Race Matters

Rev. Jesse Jackson attended the court proceedings in the trial over Ahmaud Arbery's death days after defense attorney Kevin Gough declared in front of a judge and jury that “We don’t want any more Black pastors here.”

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability has recommended between one day and one year of suspension for multiple Chicago police officers who were involved in the botched raid on Anjanette Young's home, and “up to and including separation” from the department for others.

Kevin Gough, the attorney representing William “Roddie” Bryan, one of the three white men accused of hunting down and killing Ahmaud Arbery, stood up in court and declared before a judge that “We don’t want any more Black pastors here," in response to Al Sharpton being allowed to sit with Arbery's family.

Glynn County police Sgt. Roderic Nohilly testified that when speaking with Greg McMichael at police headquarters after the shooting, Greg told him Arbery “wasn’t out for no Sunday jog. He was getting the hell out of there,” and that he, Travis and William Bryan had him "trapped like a rat.”

On August 27, eight-year-old Black girl Fanta Bility was killed by police gunfire in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, outside of a football game at Academy Park High School. A month and a half later, only one person has been charged with murdering Fanta—a Black teenager who didn't kill anyone.

In Swampscott, Massachusetts, a white woman was accused of driving her car towards and nearly colliding with three Black women and their five children. When one of the Black women told her to slow down, she started shouting racial slurs at them as well as making racist remarks. She was sentenced to probation.

“A group of maybe 11 to 13 men surrounded us and started yelling racial slurs and telling him he was a traitor and started assaulting us,” said Kevin Maxson, who told reporters of the incident that reportedly took place in front of the Roadhouse Cafe Bar and Grill Swatara Township, Pa..

Mary MacCarthy, the mother, said she and her 10-year-old daughter, Moira, were flying from Los Angeles to Denver on October 22, on Soutwest Airlines when she was accused of trafficking her daughter.

Texas Republican state Rep. Matt Krause has compiled a list of 850 books he has identified as materials that "might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex," and requested that school districts report possessing any books from the list.

It took two and a half weeks for a jury to be selected in the murder case of Greg and Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr.—the three men accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery—and somehow, after that unusually long process, 11 white people and just one Black person ended up on the panel. 

Winsome Sears, Virginia's new lieutenant governor, is the first woman of color to be elected to the position and the first woman of color to win any statewide election there. She's also a Republican willing to say all of the white people-friendly things regarding race relations in America.

Glenn Youngkin, the GOP hopeful in Virginia's gubernatorial race, has two loud and proud neo-Nazis, Lucas Isturiz and Angie Chang, in his fan club, and he has shown no interest in denouncing them.