The Rush: Majority of Americans now support NFL players right to protest

Yahoo Sports VideosJun. 11, 2020, 10:32 p.m.

The NFL committed to donating $250 million dollars over ten years, to combat systemic racism and injustices faced by African Americans. A new Yahoo poll shows the percentage of Americans who believe it is appropriate for NFL players to kneel in protest during the National Anthem has gone up from 28% in 2016 to 52% today. We have footage of Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and the Bucs secret practices. LeBron James alongside Trae Young, Kevin Hart and other black athletes and celebrities formed “More than a Vote,” a non-profit, voter rights group that will focus on issues facing the black community. Unlike most people, the Denver Nuggets All-Star big man Nikola Jokic, has lost a considerable amount of weight during the quarantine. Lastly, a day after NASCAR finally banned the Confederate flag, driver Ray Ciccarelli, who has not led a single lap in a NASCAR race this year, announced he does not agree with the direction NASCAR is taking, and will not participate after the 2020 season is over. Hit the road Ray!

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/video/rush-majority-americans-now-support-043233032.html

Commonwealth Games: Athletes to be allowed to take a knee in protest, says Games chief

Reuters Jun. 12, 2020

THE CG ARE POST COLONIAL DEMOCRACIES

THE IOC IS THE VESTIGIAL ARISTOCRACY OF EUROPE 



FILE PHOTO: Athletes train in the Alexander Athletics Stadium after the announcement that it will host the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham

(Reuters) - Athletes competing in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England will be allowed to take a knee in support of worldwide anti-racism movements, competition organisers said.

Several major sports organisations have moved to allow protests at their events following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died on May 25 after a white policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed athletes are still banned from protesting at the Olympic Games but Commonwealth Games organisers said they would respect people's rights to voice their opinions.

"The movement is challenging all institutions to really look introspectively at what we can do to be more fair, more free, have better equality. Sport is no different," Commonwealth Games chief executive David Grevemberg told reporters on Thursday.

"We are comfortable with the uncomfortable conversation and we need to embrace it. We maybe have more responsibility because of the shared history of the Commonwealth so we need to find solutions that don’t build walls but rather build bridges.”

Grevemberg said athlete protests have long been a part of the Commonwealth Games, citing the example of former Australian sprinter Cathy Freeman, who wrapped herself in the Aboriginal flag after winning the 200 and 400 metre races in the 1994 Games. Freeman went on to win the 400 metre race at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, afterwards draping herself in both the Aboriginal and Australian flags.

"The reason her moment was so powerful at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 was because of what she did in Victoria in 1994," Grevemberg added.


(Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

Seattle's CHAZ: Inside the occupied vegan paradise - and Trump's 'ugly anarchist' hell

Andrew Buncombe, The Independent•June 11, 2020

The protests have drawn many hundreds of people to the Capitol Hill neighbourhood of Seattle: Getty

https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/activists with bullhorns, there were artists painting designs on the street.

There were stalls collecting donations for the homeless, others offering vegan curry. There were people posing for images in front of a boarded-up police station, while others sat on the grass. There were people of colour, and there were white people, lots of white people.

But the “ugly anarchists” denounced by Donald Trump on Twitter that very morning? Could it be they existed only in his imagination.

The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, six city clocks close to the centre of Seattle that has become the focus of a protest in the wake of the death of George Floyd, may be many things. Yet an attempt to take over, or occupy the city it is not.

“I think that is a ridiculous circumstance by which they even presented the narrative. This is not an autonomous zone. We’re not trying to secede from the United States,” said a protester called Maurice, asked about the president’s comments.

“None of us are anarchists, as we’re trying to use legislative processes to change the mayor’s narrative for our community. We’re attempting to gain equity. We don’t have guns. There’s very few people who are utilising their second amendment rights.”

The death in police custody last month of Mr Floyd, 46, an unarmed African American men, has sparked protests, most of them overwhelmingly peaceful, across the nation and around the world.

Four police officers involved in the arrest of Mr Floyd were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department. One was charged with second degree murder, while the others with aiding his death.

Meanwhile, as communities across America have tried to reform their police departments and make them truly answerable to the police they are supposed to serve, Mr Trump has sought to project himself as being the “law and order president”. Having been been criticised for suggesting Mr Floyd might be looking down haply from heaven at recent employment numbers, the president has also gone head to head with mayors and governors he believes are being to soft on protesters.

Among those he attacked was Washington state governor Jay Inslee, and Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan, both Democrats. Two weeks ago, a peaceful protest in the centre of Seattle turned violent and more than 50 people were arrested after damage was done to a series of buildings.

Radical Left Governor @JayInslee and the Mayor of Seattle are being taunted and played at a level that our great Country has never seen before. Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stopped IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

June 11, 2020

The mayor imposed a curfew and then proceeded to work with police and community leaders to try and secure calm.

More recently, Ms Durkan told the city police’s chief, Carmen Best, an African American woman, to withdraw unformed officers from the so-called East Precinct, which covers Capitol Hill, a rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood known for its buzzy bars and nightlife.





Thus was born Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, (CHAV), a cross between a sit-in, a protest and summer festival. The zone claims to have no direct leaders, although it has a website.

In recent days, protesters have been organisng teach-ins, and showing Ava DuVernay’s 13th, a 2016 documentary that explores the history of race relations in the US, and takes its name from 13th amendment to the constitution, which abolished slavery.

“Radical Left Governor @JayInslee and the Mayor of Seattle are being taunted and played at a level that our great Country has never seen before. Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stopped IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST,” Mr Trump had tweeted.

Ms Durkan was quick to respond. “Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker,” she said.

A spokesperson for Mr Inslee told The Independent of Mr Trump’s comments: “The president’s claims, as usual, are false.”

Felisha Tyson, a personal trainer, said she been struck by the number of white people who were at the protest, and said it had started to “feel like a block party”.

Yet she said people of colour had a number of white allies in Seattle, just as there were white people who choose to look the other way. “There are going to be a lot of new organisers working in the days ahead,” she said.

Her friend, Ronelle Wheeler, said the city and state had a long history of racism. Yet many people acted as though they were not impacted by it, or its consequences.

Ms Tyson added: “My dad and my uncle tell me crazy stories from the 70s, with police brutality by the Seattle Police Department.”

Silas Korvjund-Zacharov, 23, a metal worker, was sitting outside a tent close to a community garden that had been established in the ground of park.

He was white, and wanted to show his solidarity with the protesters, he said.

Asked about the president’s description of the protesters as anarchists, he said: “My problem with that is anarchy means chaos, are we creating chaos here or are we creating more of a sense of unity.”

He added: “Unfortunately, Donald Trump is one of the biggest morons I’ve ever heard of. He does not know the proper definitions of most things he says. Anarchy is chaos. What we are here trying to do is promote equality and unity in the community.

Seattle protesters set up 'autonomous zone' after police evacuate precinct
SEATTLE HAS A BIG ANARCHIST COMMUNITY

Daniella Silva and Matteo Moschella and Tim Stelloh,
NBC News•June 11, 2020


"THIS SPACE IS NOW PROPERTY OF THE SEATTLE PEOPLE" reads a giant black banner with red lettering at the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone," an area around the abandoned police precinct that demonstrators moved into, setting up tents with plans to stay.

The Seattle Police Department vacated the East Precinct on Monday night, and protesters against the killing of George Floyd and police brutality established the zone, known as CHAZ, and changed the boarded-up building's sign to read "Seattle People Department."


Since then, hundreds of people have been gathering in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, where the atmosphere has been part peaceful protest, part commune, with speeches, distribution of free food, live music, a community garden and late-night movie screenings.

Wednesday night, the atmosphere was "like a block party," Omari Salisbury, a citizen journalist who has been documenting the zone, told NBC News on Thursday morning.

Hundreds of people were out in the protest zone, some playing Frisbee, some enjoying music from a live band and some enjoying a late-night screening of "Paris Is Burning," a documentary about underground LGBTQ dance culture during the mid- to late 1980s. People painted BLACK LIVES MATTER in the middle of the street and renamed two streets BLACK LIVES MATTER Way and BLACK LIVES MATTER Square.

"It was a very jamming situation," he said.

Salisbury said many of the people who have been protesting live and work in the community.

"This is a highly progressive and resilient neighborhood, and they were the protesters," he said. "Outside people come along during the protests, but people who live across the street from the precinct were the people who were at the barricade. People who own businesses over here were at the barricade because of the use of the high level of tear gas," he said.

Image: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle (Lindsey Wasson / Reuters)

"These are the people in the neighborhood protesting against the police precinct. That's what led to all of this," he said.

Courtney Blodgett, 37, a consultant from Seattle, told NBC News that "CHAZ feels like a breath of fresh air."

"People are friendly, calm, helpful and inspired," she said. "I heard multiple conversations of people who want to help further the area — 'How can I donate food? What else can we do?'

"There are discussions of how we can continue to peacefully push for racial justice," she said. "There is a somber and thoughtful sentiment of the people looking at the many tributes to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Charleena Lyles and other black people killed by police."

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best arrived at the precinct with other officers Thursday morning and inspected the building, while other officers stood outside, Salisbury said.

"The officers on the outside of the building have made it clear — they said that they didn't come here for a police action today, but they made it clear they want the building back, and once they have the building back in their hands, they'll be ready to address any community concerns," he said.

A group of community members gathered outside to watch the scene, Salisbury said.

Salisbury said it was unclear whether the officers would eventually leave the precinct later Thursday or whether some planned to remain in the building later in the day.

Full coverage of George Floyd's death and protests around the country

In an interview with Salisbury, Best said losing the physical presence in the neighborhood has led to a lag in response times to priority calls in the Capitol Hill area.

"Ultimately, we need to have a building and facility where we can come in, service the public, answer calls for service," she said, while recognizing that "there are a lot of folks that have a lot of concerns about accountability and police responses, and those conversations should be going on."

Still, she said, "what we really need to start with is regaining community trust."

President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning that the protesters needed to "get out of Seattle now" and that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, was looking like a "fool."

Image: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle (David Ryder / Getty Images)

Late Wednesday, the president called the peaceful demonstrators "Domestic Terrorists," saying they had taken over the city.

Inslee responded to the president's criticism earlier, saying, "A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state's business."

Meanwhile, the scene at the "autonomous zone" remained peaceful and communal Thursday.

Blodgett said that people had been gardening in the new community gardens and that local businesses and faith institutions were offering hot food and drinks and use of bathrooms. Music played in different areas while masked people swayed to the beat. Stations were set up for trash and recycling.

Mayor Jenny Durkan compared the area to past block parties or the city's pride parade, telling reporters during a news conference that it was "really not that much of an operational challenge."

"But we want to make sure the businesses and residents feel safe," she said.

Asked if police planned on returning to the vacated precinct, she said the decision would be based on "an ongoing assessment about when it would be safe and appropriate for them to move in there."

Seattle mayor says it would be illegal for Trump to send military to city

VIDEO

https://news.yahoo.com/seattle-mayor-says-illegal-trump-223031443.html

Reuters•June 11, 2020

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The mayor of Seattle said on Thursday it would be unconstitutional and "illegal" for President Donald Trump to send military forces there to clear protesters occupying part of the city.

Mayor Jenny Durkan's comments at an afternoon news conference came in response to tweets by Trump vowing on Twitter to "take back" the city if local officials did not act.

"It is unconstitutional and illegal to send the military to Seattle," Durkan said.

At the same news conference, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said the protesters could not remain camped behind barricades in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

The encampment formed after weeks of protests over the death in Minneapolis of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody.

Temporary autonomous zone | Beautiful Trouble

https://beautifultrouble.org › theory › temporary-autonomous-zone

Coined in 1990 by poet, anarcho-immediatist and Sufi scholar Hakim Bey, the term temporary autonomous zone (T.A.Z.) seeks to preserve the creativity, energy ...

Hakim Bey: The Temporary Autonomous Zone | Ceasefire ...

https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk › hakim-bey-temporary-autonomous-zone

Dec 12, 2018 - Counterculture guru Hakim Bey is best-known for his concept of TAZ – the Temporary Autonomous Zone. Previous columns have reconstructed ...

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   Temporary Autonomous Zone - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Temporary_Autonomous_Zone

T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone is a book by the anarchist writer and poet Hakim Bey (Peter Lamborn Wilson) published in 1991 by Autonomedia and ...

‎Themes · ‎Use in music

   

TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy ...

https://theanarchistlibrary.org › library › hakim-bey-t-a-z-the-temporary-a...

by H Bey - ‎1985 - ‎Cited by 1516 - ‎Related articles

Hakim Bey T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism 1985.

Hakim Bey

Autonomedia, 2003 - Philosophy - 147 pages

'Who is Hakim Bey? I love him!' Timothy Leary'Exquisite...' Allen Ginsberg'Hard-line dada/surrealism' Rudy Rucker'A Blake angel on bad acid' Robert Anton Wilson'Scares the shit out of us' Church of the SubGeniusThe underground cult bestseller! Essays that redefine the psychogeographical nooks of autonomy. Recipes for poetic terror, anarcho -black magic, post-situ psychotropic surgery, denunciations of spiritual addictions to vapid infotainment cults -- this is the bastard classic, the watermark impressed upon our minds. Where conscience informs praxis, and action infects consciousness, T.A.Z. is beginning to worm its way into above-ground culture.This book offers inspired blasts of writing, from slogans to historical essays, on the need to insert revolutionary happiness into everyday life through poetic action, and celebrating the radical optimism present in outlaw cultures. It should appeal to alternative thinkers and punks everywhere, as it celebrates liberation, love and poetic living.The new edition contains the full text of Chaos: The Broadsheets of Ontological Anarchism, the complete communiques and flyers of the Association fo Ontological Anarchy, the long essay 'The Temporary Autonomous Zone,' and a new preface by the author.'A literary masterpiece...' Freedom'A linguistic romp...' Colin Wilson 'Fascinating...' William Burroughs

https://books.google.ca/books?id=6nRhsgf8FU0C&source=gbs_navlinks_

Catholic Worker Martin Gugino, 75-year-old protester pushed in Buffalo, has brain injury and will start physical therapy

Sarah Taddeo, New York State Team,
USA TODAY•June 11, 2020


Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old man who fell to the ground after being pushed by Buffalo police officers last week, sustained a brain injury related to the incident, according to his attorney.

Gugino, of Amherst, New York, had been in serious but stable condition before his condition was upgraded to fair earlier this week. He was moved to Erie County Medical Center’s rehabilitation floor.

On Thursday, his lawyer, Kelly Zarcone, said Gugino’s brain is injured and he has started physical therapy.

“Martin is a soft spoken but thoughtful and principled man,” Zarcone said in an emailed statement. “As heartbreaking as it is, his brain is injured and he is well aware of that now.”
  

Martin Gugino shown in June 2019 at at Buffalo Youth Climate Strike rally.

Given this development, he does not plan to do media interviews, she said.

“He feels encouraged and uplifted by the outpouring of support which he has received from so many people all over the globe. It helps,” Zarcone’s statement continued. “He is looking forward to healing and determining what his 'new normal' might look like.”

Gugino was one of several dozen individuals standing in front of Buffalo City Hall at about 8:10 p.m. on June 4, after a peaceful protest held in the area had dispersed.

Longtime activist: Elderly Buffalo man pushed to ground by police 'comes from a peace tradition'

'Black Lives Matter': Amherst man pushed by police responds after Trump tweet

In a bystander video, Gugino can be seen approaching a group of police, and within seconds, he was shoved backward. He stumbled and fell back, his head whacking the sidewalk. Blood could be seen running from his ear and pooling near his head as police called emergency personnel.

The incident stirred a powerful reaction from citizens across Buffalo and the nation, and within days, two Buffalo police officers had been charged with second-degree assault, a felony.

President Donald Trump tweeted about the incident on Tuesday, theorizing that Gugino could be an "antifa provocateur" and that the whole interaction could have been a setup.

Gugino is a longtime activist and has taken up a variety of causes, including prisoner rights.

“He’s the victim of police brutality,” said Keith Giles, program director at Peace Catalyst International, a nonprofit based in Houston, Texas, and a longtime friend of Gugino’s.

Gugino does “want people to think,” and he is a bit of a jokester, Giles said. He recalled a time when Gugino, while participating in a donation drive in southern California for soldiers overseas, brought small bottles of whisky and other alcohol to contribute.

Martin Gugino, left, listens at a talk by West Cosgrove, of Rural & Migrant Ministry in Feb. 2019.

“I said, ‘Martin, what are you doing?’” Giles said with a laugh. “And he said, ‘This is what they want!’ and I said, ‘We can’t send these to them from the church.’”

“He tried to make a point — that was who he was,” Giles said. But he didn’t go looking for trouble, and nothing would have justified what happened to him, Giles said.

The impact of the incident was made worse by the numerous theories that arose following Gugino’s injury, with social media users calling him a fake and accusing him of trying to disrupt police communications or using a tube of fake blood under his mask, Giles said.

“Almost immediately people would have noticed (a tube) when they looked at it . . . No one would have fallen for that,” said Giles. “This is the reason why I had to speak. I want people to know he’s a real person.”

                                                                           ---30---

Sarah Taddeo is the consumer watchdog reporter for USA Today Network's New York State Team. She investigates stories about your consumer rights, including scams, negligent landlords, safety issues and unemployment troubles.

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: Buffalo protester Martin Gugino, pushed by police, has brain injury

Teachers across America are talking about racial injustice with 'fed up' students: 'They're sick of living in a world that's trash'


Kristyn Martin June 11, 2020

Teachers across the country are engaging with their students about issues of race and justice in the wake of the death of George Floyd. (Photo illustration by Nathalie Cruz, Yahoo Life)

Teachers across the country are having emotional, candid and sometimes imperfect conversations with their students about the death of George Floyd, racial inequity, police brutality and protests.

In Seattle, the first thing teacher Evin Shinn did when he heard about Floyd’s death was send a text out to all of his students.

“I said, ‘Hey, all, I just wanted to acknowledge the trash that is happening in our nation with regards to black lives. If we were in class, we’d debrief it and talk about it. It’s hard, real hard sometimes. If you want to chat, feel free to hit me up.”

Evin Shinn, an 11th-grade U.S. history and language arts teacher at Cleveland High School in Seattle, sent this text to his students after the death of George Floyd. (Photo Illustration: Nathalie Cruz, Yahoo Life)

In Chicago, Gregory Michie, a middle school social studies, language arts and media studies teacher at Seward Elementary, presented a series of slides to his students after Floyd’s death, reading the names and showing the faces of black lives taken at the hands of police brutality to help his students understand the anger behind the protests happening in their neighborhoods. “We also use the Martin Luther King Jr. quote about ‘a riot is the language of the unheard’ and had them think about what that means. So I think those things are helpful in putting it into a larger context.”

In New York City, Carlos Romero, principal at PS 126 Manhattan School of Technology, which teaches pre-K through eighth grade, says teachers, psychologists and counselors hold daily Zoom meetings with students to talk about the issues around Floyd’s death and to provide resources on how to take action against racial injustice. They also encourage the older kids to write their thoughts about the death of George Floyd in a blog. One student, Jared, wrote: “The media doesn’t seem to pay attention to protesters when it is done peacefully. They are now paying attention because their property is being damaged. It may be chaotic, but it is the only way for them to have change. At least that’s how protesters see it.”

“We talked a little bit about truly listening to the message and listening to the different perspectives,” says Romero. “And for them to be able to come up with their own perspective based on what they’re hearing.”

“How do you create a welcoming and safe environment? How do you deal with the anxiety that kids have? How do we make sure we meet their needs? How do we create more equity?’ says Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which represents 1.7 million teachers across the county. “The dilemma is, this is not the first time we have focused on these issues, but it may be a tipping point in America that enables real change.”

A protester in Times Square in Manhattan. (Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images)

The AFT, along with the National Education Association (NEA), issued a joint letter earlier this week supporting students across the country who are protesting police brutality and the death of George Floyd.

“How many times has a kid died at the hands of either a racist or police officers who are racist?” says Weingarten.

For Shinn, an 11th-grade U.S. history and language arts teacher at Cleveland High School in Seattle — a school with predominantly students of color— this was the first of a series of texts, letters and virtual meetups to engage his students about these issues.

“As a black educator, to quote [the movie] Network, ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore,’” he says. “There’s so much rage. And so often in my classroom, I feel the need to temper that. I don’t want students to see that part of me, because I also want them to see that there are other ways to be angry.”

Shinn followed up with individual texts to his black students acknowledging that it’s a scary time, followed by a letter to all of the students and parents in his school.

A sample of teacher Evin Shinn’s text exchanges with his black students in the wake of the death of George Floyd. (Photo Illustration: Nathalie Cruz, Yahoo Life)

“As a teacher, we don’t really know what to say. You don’t want to say everything’s going to be OK, because it’s not, right? We want to be honest and we want to be truthful to them about what’s actually happening.”

In his letter to students and parents, Shinn addressed the pain and rage he was feeling and acknowledged that a revolution is taking place. “I’m telling students to look around and embrace what’s happening in the world right now. We are living in history.”

Shinn says his school is known in Seattle as being a leader in social justice education and points to the city’s racial equity team in some schools, which works with teachers to drive the conversation about race. Shinn says the team helps teachers answer critical questions: “How are we going to teach teachers how to talk about race? How are we going to ensure that black and brown students are not being left behind?”

School districts and teachers are grappling with those questions about race across America.

District leaders from across the country have expressed remorse over the death of George Floyd, including superintendents from Broward County, Fla., and Milwaukee. Some have even condemned police brutality, including superintendents in Los Angeles and St. Paul, Minn.

But many districts don’t have clear plans about how to address and discuss race in their classrooms. Students are demanding action. Some are circulating petitions asking for anti-racist curriculum be added in schools.

In response to Floyd’s death, Chicago Public Schools sent an 11-page document to teachers called “Say Their Names” that included guidance for talking with students about racism, police brutality and activism.

Michie, who teaches in a Chicago public school with mostly Latinx students, applauds the effort but believes much more needs to be done. “I think it’s great that they did it, but I think we need a whole lot more,” he says. “I know there hasn’t been time yet, but I just felt that in Chicago Public Schools — and all school districts — this has got to be a sustained and deep commitment.”

Michie, who is white, says white teachers also need to step up during this time and not place the burden for curriculum around race and racism on black and brown teachers.

“I’ve sensed ... a hesitancy on the part of white teachers about addressing these issues,” he says. “For things to really change, white teachers have to also see it as central and drop the defensiveness and realize we have a lot to learn. I mean, if 90 percent of the students are black and brown, how can we not make issues of race and racism and racial justice central?”

White teachers, the curriculum is George Floyd and anti-racism. It's not the job of Black teachers to carry this weight. It is on us--this week & always. If we are not actively teaching against racism, if that is not a central thread in our curriculum, we are part of the problem.
— Gregory Michie (@GregoryMichie) May 31, 2020

Eighty percent of public school teachers across the country are white, according to 2015-2016 data from the National Center for Education Statistics, a number that has only reduced 3 percent in more than a decade.

“In general, we need to stop centering on whiteness ... and privileges of white people in education,” says Joe Truss, principal for the Visitación Valley Middle School in San Francisco, which serves about 400 students in sixth through eighth grades, many of whom he says are black, brown and immigrant. “Which also means moving the folks who have been marginalized and oppressed to the center of everything: the center of the curriculum, hearing their stories, the center of the pedagogy, learning and teaching how folks of color learn ... and having relationships that actually center kids of color.”

He says the current call to action for teachers to talk to students about race is important, but it’s an integral part of the curriculum at his middle school.



White people: We need white folks to use their white privilege and oftentimes their money to occupy all lanes of antiracist work. Don’t choose. White folk, have multiple cars. Caravavan towards racial justice. https://t.co/NFGXAPUA3Y

— Joe Truss - Culturally Responsive Leadership (@trussleadership) June 6, 2020

“I don’t think we necessarily think about the perpetual experience of being discriminated against or being bombarded with images or messages that, if you are a black person, you are less than a white person,” he says. “That’s a perpetual, ongoing routine trauma that people of color — black people — experience.”

As a result, Truss says, his teachers take a trauma-sensitive approach with their students because of the difficult experiences they are having in their neighborhoods and communities, including the death of George Floyd.

“When you see someone taking someone’s life in broad daylight, and no one is doing anything about it ... you’re being told your place in society,” he says. “So the best thing we can do as teachers ... is you’ve got to build the kid up. If they have some sort of understanding of what that is so that they can hold both things to be true: this is the way it is, but this isn’t the way it has to be. And you could do something about it and you should, as soon as you can and any way you can.”

A letter written by Evin Shinn to his 11th-grade students, who are primarily black. (Photo illustration: Nathalie Cruz, Yahoo Life)

And while ethnic studies, social-emotional learning and culturally responsive teaching aren’t new to his school, he understands why so many teachers across the country are now looking for more information on how to talk to their students about race.

Truss, who is also a consultant, says his latest virtual course for teachers, “Dismantling White Supremacy Culture in Schools,” has seen a dramatic increase in interest, with more than 700 people signing up. “I have done them in the past, and there was nowhere near the response that it’s getting right now,” he says.

He has also compiled a list of books around anti-racism to help teachers learn.

“It’s life’s work. It’s not about a moment. It’s not about doing the right thing, right now. It’s not about a 50-minute racial sensitivity course now that someone’s been killed again. It’s about asking the question of why it’s happening and what conditions would have to be present for it not to happen,” he says.

“It’s your responsibility as a teacher to learn about [black] culture, to learn about the history so that you can fairly reflect that to the boys and girls,” says Waynel Sexton, a retired elementary school teacher and consultant in Houston who was also George Floyd’s second-grade teacher. “We can’t just continue to present white history as United States history, we have to include everyone.”

When Sexton began teaching in 1970 at Frederick Douglass Elementary School, a black school, Houston’s school system was not yet desegregated.

“The integration system at that time was based on what was called the Singleton ratio, where teachers were integrated according to certain percentages in certain schools. And so sadly, a lot of brand-new white teachers went to many inner-city schools and experienced black teachers were sent out to white schools,” she says.

Sexton describes an environment where black and white teachers had intense conversations to bridge divides and form alliances. And, she says, it was a time when she had many conversations about race with her own students.

“I can remember talking with my boys and girls about Jim Crow,” she says. “And, because I’m Caucasian, I wanted them to know that we could talk about that together. And I think that sets a pattern for future conversations.”

While she only had Floyd as a student for one year in the second grade, she kept a paper he wrote in her class about famous Americans and his desire to be a Supreme Court judge working in the field of justice.

“He’s certainly famous and he’s certainly advancing the cause of justice, not in the way that we would have wanted it to happen, not in a way that we could have ever imagined that it would happen,” she says.

Waynel Sexton, a retired elementary school teacher and consultant in Houston, was also George Floyd’s second-grade teacher, who was then called “Perry.” She kept a paper he wrote in her class about famous Americans and his desire to be a Supreme Court judge working in the field of justice. (Courtesy of Waynel Sexton)More

Michie says he believes a key element to helping students understand and process racial inequality is to teach about the history of racism in conjunction with inequality happening today. “If we tag back and forth between what’s happened in history and what’s going on now, and specifically ask students to make connections, I think that not only the history becomes more alive to them, but they see how the inequities and injustices today are connected to things that happened in generations past in important ways.”

Shinn says part of the education happening in his classroom now involves talking not just about the protests but about the policies that need to change as well. He says he recently showed students how to find their city councilperson and write a letter. “I literally just shared my screen with them and ... I typed up a very quick email to my city councilperson about how I felt about what’s going on with the Seattle Police Department. And I just hit send,” he says. “I think that right now students want to feel agency. They want to feel like they have the chance. And we should equip them as teachers, for them to feel that agency to make them feel like they are doing something different.”

Shinn says he believes the more agency he can teach his students, the better chance they have to change the world and the landscape of politics in America.

“They are going to be the reason that Congress changes. They are going to be the reason that we’re going to see a new City Council taking harder stances on things,” he says. “Students are fed up. Students have had it. They’re done. They’re sick of living in a world that’s trash. They want something better, and they deserve something better. And that’s what they’re going to get.”

Read more from Yahoo Life

How the black community can prioritize mental health in the wake of George Floyd's killing, protests and ongoing racist violence

Mom photographed breastfeeding at George Floyd protest says image has given her a bigger platform to 'advocate for police reform'

#SayHerName: Tepid response to Breonna Taylor's killing has many wondering which black lives matter?

Tightrope act for Canada circus students facing unemployment

Anne-Sophie THILL, AFP•June 11, 2020



Canada's Cirque du Soleil, seen during a performance in January 2020, had to cancel 44 productions worldwide and lay off 4,679 acrobats and technicians
Canada's Cirque du Soleil, seen during a performance in January 2020, had to cancel 44 productions worldwide and lay off 4,679 acrobats and technicians (AFP Photo/Gints Ivuskans)

Montreal (AFP) - Students soon to graduate from Montreal's esteemed National Circus School expect months of uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has closed shows around the world and thrust their career prospects into doubt.

Head upside down, feet pointed to the sky, Antino Pansa balances on a slack wire strung in the courtyard of his apartment building, a few feet off the ground.

The makeshift installation allows the 20-year-old circus student to stay in shape despite the school's closure in early March, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Several months without training is a lot," Pansa tells AFP. "My only solution was to install a wire between two trees."

"It creates a lot of constraints: I can't do all my tricks on it," he says, complaining of too many trees, a nearby staircase and other physical obstacles.

Pansa had expected to join a circus troupe in Switzerland for a six-month gig upon graduating at the end of June, but the offer was postponed.

In the meantime he has been forced to take a job as a security guard.

- Sad clown, brave face -

The pandemic has similarly upset career plans of 60 other students at this internationally renowned school.

At the end of three years of study, each normally puts on a show in front of headhunters from around the world scouting new circus talent.

But the pandemic has forced the cancellation of the performances.

"It's unfortunate that we had to cancel, it's a big loss, because it serves as a launching pad for graduates to enter the labor force," said school director Eric Langlois.

Joaquim Verrier puts on a brave face, but says: "It is also very demoralizing to say that the culture and entertainment industry is at a standstill."

Going from 15 hours of training per week at school to three or four hours in his apartment, the cigar box juggler says it is "very difficult to stay motivated," but he considers himself "lucky" at least to be able to continue practicing.

Others cannot and worry about it. "I worked so much, so much, it's hard to get to my level," says tightrope walker Joel Malkoff.

The 25-year-old American, who used to train every day, is alarmed by the idea that he may not be able to practice his discipline again on a professional level: "That's what scares me."

- Circus is not hiring -

Cirque du Soleil, Canada's cultural flagship on the brink of bankruptcy, had to cancel 44 productions worldwide and lay off 4,679 acrobats and technicians, amounting to 95 percent of its workforce.

Aware of the grim job market, the National Circus School has implemented entrepreneurship training aimed at supporting students.

While 95 percent of its graduates normally find work at circus companies, in cabarets or aboard cruise ships, its director says nobody is hiring at the moment and the sector is not expected to bounce back for another 18 to 24 months.

This year's graduating class of 21 students is facing a total loss, Langlois said.

According to an April survey of 561 circus workers and organizations, 66 percent expect to have to retrain in another field.

At 23, Verrier brushes aside the idea of letting go of his passion.

"I trained for five years to become a circus artist and I would find it a shame not to be one," he said, refusing to let the pandemic "stop me from following my dream."