For many Twin Cities residents, Tuesday’s guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial epitomized the emotional whiplash of the past 10 years, in which short-lived moments of hope gave way to ever-present fears and frustrations. Minneapolis-based therapist Jamil Stamschror-Lott had a pit in his stomach before the verdict, then a sudden feeling of relief. Quickly, though, those feelings turned to fear. “I thought I should take my daughter out of her daycare for the day just in case some white nationalist wanted to attack Black and brown babies,” he said.
One year since 26-year-old emergency room technician Breonna Taylor was killed by Louisville, Ky., police, activists describe how local protests have changed public perceptions. "The Breonna Taylor shooting in March of 2020 … transformed the community into a different energy," said Christopher 2X, who runs the Louisville nonprofit Game Changers. "Just because you did not have major riots here with major damage to property and businesses does not mean that you still couldn't feel the tension as it relates to her death and the cry for equity and equality."
For Brittany Ramos DeBarros, an Afro-Latina combat veteran and activist, running for Congress as a Democrat in the historically conservative borough of Staten Island serves as the kind of challenge that puts her life’s work into action. “I learned in the military, and so many different contexts of leadership, what it means to really lead with heart and in a way that is about serving people and not about you or your ego,” DeBarros told Yahoo News.
Rep. Cori Bush, a prominent Black Lives Matter activist elected to Congress in November, remembers the hate-filled stares and the mental and physical abuse she and others endured from police officers while protesting in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 and 2015. Today the freshman congresswoman uses the experiences and passion she had protesting the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. then to fight for Black lives in Congress now. “People were calling us terrorists for saying Black lives matter,” Bush, who is from St. Louis, told Yahoo News in a video interview this month. “No. We wanted to stop Black death at the hands of police.”
Exeter City Council had announced a review into the statue of General Sir Redvers Buller, which stands outside the entrance to Exeter College.
This week, the Biden administration announced that it would resume efforts to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman's image on the $20 bill, a move first championed by the Obama administration in 2016. Supporters initially praised the move, but some Black activists say putting Tubman on the $20 bill is an uneasy fit with her legacy. “Why would we want to put somebody who fought for freedom from this kind of capitalist oppression?” Feminista Jones, an activist and author, told Yahoo News. “Why would we want to take her image and then make her the face of this thing that so many people lack access to?”
The dancer says the performance even sparked some controversy close to home.
Rhian Graham, 29, Milo Ponsford, 25, Jake Skuse, 36, and Sage Willoughby, 21, appeared in court in Bristol.
A clenched-fist symbol was made in the sky above London.
A clenched-fist symbol was made in the sky above London.
Los Angeles Lakers superstar Anthony Davis won his first NBA championship less than two months ago and looks to repeat it as his team kicks off its next season on Tuesday night. But off the court Davis is also staying busy, launching an initiative with eBay ahead of the holidays called Santa Sneaker Drop, in which he’s looking to help sneaker lovers get some of the most exclusive kicks online using augmented reality (AR) technology instead of standing in long lines in the midst of the pandemic. Davis also aims to continue inspiring youth because he believes the next generation will continue to lead the movement toward social justice.“I keep touching the youth because the youth is what can help us create this change,” he told Yahoo News. “They’re so young; the world is theirs.”
Dawn French's Rev Geraldine Granger apparently takes the knee in the episode.
Civil rights and FBI investigators will help look into the police shooting of Casey Goodson Jr., whose family says was shot in front of two toddlers and his grandmother while inside his Ohio home.
The fictional vicar will take the knee during a special Christmas episode.
Shukri Abdi was 12 when she drowned in a river in Bury. Worldwide protests demanded justice for the Somali refugee.
The 39-year-old dancer said while the BLM movement had sparked conversation, it was important to continue it long-term.
The Formula One world champion said his driving is still improving.
The 28-year-old 'Star Wars' star grew up in Peckham, south London, and said he and his father have been stopped and searched by the police.
This week, St. Louis native and veteran Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush made history, becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress to represent the state of Missouri. “I just won this seat from a 52-year dynasty because I stood up for Black lives,” Bush said in a video interview with Yahoo News two days after her convincing win. “I stood up for brown lives and for babies in cages. I stood up against all of the oppression and the systems that have been holding our community down for so long.”
The prosecution said the teenager was goaded on by protesters and only stopped after being threatened by the police.
On Monday, Oct. 26, Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old Black man who suffered from bipolar disorder, was fatally shot by Philadelphia police while he was experiencing a mental health crisis and wielding a knife. The deadly encounter has again raised questions about the effectiveness of police procedures when engaging individuals with mental health issues. Officers, like the public at large, have varied opinions.
At the final presidential debate on Thursday, President Trump said he is “the least racist person in this room” and defended a remark in which he described the Black Lives Matter movement as a symbol of hate.
The due date for the birth of Deja Stallings’s first child, a girl she will be naming Dsyre, is Oct. 19. But her mother says that her unborn child has already been the victim of police brutality after Stallings was thrown to the ground two weeks ago and held with a knee to her back by a white Kansas City police officer.
Jonathan Price, a Black man, was killed by a white police officer after breaking up a domestic dispute on Oct. 3 in his hometown of Wolfe City, Texas. Many people within the small town are realizing that racism is not just a big-city issue, but a country-wide problem. Now, the entire town is rallying behind Price, demanding justice and accountability by way of a murder conviction for the officer that killed a beloved man within the community.
Olivia Rose Griffin, owner of the Limbo, a tiki bar in downtown Louisville, Ky., likened the last several months to slow-motion whiplash. The coronavirus pandemic and Breonna Taylor protests have brought the local economy to a near standstill. But Griffin says that's nothing compared to lives being lost. She feels that every business has to "take a stance" on the issues that matter.