Google pledges $11.5M to fight racial bias in policing, sentencing

Google is handing out $11.5 million in grants to organizations combating racial disparities in the criminal justice system, double what it has given so far.

And, in keeping with a company built on information, the latest wave of grants target organizations that crunch data to pinpoint problems and propose solutions.

"There is significant ambiguity regarding the extent of racial bias in policing and criminal sentencing," says Justin Steele, principal with Google.org, the Internet giant's philanthropic arm. "We must find ways to improve the accessibility and usefulness of information."

Among the organizations receiving funds from Google.org is the Center for Policing Equity, a national research center that collaborates with police departments and the communities they serve to track statistics on law enforcement actions, from police stops to the use of force. In addition to the grant of $5 million, Google engineers will put their time and skills to work on improving the center's national database.

"It's hard to measure justice," says Phillip Atiba Goff, the center's co-founder and president. "In policing, data are so sparse and they are not shared broadly. The National Justice Database is an attempt to measure justice so that people who want to do the right thing can use that metric to lay out a GPS for getting where we are trying to go. That's really what we see Google as being a key partner in helping us do."

Read more: Google pledges $11.5M to fight racial bias in policing, sentencing

NAACP calls for economic boycott of North Carolina

NAACP BOARD CITES RACIALLY-DISCRIMINATORY GERRYMANDERING AND VOTER SUPPRESSION LAWS AS KEY REASONS FOR ECONOMIC BOYCOTT

RALEIGH, NC—The NAACP Board of Directors announced a resolution calling for the discussion of the first steps of an international economic boycott of the state of North Carolina in response to actions of an all-white legislative caucus, which unconstitutionally designed racially-discriminatory gerrymandered districts, enacted a monster voter suppression law, passed Senate Bill 4 stripping the incoming Governor of power and passed House Bill 2. HB 2 is anti-transgender, anti-worker and anti-access to the state court for employment discrimination.

NAACP National President/CEO Cornell William Brooks and North Carolina State President and National Board Member Rev. Dr. William Barber II, will hold a press conference today (Friday, Feb. 24th @ 11:00 am) at the NC General Assembly to discuss the economic boycott and rally supporters for direct actions against the legislators.

“The federal court has declared and North Carolina citizens have discovered that partisan legislators are discriminating in the voting booth, school bathrooms, the workplace and across the state.  Seldom has such a poisonously partisan few violated the rights of a nonpartisan many: workers rights, LGBTQ rights, civil rights, and voting rights. Therefore, the NAACP must use the power of the purse to demonstrate the power of our democracy.  We will use economic leverage, moral persuasion, civil disobedience and litigation in North Carolina and across the nation–as needed and now. Unrelenting resistance is the order of the day,” said NAACP CEO and President Cornell William Brooks.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, stated, “The actions of the all white caucus of extremists in our legislature and the former Governor are out of control. They have consistently passed legislation that is a violation of our deepest moral values, voting rights, civil rights and the fundamental principle of equal protection under the law.”

“The federal court ruled against their voter suppression and racially gerrymandered districts. We believe their attacks on the transgender community and attempt to strip the Governor of power will also be found unconstitutional. Their decision to block local municipality’s ability to raise wages and their limitation of access to state courts are wrong and we must stand strong against any and all attempts to deprive citizens their rights ordained by God and guaranteed by the constitution,” said Rev. Dr. Barber, NAACP North Carolina State President. “What has happened in North Carolina makes this state a battleground over the soul of America and whether our nation is sincere about making democracy real for all people, not just those with the right bank account, right sexuality or right skin.”

According to the NAACP Board of Director’s Resolution:

“The National Board of the NAACP will explore such a North Carolina Boycott along with the NC State Conference until the NC legislature passes bills that accomplish the following (or until such results are achieved through the courts):

a) Undo racially gerrymandered districts and create fair election districts;

b) repeal the entire HB-2 law;

c) repeal SB-4 law passed in a special session called for another reason that stripped trained civil servants in County and State Election Boards from supervising elections;

d) repeal the requirement that litigants to appeal to the en banc Court of Appeals before they can file an appeal to the NC Supreme Court;

e)repeal legislation that stripped the current Governor of powers his predecessor enjoyed.

Be It Further Resolved that the National NAACP and the North Carolina NAACP will engage in a joint media and public education campaign regarding this decision.

And be it finally resolved that in light of the adoption by other states of similar laws that reflect racial gerrymandering, discriminatory voter suppression laws and similar types of laws to redistribute political power to the detriment of racial and ethnic minorities or change the nature of the electorate, the National NAACP will engage in applying various forms of economic sanctions or other appropriate economic or direct action to address these types of discriminatory legislative or executive actions around the nation.”

Two weeks ago in a march that drew close to 100,000 individuals to the state capital to protest against extremism in the NC General Assembly, Rev. Barber informed the gathering that the NC State Conference Executive Committee had voted unanimously to ask the National Board of the NAACP to grant permission for economic boycott, which the NAACP National Board of Directors recently approved in a resolution last weekend during their annual board meeting in New York.

The NAACP is asking over 200 additional organizations to join them in the economic boycott of the state.  The press conference will kick off the economic boycott, which will include several stages and escalation of protest. The NAACP will refuse to hold its convention in North Carolina and will reach out to other organizations to take similar stances.

Additionally, the NAACP will create an internal task force to examine the ways in which the economic boycott can be expanded throughout the state as well as replicated in other states that have enacted similar racist voter suppression laws and laws like HB-2 which discriminates against the LGBT community, transgender people, workers, municipalities wanting to increase their minimum wage, and those in need of state access to courts for employment discrimination.

To see the complete resolution visit the NAACP here:  (http://www.naacp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Resolution-of-National-Board-as-Proposed-by-NC-State-Conference.pdf )

Click on the link below to watch this event https://livestream.com/accounts/5188266/events/7051729

Newly elected DNC chair appoints Ellison DNC deputy chair

Newly elected DNC chairman Tom Perez started off his term with a show of party unity by appointing Keith Ellison as DNC deputy chair. In the interest of full disclosure I supported Ellison but am now fully behind Perez because party unity is the ONLY way forward. Congratulations to both men and I believe that both will be successful in leading the Democratic Party back to prominence.

From thehill.com

Tom Perez used his first motion as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Saturday to appoint his top rival for the position, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), as deputy chair of the DNC.

"I would like to begin by making a motion, it is a motion that I have discussed with a good friend, and his name is Keith Ellison," Perez said during his acceptance speech, announcing the appointment.

"Did I hear a second?" asked Perez, the former Labor secretary during the Obama administration.

"Second!" the DNC audience shouted.

Ellison and Perez embraced. When Ellison took to the mic, he congratulated Perez for "successfully passing his first motion" and called on his supporters to back the new DNC chairman.

“We don’t have the luxury to walk out of this room divided,” Ellison said during his speech. “If we waste even a moment of going at it over who supported who, we are not going to be standing up for those people."

Message to cowardly Republicans who won't hold town hall meetings.

Here's a message to Republican congressmen and senators who are refusing to hold town hall meetings because they don't want to face angry crowds.

State building renamed for civil rights activist, Barbara Johns

A state government building that once served as headquarters of the “Massive Resistance” campaign against racial integration of Virginia’s public schools was renamed Thursday in honor of Barbara Johns, a student activist who played an important and often overlooked role in the civil rights movement.

Johns was only 16 when she led a student protest that would one day become part of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Like most segregated schools at the time, the all-black high school Johns attended in Farmville, Virginia, was overcrowded, underfunded and dilapidated in comparison to the white schools in the Prince Edward County. On April 23, 1951, Johns persuaded all 450 of her classmates to stage a strike and march to City Hall in protest of the school’s substandard conditions.

“When she took a stand like that, it was a dangerous time, and I was the one who was worried about what might happen to us. She didn’t seem to have any fear at all,” said Barbara Johns‘ sister, Joan Johns Cobb, who marched alongside her.

Johns enlisted the help of the NAACP, which filed a suit on behalf of 117 students against Prince Edward County, challenging Virginia’s laws requiring segregated schools.

“This was before Little Rock Nine, this was before Rosa Parks, this was before Martin Luther King. This was a 16-year-old girl who said that we will not tolerate separate but not equal,” said Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who announced in January that the newly renovated Ninth Street Office Building would be renamed in Johns‘ honor.

[SOURCE]