Vincent Chin: The murder that sparked a civil rights movement

 

In June 1982 a young Chinese-American engineer was murdered with a baseball bat by two white men in the city of Detroit.

At the time America was going through an economic depression and many were blaming Japan which was perceived to be flooding the US with its cars. For Asian-Americans it was a time of fear.

Has India’s democracy suffered long-term damage in the pandemic?

 

India’s official death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is nearly half a million, second only to the United States. Many fear the actual figure is much higher. At the beginning of the year the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed it had defeated the virus.

The forgotten “wade-ins” that transformed the US

 

When we think of the iconic moments of the Civil Rights Movement in the US, we might imagine bus boycotts, lunch counter sit-ins or the March on Washington. Most of us won’t think of protests at beaches and pools. Yet these battles in the country’s waters played a crucial role in transforming America.

Has the United States turned a corner on racism?

The son of Martin Luther King Jr reflects on what has and has not changed over the decades in race relations in the US.

In 1968, African American civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.

"Fifty-two years later, all over the streets of America, Blacks and whites and others are saying 'Black lives matter'," his son, Martin Luther King III tells The Bottom Line's Steve Clemons.

"We're still saying to the nation 'Treat us with dignity and respect and like the human beings that we are'."

Trump and Second Amendment Insurrection

‘Protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your 2nd Amendment rights.’ — Pres. Trump and other top Republicans are adding firearms to a literal powder keg of civil unrest.

Caught on camera: Police brutality and racism in Trump's America

How the video of a Black man's murder set the United States ablaze. Plus, drone investigations from on high.

Racially charged social unrest has been sweeping America on a scale not seen in decades. Showdowns are taking place in city after city between demonstrators and police, as authoritarian noises and tactics come from the Trump White House. From the phone camera that captured the police killing of George Floyd, to Twitter flagging how dangerous the president's tweets can be, to all those videos showing police attacking journalists and then finally to the lengths that the White House will go to to get a photo opportunity - there is no shortage of media angles to this story.

Is Narendra Modi undermining secularism in India?

Indian prime minister has defended his controversial citizenship law as protests sweep the country.

The idea of a secular state where all religions are welcome and equal before the law is at the core of India's constitution.

But many believe the idea is under threat. Hindu nationalism has been emboldened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he was elected in 2014 and his government has taken measures that have raised fears among Muslims in particular.

A new citizenship law offers migrants of religious minorities from three neighbouring countries the right to become citizens of India, but it excludes Muslims. The passage of the law through India's Parliament has sparked anger and protests nationwide.

The propaganda films of apartheid-era South Africa

In the 1970s and 80s, the apartheid government funded a little-known film scheme aimed at black South Africans.

In 1973, a ground-breaking film, Joe Bullet, was screened - for the very first time - at the Eyethu Cinema in Soweto. It was the first South African-produced film with a black action hero and an all-black cast.

Benjamin Cowley, the CEO of Gravel Road Productions, described the film as "unique" because "at the height of apartheid, no one was producing movies with all-black cast members for black audiences".

According to Tonie van der Merwe, the writer and producer of Joe Bullet, the apartheid censors banned the film after just two screenings. In a letter, the censors listed the reasons for their decision which included: the main character carrying a gun, driving a sports car, living in a white neighbourhood. "Stupid, stupid reasons," said van der Merwe.

Who Killed Robert Kennedy?

Fifty years on, questions about witness testimony, hidden evidence and the true identity of Kennedy's killer remain.

Fifty years ago, United States Senator Robert F Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles just moments after he'd won California's Democratic presidential primary.

Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship, was arrested at the scene of the shooting in what the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) thought was an open-and-shut case.

Sirhan was tried and jailed for Robert Kennedy's murder. But since the 1970s, there have been calls for a new investigation into the assassination, based on differing witness accounts, the number of shots fired and distance of Sirhan from Kennedy when he fired.

What You Need To Know Today: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III

In 1986 Jeff Sessions was the Attorney General of the state of Alabama and was soon to be nominated by President Ronald Reagan for a Federal Judgeship.  During those hearings he was accused of calling a black assistant Federal Prosecutor boy on numerous occasions as well as telling another assistant  black Federal Prosecutor that he should watch what he says around whites. This is the South.  Mr. Sessions during those confirmation hearings was asked about his support for the Klu Klux Klan: As is written testimony he been quoted as supporting the Klan until he was informed they smoked pot.   He was never confirmed as a Federal District judge for the Southern District of Alabama.

Mr. Sessions problems with race didn't end with his denial of a federal judgeship.

    But there are substantive reasons that Sessions, who was Alabama’s attorney general and is now a U.S. senator, is taking heat on civil rights. He supported gutting the Voting Rights Act in 2013. He has a record of blocking black judicial nominees. He unsuccessfully prosecuted black civil rights activists for voter fraud in 1985 ― including a former aide to Martin Luther King, Jr. A year later, he was rejected for a federal judgeship over allegations he called a black attorney “boy,” suggested a white lawyer working for black clients was a race traitor and referred to civil rights groups as “un-American” and trying to “force civil rights down the throats of people who were trying to put problems behind them.”

Senator Sessions has a real problem with civil rights where African Americans are involved

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, doubled down Tuesday in calling the Voting Rights Act “intrusive” and struggled to say how he would enforce the law going forward.

“It is intrusive. The Supreme Court on more than one occasion has described it legally as an intrusive act, because you’re only focused on a certain number of states,” Sessions said of the act in response to a question from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). “Normally when Congress passes law it applies to the whole country. So it’s a very unusual thing for a law to be passed that targets only a few states, but they had a factual basis."

Sessions added that the act “changed the whole course of history,” mainly in the South.

Let The Authoritarian Games Begin

In a stunning development (only if you've hiding under your bed for the last few years) the IOC has awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics to Beijing. Yes, Beijing which has no mountains or snow in the winter but hey! Why not.  As usual the IOC will like FIFA when they awarded Qatar the World in that same year it will help open up China.  Ha Ha Ha.  Just the opposite happened with hundreds arrested, people forced to sell their property, while others simply had their homes confiscated.    Since no other city besides Almaty Kazakhstan which is also an ongoing human and civil rights disaster were willing to go into massive debt for the privilege the IOC was left with little choice in their money grubbing minds but to award the games to Beijing rather than reassessing the bidding process.

     In 2001, Beijing’s selection as the host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics sparked an international outcry amid criticism of China’s human rights record. In the runup to Friday’s vote activists had again called on the IOC to reject Beijing’s bid in response to a “human rights crisis” they believe is under way in China.
Amnesty International says at least 231 people have been detained or questioned in recent weeks as part of what campaigners, diplomats and observers describe as an unprecedented crackdown on human rights lawyers.