Tag Archives: black lives matter

What a guilty verdict can’t do

Almost everyone exhaled. A jury convicted the former police officer who murdered George Floyd, and everyone in the United States must have been tuned in. It was an extremely unusual verdict; criminal prosecution of police violence against Black men is … Continue reading

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Cases, Causes, and the next wave of Black Lives Matter

Judge Peter A. Cahill, presiding in Derrick Chauvin’s murder trial, denied a defense motion to sequester the jury. Chauvin, working as a Minneapolis police officer, strangled George Floyd to death last year. His defense wants to keep the rest of … Continue reading

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Mourning heroes

John Lewis is dead. So is C. T. Vivian. Our heroes are mortal, and their passing hurts, particularly now when moral courage and civic action seem more important than ever. There is some consolation in knowing that Rep. Lewis and … Continue reading

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Chains of change

In an expression of commitment and principle, served with a chaser of trolling for the president, Mayor Muriel Bowser renamed the plaza in front of the White House, and commissioned artists to paint BLACK LIVES MATTER in broad capital (or … Continue reading

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Protest, Riot, and Rebellion in Minneapolis

Protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis in response to the police killing of George Floyd. And they stayed. Some wore masks and tried to observe public health protocols for social distance. Some carried gas masks. Some broke windows of … Continue reading

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How to claim someone else’s platform….or not.

#NotTodayManBun is my favorite hashtag of 2019, so far. Aidan Cook, of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), rushed the stage at Moveon’s Big Ideas Forum, grabbed the mic from California Senator Kamala Harris, and tried to talk about his bigger idea. … Continue reading

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#MarchforOurLives and #BlackLivesMatter: more to come…

I didn’t hear Stephon Clark’s name at the spectacular Washington, DC March for Our Lives. Days before, Sacramento police shot and killed Clark in his grandmother’s backyard. They thought they saw Clark holding a gun, and fired 20 times to protect … Continue reading

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All-star politics and the messy influence of protest; Black Lives Matter and basketball

The National Basketball League plays its annual All-Star Game in New Orleans this long weekend, offering an odd window into an impact of protest movements. (Note: David Zirin has been writing about this for a while.) Despite its charms, New … Continue reading

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Persistence, part I: Charlotte videos

The big story that activists always face is one in which authorities tell them that their efforts are inappropriate, ill-considered, and ineffective–or even counterproductive. (And, sometimes, they are.) It takes a certainty that comes from courage, social support, and stubborness to keep at … Continue reading

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Oh yeah, guns…..

The sniper murders in Dallas provide another chance to think about what legal access to firearms in the United States should look like. The demonstrators included individuals legally and openly carrying weapons. Apparently, even with good intent, this was of … Continue reading

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