Category Archives: Race

Theatre group pulls play from Sheffield venue staging Miss Saigon

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New Earth Theatre said ‘damaging tropes, misogyny and racism’ in show contradict its values

A touring theatre company has pulled a play from the Sheffield Crucible because of the venue’s decision to also stage Miss Saigon, a musical often criticised for its portrayal of the Vietnam war and Vietnamese people.

In a statement, New Earth Theatre, a company of British east and south-east Asian (BESEA) artists and co-producers Storyhouse said: “Miss Saigon remains a very contentious musical since its release over 30 years ago … The damaging tropes, misogyny and racism inherent in the show completely contradict [our] values and beliefs.”

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Michelle Obama says Americans ‘weren’t ready’ for her natural hair

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Former first lady said she decided to straighten her hair as Americans were ‘just getting adjusted’ to a Black first family

Michelle Obama said that Americans “weren’t ready” for her natural hair during Barack Obama’s tenure at the White House.

The former first lady was speaking at the Warner Theatre in Washington DC on Tuesday to promote her new book, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, with the former talkshow host Ellen DeGeneres.

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Leaked audio reveals cultural problems in Queensland police force, human rights commissioner says

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Scott McDougall calls for independent scrutiny of police after recordings reveal racist and violent language at Brisbane watch house

Queensland’s human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, says “clear” and “pervasive” cultural problems are plaguing the state’s police force after leaked audio revealed violent and racist conversations by Queensland police staff.

Police service officers at the Brisbane city police watch house can be heard using racist slurs and offensive language while working in the holding cells, referring to Nigerians as “jigaboos”, and raising fears that Australia “will be fucking taken over” in a series of leaked tapes published by the Guardian Australia on Sunday.

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First Gen Z member elected as midterms could usher in a more diverse Congress

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Democrat Maxwell Frost, 25, defeated Republican in Florida congressional race as a number of candidates are making history

Voters have elected the first-ever Gen Z member of Congress in the midterm elections on Tuesday, where a number of candidates are making history with their victories.

Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old Democrat, defeated a Republican in his Florida congressional race, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday evening. The Afro-Cuban progressive has organized with the ACLU and March for Our Lives, the gun reform group, and called for universal healthcare on the campaign trail.

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Gavin Williamson announces resignation but ‘refutes the characterisation’ of claims against him – as it happened

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Former deputy chief whip Anne Milton tells Channel 4 Williamson used ‘leverage’ and threats against MPs

Sima Kotecha, Newsnight’s UK editor, has spoken to Tory MPs who are not surprised about the allegations about Sir Gavin Williamson being a bully.

Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary, has said that if Alistair Jack, the Scottish secretary, was confident about defending his record at an election, he would not be getting ready to accept a peerage. Referring to today’s Times story (see 10.55am), Murray said:

We cannot comment on speculation about peerages. Alister Jack is absolutely committed to representing his constituents and working with the prime minister to continue to deliver for people in Scotland.

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More black people than white find stop and search humiliating, UK survey finds

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Poll shows levels of trust in the police markedly lower among black people than white people

More than half of black people stopped and searched by the police say they were left with feelings of humiliation or embarrassment, according to a survey.

It also shows levels of trust in the police are markedly lower among black people (46%) than white people (64%), with barely a third (35%) of black Caribbean people saying they had confidence.

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White Milwaukee man charged after allegedly attacking disabled Black man

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Video shows Robert Walczykowski wrapping hand around neck of 24-year-old and accusing him of stealing neighbor’s bike

A white Milwaukee man has pleaded not guilty to a criminal charge filed against him after video captured him with his hand around the neck of a Black man with special needs in a case many are calling an example of racial profiling.

Robert Walczykowski, 62, recently pleaded not guilty to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor charge after video went viral of him wrapping his hand around the neck of 24-year-old Trevon Burks, who is Black and has a disability.

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More coffins discovered with possible link to 1921 Tulsa race massacre

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DNA to be collected to identify 21 newly discovered sets of remains believed to be from victims of attack on Black Oklahomans

The search for the remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre has turned up 21 additional coffins in unmarked graves in the city’s Oaklawn cemetery, officials said.

Seventeen adult-size graves were located on Friday and Saturday, the Oklahoma state archaeologist, Kary Stackelbeck, said on Monday. The city announced on Tuesday that four more graves – two adult-size and two child-size – had also been found.

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UK minister criticised over ‘crass and archaic’ trope about Chinese people

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Mark Spencer spoke of possibility ‘some little man in China’ could be listening in to his conversations

A UK government minister has been criticised for using a “crass and archaic” trope when talking about Chinese people during a broadcast interview.

The environment minister Mark Spencer referred to the possibility that “some little man in China” could be listening in to his conversations when discussing reports a device belonging to the former prime minister and foreign secretary Liz Truss had been compromised by foreign agents.

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Manchester Museum to reopen with ‘ordinary folk’ co-curating new gallery

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Director says it’s ‘time to tell new stories’ as people from south Asian diaspora contribute experiences

A museum with a dizzying, encyclopaedic collection that spans Egyptian mummies, dinosaur skeletons and live Costa Rican frogs is to reopen next year after a £15m revamp – with a promise to be more inclusive and imaginative.

Manchester Museum has about 4.5m objects from around the world, a mix of exhibits from natural sciences and human cultures all under one roof.

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‘You people’: second-top cop accused of racialised language towards Queensland First Nations leaders

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Exclusive: Deputy commissioner Steve Gollschewski allegedly pointed finger at senior elder in ‘aggressive’ and ‘disrespectful’ way

First Nations leaders claim Queensland’s second-most senior police officer became angry and aggressive during a meeting with them, pointing his finger at a senior elder and saying “you people” don’t run the organisation.

Amid wider claims of serious and systemic racism levelled at the Queensland police service (QPS) at a state inquiry, the relationship between the organisation and its formal First Nations advisory body appears to have substantially broken down.

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Canada court rules random traffic stops are racist and unconstitutional

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A Quebec judge invalidates the police power to pull over drivers without cause, concluding they violate country’s charter

A Canadian court has ruled that random traffic stops violate the country’s charter, striking down the “unbounded power” of police in searches that often amount to racial profiling.

A Quebec superior judge ruled on Tuesday that police cannot pull over drivers without cause.

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California sheriff’s office stops Black drivers five times more often than white people, data shows

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A new report says sheriffs’ patrols spend more time conducting racially biased stops than they do responding to calls for help

Black drivers in California’s capital are nearly five times more likely than white motorists to get pulled over by sheriffs for traffic violations, according to a new report on racial profiling across the state.

Records from the county sheriff’s departments of Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Riverside show that Black Californians were disproportionately stopped across those regions in 2019, especially for minor infractions.

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Los Angeles leaders condemn Kanye West as antisemitic incidents rattle city

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Karen Bass, LA mayoral hopeful, told Adidas to sever ties with the rapper while talent agency CAA reportedly dropped him as a client

Kanye West is facing a growing backlash among Los Angeles’ political and Hollywood leaders following several antisemitic incidents in the city that came after the artist made bigoted comments about Jewish people.

On Monday Karen Bass, the congresswoman and LA mayoral hopeful, called for Adidas to cut ties with West, referencing an incident over the weekend in which protesters on a freeway overpass were photographed giving Nazi salutes with banners referencing antisemitic comments made by West. In addition, Los Angeles police are investigating a recent distribution around the city of fliers spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories.

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Criminal charges dropped against man left with paralysis in US police custody

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Randy Cox was arrested by Connecticut law enforcement and en route a detention center when he was knocked against a van wall

A man who was left partially paralyzed while in police custody has had all criminal charges against him dropped.

On 19 June, 36-year-old Randy Cox of New Haven, Connecticut, was arrested on charges of illegal handgun possession. Cox was put into a police transport van without any seatbelts and was en route to a detention center when the officer behind the wheel, Oscar Diaz, suddenly braked. Video footage released by Cox’s family and published by CNN shows a handcuffed Cox sliding across the bench and hitting the van’s wall with his head.

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‘I just care about change’: Nevada’s Latinos on their cost-of-living fears

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Nevada has an acute shortage of affordable housing – but do Republicans or Democrats have practical answers to curb one of America’s most pressing issues?

Claudia Lopez, 39, is worried for her children.

As her curly haired seven-year-old daughter bounced around a play area inside El Mercado, a shopping center within the Boulevard Mall in Las Vegas where the smell of arepas and tacos hovers over the shops, Lopez soaked in her day off from knocking on doors and talking to residents about the upcoming election.

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Met chief tells officers who joke about attacks on women to expect sack

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Sir Mark Rowley says humour cannot be ‘used as an excuse’ after Casey review highlights misogyny and racism

The Metropolitan police commissioner has issued direct orders to officers and staff, saying those who make jokes about violent attacks on women or who fail to stand up to hate speech should expect to be sacked.

Sir Mark Rowley issued the instructions, seen by the Guardian, after a review by Louise Casey found racists and misogynists had been left in the ranks of Britain’s biggest police force by a hugely flawed disciplinary system.

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Nury Martinez resigns from LA city council after racist remarks leaked

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The former city council president faced intense pressure to step down, including from Joe Biden

The embattled former president of the LA city council stepped down from the board , days after a recording surfaced documenting her and two other Latino council members using racist language to mock colleagues and constituents while they planned to protect Latino political strength in council districts.

Nury Martinez announced her resignation in a statement on Wednesday, hours after the state attorney general announced an investigation into possible criminal charges involving the meeting where she made the remarks.

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Unaired Kanye West-Tucker Carlson material contains more racist conspiracy theories

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Rapper deals in antisemitic tropes in interview after he wore ‘white lives matter’ T-shirt

Unaired segments of an interview between Kanye West and the Fox News host Tucker Carlson document the American rapper airing a series of comments based on racist conspiracy theories, adding to the growing controversy over the interview.

In the segments, first reported by the tech news outlet Motherboard, West, who has changed his legal name to Ye, detailed his belief in an unfounded and antisemitic conspiracy theory that Planned Parenthood was founded “to control the Jew population”.

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Texas Fort Hood to be renamed for US army’s first Latino four-star general

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The facility, named for the late retired general Richard Cavazos, will become the first to honor a Latino service member

The US army’s first Latino four-star general is set to become the namesake of the country’s largest active-duty armored military base, replacing the Confederate leader after whom the facility was originally named.

In a recent memo to top military brass at the Pentagon, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said officials had until 1 January 2024 to implement a recommendation to change the name of Texas’s Fort Hood to Fort Cavazos, honoring the late retired general Richard Cavazos.

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