principle of an apolitical military that is so deeply rooted in the very essence of our republic,” he said. “It takes time and work and effort, but it may be the most important thing each and every one of us does every single day.”
Milley also expressed his outrage at the Floyd killing and urged military officers to recognize as a reflection of centuries of injustice toward African Americans.
“What we are seeing is the long shadow of our original sin in Jamestown 401 years ago,” he said, referring to the year in which the first enslaved Africans arrived on the shores of colonial Virginia.
Milley said the military has made important progress on race issues but has much yet to do, including creating the conditions for a larger proportion of African American officers to rise to the military’s senior ranks. He noted that his service, the Army, has just one African American four-star general, and mentioned that the Air Force is about to swear in the first-ever African American service chief.
Top US general says wrong to appear with Trump at protest site
AFP/File / Brendan SmialowskiDonald Trump walks with Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley (R) at his side and Defense Secretary Mark Esper (middle) just behind him on June 1 to a church near the White House where Trump posed for pictures
America's top general said Thursday he was wrong to appear with President Donald Trump in a photo op near the White House last week, staged after the area was forcefully cleared of anti-racism protesters.
"I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of military involvement in domestic politics," General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of the controversial June 1 incident.
Milley's comments appeared likely to further strain the already fraught relations between US military leaders and the White House.
Relations have frayed over Trump's move to involve the Pentagon in efforts to quell protests and looting around the country following the killing of African American George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer.
- Battle uniform -
AFP/File / Brendan SmialowskiUS President Donald Trump holds up a bible in front of St John's Episcopal Church after walking across Lafayette Park from the White House in Washington, DC on June 1
Milley and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper were both strongly criticized for participating in what was widely seen as a political show by Trump, who walked with officials from the White House to pose in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, holding up a bible.
Minutes earlier, hundreds of peaceful protestors were forced from Lafayette Park between the White House and the church by police and national guard troops firing smoke bombs and tear gas-like pepper rounds.
Milley's presence was particularly criticized as he was wearing his camouflage battle uniform.
Normally military officials wear their formal dress uniform when holding meetings in the White House, and for many it implied Milley's support for Trump's stated desire to deploy active duty US troops against protesters.
In a pre-recorded video message, Milley told new graduates of the National Defense University that pictures of him and Esper walking with Trump "sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society."
Trump had summoned Milley and Esper to the White House to discuss the extraordinary measure of using active military troops in addition to national guards to confront protestors.
Pentagon officials have said both had little time to prepare for the meeting, which caught Milley in his battle uniform and Esper as they were headed to a separate non-public meeting.
Nor did they know ahead of time that national guard troops were going to clear the park using chemical munitions to force the protestors out, Pentagon officials said.
Several former holders of Milley's position blasted him and Esper for accompanying Trump and allowing the military to be politicized.
"I am deeply worried that as they execute their orders, the members of our military will be co-opted for political purposes," said former Joint Chiefs chairman admiral Mike Mullen.
- Freedom to protest -
Two days later Esper announced that he would not support Trump's desire to invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act to call up active troops to deal with the protests.
That, according to media reports, infuriated Trump who had to be convinced by White House advisors and senior lawmakers not to fire Esper.
In his speech Thursday, Milley stressed that US citizens have the constitutional right to protest peacefully.
"We should all be proud that the vast majority of protests have been peaceful. Peaceful protests mean that American freedom is working," he said.
"We in the military will continue to protect the rights and freedoms of all American people," he added.
Long seen as radical, Black Lives Matter goes mainstream By DAVID CRARY and AARON MORRISON 1 of 15
In this June 3, 2020, file photo, a protester waves a city of Chicago flag emblazoned with the acronym BLM for Black Lives Matter, outside the Batavia, Ill., City Hall during a protest over the death of George Floyd. Black Lives Matter has gone mainstream — and black activists are carefully assessing how they should respond. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
For much of its seven-year existence, the Black Lives Matter movement has been seen by many Americans as a divisive, even radical force. Its very name enraged its foes, who countered with the slogans “Blue Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter.”
Times have changed — dramatically so — as evidenced during the wave of protests sparked by George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Black Lives Matter has gone mainstream — and black activists are carefully assessing how they should respond.
A few examples of the changed landscape:
Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican stalwart, joined a Black Lives Matter march. Some NASCAR drivers, whose fan base includes legions of conservative whites, embraced the phrase. So did NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. The mayor of Washington ordered the words painted in large letters on a street near the White House. Now, Black Lives Matter Plaza turns up in driving directions from Google Maps.
Like many black activists, Sakira Cook is pleased by such developments but also cautious. She and others worry that businesses and politicians will hijack the slogan without any real commitment to doing the hard work needed to fight racism.
“Black Lives Matter is not just a rallying cry,” said Cook, director of the Justice Reform Program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
“It actually means you have to start to interrogate the systemic racism and inequalities that exist in our society and help to dismantle them. You must make sure you’re not co-opting this for your own purposes.”
The Black Lives Matter movement emerged amid anger over the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the Florida man who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012.
As a slogan, “Black lives matter” soon became as widely heard at protests as “No justice, no peace.”
Nationally, the phrase was praised for its clarity and attacked as strident and hostile toward police. But support grew as the list of slain black people got longer: Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile.
“When we started Black Lives Matter, it was really to have a larger conversation around this country about its relationship to black people,” said Patrisse Cullors, one of three black women who founded the Black Lives Matter Global Network, with chapters throughout the U.S. and in Britain and Canada. “What keeps happening, time and time again, is we’re witnessing black people die on camera, and there is little to no accountability.”
While large donations poured into the new, loose-knit group of black-led grassroots organizations, prominent figures within the movement were subjected to years of rebukes and threats from police, their unions and elected officials. Cullors said she and others were dismissed as too militant to be taken seriously by many of the individuals and corporations in the mainstream that now embrace their message.
In 2018, news reports revealed that the FBI’s counterterrorism division had begun tracking anti-police threats from black activists in the wake of deadly ambushes on police officers in New York, Texas and Louisiana. Many Black Lives Matter activists feared it was a repeat of the Cointelpro era, when the FBI illegally conducted surveillance and sabotage against civil rights groups and other organizations suspected of having links to the Communist Party in the 1950s and ’60s.
Today, the Black Lives Matter movement boasts a following of millions across social media platforms. A coalition known as the Movement for Black Lives, formed in 2014, now includes more than 150 affiliate organizations that have organized around such causes as defunding police departments and reinvesting in struggling black communities.
Its agenda focuses heavily on overhauling police training, the use of force and the punishment of rogue officers. The movement is also pressing to erase economic inequality and disparities in education and health care.
“There are hundreds of thousands of black visionaries around the world that are doing the work that people keep saying, ‘Oh, that’s never going to happen. ... Not in this lifetime,’” Cullors said. “And look what happened. Something gets unlocked, and because we’ve already laid the seeds, we’ve already had the conversations, the people doing the work get to bear the fruit.” Although the current surge of support for the movement is vindicating, it’s not sufficient to realize the original vision, Cullors said.
Malik Shabazz, president of Black Lawyers for Justice, praised “Black lives matter” as “one of the most brilliant and creative phrases of our generation,” one that has won acceptance well beyond the movement.
“There’s a danger it will become co-opted and mainstreamed,” he said. “But right now, anyone in our struggle would be happy more people are using it.”
Shabazz said it is important for black people to remain at the forefront of the movement, even as more Americans of other races voice support.
“It’s up to us that we don’t get happy with a couple of weeks of protest and demonstrations,” he said. “This is a good start. We just have to dig in and stay for the long haul. “
Khalilah Brown-Dean, a political science professor at Quinnipiac University who has written about inequality and criminal justice reform, said uttering the slogan is easy. What comes next matters more.
It’s much more important for public officials and policymakers to inculcate that belief into the very fabric of how they lead and govern,” she said. “Painting a street, marching in a rally, or wearing kente cloth are only useful if these symbolic acts translate into substantive action.”
The counter-slogans that emerged in 2014-15 — “Blue Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” — have surfaced only sporadically in the past two weeks. Plans for a Blue Lives Matter rally in Las Vegas were scrapped after the city’s police department refused to help promote it.
“All Lives Matter,” from the start, angered some black activists who said it minimized the entrenched racism faced by black people.
Last week, longtime Sacramento Kings TV broadcaster Grant Napear resigned after tweeting “ALL LIVES MATTER” when asked his opinion on the Black Lives Matter movement. On Saturday, the top editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer resigned amid a furor over the headline “Buildings Matter, Too.”
As protests grow, Belgium faces its racist colonial past
By RAF CASERT
1 of 17
https://apnews.com/b405027b7232c42b8d9dab407ff87aa1/gallery/5c89763e6f054791a5e3d7f62e636559 In this June 10, 2020, photo, a statue of Belgium's King Leopold II is smeared with paint and graffiti in the center of Brussels. With the protests sweeping the world in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, King Leopold II, who reigned from 1865 to 1909, is now increasingly seen as a stain on the nation. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo) WHITE SUPREMACY ARYAN SUPREMACY IS THE CULTURE OF IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM
BLACK LIVES MATTER IS A GLOBAL RESPONSE
TO THE GLOBALIZED RACISM OF IMPERIALISM
TERVUREN, Belgium (AP) — When it comes to ruthless colonialism and racism, few historical figures are more notorious than Leopold II, the Belgian king who held Congo as his personal property and may have been responsible for the deaths of millions of Congolese more than a century ago.
Yet across Belgium, the monarch’s name is still found on streets and tunnels. Cities are dotted with his statues and busts, even as evidence of his misdeeds has piled up over the decades.
Now a reckoning seems to be at hand.
The protests sweeping the world after George Floyd’s death in the U.S. have added fuel to a movement to confront Europe’s role in the slave trade and its colonial past. Leopold is increasingly seen as a stain on the nation over which he reigned from 1865 to 1909. Demonstrators want him removed from public view.
In just the last week, a long-running trickle of dissent that resulted in little more than occasional vandalism has turned into a torrent, with statues of Leopold defaced in a half-dozen cities. In the port town of Antwerp, where much of the Congolese rubber, minerals and other natural riches entered the nation, one statue was burned and had to be removed for repairs. It is unclear whether it will ever come back.
“When you erect a statue, it lauds the actions of who is represented. The Germans would not get it into their head to erect statues of Hitler and cheer them,” said Mireille-Tsheusi Robert, president of the Congolese action group Bamko-Cran, which wants all Leopold statues removed from Belgian cities. “For us, Leopold has committed a genocide.”
On Wednesday, an internet petition to rid the capital, Brussels, of any Leopold statue swept past 70,000 signatures. Also this week, regional education authorities promised history course reforms to better explain the true character of colonialism. And at the University of Mons in southern Belgium, academic authorities removed a bust of the king, saying they wanted to make sure “nobody could be offended by its presence.”
Similar efforts are unfolding in Britain, where at least two statues of prominent figures connected to the slave trade have been taken down by protesters or city officials. London’s mayor has promised a review of all monuments. In the U.S., protesters tore down a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis along Richmond, Virginia’s famed Monument Avenue on Wednesday night. The death of Floyd has prompted similar Confederate monument removals around the nation.
In Kinshasa, a replica of the main Leopold statue in Brussels had already been relegated to a museum park ages ago. The equestrian bronze was first erected in 1928, but seven years after independence from Belgium in 1960 it was ordered taken down by then dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. In 2005, authorities put it back up, intending it to serve as a reminder of the horrors of colonial rule — with an updated plaque. Only a day later, though, it was removed following a public outcry. For the last decade, it has sat in a park of colonial monuments.
In this June 9, 2020, photo, the bust of Belgium's King Leopold II is smeared with paint and graffiti on the grounds of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. With the protests sweeping the world in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, King Leopold II, who reigned from 1865 to 1909, is now increasingly seen as a stain on the nation. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Leopold ruled Congo as a fiefdom, forcing many of its people into slavery to extract resources for his personal profit. His early rule, starting in 1885, was famous for its brutality, which some experts say left as many as 10 million dead.
After his ownership of Congo ended in 1908, he handed the central African country over to the Belgian state, which continued to hold sway over an area 75 times its size until the nation became independent in 1960.
Leopold has come to symbolize the racism and inequality citizens of Congolese descent have had to endure. Next to the royal palace stands an equestrian statue with Leopold gazing solemnly toward the horizon. On Wednesday, his hands and eyes were covered with red paint, and expletives were spray-painted on the side of the monument.
Maximilian Christiaens, an architect with a Congolese mother and Belgian father, who came to see the statue after the defacing, realizes the issue is part of his identity. Since Congo achieved independence, Belgium’s Congolese population has swelled to about 230,000 in a nation of 11 million.
“You know, we feel at home here, but seeing symbols like this in the city and all over the country gives us the opposite signal,” Christiaens said. He would like to see them torn down.
A similar struggle is playing out in the majestic woods east of Brussels in Tervuren, where the palatial Royal Museum for Central Africa stands. It was built over a century ago to glorify Leopold’s colonial exploits and to convince Belgium citizens that their country was delivering civilization to the heart of wild Africa.
In this May 6, 1961, file photo, the bust of former Belgian King Leopold II (1835-1909) lies on the ground on the Avenue General De Gaulle in Stanleyville, Congo. With the protests sweeping the world in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, King Leopold II, who reigned from 1865 to 1909, is now increasingly seen as a stain on the nation. (AP Photo/File)
In this June 9, 2020, photo, the bust of Belgium's King Leopold II is smeared with red paint and graffiti on the grounds of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. With the protests sweeping the world in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, King Leopold II, who reigned from 1865 to 1909, is now increasingly seen as a stain on the nation. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Museum Director Guido Gryseels fully understands the challenges and the sensitivities, especially after a Leopold statue was defaced in the gardens outside the museum last week. He has sought to shift the museum’s views on colonialism into a contemporary reassessment of a flawed past. This week, the Black Lives Matter logo was displayed on digital screens at the museum entrance.
In this June 9, 2020, photo, a sculpture of an elephant and its riders stands outside the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. The present museum was completely renovated in 2018. One of the biggest challenges they faced was presenting a contemporary vision of Africa in a building which had been originally designed as a colonial museum. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
In this photo taken on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, a man stands at the ticket kiosk as a message is displayed on a screen above his head at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. The present museum was completely renovated in 2018. One of the biggest challenges they faced was presenting a contemporary vision of Africa in a building which had been originally designed as a colonial museum. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
As part of a major renovation he oversaw, Gryseels consigned the racist statues of Congolese and the glorifying busts of the Belgian military to the “depot” of outdated sculptures in the museum’s cellars.
“We wanted to keep them somewhere so that the visitors could still see, so that we could explain: ‘This is how we looked at Africa before,’” Gryseels said.
Upstairs, in the grand rooms, the only bust of Leopold on display is made of ivory and aims to explain how the plunder of the country extended to the wholesale slaughter of elephants.
As a listed architectural treasure, Leopold’s royal double L monogram is still plastered all over the building. But Congolese artists have been asked to make a counterpoint, and in the main hall now stands a sculpture of a skull of a Congolese chief who was beheaded by a Belgian. In front of statues that could not be moved because they were protected, there are now transparent drapes with images criticizing Belgian actions in Congo.
In this June 9, 2020, file image from ATV video, a statue of Belgium's King Leopold II is removed from its pedestal, in Antwerp, Belgium. Authorities in Antwerp removed the statue of the country's former monarch Leopold II for repairs on Tuesday after it was damaged during anti-racism protests. (ATV via AP, File)
“It would have been impossible 30 years ago, but there is a step forward,” Robert said. Still, she said the changes do not go far enough and the museum needs to better embrace Congolese in its management structure. Just about everybody acknowledges that Belgian society needs to take a hard look at its past. The Catholic church, the dominant force in education during much of Belgium’s existence, was at worst an active participant in colonialism, at best a passive bystander. And since many Belgians had family members who went to Congo to seek their fortunes, there is a sense of unease in confronting the history of racism and exploitation.
“The amnesia is linked to the money the Belgians made in Congo,” Robert said. For many years, Belgian colonial authorities peddled the idea that the king went to Congo to stop the slave trade, Gryseels said, when it was really “a pretext to make big economic gains.”
Jefferson Davis statue torn down in Richmond, Virginia Associated Press 1 of 6 In this photo provided by @thicketoftrash, police stand near the toppled statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis along Monument Drive, Wednesday night, June 10, 2020, in Richmond, Va. (@thicketoftrash via AP)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Protesters pulled down a more than century-old statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in the former capital of the Confederacy, adding it to the list of rebel monuments damaged as demonstrations continued following the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.
The bronze statue, which stood before a colonnade along Richmond’s fame Monument Avenue, lay on its back with dark paint on its face and an arm outstretched after demonstrators pulled it down late Wednesday.
Police were on the scene and videos on social media showed a crowd cheering as the statue, installed by a Confederate heritage group during the days of legalized segregation in the South, was towed away.
The statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis is splattered with paint after it was toppled Wednesday night, June 10, 2020, along Monument Drive in Richmond, Va. (Dylan Garner/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
The Davis likeness, located a few blocks away from a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that the state is trying to remove, wasn’t the only Confederate memorial to come down within a few hours in Virginia.
About 80 miles (130 kilometers) away, protesters in Portsmouth beheaded and then pulled down four statues that were part of a Confederate monument, according to news outlets.
Efforts to tear one of the statues down began around 8:20 p.m., but the rope they were using snapped, The Virginian-Pilot reported.
In this photo provided by @thicketoftrash, a police officer looks toward the toppled statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis along Monument Drive, Wednesday night, June 10, 2020, in Richmond, Va. (@thicketoftrash via AP)
The crowd was frustrated by the Portsmouth City Council’s decision to put off moving the monument. They switched to throwing bricks from the post that held the plaque they had pulled down as they initially worked to bring down the statue.
The Pilot reported that they then started to dismantle the monument one piece at a time as a brass band played in the streets and other protesters danced.
A protester in his 30s was hit in the head as the monument fell, causing him to lose consciousness, Portsmouth NAACP Vice President Louie Gibbs told the newspaper. The crowd quieted as the man was taken to a hospital. His condition was not immediately clear. Full Coverage: Death of George Floyd
A flag tied to the monument was lit on fire, and the flames burned briefly at the base of one of the statues. In this image from video, police stand near a toppled statue of Jefferson Davis on Wednesday night, June 10, 2020, in Richmond, Va. Protesters tore down the statue of Confederate President Davis along Monument Avenue. The statue in the former capital of the Confederacy was toppled shortly before 11 p.m., news outlets reported. (WWBT-TV via AP) Demonstrators have been removing monuments they see as symbols of the United States’ ingrained racism since naitonal protests began over the death of Floyd, who died after a police officer in Minneapolis pressed down on his neck with a leg for nearly 9 minutes.
While some people say such monuments are important reminders of history, opponents contend the tributes inappropriately glorify people who led a rebellion that sought to uphold slavery. A statue of Christopher Columbus in Richmond was torn down by protesters, set on fire and then submerged into a lake on Tuesday. News outlets reported the Columbus statue was toppled less than two hours after protesters gathered in the city’s Byrd Park chanting for the statue to be taken down.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam last week ordered the removal of an iconic statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which is four blocks away from where the Davis statue stood. A judge on Monday issued an injunction preventing officials from removing the monuments for the next 10 days
The coronavirus spread around the world Confirmed global cases, deaths and recoveries
Thousands sick from COVID-19 in homes for the disabled
FEATURE LONG READ
HOLBROOK MOHR, MITCH WEISS and REESE DUNKLIN 1 of 9 https://apnews.com/bdc1a68bcf73a79e0b6e96f7085ddd34/gallery/5370155263624dddabb9b92265e292bf This 2019 photo provided by the family shows Joe Sullivan, right, of the Chicago-area, with his brother, Neil. When COVID-19 began spreading across the country, Neil prayed it wouldn’t hit Elisabeth Ludeman Developmental Center _ where 346 people live in 40 ranch-style homes spread across a campus that resembles an apartment complex. If it did, he knew his brother and others there would be in danger. (Family photo via AP)
Neil Sullivan was angry, frustrated and crushed with guilt. His brother Joe had been rushed by ambulance from his home for the developmentally disabled to the emergency room with a possible case of the coronavirus. Neil had known the people at the Elisabeth Ludeman Developmental Center near Chicago were at risk. Regulators had flagged the facility over the years for violations such as neglect of residents and not keeping restrooms stocked with soap and paper towels. And now, in the middle of a pandemic, a staffer told Neil they were still short of life-saving equipment like surgical masks, gowns, hand sanitizers and even wipes.
He watched helplessly as COVID-19 tore through Ludeman, infecting 220 residents — more than half the people living there — and 125 workers. Six residents and four staff members would die. Neil was overcome with dread that his 52-year-old brother would be among them.
“You start thinking to yourself, is there something I should have done better?” he said. The outbreak in Ludeman shows the threat of the pandemic to a highly vulnerable population that is flying almost completely under the radar: The developmentally and intellectually disabled. While nursing homes have come under the spotlight, little attention has gone toward facilities nationwide that experts have estimated house more than 275,000 people with conditions such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism. Many residents have severe underlying medical issues that leave them vulnerable to the coronavirus.
FOR PROFIT PRIVATIZED CARE
At least 5,800 residents in such facilities nationwide have already contracted COVID-19, and more than 680 have died, The Associated Press found in a survey of every state. The true number is almost certainly much higher because about a dozen states did not respond or disclose comprehensive information, including two of the biggest, California and Texas.
Many of these places have been at risk for infectious diseases for years, AP found. EVEN WHEN THEY ARE PUBLICLY FUNDED THEY SUFFER FROM AUSTERITY
CUTS TO PAY FOR TAX BREAKS FOR THE 1% AND INCREASED FUNDING TO POLICE TO PROTECT THE 1% FROM THE REST OF US
Perhaps the best-known government-funded homes for the disabled are called Intermediate Care Facilities, which range from large state-run institutions to homes for a handful of people. Before the coronavirus hit, regulators concluded that about 40 percent of these facilities — at least 2,300 — had failed to meet safety standards for preventing and controlling the spread of infections and communicable diseases, according to inspection reports obtained by AP. The failures, from 2013 to early 2019, ranged from not taking precautionary steps to limit the spread of infections to unsanitary conditions and missed signs that illnesses were passing between residents and employees
No such data exists for thousands of other group homes for the disabled because they are less regulated. But AP found those homes have also been hit hard by the virus.
“These people are marginalized across the spectrum,” said Christopher Rodriguez, executive director at Disability Rights Louisiana, which monitors the state’s homes for the disabled. “If you have developmental disabilities, you are seen as less than human. You can see it in education, civil rights, employment. And now, you can see it by how they are being treated during the pandemic.
Advocates are urging the federal government to do more to protect the disabled in congregate settings. They noted that as the virus spread, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) ordered states to provide information to the federal government about COVID-19 infections and deaths in nursing homes. CMS also increased fines and made data about infections in nursing homes available to the public.
But the requirements did not extend to homes for the developmentally disabled, where the overall population is smaller but the virus is still taking a heavy toll.“The lives of people with disabilities in these settings are equally as at risk — and equally as worth protecting — as people in nursing homes,” the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities said in a May 5 letter to Alex Azar, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CMS.
Some states had outdated plans and policies to face a pandemic, said Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network. In Georgia, for example, he said the state’s policy provided for protective equipment for nursing homes, but not homes for the disabled. He said staffing levels and training were already “a crisis” across the country even before the coronavirus. “It was clearly a disaster waiting to happen,” he said.
CMS did not respond to the AP’s questions within two weeks and did not say why requirements are different for nursing homes. For days, the agency said it was working on a statement, but did not provide one.
_______________
As the outbreak spread through Ludeman, Neil felt as helpless as on the day his family dropped Joe off at the facility decades ago.
His parents believed they couldn’t have children, so they adopted Joe. But shortly after, his mother discovered she was pregnant with Neil.
As children, Neil and Joe shared the same room. When Joe developed severe behavioral problems, their parents turned to Ludeman.
To this day, the images of leaving his brother behind at the institution are seared into Neil’s memory. He looked back and glimpsed his brother, staring out a window, wailing.
“It was the most desperate cry you could ever imagine,” he said. “It was a child that knows it’s being left behind by its parents.”
Over the years, Neil looked out for his brother. As his parents got older, he became Joe’s legal guardian, driven by “survivor’s guilt” from that day so long ago when they left Joe behind.
When COVID-19 began spreading across the country, Neil prayed it wouldn’t hit Ludeman — where some 340 people live in 40 ranch-style homes spread across a campus that resembles an apartment complex.
About 66,000 people nationwide live in Intermediate Care Facilities like Ludeman. Even more people live in other types of group homes, which operate under less scrutiny. Nobody, not even the federal government, seems to know exactly how many people live in these homes, which advocates say is another sign of a highly marginalized population.
More than 2,100 homes for the disabled have seen COVID-19 infections among residents or staff, according to the AP survey — an undercount because not all states provided specific information.
The virus poses an especially big risk for the disabled. Some are bedridden or prone to seizures. Others have visual or hearing impairments and are non-verbal, so they can’t articulate when they don’t feel well. And social distancing — one of the key preventive measures for COVID-19 — is nearly impossible because many residents have roommates, share common living areas and need full-time assistance for basic tasks like brushing their teeth.
“You’re dealing with a community that needs constant 24-hour, one-on-one supervision,” said Joe Montemayor, whose union represents employees at homes for the disabled in Texas. “Their reasoning isn’t quite there, so you do your best to teach them about the spread of germs and things like that.”
It’s gotten so bad that some staffers are afraid to report to work, Montemayor said.
Advocates also worry that the special needs and fragile medical condition of the developmentally and intellectually disabled will make them a low priority if hospitals — especially in rural areas — are overrun with COVID-19 patients. Disability rights groups have filed federal civil rights complaints against several states to stop ventilator-rationing proposals, fearing that the disabled will end up last in the line because they may not be able to adhere to protocols after an operation or procedure.
“People with disabilities have just the same right to extend their lives for as long as possible as any other human,” said Elizabeth Priaulx, a legal specialist with the National Disability Rights Network.
For the families, the fear of the virus is compounded by the fact that they can’t visit their loved ones.
Stephanie Kirby’s voice breaks when she talks about her son Petre, who has lived in the Denton State Supported Living Center in Texas for three years. More than 60 of the 443 residents at the large, state-run ICF contracted the virus, according to the local health department. AP found the facility has been flagged seven times for poor infection control practices since 2013.
Petre is 28, but functions on the level of a 4-year-old. Kirby hasn’t seen him since March, when the governor banned visitors to prevent the spread of the disease. It’s the longest they’ve been apart since she adopted Petre from a Romanian orphanage.
Now, Kirby worries not only about Petre’s health, but about the emotional impact the separation might have on him. She doesn’t want him to feel like she has abandoned him — like his family did in Romania. But she fears it’s too late.
Kirby said she’s asked Texas officials all the way up to the governor’s office why they won’t allow her to see her son, and she’s gotten the runaround. On Mother’s Day, Kirby drove to Denton, parked her car outside the front gate and sat there for three hours, crying.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” she said.
Christine Mann, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said the agency is working closely with the facility to prevent the spread of disease. Mann said that infection control violations were “minor incidences” immediately corrected, and that the facility has increased video conferencing and added phone lines to help families.
But for Kirby, that’s not enough. “When will a mom be considered an essential person in the life and health and well-being of her children?” she asked. ________
For Neil, the coronavirus is only the latest of a string of challenges with Joe at Ludeman.
Many staff members have been kind, and Neil praised those who have worked with his brother in recent years. But some of Joe’s teeth were knocked out in the 1990s with no good explanation, Neil said. At other times, Neil suspected Joe didn’t receive the attention he needs.
“There were people there, especially in the past, that really treated them like zoo animals,” Neil said.
Neil tried to move his brother into another institution with more activities, but Joe was turned down because that facility considered him too aggressive. For people like Joe, options are scarce.
Ludeman has been cited dozens of times since 2013, most often for safety violations but also for more serious issues, including mistreatment of residents. While Ludeman was not cited specifically in the infection control category, inspectors noted that staff didn’t always encourage practices like proper hand washing.
Meghan Powers, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Human Services, which oversees the facility, said the high numbers are driven in part by the fact that all residents have been tested.
“It is also sometimes challenging for our residents to adhere to all of the protective measures we are taking,” Powers said.
The agency implemented “many new protocols” at Ludeman and other facilities across the state on March 12 that included creating an infectious disease team, restricting visitors and checking the temperatures for all staff and residents at shift changes, Powers said. She acknowledged that Ludeman had challenges in the past with maintaining soap and paper towels, but she said that problem was solved by improving its supply distribution. And while shortages of personal protection equipment were an issue across the state, staff working directly with sick residents “have never run out or been severely short to date,” Powers said.
Like Ludeman, many other homes for the disabled have struggled to contain outbreaks, AP found.
Nearly half of the 2,300 Intermediate Care Facilities with past problems controlling infections were cited multiple times — some chronically so, over the course of multiple inspections. In dozens of instances, the problems weren’t corrected by the time regulators showed up for a follow-up visit. At least seven times, the safety lapses were so serious that they placed residents’ health in “immediate jeopardy,” a finding that requires make prompt corrections under the threat of a losing government funding.
Inspection reports show that regulators repeatedly found examples of:
_Staff not washing hands while caring for multiple residents or re-using protective gear like gloves and masks.
_Unclean environments, such as soiled diapers or linens left out, insect infestations, dried body fluids and feces on surfaces of common areas.
_Outbreaks of influenza, staph/MRSA and scabies in a small number of cases.
Other types of group homes aren’t included in the data, but it’s clear that many were also poorly prepared to stop the spread of the virus, the AP found. For example, hundreds of group homes in Massachusetts reported positive cases, as well as the state’s two Intermediate Care Facilities, according to the AP and advocacy groups. Advocates say low pay and difficult working conditions have led to high staff turnover and inadequate training, exacerbated by the pandemic.
The outbreak at Ludeman was so bad that the National Guard was called in to help. A family association asking for supplies said Chicago’s Major League Baseball teams donated 2,200 rain ponchos that the staff could use “until disposable gowns are available.”
When Neil got the call that his brother was infected with COVID-19, all the years of frustration spilled over.
“It was just rage,” he said. “I was so upset that I was afraid to talk because I didn’t know what was going to come out of my mouth.”
It didn’t help that he was on his own. His father has Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home fighting its own outbreak; his mother has chronic lung disease.
After finding out his brother was being rushed to the emergency room. Neil called Ludeman’s staff and talked to other families. He was told that the facility was running low on critical items like protective masks, gowns, disinfectant — even anti-bacterial soap.
So he began a drive to collect goods, calling friends and family and reaching out to people on social media. After he had enough supplies, he decided to make a trip to Ludeman. He didn’t even know if they’d let him onto the campus — the facility was on lockdown. But he was going to try.
As he pulled up to the red and brown brick building with white trim, he didn’t know what to expect.
No one stopped him. He jumped out of the car and began unloading the goods. And then he got a surprise. There he was, Joe, sitting in a room with a staff member. Sullivan’s heart raced. He smiled, then waved to his brother through the window.
“I can tell you it made a world of difference because I really, genuinely believed he was going to die until I saw him,” he said. “Once I put my eyes on him, he still didn’t look good. But I believed he was going to pull through.”
In the end, Joe would beat the virus. Others wouldn’t be so fortunate.
Companies touting Black Lives Matter face workforce scrutiny By SALLY HO In this Wednesday, June 10, 2020, photo, Sharon Chuter poses for a portrait in Los Angeles. After hitting the streets to protest racial injustices last week, Chuter was disillusioned by the number of corporate brands posting “glossy” messages spouting support for black lives. The 33-year-old founder of Uoma Beauty, a cosmetics company that caters to black women, launched the #pulluporshutup campaign on Instagram to push brands to reveal the racial makeup of their corporate workforce and executives, and the hashtag has since gone viral. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
SEATTLE (AP) — After hitting the streets to protest racial injustices, Sharon Chuter was disillusioned by the number of corporate brands posting “glossy” messages spouting support for black lives.
The 33-year-old founder of Uoma Beauty, a cosmetics company that caters to black women, came up with a social media challenge to test the sincerity of the companies: She launched the #pulluporshutup campaign on Instagram to push brands to reveal the racial makeup of their corporate workforce and executives
The hashtag has since gone viral, amassing nearly 100,000 Instagram followers in a week. Chuter said it’s a wake-up call for many businesses who couldn’t see or didn’t take seriously enough the silent racism and prejudices that hold black people back in their own workplaces.
“Reflection is painful,” Chuter said. “The truth hurts and I just felt like brands didn’t want to do it.”
As protests over police brutality have erupted across the country over the past two weeks, The Associated Press reviewed the diversity reports of some of the biggest companies pledging solidarity with their black employees as well as the black community, and found that their efforts to recruit, maintain and promote minorities within their own ranks have fallen short.
Microsoft has been posting powerful quotes on Twitter from black employees describing how systemic racism takes a toll on their lives. One employee, Phil Terrill, talked about the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for several minutes, sparking protests around the globe.
“It should not take the death of Black people at this magnitude to inspire everyone to be an ally,” Terrill is quoted as saying.
Only 4.4% of Microsoft’s global workforce across all brands, including retail and warehouse workers, identify as black, and less than 3% of its U.S. executives, directors and managers are black, according to the company’s 2019 diversity and inclusion report.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addressed the issue in an email to employees, saying the company “must change first” if it wants to help change the world, and that it’s investing in its talent pipeline by expanding connections with Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
″In order to be successful as a business in empowering everyone on the planet, we need to reflect the world we serve,” Nadella said.
Amazon is prominently displaying “Black lives matter” on its platforms and its CEO Jeff Bezos has been posting on Instagram racist emails he’s received from consumers who are unhappy with the company for taking a stance.
But the company itself has been accused of hypocrisy for the troubling conditions reported by warehouse workers during the coronavirus pandemic. An AP analysis found that more than 60% of warehouse and delivery workers in most cities are people of color. Amazon’s 2019 workforce data shows about 8% of its managers in the U.S. are black, compared to nearly the 60% of managers who are white. Courtenay Brown, 29, who sorts packages at the Amazon fulfillment center in Avenel, New Jersey, said she feels that Amazon’s messages supporting justice and equal opportunity for blacks are not genuine. She said that most of the employees she works with at the center are people of color, but the higher-ups are white.
“As a black woman, I feel like it is empty words,” she said. “They don’t help our struggles. Everyone wants to join in and profit from us.”
In the U.S., black people account for 12% of the overall workforce, but only 8% of management jobs, said University of Virginia professor Laura Morgan Roberts. The number of black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies peaked in 2002 with 12. Today there are just four.
Roberts’ research looking at the careers of Harvard business school graduates found black alums got fewer prime opportunities, such as global assignments, than white graduates with the same degree.
“They’re saying, ‘We’ve got the qualifications but we can’t get into the inner circle,’” Roberts said.
Adidas, which responded to Floyd’s death and subsequent protests by crossing out the word “Racism” on an Instagram post, acknowledged its own shortcomings after a growing group of employees called out the company for its lack of diversity.
On Tuesday Adidas unveiled several moves to fight racial inequality, including a pledge to fill at least 30% of all new positions in the U.S. at Adidas and Reebok with black and Latino people. It said it will also be announcing a goal aimed at increasing representation of black and Latino people within its workforce in North America.
“The events of the past two weeks have caused all of us to reflect on what we can do to confront the cultural and systemic forces that sustain racism,” said Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted in a statement. “We have had to look inward to ourselves as individuals and our organization and reflect on systems that disadvantage and silence black individuals and communities.”
The Germany-based company didn’t provide a breakdown on the race or ethnicity of its workforce.
Nike has long been viewed as an “insider” brand among black consumers because of its lucrative and high-profile sponsorship deals with prominent African American athletes.
The Portland, Oregon-area company famously took on the racial injustice issue head-on with its ad campaign featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Last week, it revealed a new video ad in response to the protests that bore the words: “For once, don’t do it.” The ad, a twist on its “Do it” motto, urged viewers not to “pretend there’s not a problem in America.”
Yet a look at who is leading the corporate business shows a disconnect between what the brand projects and how it actually operates.
Though whites make up less than half — 43% — of its total U.S. workforce, 77% of its high-ranking vice presidents company-wide are white, according to Nike’s 2019 numbers on representation in its leadership. Meanwhile, just under 10% of vice presidents are black. But that is still a nearly 2% improvement from the previous year.
CEO John Donahoe acknowledged that such progress wasn’t enough, saying in a memo to employees that its “most important priority is to get our own house in order.”
AP writer Anne D’Innocenzio contributed from New York.
USA CAPITALISM IS CRISIS
1.5 million more laid-off workers seek unemployment benefits In this photo taken Thursday, June 4, 2020, a pedestrian wearing a mask walks past reader board advertising a job opening for a remodeling company, in Seattle. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 13.3% in May, and 2.5 million jobs were added — a surprisingly positive reading in the midst of a recession that has paralyzed the economy and depressed the job market in the wake of the viral pandemic. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
WASHINGTON (AP) — About 1.5 million laid-off workers applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, evidence that many Americans are still losing their jobs even as the economy appears to be slowly recovering with more businesses partially reopening.
The latest figure from the Labor Department marked the 10th straight weekly decline in applications for jobless aid since they peaked in mid-March when the coronavirus hit hard. Still, the pace of layoffs remains historically high.
The total number of people who are receiving unemployment aid fell slightly, a sign that some people who were laid off when restaurants, retail chains and small businesses suddenly shut down have been recalled to work.
Last week’s jobs report showed that employers added 2.5 million jobs in May, an unexpected increase that suggested that the job market has bottomed out.
But the recovery has begun slowly. Though the unemployment rate unexpectedly declined from 14.7%, it is still a high 13.3%. And even with the May hiring gain, just one in nine jobs that were lost in March and April have returned. Nearly 21 million people are officially classified as unemployed.
But that doesn’t capture the full scope of the damage to the job market. Including those the government said were erroneously categorized as employed in the May jobs report and those who lost jobs but didn’t search for new ones, 32.5 million people are out of work, economists estimate.
Thursday’s report also shows that an additional 706,000 people applied for jobless benefits last week under a new program for self-employed and gig workers that made them eligible for aid for the first time. These figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations, so the government doesn’t include them in the official count.
In February, the economy fell into a deep recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the association of economists that is the official arbiter of recessions. The Federal Reserve estimated Wednesday that the economy will shrink 6.5% this year. That would be, by far, the deepest annual contraction on records dating to World War II.
Even as restaurants, bars and gyms reopen, they are doing so at lower capacity. And consumer spending on such services remains far below what it was before the viral outbreak. Unemployment benefits are providing significant support for jobless Americans, with total payments having reached $94 billion in May — six times the previous record set in 2010 just after the previous recession. This time, the benefits include an additional $600 a week from the federal government. THE INCREASE IN UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS MEANS AMERICAN WORKERS ARE BETTER OFF NOT WORKING WHICH MEANS THEIR BOSSES NEED TO INCREASE WAGES AND BENEFITS NOT CUTTING BACK ON THESE BENEFITS
But that extra benefit is set to end July 31, and the Trump administration opposes extending it. Its opposition has set up a possible clash with House Democrats, who have approved legislation to extend the $600-a-week in federal benefits for an additional six months.
Republicans in Congress argue that the extra $600, which comes on top of state benefits that average about $375 nationwide, means many of the unemployed are receiving more money from jobless benefits than they earned at their old jobs. Republicans argue that this discourages people from returning to work.
Studies suggest that roughly two-thirds of the recipients are receiving total unemployment aid that exceeds their previous paychecks. But many workers are also wary about returning to their old jobs for fear of contracting the virus. And recipients who receive aid can lose their benefits if they turn down job offers.
Karin Jensen of Concord, California, has been out of work since being laid off from a managerial position with Men’s Wearhouse in late March. Jensen, 27, says she plans to return to her job whenever she is called back and is grateful that her company is continuing employee health care in the meantime.
Jensen acknowledged that receiving the extra $600 has made her less eager to return to work because she is among recipients whose total benefits exceed their former income. But she’s also worried about returning to retail work.
“I’d be in close contact with people,” Jensen said. “We have to measure customers, actually touch them. There’s no way we could do any minimum social distancing if we were to return to business as usual. I’m more than a little uneasy about it.”
