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School choice is finally having its moment in the national conversation, to the joy of those interested in school reform. While some states have adopted various school choice initiatives in small doses, most have not. This may change after President Donald Trump publicly brought up school choice in his recent State of the Union address, and Republican lawmakers have introduced a series of bills that would increase federal funding for vouchers.

If school choice were adopted nationwide on the proposed scale, public education would change significantly, mostly for the better. Using a government-issued voucher, parents would finally have greater freedom in choosing whether to send their children to public school, private school, or a charter school. So many public schools that currently enjoy a monopoly would no longer benefit from automatic funding that comes regardless of their performance; they would have to compete with other schools for students.

With public schools no longer the only option for parents who cant afford anything else, these schools would need to maximize their performance, efficiency, and attractiveness. Above all, however, schools would need to ensure their teachers use high-quality curriculum.

Currently, it can be difficult for parents to know what is in the curriculum of a typical public school. After all, there is little reason to be transparent when funding is assured. As Matt Beienburg writes in National Review, this situation has led to schools adopting questionable content that seems to promote an ideological agenda over serious learning. In particular, he mentions the nationwide adoption of the New York Times 1619 Project for history class, along with Seattles math ethnic studies framework.

Although these represent the more extreme curriculum offerings, most public schools in both red and blue states routinely use left-leaning or woke materials while quietly doing away with older materials that encourage American patriotism, Western civilization, and Judeo-Christian values. In English class, this means replacing Hamlet and The Scarlet Letter with The Hate U Give, a novel based on themes from the Black Lives Matter movement, and Symptoms of Being Human, a novel about a gender-fluid punk rocker who blogs about his insecurities.

In social studies, this means incorporating Howard Zinns anti-American interpretations of history. In science, this means teaching Darwinism as an unquestionable fact and sexual differences as subjective opinion. In math, this means conscientiously applying social justice values in word problems and learning goals.

To make matters worse, many public schools never bother to tell anyone about these changes. Because of this, Beienburg argues for school choice as a remedy to this secret propaganda effort. If schools had to compete, they would be more open and less partisan in what they teach their students.

Nevertheless, while school choice will indeed rein in some of the objectionable practices of public schools, it is important to understand why these practices occur in the first place, to treat the disease and not only the symptoms. The leftist propaganda taught in schools is no accident. It is the logical conclusion of the prevalent educational philosophy that favors skills over content and engagement over rigor. The choice of a novel or textbook often comes down to how well it aligns with this philosophy. Therefore, unless educators change how they teach, it really wont matter what they teach.

The first step in the proliferation of woke materials has been the explicit deemphasis of content altogether. In a collective effort to combat rote learning and encourage critical thinking, the writers of Common Core and other leftist educational reformers made a point to first separate content from skills and solely focus on skills. The idea was that students who were memorizing things such as Shakespeares soliloquies, state capitals, and multiplication tables were not truly thinking about these things and what they meant. These reformers believed this commitment to traditional content was preventing analysis and creativity.

Rather, they thought, skills should drive content, not the other way around. In practical terms, this meant teachers should find texts and activities that were more relevant and easier to do. If students learned the same skill of discussing a literary theme with Maya Angelous short story New Directions as they would with Charles Dickenss classic novel Great Expectations, the teacher should give them the former instead of the latter. If someone learned the reasoning behind balancing equations when she used a calculator versus doing the work on paper, then she should use a calculator. Its all about the skills; content is largely irrelevant.

It turns out this thinking led to skills being irrelevant too. By trying to divorce skills from content when content is what defines these skills in the first place these leftist reformers ended up misunderstanding both. Instead of reflecting actual processes that the mind would perform when processing complex information, skills really meant jargon-laden scripts that students would recite at the right times. For example, if a student used the right terminology and illustrations when interpreting a text or solving a math problem, then he was doing critical thinking, even if that student really had no clue what the text or math problem was actually about.

This is why many district curriculum documents and textbooks expound upon the use of academic vocabulary, metacognition, and analytical processes, and why many curriculum creators push for technology in the classroom. All of it seems to indicate deeper thinking, even when no such deeper thinking is actually happening.

But if content is irrelevant, and anything can be viewed as teaching a skill, why does it necessarily have to be leftist? To understand this, one must understand the other strand of modern education philosophy: student engagement. According to education experts, students learn more when they are engaged and less when they are bored. Combined with skill-driven curriculum, this means teachers must find the most engaging content that somehow teaches academic skills.

It just so happens that the most engaging content that appears to teach academic skills is the woke stuff. The texts and materials all look high-level and mature, but theyre actually fairly simple, short, and easy to consume. They are heavy on identity and empowerment, making students and teachers feel good, and light on actual rigor and imagination, making students feel even better.

Students are thus theoretically far more engaged in English with a book like All-American Boys, another popular novel discussing Black Lives Matter themes, than they are with The Great Gatsby. They are also more engaged in history when they learn how the Founding Fathers and founding documents which they now dont need to read are racist and how slavery was the cause of every social development for the past four centuries.

For this reason, educators who insist on teaching the classics and avoiding leftist agendas put themselves at an extreme disadvantage. The students simply wont like it. Learning the truth in all its complexity requires more work, more thinking, and more humility. And if all the experts agreed that content was irrelevant, then the teacher must be choosing non-leftist materials for nefarious reasons. It will never occur to anyone that he or she picked these books because they are the most educationally effective.

Unfortunately, when bad pedagogy hijacks the methods of teaching, which is too often the case today, content will inevitably degenerate into pandering drivel. Fortunately, school choice can reverse this by letting parents reward those educators who resist these trends and uphold the tried-and-true. Parents just need to be careful when picking the right school and rewarding the right kind of learning.

If the school prides itself on student engagement, 21st-century skills, and innovative teaching, parents may want to look elsewhere. If the school focuses on learning the great texts, cultivating virtue, and allowing the teacher to be a sage on the stage instead of a guide on the side, parents will have found the right school.

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Why Public Schools Are So Likely To Teach Leftist Propaganda - The Federalist

St. Louis, Missouri, Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Joshua Lott/Getty Images and Circuit Attorneys Office.

Later this spring, the Missouri Supreme Court will hear a highly unusual case. A mans life hangs in the balance. So, too, does the authority of Kim Gardner, St. Louis top prosecutor, whose efforts to free him have been stymied by a power structure she says is allied against her because she is progressive and because she is black.

Gardners fight for Lamar Johnsons freedom has become a reckoning moment over the power of progressive prosecutorsparticularly women of colorand whether the systems theyve vowed to reform will let them.

The strange twists and turns of State v. Lamar Johnson have exposed a conviction that appears gangrenous with police and prosecutorial misconduct. Johnson was convicted in 1995 of the first-degree murder of Marcus Boyd and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Gardner, who in 2017 became the first black circuit attorney for the city of St. Louis, received a federal grant to open a conviction integrity unit to look back at cases like Johnsonsmarred by credible allegations of state malfeasance and claims of innocence.

Gardners investigation revealed that the sole eyewitness against Johnson was paid more than $4,000 to make a false identification that he later recanted, detectives fabricated four other witness statements, and the true perpetrators had come forward and said that Johnson had nothing to do with it. On July 29, 2019, Gardners office sought to vacate Johnsons conviction and grant him a new trial because they believed that the evidence of his innocence was overwhelming.

Traditional prosecutors rarely advocate to upend a conviction, and other officials quickly stepped in. Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Hogan denied Johnsons release. But first, in an eyebrow-raising move, Hogan appointed Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt to intervene in the case. According to the judge, Gardner suffered from a conflict of interest because she was investigating misconduct by the police and the trial prosecutor, who no longer worked in her office.

The attorney general has not disputed that Johnson was wrongfully convicted, but is nonetheless spearheading the effort to keep Johnson in prison. In August, Schmitt argued, and the judge agreed, that Gardners motion was improper [and] untimely, rejecting a line of Missouri cases that permit an exception to prevent a manifest injustice. If this argument prevails in the states highest court, it will establish a legal precedent that would deal a death blow to Johnsons case, Gardners conviction integrity unit, and the chance at freedom for scores of other wrongfully convicted people in Missouri.

Johnsons case, and the treatment of Gardner, made headlines across the country. Forty-five prosecutorsRepublicans and Democrats, from urban and rural districtsfiled a brief in support of her position. Addressing past injustices such as wrongful convictions is a core duty of an elected prosecutor, they wrote, calling the appointment of the attorney general an invitation for prosecutorial turf wars over phantom conflicts. One hundred and six law professors weighed in with a brief of their own, noting that Gardners actions were not only correct but ethically required. (I was one of them). More than 25,000 people signed a Color of Change petition protesting the attorney generals actions in the case.

Lets be perfectly clear: A prosecutors primary duty is to serve as a minister of justice. Entombing the innocent under a smother blanket of technicalities is anathema to that mission. In conviction units across the country, prosecutors routinely look into misconduct by police and prosecutors to overturn wrongful convictions. To date, these efforts by have resulted in more than 350 exonerations.

So what is going on here? Gardner claims that the resistance she faces in Johnsons case is part of a larger effort to upend her reform agenda and drive her from office by a police department with a history of racism.

Invoking the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, Gardner filed a federal lawsuit in January accusing the city, the police department, and other officials of engaging in racially motivated conspiracy. The named defendants, she claims, have done everything in their power to try to remove her from the position to which she was duly electedby any means necessaryand perhaps to show her successor what happens to Circuit Attorneys who dare to stand up for the equal rights of racial minorities in St. Louis.

There is evidence to suggest Gardner is right. Although St. Louis population is 46 percent black, the citys police department is 66 percent white. (The chief of the police department is black, but most of the top positions are filled by white officers). It has been tarred by accusations of racism. From 2014 to 2019, more than 40 current and former officers posted racist messages on social media. These included public Facebook posts calling for black residents to move to a different country to pay their own welfare and promoting the logo Black Lives Splatter Because Blue Lives Matter.

Gardner has received hate mail and even notes on her car windshield full of vile, racistexpletives.

In her 2016 campaign, Gardner vowed to take on racial justice issues raised by the Black Lives Matter protests in nearby Ferguson. She pledged to divert low-level felony offenses, set up an independent entity to investigate police shootings, and enact policies to address racial disparities within the system. This agenda has met with resistance from power brokers within the St. Louis police department from the outset. The departments union, the St. Louis Police Officers Association, has also publicly criticized Gardners decision to decline cases involving 28 of its officers because of concerns about their history of dishonesty and, she says, successfully blocked her attempt to seek city funding for an independent team of investigators to look into officer-involved shootings.

But it was Gardners decision in 2018 to pursue a case against former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens that triggered an especially explosive conflict with the police department. The initial charge, felony invasion of privacy, followed accusations by Greitens hairdresser that he sexually assaulted her, took a picture of her naked body, and threatened to send it everywhere. The woman, who testified under oath before state lawmakers, was found credible by both Republican and Democratic legislators. Gardner hired a retired FBI agent, William Don Tisaby, to investigate the case because, she claims, the St. Louis Police Department and the FBI showed no interest in investigating the allegations. (John Hayden, St. Louis police chief, adamantly denies this.) The St. Louis Police Department then asked for an independent prosecutor to investigate Tisaby, whom they claimed was lying and tampering with evidence in his investigation of Greitenswith Gardners knowledge. The judge agreed and appointed an attorney in private practice who is a close friend of Greitens lead counsel. As part of the investigation, Gardner alleges, the police executed a search warrant of her office and seized a server containing all of her employees emails and files in 40 investigations into police misconduct. Last June, the special prosecutor indicted Tisaby for perjury and evidence tampering; the case is scheduled to go to trial in March. Gardner, meanwhile, ultimately dropped the case against Greitens in exchange for the governors resignation. But the investigation into her office is ongoing, and her lawsuit cites the investigation as an example of how shes been relentlessly undermined.

The St. Louis Police Officers Association called Gardners lawsuit the last act of a desperate woman and demanded her ouster. But the local black police officers unionyes, in St. Louis, there is one union for black officers and one union for white officershas come to Gardners defense. That lawsuit is legitimate, the unions president said. The nations largest organization of black law enforcement officials is standing by her.

Progressive district attorneys across the country have also rallied to Gardners side, including 11 black female prosecutors who signed a joint statement praising her strength in facing down what they called the citys corrupt and racist political establishment. Pointing to their own experiences in office, they say that the pushback they face is qualitatively different than that of their white male counterpartsriven by racism and misogyny designed to terrorize them into leaving their jobs.

Gardner has received hate mail and even notes on her car windshield full of vile, racist expletives. One such message Gardner shared with Slate vowed, Youre not going to beat these white boys. This vitriol is familiar to many of the prosecutors who are supporting her. Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn Mosby has been locked in a battle with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who has called upon the states attorney general to take over violent criminal prosecutions in the city, stating that the crime rate is unacceptable. In January, after declaring her support for Gardner, Mosbywho has received death threats since taking office in 2015received a racist voicemail message. On it, the caller describes Mosby and Gardner as birds of a feather, bitch. Thats what you are. You hate cops. You hate white people.

Kim Foxx, the states attorney for Cook County, Illinois, is dealing with her own special prosecutor, appointed to investigate her decision to drop the charges against black actor Jussie Smollett for alleging he was the victim of a hate crime that he staged himself. (A few weeks ago, the special prosecutor indicted Smollett for lying to police in connection with that incident). In April 2019, white nationalist groups showed up at a rally organized by the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police to publicize their opposition to Foxx. She, too, has received death threats. And Aramis Ayala, the district attorney for Orange and Osceola counties and the first black person ever elected to the top prosecutor position in Florida when she won in 2016, was sent racist letters and a noose in the mail after she announced that her office would no longer seek the death penalty. Floridas then-governor, Rick Scott, responded by transferring 29 murder cases in Ayalas district to another county, a decision that the Florida Supreme Court upheld. Ayala has stated that she will not run for reelection in 2020, citing a direct conflict between her agenda and the states power structure.

Gardner is not giving up. She views the upcoming battle in the state Supreme Court over Johnsons conviction as part of a larger struggle. If anything, she says, the threats and vitriol have strengthened her resolve to free Johnson and fight for her right to do her job in the way she sees fit: as a prosecutor elected to bring systemic change to a city that, she says, is ground zero for criminal justice reform. The establishment power structure, she told me, is trying to make an example out of me, take my bar card, ruin my career, and run me out of town. It is not going to happen.

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A Progressive Prosecutor Pledged to Reform the System. The Systems Fighting Back. - Slate

Photo: Oscilloscope Laboratories

The possibility that our futures hold nothing remarkable for us can seem like a nightmare. In Saint Frances, 34-year-old deadbeat Bridget (Kelly OSullivan) is well aware shes not exactly where she should be in life, and anxiety over the fact cripples her self-esteem. Old friends are getting married, buying houses, and having babiesexperiences that for her seem hopelessly out of reach. An old acquaintance marvels at Bridgets ill fortune, claiming all her college peers supposed she would grow up to be the next Sylvia Plath. Yet Bridgets writing days are very far behind her. OSullivan, who also wrote the screenplay, and first-time director Alex Thompson arent interested in redeeming Bridget by tracing her triumphant return to the craft, by having her find love, or by breaking into a more impressive career. And Saint Frances, with its ample vulnerability and warm humor,is all the better for it.

B

Kelly O'Sullivan, Ramona Edith Williams, Charin Alvarez, Lily Mojekwu

Select theaters February 28

We meet Bridget as things are looking up, despite her ever-present feelings of inadequacy. A new romance with Jace (Max Lipchitz), a quintessential nice guy several years her junior, has brought loving support into her life even if she denies his efforts to make their relationship official. But the plot mostly hinges on the summer job Bridget lands as a nanny for a wealthy couple. Relative to her crummy waitressing gig, nannying is cushy and lucrative. But her ward, 6-year-old Frances (Ramona Edith Williams), proves unexpectedly difficult. Bridgets new employers, Maya (Charin Alvarez) and Annie (Lily Mojekwu), are as progressive as they come in the affluent suburbs of Chicago. A Black Lives Matter sign figures prominently in their front yard, and the two women appear to have already instilled in their small but clever daughter ideas about race (Maya is Latina, Annie is Black) and feminine anatomy beyond her years.

Frances takes it upon herself to be as pesky as possible to her new, inexperienced nannyopening up and destroying her tampons, crying out that shes being abducted at the park. But Bridget, initially unreliable, succeeds in winning over Frances, perhaps because the she offers a certain vitality and a gleeful, punkish attitude otherwise absent from the kids home life. Child actors, who often rely on instincts more than training, can make or break the illusion of a film. Thankfully, Williams isnt overly self-aware of her own adorableness, which grounds Saint Frances in a sweet naturalism that makes it easy to overlook OSullivans somewhat lackluster performance.

So, too, does Alvarez, whose Mayastuck at home tending to her newborn son while her attorney spouse works long hoursbegins to experience severe postpartum depression. Its the films most affecting performance; so deeply does Alvarez convey Mayas melancholy that when the character steps outside for a rare group outing with Bridget and the kids, merely the light on her face seems to imply a remarkable, resuscitative effect.

As screenwriter, OSullivan hones in on the rich, beautifully messy, and occasionally painful experiences of the female body. Always forgetful about when her period will occur, Bridgets sexual encounters repeatedly result in blood-stained sheets. Theres also an ugly Fourth Of July encounter where a catty neighbor scolds Maya for breastfeeding in public. Bridget eventually realizes shes pregnant; avoiding expressing her feelings to the plaintive Jace, she opts for an abortion without much deliberation. The morality (or lack thereof) of this decision doesnt weigh on her. Shes more troubled by the way pregnancy underscores how out-of-sync she is with other women her age, who have careers and could responsibly accommodate a child.

Despite its title, Saint Frances isnt too concerned with matters of God and religion, seeking instead to develop an understanding of grace, love, and empathy on their own terms. At the crux of its philosophy is OSullivans treatment of the female body, as something too often marginalized or rendered taboo. (Mens attitudes towards sex during menstruation is a marker here.) Perhaps this is why young, rambunctious Frances is so important. She jumps into ponds, tears through stacks of library books, screams when she wants things her way. Whats more difficult to control than a childs body? At the same time, what body deserves more compassion and protection?

Stray elements, like Bridgets pursuit of a sleazy guitar instructor or a nature walk consultation with her wise parents, feel obligatory, betraying the films somewhat formulaic nature. Particularly in the films conclusion, there are moments between Bridget and Frances that veer too close to the artificially precious, undermining the power of the bond between nanny and discerning child that hadnt yet been fully articulated. Yet Saint Frances goes down easy. Its refreshingly small and intimate, and is specific on the lives of very particular women without overreaching to look more politically salient or strike zeitgeist concerns. Bridgets personal growth is understated, and so, for the most part, are the pleasures of Saint Frances.

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Saint Frances finds grace, humor, and an ode to the female body in a familiar indie premise - The A.V. Club

Photo: Mario Tama (Getty Images)

Im obsessed with race.

After much self-reflection and receiving no less than 2,238,934 accusatory emails, tweets and DMs (not that Im counting), I am willing to admit my personal preoccupation with racial issues.

Its not my fault.

Being a black man in America may partially contribute to my mania, but I had very little input on that decision. Much like the people at ESPN who are obsessed with sports, or the Fox News analysts who are obsessed with whiteness, the fact that The Root actually pays me to talk about race contributes greatly to my negro-centric neurosis. So, if youre reading this, youre part of the problem.

Because of my poorly funded fixation, I have noticed that the political narrative about raceespecially during this election cyclehas focused almost exclusively on four issues:

If one is lucky enough to catch the 91 seconds during each debate when candidates are asked to address racial issues, it is easy to assume that the entirety of black America is either poor, uneducated, unemployed, in jail or running from Nazis wearing MAGA hats. Debate moderators, media outlets and candidates condense the concerns of black voters down to four categories because they really dont care about black issues. They just want to look like they care.

In response, some of the presidential contenders usually resort to a sympathetic but canned aphorism about why they believe black lives matter. Others (Im looking at you, Bernie) contend that their economic plans to address all poverty will help all black people, even if their policies arent intentional about addressing institutional racism.

But the rising tide that lifts all boats only raises the vessels that havent been riddled with the holes of racism. This performative patronizing to people of color is not only reductive, but it also lets everyone off the hook from confronting, discussing and ultimately fixing the underlying causes that fuel white supremacy.

So, just in case you were wondering, as I sipped Hennessy and sorted through cookout invitations, I came up with a list of black issues that dont have anything to do with mass incarceration, cops or why LaKeisha cant read.

I know what I just said, but hear me out.

Whenever there is a discussion about education and race, white America tends to focus on the children who are left behind. We already know that majority-white school districts receive $23 billion more than nonwhite school districts, according to a groundbreaking study by Edbuild. Thats $2,226 per student per year. Even poor white districts get better funding than the average black school. In a quest to eliminate this disparity, educators and politicians rightfully focus on literacy scores and math proficiency, but there is another insidious injustice that we never discuss:

The smart, black kids.

Children who attend majority-minority schools have fewer honors and Advanced Placement (pdf) courses. And, according to the Department of Education (pdf) and the Federal Civil Rights Data Collection, even when they attend good majority-white schools, high-achieving non-white students arent selected for these courses, even if they test as well as their white counterparts.

For instance, most college-level courses require two years of algebra. Sadly, less than one-third of high-percentage minority-serving high schools even offer a second year of algebra, The Atlantic reports. So, even if a smart but marginalized black kid makes it to college, they are less prepared and less likely to earn scholarships because white privilege is baked into the system.

Again, its not class, its race.

Speaking of education, lets say those smart black students made it to college. How do they pay for it? Twelve years after finishing college, black grads owe 113 percent of their original student loan debt while white borrowers owe 65 percent of their original debt.

Earlier this month, the Student Borrower Protection Center released a study that explored another systematic inequality. They created a profile of a recent college graduate making $50,000 per year. Aside from changing the college attended by the hypothetical student, every other attribute was identical. Using these identical profiles, the researchers applied to refinance their student loans as graduates from predominantly white schools, HBCUs and even Hispanic-serving institutions.

They discovered that students who attend HBCUs were charged higher interest rates than any other category of schools, even when they had identical income. Simply attending school with black people means you incur more debt. Part of your credit score calculates debt. So, simply being blacknothing elsemeans you automatically have a lower credit score.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that auto lenders charge black borrowers higher rates but Congress rolled back these protections in 2018. When the Center for Investigative Reporting looked at 31 million mortgage loans (essentially every conventional home loan over a two-year period), they found that black borrowers were denied at three times the rate of white borrowers. A Berkeley study concluded that even when black borrowers applied for mortgages online, they were charged rates that were 5.6 to 8.6 points higher interest rates.

Over the course of a home, auto or a student loan, that is thousands of dollars in debt incurred by black borrowers for nothing except being black. Yet the Trump administration is erasing fair lending regulations.

Maybe someone could ask one of these questions:

We often talk about voter purges, but whats rarely mentioned is that black voters wait longer; polling places in black neighborhoods have longer lines, fewer voting machines and less reliable technology. Felony disenfranchisement may be related to criminal justice but it also is a political issue that disproportionately affects black voters. Most of the 1,200 polling places closed in recent years were disproportionately located in the minority areas of Republican states

But gerrymandering may be the most important political issue of our time. There are only six states that use bipartisan commissions to draw their political maps. And, while these maps are often challenged in court, Trump has filled federal benches with right-wing, inexperienced judges who always favor the GOP efforts to eliminate black voters, giving them advantages for years to come.

Every single form of voter suppression disproportionately affects non-white voters.

Yet, there has been nary a question about plans to revive the sections of the Voting Rights Act that were dismantled by Shelby v. Holder. Has anyone asked candidates about their proposal to standardize and secure voting machines? Why hasnt any candidate said that states that require voter ID should have to provide free identification cards? Why hasnt anyone proposed a standardized early voting period and procedure?

Its easier to vote for the Masked Singer than the president

Unless youre a Russian hacker.

You can vote for the Masked Singer, right?

This is a little wonky but, if youre not familiar with the concept (sometimes called adverse impact, or (disproportionate impact), allow me to explain the concept with another, more appropriate synonym:

Structural racism.

While most people have been led to believe that racism has something to do with hate, intent or belief, that is not the case. Legally, a policy, rule or action can be declared discriminatory even if the rule or policy itself doesnt have any discriminatory intent. If an action has a disproportionately negative effect on a legally protected group of people, then it is illegal, even if it is not intended to discriminate.

The concept is simple. Even if a thing is not meant to be racist, it is still racist if it systematically affects a protected class of people. It was enshrined in Title VI the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and has stood as a bedrock principle and the legal test for prejudice ever since.

Until the Trump administration.

Under Trump, officials at the Department of Justice, Education and even Housing and Urban Development have been searching for ways to subvert and eliminate the principle. Thats why they fight against affirmative action, race-inclusive admissions policy, housing regulations and race disclosures in financial institutions.

This is by no means a comprehensive list. I havent even gotten to environmental racism, access to nutrition, maternal and birth rate disparities or the fact that Rihanna stubbornly refuses to release R9 (theres gotta be something the president can do).

How many times must we bear the repeated dissection of the infinitesimally small differences between Joes public option, Sanders Medicare for all and Buttigiegs Medicare-for All-Who-Want-It-Unless-You-Dont-Want-to-Think-About-It-In-Which-Case-Its-Fine-As-Long-As-You-Vote-For-Me? When will it be black peoples turn?

Are non-criminal, educated, middle-class black people invisible? Has racism been eliminated except for black people who arent in prison, on food stamps or in high school? Did I somehow miss the memo?

But you know me, Im obsessed with race.

I just wish the future president was, too.

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Dear Debate Moderators, There Are More 'Black Issues' Besides Crime and Poverty - The Root

Black Lives Matter is a worldwide association that originates from the African-American community. Formed in 2013, the association campaigns against racism and violence aimed at the black people. It was inspired by other movements like Black Feminist from the 1980s, Black Power, the Civil Rights Movement, and the LGBTQ social movement.

The Black Lives Matter movement was started in 2013 by three women; Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. These three women met through a national organization that trains individuals as community planners. They began questioning how they would counter the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who had been accused of killing Trayvon Martin, something they had seen as devaluing of black peoples lives. Gaza posted on Facebook to which Cullors replied with "#BlackLivesMatter" while Tometi added her comment.

When they started it, they claimed it was an online platform whose main aim was to provide activists with a set of goals and principles. They operate without a hierarchy or central structure, and the local BLM chapters are asked to commit to the guiding principles. Some of the notable Black Lives Matter activists include a writer Shaun King, lawyer Marissa Johnson, and transgender woman Elle Hearns.

BLM, as it is popularly referred to, holds protests regularly to speak out against police brutality and killings of blacks. This covers the broad subjects like racial profiling and inequality in the justice system of United States of America. On its website, however, it states that Black Lives Matter is a unique contribution which goes beyond extra-judicial killings of black people by police and vigilantes. It also says that it embraces intersectionality, affirming the lives of disabled folks, black, queer and trans folks, women, undocumented black folks, folks with records, as well as black lives along the gender spectrum.

Black Lives Matter activists planned their first physical, national demonstration on August 14th after the gunning down of Michael Brown, and more than five hundred people took part in the non-violent protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Many groups demonstrated against the shooting, but Black Lives Matter stood out as the most organized as well as most visible, something that made it be recognized nationally and worldwide.

Since the Black Lives Matter Freedom Ride to Ferguson, the movement has successfully planned thousands of demonstrations and protests. The media too has been phenomenal as renowned entertainers have Black Lives Matter in some of their releases. Beyonces Lemonade features the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Rown, and Eric Garner holding their late sons photographs. A documentary film about the movement named Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement starring Jesse Williams has also been released.

Black Lives Matter has been credited with the protests that have gone beyond streets, notably the 2015-2016 University of Missouri protests. So popular has Black Lives Matter become, that in 2014 the American Dialect Society chose it as the word of the year. Yes! Magazine listed it among the 12 hashtags that changed the world in the same year. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter had been tweeted over 30 million times by September 2016.

Excerpt from:
What is the Black Lives Matter Movement? - WorldAtlas.com