"The RNC won't pay you in fried chicken, menthols, Rice Krispies Treats, watermelon, or weed," one troll wrote, according to a series of screenshots of the emails that Mainor tweeted over the weekend. "The Klan should wipe the floor with your ass!"

"You wanna be a party traitor and go under [Republican Georgia governor] Brian Kemp's whip," another wrote, "because he offered you more yams and collards?"

Other harassers called Mainor the n-word, an "aunt Jemima motherf*cking traitor," and an "Uncle Tom bitch."

Mainor tweeted the messages along with polite responses, such as "I'm sorry you feel this way. I pray everyone has a great Sunday! It's another day the Lord has made." In response to one email that told her to kill herself, Mainor wrote, "Dear Democrat, I'm sorry you feel this way. Support for anyone with thoughts of self-harm can be accessed by calling #988."

Mainor, who is black, cited the Democratic Party's "left-wing radicalism," "lawlessness," and decision to "put the interests of illegal aliens over the interest of Americans" as her reasons for leaving the party. The Georgia legislator joins a growing group of state-level Democrats who are switching their party affiliation. In nearby Louisiana, for example, two Democratic lawmakers this year joined with Republicans.

Most of the lawmakers have said the Democratic Party is no longer open to opposing viewpoints. "I didn't leave the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party left ME," Mainor tweeted.

Democrats in the Georgia State House weren't much nicer to Mainor than the trolls. Mainor told Fox News Digital that, even before she switched parties, Democrats "crucified" and "abandoned" her for supporting a school choice bill.

Mainor, who represents a deep-blue district in urban Atlanta, faces a tough reelection bid in 2024.

Update 3:43 p.m.: This piece has been updated for clarity since publication.

The post Black Georgia Lawmaker Hit With Racist Hate Mail After Switching to GOP appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

• Celebrity actress Kristen Bell earlier this week posted a photo on Instagram featuring Tapper and his wife, Jennifer Marie Brown, enjoying a fancy dinner at the South Fork Lodge in Idaho.

• They were joined by a large group of celebrity couples, nearly all of them proud members of the white race.

• Social media users were stunned that the rich and socially enlightened liberal celebs would engage in such a flagrant act of white supremacy.

What they're saying: "Serious question for well-meaning white people. When you show up at a get-together like this, do you notice there are zero Black people, or nah?" wrote Twitter user Jay Perkins, a biracial black man and "antiracist" higher ed lawyer. "If so, do you say or do anything about it? To who? Please be honest. This is a safe space (unless you say something dumb or racist)."

What it means: The racially homogenous partygoers were most likely celebrating the Supreme Court's June 29 decision striking down race-based affirmative action in college admissions, an outcome backed by the vast majority of Americans.

• There appears to have been only one non-white celebrity couple in attendance. David Chang, the Korean-American restaurateur, was spotted at the dinner with his wife Grace, a Korean-born immigrant.

• The Supreme Court's ruling found that race-based affirmative action in college admissions violated the Constitution because it explicitly discriminated against Koreans and other students of Asian descent.

By the numbers: More than 82 percent of Idaho's population is white, according the U.S. Census Bureau, making it one of the whitest states in the country.

• The celebrity dinner party was even whiter. At least 90 percent of the guests were white, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis.

• Approximately 0 percent of the guests were black, meaning the dinner party was demographically equivalent to a Pete Buttigieg campaign rally.

White power party: In addition to the Tappers, a bunch of other fancy white people attended the now-notorious dinner party in Idaho.

• Jennifer Aniston, star of Friends, one of the whitest shows ever made; Courteney Cox, star of Friends, and boyfriend Johnny McDaid of Snow Patrol, one the whitest bands in the world; Jason Bateman, host of the all-white podcast SmartLess, and his white wife; art gallery owners Heather Taylor and Alex De Cordoba; actress Shiri Appleby and restaurateur Jon Shook; Jimmy Kimmel and wife; Jimmy Fallon and wife; Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard; comedian John Mulaney and his half-Vietnamese mistress Olivia Munn; David Chang and wife; actor Adam Scott and wife; YouTube celeb Mark Rober; improvisational comedian Tim Curcio and wife.

Why it matters: At a time when many of our nation's journalists insist on touting the so-called benefits of diversity and inclusion, we applaud Tapper's courageous decision to reject phony moral values and embrace the "taboo" of "white racial solidarity."

• There's simply nothing wrong with a rich white journalist wanting to hang out with a bunch of rich white people (and a handful of Asians) at a fancy lodge in Idaho. It's a free country.

• The vast majority of Americans oppose the explicit racial preferences struck down by the Supreme Court. If that is indeed what the mostly white partygoers were celebrating, there's nothing wrong with that, either.

Bottom line: For rejecting diversity and refusing to live his life according to the "enlightened" moral code espoused by his colleagues in the corporate media, Jake Tapper is the Washington Free Beacon Hero of the Week.

Go deeper: CNN's Jim Acosta Celebrates Painfully White Staff in Majority Black City

The post HERO OF THE WEEK: CNN's Jake Tapper Toasts Demise of Affirmative Action at All-White Dinner Party appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Just 22 percent of Whitehouse’s office identifies as a race other than white. Only 2 individuals on Whitehouse’s nearly-30 person staff identify as black. One of the two is Whitehouse’s chief of staff, whom the senator hired in 2021 following a Washington Free Beacon report that Whitehouse had no minorities on his senior staff.

The demographic information comes from the Senate Democratic Diversity Initiative's sixth-annual staff survey, released just weeks after the Supreme Court's decision overturning affirmative action in college admissions. The initiative, started in 2007 by then-Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), is meant to "develop a Senate staff who reflect the diversity of our Nation and are demographically representative of the constituents they serve."

Whitehouse has for years faced scrutiny for his membership at an exclusive all-white beach club in Newport, Rhode Island. The senator, who claims to have "worked relentlessly toward bringing greater equality of opportunity and outcome to all Americans," pledged to terminate his membership at Bailey’s Beach Club in 2006. But Whitehouse merely transferred the membership to his wife, Sandra Thornton.

Whitehouse has since defended his relationship with the club, which was once described by the New York Times as a retreat where "the ruling class keeps its guard up." When asked by a local paper in 2017 about Bailey Beach Club’s racial composition, Whitehouse said, "It would be nice if [Bailey’s] changed a little bit" and that he would take up the issue "privately."

There is little evidence that Bailey’s has changed. Two years ago, a local Rhode Island paper prodded its members and staff about its pallidity.

"We have Asians, we have [sic] Indian. We have a lot of different ethnic groups here," a Bailey's Beach club employee said.

Just four other Democratic senators employ fewer minorities than Whitehouse: Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Tammy Baldwin (Wisc.), Angus King (Maine)—an independent who caucuses with Democrats—and Joe Manchin (W. Va.), who has the whitest Senate office.

The great-great-grandson of a railroad magnate, Whitehouse’s assets are well north of eight figures, according to his latest financial disclosure report. He was educated at the exclusive St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and attended Yale University before earning a law degree from the University of Virginia.

A spokesman for Whitehouse did not respond to a request for comment.

The post Whitehouse's White Office: Rhode Island Senator Has One of the Least Diverse Dem Staffs appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

It's hardly the first time the overwhelmingly white press corps have misrepresented black opinion, and the error always seems to point in one direction.

Since the Supreme Court's June 29 ruling, headlines have blared dire predictions about the future of black students in American higher education—many by black college students and activists.

'If affirmative action was to go away, the diversity of schools would decrease and we would see the Black population be poorly represented," rising senior Gabrielle Wilson said before the ruling. pic.twitter.com/JG9F3fjUHa

— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 30, 2023

ABC News: "Students React to Landmark Supreme Court Affirmative Action Decision"

For Bunmi Omisore, a student attending Duke University, addressing in an essay how race has impacted her as an African American woman would be difficult. "If I were applying to college today, I would have to write about those traumas in my Common App essay. I would have to write about those traumas and those very hard experiences for admissions officers to accept the overwhelming truth that we all know—which is that it is hard to be a Black person in America. And I don't think that's fair," Omisore told David Muir in an ABC News Special Report.

For students applying under the new standard, it is "going to be hard to see themselves as someone outside of their race" if they can only address it through an essay, as opposed to simply disclosing it as one factor among many considered in the admissions process, Omisore said.

NBC News: "Without Affirmative Action, Advocates Fear Students of Color at Elite Colleges May Feel Disenfranchised"

That's why leaders Friday concurred that it's more important than ever for colleges to ensure all students feel like they belong on campus. They said they intend to do so by publicly embracing diversity and inclusion, as well as rejecting and condemning racism.

While leaders were reassuring students like Agustín León-Sáenz, a sophomore at Harvard, that they belong on campus, many students on the school's campus Thursday were expressing concern about how the ruling will affect aspiring college students of color.

"This is literally high stakes for my family," León-Sáenz told MSNBC. He said he thinks about how it will affect his little brother, who will apply for college in a few years, and his cousin, who will apply for college in the fall. It makes him think about "the people from my community, specifically from the state of New Mexico, where I am one of two students from New Mexico in my school year. So this has immediate impacts."

CNN: "The Gutting of Affirmative Action is a ‘Clear and Present Danger’ to Equal Education, Critics Say"

Wisdom Cole, national director of the NAACP Youth & College Division, called the rollback of affirmative action a "dark day in America." "Affirmative action has been a beacon of hope for generations of Black students," Cole said in a statement Thursday. "It stood as a powerful force against the insidious poison of racism and sexism, aiming to level the playing field and provide a fair shot at a high-quality education for all. Students across the country are wide-awake to the clear and present danger encroaching on their classrooms."... 

Apparently, however, elite college students and racial justice activists are not representative of black America. An Economist-YouGov poll published last week finds more black Americans than not approve of the Supreme Court's ruling against affirmative action.

A new poll finds an overwhelming majority of Americans—including a solid plurality of black and Hispanic Americans—back the Supreme Court’s ruling against race-based affirmative action. | @mccormackjohn https://t.co/vLgV3WibIU

— National Review (@NRO) July 11, 2023

Just 19 percent of black Americans feel affirmative action impacts them, and only 11 percent of those feel the policy affects them "positively," according to the survey. The poll is not an outlier, as political reporter Aaron Blake details in the Washington Post.

Journalists similarly stretch when they try to make black Americans avatars of progressive views on crime, abortion, and transgender rights.

Opposition to policing is often portrayed as a grassroots movement by and for black Americans.

For many Black Americans, real change still feels elusive despite the Chauvin verdict. The trial "is addressing a symptom, but we have not yet dealt with the disease." ⁦@abscribe⁩ ⁦@amy_harmon⁩ ⁦@stavernise⁩ ⁦@emilymbadger⁩ https://t.co/ttUH1wlbhl

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) April 21, 2021

But polls show again and again that black Americans overwhelmingly support maintaining or increasing police funding.

The Grio/KFF poll:

Only 17% of Black voters want to decrease police funding.

34% of Black voters want to increase police funding.

48% want to keep it the about the same.https://t.co/oSSoX21msr

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) October 26, 2022

Abortion is regularly covered as a black "civil rights" issue.

Black men know the Black women in their lives will suffer some of the gravest consequences of Roe v. Wade’s reversal.

'For the Black man, it’s all painful, because these women mean so much to us," professor Rodney Coates told @NBCBLK.https://t.co/zfTEZ2octe

— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 30, 2022

But black Americans are less supportive of abortion rights than most Democrats, surveys show.

Black Americans are increasingly at the center of LGBT advocacy coverage, particularly on transgender issues.

Rally for Black trans lives draws enormous crowd in Brooklyn. https://t.co/J3qlK0r89X

— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 15, 2020

But a large majority of black Democrats—like Americans in general—reject progressive ideas about gender identity.

NEW: Black Democrats differ from other Democrats in their views on gender identity, transgender issues https://t.co/SZvGLH7naA pic.twitter.com/ZVd0ZF82GF

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) January 4, 2023

With the media so out of touch with black America, it's no wonder some leading Democrats have lost the plot, too.

Joe Biden said on Friday that black voters torn between voting for him or President Trump 'ain’t black." His comments came at the end of a testy exchange with Charlamagne Tha God on 'The Breakfast Club."https://t.co/uG4l7F4piD

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 22, 2020

The post On Affirmative Action, Media Once Again Prove They Have No Idea What Black People Think appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The law school's office of student services, which coordinates applications to all journals including the flagship Columbia Law Review, said Sunday that journal acceptances had been postponed until the school could verify that they comport with the new, race-blind standard articulated in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.

"In light of the Supreme Court decision on Thursday, we are working with university leadership to better understand any implications for the journal ranking process," the office told students in an email. "Because of this, journal acceptances will be delayed until we receive further clarity."

"We have an obligation," the office added, "to … ensure that our decision processes are consistent with the law."

Law journals have long used affirmative action to select student editors as well as articles for publication. The delay suggests that this widespread practice could be on the chopping block as a result of the High Court's sweeping ruling, which experts say has laid the groundwork for invalidating a host of race-based policies across academia and corporate America.

"It's almost impossible to avoid the implication that all recipients of federal funds are now subject to the same rule announced in Students for Fair Admissions," said Dan Morenoff, the executive director of the American Civil Rights Project, which filed an amicus brief in support of the group that sued Harvard. As long as a law review is part of a federally funded university, it faces "the same constraints that the 14th Amendment applies to state entities."

That could spell trouble for Columbia's journals in the event of a legal challenge. Though the Columbia Law Review is technically an independent nonprofit, students apply to it through the university's online portal, and those with questions about the review are referred to the law school's associate director of academic advising, Jordan Carr. Other journals at the law school are published "in partnership" with the university, according to their websites.

Neither Columbia Law School nor the Columbia Law Review responded to requests for comment.

Legal academia is already feeling the heat from the Supreme Court's decision. Within 24 hours of the ruling, the conservative public interest firm America First Legal sent letters to 200 law schools demanding that they scrap racial preferences not just in student admissions but also in faculty hiring and law reviews.

"We will represent victims of these policies and sue any law school that allows these illegal and discriminatory practices to continue," the letters read.

The pause at Columbia indicates that the school's journals have similar programs, as do the demographic data solicited by the Columbia Law Review. Applicants are asked about their race, gender, and sexual orientation, according to segments of application form reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, and can also submit "other relevant information" about their "personal identity."

Even before the Supreme Court's ruling, law reviews were dealing with legal headaches over their use of racial preferences. In 2018, a Texas-based group sued the Harvard Law Review and the New York University Law Review for allegedly discriminating in the admissions process. While both lawsuits were eventually dismissed—largely on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing—law reviews may struggle to fend off similar complaints going forward, Morenoff said.

The Supreme Court's new standard could pose a particular problem for the Yale Law Journal, which in 2021 released admissions data following accusations of racism from minority students. It turned out the top-ranked law review accepted white and Asian applicants at much lower rates than their black counterparts, numbers that parallel the disparities cited by the Supreme Court in its judgment against Harvard.

"It certainly sounds like the whole set of elite law journals will need to change their MO or face consequences," Morenoff said.

The post The Supreme Court's Affirmative Action Ruling Is Already Having an Impact. You Might Be Surprised Where.  appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

"It is basically saying that whatever caste system we have right now—that should stay intact," said American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten in a conversation with National Education Association president Becky Pringle. Weingarten said the decision is "as bad as Dobbs," the Supreme Court's ruling last year that there was no constitutional right to abortion.

"It is 2023, and we are having Supreme Court decisions that are taking us further backwards in the progress that we've made," Pringle said.

The union leaders' reactions come after the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, on Thursday struck down the use of race-based affirmative action in college admissions. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, wrote that "eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it." Weingarten and Pringle echoed dissents from Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Both unions filed amicus briefs urging the Court to allow colleges to continue using race as a factor in college admissions. With more than three million members, the National Education Association is the largest teachers' union in the country, followed by American Federation of Teachers with 1.7 million members, according to the organizations.

Angela Morabito, a spokeswoman for the Defense of Freedom Institute and former Education Department press secretary, told the Washington Free Beacon that union leaders should be supporting the Supreme Court's decision.

"If teachers' union bosses truly wanted what's best for students, they would be celebrating the end of race-based discrimination in college admissions," Morabito said. "The best thing Randi Weingarten and Becky Pringle could do to help minority students is to stop trapping them in failing government-assigned schools and get out of the way of school choice programs that students need and parents deserve."

During a Thursday live-streamed conversation, Weingarten described what she would say in class if she were a civics teacher.

"If I was teaching this decision tomorrow in class, what I would be doing is I would be actually pulling together … the arc of the moral universe," said Weingarten, "what we have tried to do from the Civil War, the end of the Civil War, to the Civil Rights Movement and how this just throws a wrench into all that progress."

Weingarten questioned whether she would be allowed to teach about the decision if she were a teacher in Florida because of the state's "restrictions on the teaching of honest history."

"I might be really in trouble in teaching about this decision—in trouble in teaching about the dissents of this decision," Weingarten said.

Florida's "Stop WOKE Act," signed last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R.), explicitly requires the teaching of the "history of African Americans," including "the enslavement experience, abolition, and the contributions of African Americans to society."

The Court's opinion was part of the continuing backlash to former president Barack Obama's election, Pringle said.

"We knew when President Obama was elected there was going to be a backlash—we knew that," Pringle said. "I don't think we quite grasped the depth of it until we started to see that the highest court in the land is totally rejecting the notions, the ideals, on which this country was founded."

Weingarten cited Alexis de Tocqueville's description of America, saying Tocqueville recognized the country's "diversity and how that made us stronger."

"We're going back to 'Is America a salad bowl, a melting pot?'" Weingarten said. "Or is it what this decision is saying, which is we can all be in our separate fiefdoms and tribes and never any one of us meet?"

Weingarten said the Court's majority opinion advocated ignorance of racial inequities in today's America.

"What this decision does is basically ignore the original sin of slavery and the effects of that original sin and pretends that there is no longer an effect to it," Weingarten said. "It basically says that equal protection means that whatever the dominant power play is right now, that's what should be happening in America."

Roberts's opinion and other justices' concurrences presented a different view of American history and the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurrence that the "great failure of this country was slavery and its progeny" but presented an optimistic view of the nation's future.

"While I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have befallen my race and all who suffer discrimination," Thomas wrote, "I hold out enduring hope that this country will live up to its principles so clearly enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States: that all men are created equal, are equal citizens, and must be treated equally before the law."

The post 'As Bad as Dobbs': Randi Weingarten Laments End of Affirmative Action appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

• The 6-3 opinion argued that race-based admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina run afoul of the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution because they "unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points."

Why it matters: Some have argued the Supreme Court faces a "crisis of legitimacy" because its opinions do not always reflect the views of the American public. By this standard, the Court's decision to strike down race-based affirmative action is laudably legitimate.

• The vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, oppose race-based affirmative action in university admissions, polls show.

By the numbers: More than two-thirds of Americans say colleges and universities should not use race as a factor in admission, according to the New York Times. Opposition to affirmative action is slightly higher when respondents are asked about public universities funded by taxpayers.

• Americans oppose affirmative action at public colleges and universities by an overwhelming margin of 74 percent to 26 percent.

• A solid majority of Democrats agree: Sixty percent said they oppose race-based admissions at public universities, while 58 percent said the same about private universities.

What they're saying: "The opinion today will serve only to highlight the Court's own impotence in the face of an America whose cries for equality resound," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissenting opinion.

• Alas, the American public appears to have a different definition of "equality."

Bottom line: The Supreme Court's legitimate decision to end race-based affirmative action is an accurate reflection of the American public's views. Congratulations!

The post Legitimacy Restored: Supreme Court Ends Affirmative Action, Outcome Backed by Vast Majority of Americans appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

• Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Elizabeth Warren made the list, but Donald Trump did not.

What it means: Trump is the least racist, most anti-slavery president of the United States, according to the findings of the Reuters investigation.

• "President Joe Biden and every living former U.S. president—except Donald Trump—are direct descendants of slaveholders," the analysis found. "Trump's ancestors came to America after slavery was abolished."

•  Obama, the first mixed-race president in American history, is a descendant of slave owners on his white mother's side.

Why it matters: Being a slave owner is very racist. Obama and other privileged descendants of slave owners have benefited from the suffering and exploitation of slaves. In the interest of fairness, perhaps they should pay reparations to Trump's family and others who patiently waited for the United States to abolish slavery before immigrating.

Bottom line: Dumb investigations often yield dumb results. Nevertheless, we must respect the science.

The post Donald Trump Is Least Racist Living President, Historical Analysis Finds appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Consumers' Research, a consumer advocacy group, launched the "Bank of UnAmerica" campaign this week with nationwide TV ads, a Times Square billboard, and mobile advertisements in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Miami, and other cities.

The ads accuse Bank of America of "using a social score system straight out of China's playbook" by "building a system to track your carbon emissions and monitor your driving," "coming after your Second Amendment rights," and "favoring certain home buyers based on their race."

"We are putting Bank of America on notice. CEO Brian Moynihan has wielded the United States' second-largest bank like a political club," said Consumers' Research executive director Will Hild. "Under his watch, the bank has brought China's social credit system to American soil by using arbitrary [environmental, social, and corporate governance] metrics to potentially lock individuals and businesses out of key banking services."

Hild said the bank has gone "full woke, forcing employees to endure [diversity, equity, and inclusion] training that denigrated the United States as racist and challenged employees to confront their 'White Privilege.'"

The campaign comes as Moynihan has defended the company's embrace of progressive environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) policies against criticism from Republicans. The bank is one of the largest issuers of ESG bonds in the United States.

"I've sometimes been surprised to be asked—including at congressional hearings—'Are you a capitalist?'" wrote Moynihan in the bank's annual report in March. "You might also find the question unusual. Of course, I answered, 'Yes.'"

Bank of America announced last year that it would work toward "net-zero greenhouse gas emissions" by pressuring borrowers in the "auto manufacturing, energy, and power generation" industries to reduce their emissions or lose out on loans. The bank said in 2018 that it would stop doing business with gunmakers that manufacture certain firearms, such as the AR-15.

Last year, Bank of America also rolled out a zero-interest loan program for home buyers in "majority-minority neighborhood[s]," which critics slammed as race-based lending.

The policies have faced criticism from Republicans. Last September, then-senator Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) warned Moynihan and other bank CEOs against "embracing a liberal ESG agenda that harms America."

The ads follow a similar Consumers' Research campaign against investment firm BlackRock, which has also been a major proponent of ESG. Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) on Tuesday introduced legislation to prohibit BlackRock and other firms from using federal retirement fund holdings for ESG investments.

The post 'Bank of UnAmerica': Banking Giant Accused of Going 'Full Woke' by Consumer Group appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Susan Corke, the director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, this week added Moms for Liberty, Parents Defending Education, and other parent organizations to its "hate map," alongside neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Corke visited the White House on Jan. 6, 2023, and met with National Security Council counterterrorism director John Picarelli, according to White House visitor logs reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Corke, a former State Department official, was accompanied by researchers from American University who work with the SPLC.

The SPLC's access to the White House is likely to draw outcry from Republicans who have long questioned the left-wing group's arbitrary "hate map" designations. The inclusion of parent groups could raise concerns that the organizations could become targets of violence. A gunman who shot a security guard at the headquarters of the Family Research Council in 2012 said he attacked the pro-family organization after seeing it listed as a hate group by the SPLC.

"The SPLC is a garbage organization now dedicated to harassing groups that advocate for parents. In the future, their pronouncements must be met with scorn," Sen. J.D. Vance (R., Ohio) said of the SPLC report.

The SPLC, which itself has faced accusations that it harbors a "systemic culture of racism," classified the pro-parent organizations as "anti-government groups." Corke asserted that the parents' groups serve as the "new battlefront vs inclusivity in schools" and "are rooted in age-old white supremacy."

While it is unclear what Corke discussed in the White House visit, the meeting was held amid growing pressure on the Biden administration to track parents upset by schools' coronavirus policies and left-wing classroom curricula. Moms for Liberty and Parents Defending Education have emerged as the leading grassroots groups in the movement against mask mandates at schools and curricula that promote critical race theory and transgender issues.

The FBI opened 25 preliminary investigations into parents, though only one advanced to a full investigation. FBI agents interviewed one member of a Moms for Liberty chapter who threatened to vote local school board members out of office over mask mandates.

The investigations were part of a task force started in 2021 by Attorney General Merrick Garland to monitor school board meetings across the country for threats of violence. Garland launched the task force after the National School Boards Association called on the Biden administration to investigate parents as potential domestic terrorists. Republicans have accused the administration of colluding with the school board group, citing a series of meetings that White House and Justice Department officials had with members of the group.

Federal agencies and the White House have relied on the SPLC as a resource against extremism, even amid concerns about the group's methods for determining hate groups. The FBI earlier this year cited SPLC research in an intelligence memo that called for surveillance of traditionalist Catholic groups in Virginia. The White House last month tapped the SPLC to serve on a coalition to track anti-Semitism. In an ironic twist, organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the National Action Network, led by anti-Semite Al Sharpton, were also selected for the task force.

"​​The SPLC is a hateful, bigoted, and despicable organization," said Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas). "They're now attacking and labeling parents who want to have a say in their own kids' education."

The SPLC and the National Security Council did not respond to requests for comment.

The post SPLC Researcher Who Labeled 'Moms for Liberty' a Hate Group Met Biden National Security Officials appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

That seems like a weird story, right? You wouldn't know it from the tone of mainstream media coverage.

Headlines treated the sit-in like just another anti-gun protest.

NBC News: "1,000 Women Hold a Sit-In at the Colorado Capitol To Push for an End to Gun Violence"

ABC News: "Thousands of women participate in sit-in at Colorado Capitol against gun violence"

CBS News: "Colorado Mothers Hold Sit-In To Demand Ban on All Guns in Violation of Constitutions"

Here's how long it took each network to mention the racial dynamics at play and how those dynamics were described.

NBC News, sixth paragraph:

[Tina] Strawn, 45, who is Black, and [Saira] Rao, 48, who is Indian American, said they were inspired by the 1960s Civil Rights Movement to hold a peaceful sit-in and encouraged women of color to participate virtually in a simultaneous remote campaign.

Black people experience the highest firearm homicide rates in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

White women were specifically encouraged to participate in person "because they have a lot of power within our society and statistically are also least likely to be harmed by police," said Here 4 the Kids

ABC News, second paragraph:

The Here 4 the Kids movement, which advocates to end gun violence, is behind the event. Organizers said roughly 2,000 people were among the first to gather. They are also calling on white women specifically, to participate in the demonstration. ...

Tina Strawn, the movement’s cofounder, told ABC News that Black people have always been on the frontlines for social justice.

"So, it's time for white women to show up. It's time for white women to put their bodies, their privilege and their power on the line to save our kids," she said. "And it is something that they are recognizing that they need to be doing. That's why they're showing up."

CBS News, never.

One cable news channel did highlight the protest's far-left racial ideology, but only positively.

CNN: "Hundreds of White Women Gather at Colorado Capitol After Plea From Women of Color To Use Their ‘Privilege’ To Demand Action on Gun Violence"

The movement has garnered support from the entertainment industry, including from White actresses Amy Schumer, Michaela Watkins and Lake Bell.

Watkins, who showed up at the Colorado Capitol early Monday morning and plans to stay until late in the evening, told CNN her initial response to the call to action for mainly White women to participate was, "What? Just White women? That sounds just exclusive," but she understood what the founders meant.

"White women, statistically, have been the least likely to be arrested, assaulted by police officers and so we just said, ‘OK.’ If marginalized communities have been just traumatized over and over and over again I guess we just come together," Watkins told CNN as cars drove by and honked in support of the protest. "We are the biggest voting block in this country. We do have power, we just forget that and we have been conditioned to forget that."

She also said, "For me, it was very confronting, it was like, ‘I am an activist, but am I really willing to put myself on the line?’" when asked what was her response to other White women who feel uncomfortable with the movement.

"If someone says, ‘I don’t understand why I have to be there,’ they don’t have to be here. But if you feel you are over it, over this incredible horror that we are facing, literally every single day, then you should come here."

None of the outlets mentioned that one of the organizers is infamous for her anti-white racist tweets and questionable monetization of white guilt.

The media have a lot of practice acting as though the latest progressive ideas are totally normal.

These women married themselves. Here's why.https://t.co/rOIqpLM9XZ

— CNN (@CNN) May 29, 2023

For more and more of this couple therapist's patients, the ideas behind Black Lives Matter and #MeToo are leading to breakthroughs at home.

Read this and 10 other stories handpicked by New York Times editors in The Weekender. https://t.co/xPC645oli3

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 21, 2023

The damaging idea of a 'normal' body has long been used to other and exclude, writes Heather Radke https://t.co/eg3UGyMze9

— TIME (@TIME) April 2, 2023

Researchers say Discovery’s programming overwhelmingly featured White men as experts while emphasizing negative messages about sharks.https://t.co/Fs71Qov5WG

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 6, 2022

But when conservatives express traditional American values—like democratic engagement, parental authority, patriotism, and free speech—intense media scrutiny is warranted.

Far-right conservatives have been targeting seats on local boards and commissions, in many cases to gain oversight of elections. The tensions are playing out in one Tennessee county where a local Constitutional Republicans group now controls a commission. https://t.co/uRug5UTEUG

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 21, 2023

House Republicans have approved the controversial 'Parents Bill of Rights" legislation — which outlines what parents have the right to in their children’s education, from access to teacher-parent meetings to curriculum and books. https://t.co/fCAGdApkxz

— POLITICO (@politico) March 24, 2023

NY Times defends Mara Gay for saying she was 'disturbed' by American flags https://t.co/JLEiEBMwmK pic.twitter.com/DZlpg85mP8

— New York Post (@nypost) June 9, 2021

Conservatives are 'weaponizing the First Amendment" to justify unlimited campaign spending, discrimination and attacks on regulations https://t.co/onoBBZirPL

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 1, 2018

The post The Media Are Acting Like a Bizarre 'White Woman' Protest Is Totally Normal appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Sarsour and Mallory announced the campaign during a Monday press conference in Louisville. The pair's social justice organization, Until Freedom, plans to open two offices in Kentucky to register new voters. Activists at the press conference referred to Cameron—the state's first black attorney general—as "Judas" and "Uncle Daniel," a reference to the racist "Uncle Tom" trope that denigrates black men as race traitors. "I would love to see a black man as governor, but not Daniel Cameron," one activist said during the event.

It's unclear if Sarsour and Mallory's presence in the race will help or hurt Cameron. The activists have a controversial past—both were ousted from the anti-Trump group they helped lead, the Women's March, following accusations of anti-Semitism, which the group's founder said "steered the movement away from its true course." Both Sarsour and Mallory have ties to anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has denounced Jews as "termites" and praised Adolf Hitler as a "very great man." Sarsour spoke at a 2015 event organized by Farrakhan, while Mallory called Farrakhan the "GOAT," or "Greatest of All Time," and has been pictured holding hands with the Nation of Islam leader.

Beyond Sarsour and Mallory, Until Freedom's founding members include other far-left activists. One such member, Angelo Pinto, is a self-proclaimed prison abolitionist. "In a nutshell, what prison abolition is [is] a world without prisons, a world without jails, a world where … this very punitive form of incarceration—or punitive caging, which is really what it is—no longer exists," Pinto said in a 2020 interview.

Until Freedom, which did not return a request for comment, was established in New York City in 2019, according to the group's tax forms. The group went on to host "Days of Rage" against "racist policing." Sarsour went on to move the group to Louisville one year later, pledging to "#OccupyKentucky." Sarsour, Mallory, and Pinto combined to earn $160,000 through the group in 2020, Until Freedom's disclosures show.

Beyond their criticism of Cameron, Until Freedom activists during their Monday press conference praised Kentucky Democratic governor Andy Beshear, saying that while he "isn't perfect," he "has shown us that he is ready to be our governor for four more years." If Beshear is anything like President Joe Biden, he will reject the support.

When Sarsour appeared on a Democratic National Committee livestream in 2020, the Biden campaign denounced her, with a spokesman saying that Biden "condemns her views." That response prompted criticism from far-left congressional Democrats—Michigan congresswoman and "Squad" member Rashida Tlaib said she was "so sick and tired of folks going after [Sarsour] and other Palestinian activists for speaking the truth about oppression and injustice."

Beyond her association with Farrakhan, Sarsour has argued that there's "nothing creepier than Zionism," compared Zionism to "white supremacy," and expressed support for Palestinian terrorists.

Cameron in 2019 became the first black man independently elected statewide in Kentucky, defeating Democrat Greg Stumbo by 15 points in a lopsided attorney general race. Four years later, the Republican is running to unseat Beshear, who in 2019 defeated unpopular GOP incumbent Matt Bevin by less than 1 point to become Kentucky's governor. Cameron cruised to the GOP gubernatorial nomination in May, carrying 47 percent of the vote in a crowded primary field that included 12 candidates. He will face off with Beshear at the polls in November.

The post Prominent Anti-Semites Launch Campaign To Stop Republican From Becoming Kentucky's First Black Governor appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

President Joe Biden's Education and Justice Departments on Wednesday released their "Resource on Confronting Racial Discrimination in Student Discipline," which contends that persistent racism clouds school disciplinary systems. That racism is exhibited in school disciplinary codes and actions as early as preschool, according to the memo, and is evident when schools discipline minority students for excessive absences or for failing to follow the dress code, among other examples. "Discrimination in student discipline forecloses opportunities for students, pushing them out of the classroom and diverting them from a path to success in school and beyond," the memo states. "Significant disparities by race—beginning as early as preschool—have persisted in the application of student discipline in schools."

The Justice Department lays out actions it has already taken to correct course, including pushing one Maryland school district to promise to no longer suspend students for truancy. The department says frequently skipping school is not a "severe" misbehavior and asks schools to instead opt for "restorative practices" such as "conflict resolution" and "reflective writing assignments."

Biden administration officials have a long history of accusing America's public educators of racism. In 2021, liberal education policy expert Kayla Patrick blamed "whiteness" for creating a "racist" student disciplinary system in public schools across the country. Just months later, Biden's Education Department tapped Patrick to run its Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development.

"In this country, nearly 80 percent of the teachers are white. And sometimes their mindsets are based solely in whiteness," Patrick said. "So that means when they come into school, they have predisposed mindsets about who black children are, what they need to wear, and how they need to behave. And so instead of celebrating their identities and cultures, schools often erase them."

The Education and Justice Departments did not return requests for comment.

The administration's Wednesday memo outlined numerous investigations federal civil rights officials undertook to correct the racism supposedly baked into public schools' disciplinary systems. It also laid out the outcomes of those investigations, each of which involved changes to school disciplinary policies or procedures.

In one case originating in a Maryland school district, black students were allegedly "overrepresented" in misbehavior incidents that included school resource officers. Following pressure from the Justice Department, the district agreed to refrain from using "exclusionary discipline" to address truancy and other misconduct, instead opting for "behavioral support plans, reflective writing assignments, conflict resolution, and restorative practices." The district also agreed to allow truant students to make up schoolwork, rather than giving those students failing grades.

In another case, the Justice Department found that black students in a North Carolina district were "overrepresented in discipline for subjective offense categories" and unfairly suspended for repeated "lower-level infractions." As a result, the department pushed the district to provide "implicit bias training for district staff," agree to "community involvement in district development of student discipline practices," and implement "alternatives to suspensions."

The memo is seemingly at odds with other federal government findings on school discipline. Last year, research from the National Institutes of Health indicated that, "regardless of race," students in lower socio-economic classes "received more childcare provider behavioral complaints" than white and minority children of higher socio-economic status. Still, the Biden administration's Wednesday memo did not discuss the impacts economic factors have on student discipline rates.

The post Biden Admin Says Suspending Minority Students for Skipping School Is Racist appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

In his Tuesday piece titled "Daniel Cameron and his 'anti-woke' conservative comrades want you asleep," Louisville Courier Journal columnist and University of Louisville professor Ricky Jones compared Cameron to "Black slaves who were loyal to their masters" and said that "trusting people like Daniel Cameron just because of his melanin level can be deadly." Jones also accused Cameron and other black Republicans of selling their soul to "Old Scratch," a nickname for the devil.

"Politically mature Black people no longer support so-called successful Black people, political candidates like Daniel Cameron and new presidential hopeful Tim Scott," Jones wrote. "They know some of these people have sold their souls to 'Old Scratch' and work overtime to make the existing racial power structure comfortable by ensuring, 'I may look like them, but I'm not like them, and I will help you keep them in check.' That's the Faustian pact they have made in exchange for their individual good fortunes."

Jones is the second Courier Journal columnist to attack Cameron as anti-black in a matter of days. Last week, the outlet's Joseph Gerth accused Cameron of working against "what the vast majority of Black people believe" and argued that Kentucky Republicans who backed Cameron as the party's gubernatorial nominee still could have voted with "racism or racist intent."

"The fact that Republicans were willing to nominate a Black man for governor doesn't mean they aren't racists," Gerth wrote. "It simply means they are willing to nominate a Black man who acts as if racism doesn't exist."

Cameron in 2019 became the first black man independently elected statewide in Kentucky, defeating Democrat Greg Stumbo by 15 points in a lopsided attorney general race. Four years later, the Republican is running to unseat Kentucky Democratic governor Andy Beshear. Cameron earlier this month cruised to the GOP nomination, carrying 47 percent of the vote in a crowded primary field that included 12 candidates.

In addition to his criticism of Cameron, Jones—who did not return a request for comment—vehemently defended Beshear in his column, arguing that the Democrat is no "white devil."

"Andy Beshear isn’t the fork-tongued, slivering, hissing serpent coiled in a tree dripping temptations and deceptions from his reptilian lips," Jones wrote. "Yes, it makes sense for smart Black people to choose the white guy over the Black guy in this one."

This is far from the first time Jones has accused Cameron of selling out black people. Last year, the columnist called Cameron "white supremacy in blackface," a line that MSNBC's Ja'han Jones adopted in a piece earlier this month. "For many, Cameron, a Republican, is viewed as a Black face of white supremacy," Jones wrote.

While Cameron has not responded to Jones's column, the Republican hammered Gerth in a May 25 Twitter thread.

"Joe Gerth has a unique perspective born out of a far-left worldview that cannot fathom black Americans thinking differently from him," Cameron wrote. "For Gerth, my opinions, my parents' opinions, countless family members' opinions don't matter, because we're black conservatives."

The post Liberal Writers Can't Stop Calling Black Republican Daniel Cameron Anti-Black appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

In a Thursday piece titled, "Does choice of Daniel Cameron for governor mean Kentucky Republicans aren't racist?" Louisville Courier Journal writer Joseph Gerth argued that GOP voters who backed Cameron still may have exhibited their racism at the ballot box.

"A vote for a Black candidate doesn't rule out racism or racist intent," Gerth wrote. "The fact that Republicans were willing to nominate a Black man for governor doesn't mean they aren't racists. It simply means they are willing to nominate a Black man who acts as if racism doesn't exist."

Gerth went on to paint Cameron, the first black man elected statewide in Kentucky, as anti-black, citing the Republican's support for law enforcement and opposition toward critical race theory. In doing so, Gerth joined a long line of liberal media members who have attacked Cameron for his status as a black conservative. Last year, University of Louisville professor and fellow Courier Journal columnist Ricky Jones called Cameron "white supremacy in blackface." MSNBC's Ja'han Jones repeated the line in May, writing, "For many, Cameron, a Republican, is viewed as a Black face of white supremacy."

Kentucky voters elected Cameron as the state's attorney general in 2019. Four years later, the Republican is running to unseat Kentucky Democratic governor Andy Beshear. Cameron cruised to the GOP nomination earlier this month, carrying 47 percent of the vote, more than double the share of the second-place Republican, Kentucky agriculture commissioner Ryan Quarles.

Beyond his negative assessment of Kentucky GOP voters, Gerth, who declined to comment, criticized Cameron for "paraphrasing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr." during his gubernatorial nominee acceptance speech. "Here in Kentucky, the American dream is alive and well because … you aren't judged by the color of your skin but by the content of your character," Cameron said. For Gerth, Cameron delivered that line merely because it allows him to "oppose policies like affirmative action that give African Americans … an advantage to let them thrive."

"The fact is, even though he is Black, Cameron takes stands against what the vast majority of Black people believe," Gerth wrote. "In many ways, Cameron has made himself into the Black man who doesn't scare white people and doesn't challenge them on issues of race."

Cameron responded by hammering Gerth Thursday afternoon, arguing in a Twitter thread that the writer "has a unique perspective born out of a far-left-world-view that cannot fathom black Americans thinking differently than him."

"For Gerth, my opinions, my parents' opinions, countless family members' opinions don't matter, because we're black conservatives," Cameron wrote. "I'll continue to stand unapologetically for the values that I believe in—and so many Kentuckians believe in—despite narrow and backwards thinking from Gerth and the radical left media."

Cameron will take on Beshear, a top target for Republicans looking to retake control of the governor's mansion, in November. The race has intensified since last week's primary, with the Democratic Governors Association pledging to spend money "at a historic pace" to ensure Beshear tops Cameron.

The post Kentucky Republicans Who Backed Black Candidate May Have 'Racist Intent,' Liberal Columnist Argues appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The NAACP's "travel advisory" does not cite any figures, which show that black Floridians enjoy lower unemployment, higher median incomes, and lower rates of both hate crimes and police killings than their counterparts in other states. Instead, the group cites Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's (R.) "aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools," particularly a bill that prevents public schools from offering AP African American Studies courses.

Left-wing activist groups have warned minorities against traveling to the Sunshine State in response to DeSantis’s educational reforms. The NAACP’s travel advisory comes after the League of United Latin American Citizens and the gay rights group Equality Florida issued similar warnings, the New York Times reported.

These warnings paint a much grimmer picture than the reality of life in Florida. Black unemployment in the state stood at 3.8 percent by the end of 2022, far lower than the national average of 6.1 percent, or California’s of 7.5 percent. Florida is second in the country for the most minority-owned businesses, which may explain why median black family income is higher there than the national average or blue states such as Illinois.

Those economic facts may also explain why Florida has one of the largest black populations in the country—and why it has grown from 1.9 million to 3.2 million in the last 30 years. That's much different from the troubling picture the NAACP paints in its advisory, which claims "Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals."

The NAACP warns black travelers to "be aware of the open hostility towards African Americans and people of color" in Florida. But blacks have enjoyed a higher degree of safety there than elsewhere. Florida law enforcement recorded 127 hate crimes in 2020, compared with 1,537 in California and 466 in New York.

Three years into DeSantis’s first term as governor, the state saw a significantly lower amount of hate crimes than California. The reported hate crime rate in Florida was 0.6 per 100,000 people, according to the FBI, and 3.1 per 100,000 people in California.

There is also evidence that blacks are far less likely to be killed by police in Florida than California or Washington, D.C. A 2019 study published in science journal The Lancet concluded that the black mortality rate due to police violence was lower than California, Oregon, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, and others.

DeSantis's two successful gubernatorial campaigns can be in part attributed to his success with black voters. In both 2018 and 2022, DeSantis saw double-digit support from the black community, far higher than typical for a Republican candidate.

All of this could help explain why NAACP’s board chairman Leon Russell lives in Tampa Bay, and why at least five of his colleagues have traveled to Florida for vacation since DeSantis was first elected in 2018.

Neither Russell nor the NAACP responded to a request for comment.

The post The NAACP Says Florida Isn't Safe for Black People. Data Tell a Different Story. appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Rice, the director of the White House domestic policy council, met with Crump to discuss the killing of one of his clients while on vacation in Mexico last October. Crump wants the White House to pressure Mexican officials to extradite suspects implicated in the case, he told reporter April Ryan.

Rice hosted Crump at the White House hours after his viral claims against nurse Sarah Comrie were debunked. On May 15, Crump published a video of an argument between Comrie and a group of black teenagers over payment for a rental bike in New York City. Crump falsely accused Comrie of stealing the bike and alleged it was another case of a "white woman" putting young black men in danger.

"A white woman was caught on camera attempting to STEAL a Citi Bike from a young Black man in NYC," he wrote on May 15. "She grossly tried to weaponize her tears to paint this man as a threat. This is EXACTLY the type of behavior that has endangered so many Black men in the past!"

CBS credited Crump with fueling the outrage against Comrie, who is six months pregnant. She was put on leave from her nursing job and labeled "Citi Bike Karen," a derogatory term for white women.

Comrie was vindicated on May 19, when her lawyer released a receipt showing she purchased the bike. The lawyer criticized Crump for fueling the viral mob against Comrie, who has gone into hiding.

"It's appalling that, you know, like, race, you know, is somehow, like, imputed as that being the issue here," lawyer Justin Marino said.

Crump deleted his tweet at some point on May 19, according to Internet archives.

Crump and Rice are no strangers to controversy. Rice has faced criticism during her latest tenure for failing to handle a historic surge in illegal immigrants at the southern border. During the Obama administration, Rice falsely claimed in a series of interviews that a video about the Prophet Muhammad had stoked attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2021.

Crump has a history of making overblown claims in racially tinged cases. He accused Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson of executing black teenager Michael Brown, setting off riots in the St. Louis suburb. Evidence later showed that Brown attacked Wilson in his police cruiser and that he was shot while moving towards Wilson.

Crump and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The post Susan Rice Meets With Activist Lawyer Who Stoked Online Mob Against Pregnant Nurse appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Tucker was born in 1985 in Chattanooga, Tenn., to an African-American mother who bore four other children and did not raise any of them. Her biological father did not know about her birth—he was a developmentally disabled man who lived on the streets and made money standing outside of bars selling flowers that were donated to him.

After a brief stint in foster care, Tucker was adopted by a white couple in Bellingham, Washington. By her own account, she had a wonderful childhood with loving siblings and parents. Despite being born partially deaf and with legs turned in such a way that doctors did not expect her to walk (both most likely the result of drug use by her mother), Tucker was a star athlete and musician. Over the years, people have told Tucker she should be "grateful," and she is. But she worries that people don’t really understand that adoption is complicated, that she also wished the circumstances of her birth parents were different.

Her adoptive parents share this view. As she writes: "They fearlessly understood and named the paradox that they were so happy I’d joined their family and also longed for a world in which Deborah could have kept me."

So who thinks adoption is a "simple recipe" where we take a child away from their birth parents and just throw them into another family? Certainly no one who has been adopted or who has placed a child for adoption or who has adopted. Of course, there are people who haven’t given the concept of adoption much thought at all. For them, Tucker’s vivid description of the complex emotions that accompanied her on the journey to finding her birth family will be an education. And maybe it will stop them from saying insensitive things to Tucker and others in her position. But there is a point in all of our lives when we accept that strangers make ignorant comments, and it’s not really worth losing sleep over all of them.

When I was pregnant with my first child, a stranger came up to me at a wedding and asked how I felt knowing that this child (who would presumably have dark skin like my husband) would be "totally alienated" from me. At some point you just shake your head or throw your drink, but you have to move on.

There are complexities to growing up black in a white family in a white town in a white state. But the ones Tucker points to suggest a bizarre understanding of racial identity. For instance, she notes that she was always louder and dressed more colorfully than other members of her adoptive family or people in her town. Is that because she’s black? Another black adoptee tells her that her tastes in food differed from her adoptive parents. And another says she felt at home with her birth parents because they shared her sense of humor and sarcasm. No one doubts these adoptive children sometimes felt out of place in their families. But is this because of their race?

And no one doubts that adoptive children sometimes adapt "people-pleasing behaviors" in order to fit in. But there are a lot of non-adoptive children who share the same race as their parents who also feel they don’t fit in with their families. In fact, for the demographic of mostly teenagers that Tucker is mentoring, one might assume that such discomfort is actually the norm—even among children raised by their biological parents. But when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you view everything through the lens of adoption and race, then you lose sight of all the normal challenges young people face. Indeed, you lose sight of the fact that many people exist in this intersection of happiness and tragedy.

The parents who lose a child to cancer but then decide they want to have another one. The widower who finds love and marries again. There is not a day that these people don’t wish the world could be different, but then they also know that the joy they experience every day would not have been possible without the tragedy that preceded it.

Much of Tucker’s book is devoted to the ways she would fix the world so that Deborah could have kept her. And most of the problem in Tucker’s view is racism. Black people are held, she says, to a different standard than white people when it comes to their behavior, a white standard. She says that the nine children who integrated the elementary school in Little Rock were taught that "acting white" was essential to their success. This might have come as news to their parents and civil rights leaders at the time, who thought practicing nonviolence and acting respectfully was not the exclusive province of white people.

But you can tell where Tucker comes down on the civil rights movement when she describes Malcolm X as "a proponent of nonviolence." That picture of him with a rifle looking out his window is just an aberration?

The legacy of racism and "ancient historical trauma" have caused Deborah’s problems, she writes. When Tucker first approaches her birth mother and Deborah denies that Tucker is her daughter, she speculates that Deborah was experiencing "unmetabolized trauma from the past." This is a grown woman who travels with a doll that she talks about as if she were a real baby. There is no doubt that Deborah has experienced trauma—substance abuse, mental illness, perhaps even abuse and neglect when she was young—but one needn’t go back to ancient times to find it.

Though Tucker knows Deborah could not have raised her, she says she is angry at the child welfare system "that assumes black children must be saved from the social ills of their culture, which is quick to believe glossy social media posts that depict wokeness." She also blames the "war on drugs." Whether or not the war on drugs was a good thing generally has little to do with whether individual parents’ drug use made them incapable of caring for young children. Tucker knows that she was not removed from Deborah’s home because of black culture. She was removed because Deborah couldn’t care for her. One of Tucker’s sisters was initially left with Deborah but was actually raised by a grandmother briefly and then was just bouncing to different friends’ homes.

Much of the book describes her anger at not meeting her birth family sooner. She had what is called a "closed adoption," where information wasn’t provided to her family about her birth mother and she could not access it. But very few adoptions are closed anymore. She believes that open adoptions "end up looking closed" because once an adoption is finalized, the adoptive parents can decide how much contact their child will have with their biological parents.

Tucker dismisses "safety concerns" cited by adoptive parents in limiting the contact with biological parents. But frankly there are real issues here and though lawmakers in New York recently proposed mandating visitation for birth parents even after adoptions are finalized, this would seriously infringe on adoptive parents’ rights to be real parents to their children. And it would probably discourage adoption generally.

You Should Be Grateful is ultimately a mishmash of Tucker’s own story, which is both moving and fascinating, with "research" she has picked up from progressive academics. For instance, she touts "blind removals" whereby agencies decide whether to put a child in foster care without revealing the race of the child to the people making the decision. She says this dramatically altered racial disparities in foster care. In fact, the agency that was doing it just changed the way they were counting kids and when it compared apples to apples, the percentage of black kids removed went up and down in no discernible pattern.

Tucker is right that adoption is not neat. And any policy solutions to the problems of our child welfare system will have to recognize the complexity of these issues. Unfortunately, when Tucker turns from the personal to the political, all her nuance seems to go out the window.

You Should Be Grateful: Stories of Race, Identity and Transracial Adoption
by Angela Tucker
Beacon Press, 196 pp., $25.95

Naomi Schaefer Riley, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the Independent Women's Forum, is the author of No Way to Treat a Child: How the Foster Care System, Family Courts, and Racial Activists Are Wrecking Young Lives.

The post Race, Rights, and the Rules of Adoption appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The State Department program is in coordination with Brazilian transgender activist group ANTRA and Georgetown University. The organizers have "selected 26 trans community activists from across Brazil" to participate in the "14-week-basic English course," the U.S. embassy in Brazil announced on Monday.

According to the U.S. embassy, the "goal of the course is to provide the participants with English-language skills to communicate and advocate for their community" and to "increase their chances of entering the job market."

A lack of English skills "prevents many trans activists [in Brazil] from engaging in a wide range of activities as well as from accessing global information related to trans issues," State Department official Maria Snarski said in the announcement. "We believe this new initiative will be helpful in connecting the trans community through English."

The initiative is part of a larger push by the State Department to fund training programs for transgender communities around the world. Earlier this year, the department offered a $500,000 grant to fund English classes for transgender youth in Pakistan. The Biden administration has also committed taxpayer dollars to support climate activists abroad, the Washington Free Beacon reported in March.

It is unclear how much the English lessons will cost the American taxpayers. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The embassy's partner ANTRA (which stands for National Association for Trans Women and Travestis, a Latin American term for men who believe they are women) was founded in 2000 in Brazil. It produces reports on violence against transgender people and advocates for transgender-related issues. ANTRA secretary of political articulation Bruna Benevides, who identifies as a trans woman, said the program "offers the opportunity for trans activists to expand their activism" and improve the "visibility of our cause."

The organization has lobbied for expanded access to hormone therapy for gender-questioning children, transgender participation in women's sports, and transgender access to women-only bathrooms and changing rooms. In 2019, ANTRA produced a short film titled My First Bra, which featured a 12-year-old "transgender girl" modeling long hair in front of a mirror and experimenting with a bra.

On social media, ANTRA has claimed that all non-transgender people are transphobic, slammed "cis feminists" for allegedly contributing to anti-trans violence, and defended a transgender person who last December threatened to assault a black woman in a university bathroom.

"There is no cis [non-transgender] person who is not transphobic since they were formed in a cissexist structure," the group wrote in one Twitter post.

In other posts, ANTRA claimed that "every cis person is transphobic" and that "cis people do not have the emotional maturity to receive criticism for their transphobic practices."

The group criticized "cis women" for putting the trans community "in constant danger."

One hundred percent of "cases of violence against transvestites and trans women in women's bathrooms were motivated by cis women. Public cases accumulate," the group wrote in a post.

ANTRA said hatred against transgender people was "fueled by cis women who have sided with the far right against trans rights around the world" and claimed that "cis left-wing women and cis gay men aligned with [radical feminism] are the main disseminators of transphobia."

Last December, a video emerged of a transgender person, wearing a dress and a beard, who threatened to slap a young female student who had questioned why the person was in a women's bathroom at the University of Brasília.

"I thought it was a man, right?" said the female student in an interview last year. "Because I saw the beard. Then I asked him what he was doing in the bathroom. Because there are cases of harassment and rape that happen inside the university and I get really scared of these things."

In the video, the transgender person can be heard yelling at the female student: "I am not a dude! Nothing is keeping me from bringing my hand to your face. Girl, you better respect me! Respect me!"

ANTRA argued that the woman had provoked the transgender person by filming the exchange and said she should pay reparations to the trans community.

"The cis black woman is the aggressor and must be held accountable for her actions," said ANTRA. "Faced with the risk of expulsion and as alternative measures, we consider the reparation proposals we have made reasonable for the violations she committed against the trans community, especially the victim."

In another post in 2021, ANTRA wrote that "CIS BLACK people need to work through their transphobia and cissexism. We've been pointing this out for years!"

The post Biden's State Department Is Putting Brazilian Trans Activists in English Classes appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The task force laid out the latest numbers in a draft plan that members will discuss at their monthly meeting on Saturday. According to the report, based on input from economic advisers, the payment projections are an "economically conservative initial assessment."

Launched in 2020 at the height of the Black Lives Matter fervor, the state-appointed panel has mooted a series of wildly expensive plans to compensate black residents for slavery and racism. Meanwhile, a few high-profile members have sought to downplay expectations of any actual cash reparations from the deeply indebted state.

In the new report, the task force says that black Californians are owed thousands of dollars for every year they've spent in the state. That's due to myriad alleged harms inflicted on them at different times, including mass incarceration, home loan discrimination, unequal access to health care, medical discrimination, and pollution.

In compensation for pollution and other so-called health harms, for example, the recommendations are $13,619 per average person per year, or $966,921 for an average lifetime.

"Delay of reparations is in itself an injustice that causes more suffering and may ultimately deny justice, especially to the elderly among the harmed," the report says.

The task force further suggests that state leaders tell the public that reparations are just a "substantial initial down payment" on a much larger debt.

Even after two years, the task force has yet to decide which black residents should qualify for reparations. California was never a slave state, and the panel has debated whether only descendants of chattel slaves deserve compensation.

The task force has not addressed the financial feasibility of any of its proposals, nor does it intend to do so. That job will fall to the state legislature when it debates the recommendations. California was facing a $23 billion budget hole earlier this year—a crisis that most officials believe has grown worse as the state awaits Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's budget revision, to be released next week.

Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D.), who sits on the task force, has been spreading the word in sympathetic media outlets that the "actual meat" of reparations will be policies that stop racism—not cash payments.

The post Going for Broke: California's Reparations Tax Force Ups Potential Payouts to $1.2M Per Person appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.