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A volunteer teaching a lesson on art and activism at Sacramento's Del Paso Manor Elementary School in September asked students to create a poster focusing on change they wanted to see in the school, according to statements from both San Juan Unified School District, which includes the school, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

The problem began when some students who created Black Lives Matter posters were told they needed to redo the assignment and didn't have their work displayed in the classroom, the ACLU says. In a letter sent Thursday, the group called out the school district for censorship, claiming the school is violating the First Amendment.

The ACLU claims the teacher specifically said posters relating to Black Lives Matter were "inappropriate for the class" and made four students who supported the movement in their work redo their posters. The teacher targeted these students based on the content of their poster, the ACLU says, which is therefore a violation of their First Amendment rights, according to the watchdog group.

The San Juan Unified School District says these students were asked to redo their posters because the artwork was focused on large social issues, rather than issues specifically related to the school. They were asked to redo the assignment not because of the content, but because the posters didn't meet the assignment's purpose. The district said in a statement that censoring a student's assigned work because of its content "would not be acceptable."

Other students with posters on topics like immigration and animal cruelty were also asked to redo their posters, a representative for the district told CNN.

The ACLU, though, says the fact that other posters were also redone doesn't matter.

It's still a content-based judgement if a teacher decides that a student's BLM artwork doesn't have anything to do with the school, said Abre' Conner, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. Banning artwork based on the content is a First Amendment violation.

"It's not up to (the teacher) to then decide that Black Lives Matter is off limits for something they wanted to see change," she told CNN.

The ACLU is representing both a student who was involved and the volunteer who was brought in to teach. The organization was originally made aware of the case by the volunteer, and then further investigated by speaking with a student whose assignment was rejected.

ACLU also claiming state education code violation

The ACLU isn't only charging the school with a First Amendment violation. The California Education Code also protects Black Lives Matter posters, the ACLU argues.

It states, in section 48907, "Pupils of the public schools, including charter schools, shall have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press including, but not limited to, the use of bulletin boards, the distribution of printed materials or petitions, the wearing of buttons, badges, and other insignia."

As long as the speech isn't "obscene, libelous or slanderous," the expression is protected, the code reads.

Under Section 201 of the code, California's public schools have an "affirmative obligation to combat racism, sexism, and other forms of bias, and a responsibility to provide equal educational opportunity."

The ACLU claims the Black Lives Matter posters fall under this category -- and are therefore protected.

The watchdog group says the teacher specifically referenced the Black Lives Matter posters in conversations with the volunteer, calling them "inappropriate and political." The teacher asked "whether students were getting shot at the school and demanded answers regarding why a presentation on Black Lives Matter was relevant" to the elementary school, the ACLU alleges. Political speech is protected by the state's education code.

He also threw away one of the student's posters, after saying the student could pick it up, the ACLU claims.

"Looking at those pieces together demonstrates that this was clearly more than asking students to redo the assignment," Conner said. "It seems that there was some kind of animus against the topic (of Black Lives Matter)."

The district said in its statement that some of the assertions made by the ACLU present "new information" and officials are investigating the incident further.

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Sacramento elementary school violated free speech by censoring Black Lives Matter posters, ACLU says - CNN

To witness was in fact one reason I was there. Cementing something in memory is one way of cementing it in the world. But I had another reason for going, too. My daughter was 12 on the day of Nias murder. She caught the train to school from the same BART station where Nia was killed. She called me that day in a panic, terrified and bereft and full of questions that I could not answer. Why did this happen to Nia? Why did this happen to black women? Why wouldnt this happen to her? I had no answers. I could do only what parents do: promise to protect my child. So I told her that I would go into the streets that hundreds, maybe thousands of us would go into the streets, and that we would be doing it for her. We would be doing it to show her that we would not let this happen.

It was tremendously important to me that my daughter stay home that evening, safe in her room, in her pajamas and slippers, watching Netflix, eating Flamin Hot Cheetos, texting with friends while we put our flesh on the hot downtown asphalt. No child should have to protect herself. It is our job to protect one another. And this is why I protested not to make noise, or make change, but in order for the person who could not, should not be in the streets to see me, to see us all, as proof that she is not alone in caring for her life. To attend that protest was an act of love, an experience that brought me closer to life. But it was set against a backdrop of death.

For black people, Lena Waithe told me, death is always present. We were sitting in her home in Los Angeles, discussing her screenplay for Queen & Slim. Black death is very interesting in that it is devastating, but at the same time, it illuminates us, she said. She named Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Emmett Till, Fred Hampton and Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Tupac Shakur and Nipsey Hussle black figures whose deaths turned them into symbols, added tragic weight to their legacies. Four little black girls minding their own business playing in the basement of a church shook the world, she said, referring to the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. You dont want those little black girls to die, because who would want that? But if they didnt, would we be as free as we are right now? There are so many sacrificial lambs in our past. Its almost like black death is necessary to set us free. And I grapple with that. All the time. Thats why I think I had to write this.

When I asked the director, Melina Matsoukas, if she thought Queen & Slim was a hopeful story, she replied almost immediately: Its a black story. Rather than a dodge, this felt like a complete answer. In blackness, hope is often complicated by the intrusion of death, bloodshed, depression, incarceration, grief, brutality. You cannot for the good of your family, your kids, your loved ones, yourself keep your face fully toward the sun when you know the darkness is chasing you. In Queen & Slim, all good things are fleeting, and all love is set against bloodletting. The characters would like it to be otherwise, but they do not have a say.

I wanted you just to look at them like: Huh, thats me. Thats my mother, thats my brother, thats my sister, thats my cousin, Waithe told me. I want you to live with them, I want you to be scared with them. I want you to fall in love with them. The idea that we are supposed to identify with the characters on a screen is not new, but the idea that we black people are supposed to identify might still be. White directors have been speaking their language for decades, Waithe said. We have to learn it, we have to find ourselves in that narrative.

For Waithe, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago, finding herself in that narrative meant studying television made by people like Aaron Sorkin and the creators of Friends, David Crane and Marta Kauffman. After years acting and writing in Los Angeles, she became the first black woman ever to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, for an episode of Aziz Ansaris Master of None loosely based on her own experience of coming out to her mother. That episode was directed by Matsoukas, a woman of mixed heritage Jamaican, Cuban, Jewish and Greek who had spent a decade directing music videos for stars including Lady Gaga and Rihanna. (Her memorable video for Beyoncs Formation, with its stylistic mixture of documentary and fantasy, arrived at the height of Black Lives Matter and, to many, deftly synthesized the visual power of the movement; its look echoes in Queen & Slim.) Matsoukas describes the film as not just about black love onscreen but also about the sisterly love of the two women who came together to make it. We can be a power, she told me of the faith she has in her artistic relationship with Waithe. Trust is really important, she said. Probably the only way I survive.

Queen & Slim holds its cinematic influences for all to see. It is tempting to compare it to both Bonnie & Clyde and Thelma & Louise, as the titles syntax seems to invite. Visually, Matsoukas says that she was inspired by Belly, another cinematic debut by a music-video director turned filmmaker, Hype Williams its gritty, ever-moving camera, its flashes of light and color. And Waithe lists among her influences films like Set It Off and Love Jones, both part of a 1990s wave that had dozens of black filmmakers telling stories that felt unaffected by the white gaze the same movies that my cousins and I watched over and over on lazy summer days, memorizing every line, partly because they were about us and partly because there were so few of them.

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Queen & Slim Could Be One of the Great Love Stories of All Time if You Let It - The New York Times

Yet, many modern organizers will say its a collective belief in one another, not God, that sustains a movement. Opal Tometi, a co-founder Black Lives Matter, has described the movement as one created out of a profound sense of black love. We wanted to affirm to our people that we love one another, and that no matter how many times we hear about the extrajudicial killing of a community member, we would mourn, and affirm the value of their life.

Black Lives Matter has intentionally positioned itself outside of organized religion in an attempt to challenge the norms of religious institutions, particularly concerning issues of sexuality and male-centered leadership. But the embrace of the secular seems to be a failure on the part of the movement despite small wins in cities that are mostly liberal, the most lasting impact has been a change of conversation. And even then, the Black Lives Matter mantra has been co-opted by liberals as a political slogan rather than a pointed ideological conviction. Without the centralized leadership, oratorical strength and widespread influence organized religion has historically provided to black liberation struggles, it has been difficult for the movement to sustain itself on a national front.

I fear that absent the structural and rhetorical power offered by organized religion, it will become increasingly difficult for the left to fight the growing ideology of right wing extremism, an ideology that has always been heavily undergirded by its own religious dogma. Religion has long been crucial to the right wing in pushing its legislative agenda. In the early 1960s, for instance, the Supreme Court decisions restricting teacher-led prayer and Bible reading in the public schools helped ignite the religious right to political action, and their influence within the Republican Party has grown steadily ever since.

White evangelical support for President Trump exceeded 80 percent in the 2016 election, and they remain critical to his base. The Trump administration has often cited religious freedom in its efforts to allow medical providers to deny reproductive health care and empower anti-LGBTQ discrimination by federal contractors.

Assuming leftism to be inherently antagonistic to organized religion does a great disservice to both the history of progressive movements and modern progressivism itself, as collective belief provides both a program and a passion essential to anti-oppression movements. In many ways, the political is made more significant when intertwined with the spiritual, as belief supersedes political motivation in pursuit of a world vision that is exalted as the will of God. In the words of Dr. King: Religious obligations are met by ones commitment to an inner law, a law written on the heart. Man-made laws assure justice, but a higher law produces love.

Beyond politics, perhaps what we lose with the decline of collective belief more than anything is this notion of radical love, one that extends beyond identity politics or civic obligation. As I consider the generational decline of organized religion, I imagine the good collective faith can still achieve. These days, when I participate in a climate march or donate money to organizations like the Trans Women of Color Collective, I do so as much out of religious obligation as a political one. Beyond a tendency toward compassion and empathy, religion has ingrained in me the notion that I am indeed my brothers keeper; that anothers well-being is inextricably bound up with my own.

I think often of that morning 17 years ago, waiting alongside my mother and sisters at the doors of the church, standing in the need of more than prayer. That day I came to know the God of Love only through the Love of God, a love that was extended by strangers beholden to me only by a system of collective belief. If anything has the potential to Save the Soul of America, surely that love can.

Bianca Vivion Brooks is a writer based in Harlem.

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To Take on the Religious Right, We Need a Religious Left - The New York Times

I Love the Bones of You: My Father and the Making of Meby Christopher EcclestonSimon & Schuster, 20

Christopher Eccleston is well known for his portrayal of complex and often marginalised characters, and this account of his life and career to date sheds some light on the philosophy behind his particular acting craft. Eccleston bills the book as an exploration of an essentially ordinary yet truly extraordinary man in the figure of his father, and the impact this man had on his life, his values and his character. Deeply personal revelations and insights resonate throughout the book, with Eccleston commenting in depth on his struggles with anorexia and mental health issues. A celebration of the particular in the universal, written in an accessible, conversational style, Eccleston has produced a haunting meditation on identity, fatherhood, and the interconnectedness that both oppresses and saves us. Becky Long

The Sea Cloak and Other Storiesby Nayrouz QarmoutComma Press, 9.99

These stories give insights into life in Gaza, without melodrama or exaggeration, and in language that is clear and rich. They tell of ordinary lives, mainly those of women, lived in one of the most volatile places on Earth. Stories such as The Sea Cloak, The Long Braid and Breastfeeding convey the struggle of girls and women to assert themselves against the restraints parents and conservative teachers would impose on them. Black Grapes shows the vicious racism of an Israeli illegal settler and his utter indifference to a Palestinian life. White Lilies is a powerful and shocking story involving a drone killing and the maiming of a little girl the callous brutality is heartrending. But this book isnt about victims; its about the triumph of managing to live in appalling circumstances. Brian Maye

Resist! How to be an Activist in the Age of Defianceby Michael SegalovHuck, 14.99

Here is a very timely book a sort of Protest For Dummies. From the first chapter, titled Bash Down Doors about identifying who has the power to affect change re the issue you are protesting this book covers all bases in your campaign efforts. Its one part PR and marketing, one part legal advice, one part nuts and bolts of protest (meeting points, post-action debriefing, protest paraphernalia: banners, placards etc) and one part protest pep talk: Respond to accusations by stating that the right to protest is at the heart of any democracy. There are many excellent case studies of successful campaigns from around the world (eg Black Lives Matter) that provide both practical information and inspiration. Succinct content and excellent graphics. Kevin Gildea

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Browser: Christopher Eccleston offers a haunting meditation on fatherhood - The Irish Times

A newly-installed black marble anti-abortion monument in Belleville Cemetery has received strong reactions both for and against across Canada. DEREK BALDWINjpg, BI

The Belleville, Ont. Chapter of the Knights of Columbus have garnered recognition both good and bad after the Catholic fraternal organization chose to erect a gravestone-like monument at St. James Cemetery in memory of all victims of abortion.

The monument that was erected on Nov. 2 is inscribed with the phrases, life is sacred and unborn lives matter as well as an image of a fetus in the womb and a verse from the book of Jeremiah.

The headstone-like monument is beautifully polished and is visually well done and appealing; however, it is the purpose and the inscription that causes such a stirring of emotions and reaction from people.

The topic of abortion is a painful dilemma for those who have found themselves in that position, as well as a very personal and private one.

I tend to sit on the fence with the opinion that what others do in their personal lives is none of my business, but I cant personally imagine being in that type of predicament and then having it thrown in my face as a shameful act.

Because grief is already a complicated emotion the last thing women need to feel is shame for the act of choosing what to do with their own bodies.

Perhaps that is what makes the monument such a controversial piece, not only is it a political statement in a church cemetery but it was also erected by a fraternity of all men whove never had to be placed in the position of making a decision on whether to choose to abort or not.

This monuments message isnt in line with the direction that womens rights and reproductive rights have continued to fight for and the fact it was erected in our very own small community just makes the issue that much more unimaginable.

Theyve put us on the map for such a personal and behind closed doors matter that it doesnt seem appropriate, especially when we already have a high amount of teen pregnancies in our community.

But it is also important to acknowledge the fact the Knights of Columbus is trying to invoke and mimic the popular movement of Black Lives Matter by stating that unborn lives matter.

The two issues are nothing alike and the way they chose to grasp at straws by trying to invoke the same amount of steam and support as #BlackLivesMatter is a blatant disregard for the actual fact that police brutality against minority groups is a tragedy being faced far too often and needlessly ends far too many lives.

The Knights of Columbus could have just as easily used the money to hold support classes to inform and protect against unwanted pregnancy and abstinence or helping support womens health and supporting the children already here and having problems with getting the appropriate nourishment before and after school.

The money and dedication they put into this monument could have just as easily gone to support other organizations that have a better handle on the issues facing people in our community that would have just as easily given them the same amount of recognition and would better serve them as a group than what theyve already done.

They cant take it back, but they really should be contributing to the conversation as to why they chose this type of monument as opposed to supporting the community in an outlet that would garner them recognition for only good rather than the mixed reactions theyve currently received.

The one blessing with the monument is perhaps it is out of sight for a lot of people and has to be sought out in order to see it, but even then it really shouldnt have been erected in the first place.

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JESSICA LAWS: Money on monument could have been better used - Belleville Intelligencer