Category Archives: Race

Hundreds of prominent Australians sign letter condemning ‘abhorrent’ rise in antisemitism

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Signatories include former premiers Daniel Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian, and businessmen Lindsay Fox and Anthony Pratt

Hundreds of prominent Australians, including former state premiers, industry leaders and media personalities, have signed an open letter denouncing antisemitism and calling for all Australians to be treated with respect, inclusivity and dignity.

The open letter was published on Tuesday morning and ran as a prominent double-page advertisement across print newspapers, linking to a website titled “Say No to Antisemitism”.

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Elon Musk visits scene of kibbutz massacre with Benjamin Netanyahu

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Pair speak about Gaza conflict but not online antisemitism nor controversial post made by X owner this month

Elon Musk has joined the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in visiting a kibbutz that was attacked by Hamas on 7 October, after criticism of his endorsement of an antisemitic post on X.

The owner of X, the site formerly known as Twitter, has been criticised for supporting a post on his platform that falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people. High-profile advertisers have also suspended spending on the site after a report that ads were appearing next to pro-Nazi content.

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Racially extremist materials found in home of Ohio Walmart mass shooter

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Nazi materials among items retrieved by FBI from house of gunman who killed self after wounding four people

The FBI said the gunman who opened fire inside a Walmart in Ohio on Monday, wounding four before killing himself, may have been “at least partially inspired by racially motivated violent extremist ideology”.

It confirmed two of the victims were white and the other two were Black.

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US army overturns 1917 convictions of 110 Black soldiers charged with mutiny

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Officials announced ceremony honoring the Buffalo Soldiers, 19 of whom were executed, to atone for Jim Crow-era racism

The US army is overturning the convictions of 110 Black soldiers – 19 of whom were executed – for a mutiny at a Houston military camp a century ago, an effort to atone for imposing harsh punishments linked to Jim Crow-era racism.

US army officials announced the historic reversal Monday during a ceremony posthumously honoring the regiment known as the Buffalo Soldiers, who had been sent to Houston in 1917, during the first world war, to guard a military training facility. Clashes arose between the regiment and white police officers and civilians and 19 people were killed.

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White faces generated by AI are more convincing than photos, finds survey

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Photographs were seen as less realistic than computer images but there was no difference with pictures of people of colour

It sounds like a scenario straight out of a Ridley Scott film: technology that not only sounds more “real” than actual humans, but looks more convincing too. Yet it seems that moment has already arrived.

A new study has found people are more likely to think pictures of white faces generated by AI are human than photographs of real individuals.

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Louisiana must draw new congressional map by mid-January for 2024 elections

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Deadline comes after federal court ruled that state’s current map disfranchises Black voters – one-third of the state’s population

The Louisiana state legislature has until the middle of January to enact a new congressional map after a federal court ruled that the state’s current map illegally disfranchises Black voters.

A conservative federal appeals court in New Orleans issued the deadline on Friday. According to the order, if the state legislature doesn’t pass a new map by the deadline, then a lower district court should conduct a trial and develop a plan for the 2024 elections.

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More than half of black people surveyed in Germany report racism

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Other findings include nearly 20% of black people suffering repeated harassment, and targeting of Muslims and Asians

More than half of black people living in Germany have experienced racism, with nearly 20% saying they have been subjected to repeated threats or harassment, a first-time survey of more than 21,000 people across the country has revealed.

The findings, published this week by the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM), also showed that about 13% of Muslims and 12% of Asians experienced threats or harassment at least several times a year.

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Muslim Stanford student hospitalized in suspected hate crime hit-and-run

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University says incident being investigated as possible hate crime after Abdulwahab Omira suffered non-life-threatening injuries

An Arab Muslim student at Stanford University was hospitalized after being struck in a hit-and-run that authorities are investigating as a hate crime, amid rising threats against Arab and Muslim people across the US.

The student, Abdulwahab Omira, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after being struck by an SUV. “The driver is reported to have made eye contact with the victim, accelerated and struck the victim and then driven away while shouting ‘fuck you and your people’ out the lowered window of the vehicle,” according to the university’s department of public safety.

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Memphis police officer pleads guilty in fatal beating of Tyre Nichols

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Desmond Mills Jr is one of five officers charged in the beating death of the Black man who called for his mother as he was attacked

A former Memphis police officer pleaded guilty on Thursday in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, becoming the first of five officers charged to reverse course, with prosecutors recommending up to 15 years in prison.

Desmond Mills Jr entered his plea during a hearing at the Memphis federal courthouse as part of a larger agreement to settle charges in state court as well. It was not immediately clear if any of the other officers would follow suit.

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Huge ethnicity pension gap revealed in UK figures

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Shortfalls fuelled by misconceptions and distrust of employers, as well as lack of spare income, figures show

A UK individual from a minority ethnic background typically has a pension pot less than half the size of that belonging to the average white British saver, data reveal.

The research from Legal & General’s investment arm claimed there was a sizeable “ethnicity pensions gap” in the UK that was being fuelled by “misconceptions” around pensions and a “significant distrust of employers”, as well as a lack of spare income.

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Half of Britons can’t name a Black British historical figure, survey finds

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Exclusive: majority of British people found to have ‘shockingly little’ knowledge about Black British history

More than half of Britons know so little about Black British history that they cannot name a single historical figure, a survey has revealed.

The researchers found that the UK knows “shockingly little” about Black British history. While 75% of British adults surveyed acknowledged that they did not know “very much” or “anything at all” about the subject, more than half (53%) could not recall any Black British historical figures and only 7% could name more than four.

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‘Pervasive and relentless’ racism on the rise in Europe, survey finds

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Poll of 6,752 people of African descent in 13 countries finds almost half have experienced discrimination

Racism is “pervasive and relentless” and on the rise in Europe, with nearly half of black people in member states surveyed by the EU reporting discrimination, from the verbal abuse of their children to being blocked by landlords from renting homes.

In every walk of life, from schools to the job market, housing and health, a survey by the EU’s rights agency of people of African descent found high levels of discrimination, with some of the worst results recorded in Austria and Germany, where far-right parties have been on the rise.

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Access to remains of Bambuti baby withdrawn by London museum

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Hunterian had listed stillborn child of African descent as viewable for medical research but removed it after criticism from author

The remains of a stillborn Bambuti baby have been removed from a museum’s catalogue of items that can be viewed for medical research after criticism from a Booker prize-shortlisted author.

Novelist Nadifa Mohamed is the presenter of an upcoming Channel 4 documentary examining the history of “human zoos” in Britain, in which African and Asian people were put on display to the wider public in a practice which is now deemed to have been deeply racist.

Britain’s Human Zoos is on Channel 4 on Saturday 28 October

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Indigenous groups say voice referendum ‘unleashed a tsunami of racism’

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Yes supporters break week of silence by stating 14 October result was so mean-spirited it would remain ‘unbelievable and appalling’ for decades

Indigenous groups who supported the voice campaign have broken their week of silence to express shock and grief at last Saturday’s result, accusing Australians who voted no of committing “a shameful act whether knowingly or not”.

The 12-point statement – issued on Sunday evening and described as being the “collective insights and views of a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, community members and organisations who supported yes” – said Australia had chosen “to make itself less liberal and less democratic” by voting no at the 14 October referendum.

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Family of black boy rammed by Met police car win fight for IOPC inquiry

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Watchdog to investigate why 13-year-old with water pistol was knocked off bike by armed police in Hackney

The family of the black boy rammed off his pedal cycle by police who mistook his water pistol for a real gun have won their fight to have an independent investigation into the incident launched.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on Friday reversed a decision it had made twice to let the Metropolitan police investigate the actions of its own officers.

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‘A lot of pain’: Europe’s Jews fear rising antisemitism after Hamas attack

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Protection of Jewish sites increased in towns and cities across continent after outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas

In the usually bustling “Little Jerusalem” area of Sarcelles, north of Paris, the popular falafel and grill restaurant was eerily quiet. “People are not going out,” said Jérémy, the 33-year-old restaurant owner. Lunchtime and evening crowds are common in one of the largest Jewish communities on the Paris outskirts. But many thought it wiser to stay at home, fearing a growing number of antisemitic incidents in France and across Europe since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing bombardment of Gaza.

In France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, police recorded more than 320 physical acts of antisemitism, and made more than 180 arrests, in the first 10 days of the war.

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Australians told ‘do not travel’ to Lebanon – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

No move on paying super to people on paid parental leave

But so far, the government has not moved on paying superannuation to parents (mostly women) on paid parental leave.

Super, of course, is really important and it’s something we would very much like to look to in the future when the budget can afford it. But this is a very big step forward, the current arrangements, but we’ll continue to look around superannuation into the future and consider it in each budget context.

I think with the reserved period as well, we’re going to see an increase in shared care, both parents taking some time out, which is really, really important if we want to get a more equal burden of, you know, of that share of care.

So that is really important as well.

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‘Live out loud’: US Black queer activists fight against ‘tactics of erasure’

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Queer people of color are frequently overlooked in the fight for equality, but inroads into the corridors of power are being made

On the 60th anniversary of the 1963 march on Washington this summer, a few Black queer advocates spoke passionately before the main program about the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ rights. As some of them got up to speak, the crowd was still noticeably small.

Hope Giselle, a speaker who is Black and trans, said she felt the event’s programming echoed the historical marginalization and erasure of Black queer activists in the civil rights movement.

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California creates ‘Ebony alert’ to find missing Black women and girls

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System intended to rectify disproportionate number of abducted and sex-trafficked Black children overlooked as ‘runaways’

California has become the first state to create an alert system specifically geared towards finding missing Black women and girls. Senate bill 673 was signed by Gavin Newsom earlier this week amid a wave of bills that have come across the governor’s desk and were either approved or vetoed.

Ebony alerts would allow the California highway patrol to trigger emergency notifications on phones and road signs – similar to Amber and Feather alerts – to let people know that a Black person between the ages of 12 and 25 is missing in the area.

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Elijah McClain: one Colorado officer convicted and one acquitted in 2019 killing

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The 23-year-old Black man was stopped as he was walking home from a store, placed in a neck hold and injected with ketamine

A jury has convicted one Colorado police officer and acquitted another for the 2019 homicide of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old whose death at the hands of law enforcement while on a walk home sparked international outrage and years of protests.

A jury found Randy Roedema, an Aurora police department (APD) officer, guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault on Thursday. A second officer, Jason Rosenblatt, was found not guilty of manslaughter and assault. Both had held him on the ground and ignored his cries saying he couldn’t breathe. A third officer, who was the first to approach McClain, is also facing charges and has an upcoming trial.

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