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Bloomberg
29-05-2025
- General
- Bloomberg
The Justice Department Shouldn't Abandon Police Oversight
Nearly five years to the week since George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer, a consent decree that was supposed to usher in significant law enforcement reforms in the city is no more, dissolved by court order at the Trump administration's request. The Justice Department is also pulling out of a similar consent decree in Louisville, Kentucky that emerged following the police killing of Breonna Taylor in a botched 2020 raid. And it is closing out nearly a half-dozen investigations into alleged police abuses in Memphis, Tennessee; Mount Vernon, New York; Trenton, New Jersey; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and the Louisiana State Police.
Reuters
27-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Sustainable Switch: Unpacking that Trump and Ramaphosa meeting
This is an excerpt of the Sustainable Switch newsletter, where we make sense of companies and governments grappling with climate change, diversity, and human rights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here. Hello, U.S. President Donald Trump is the focus again of today's newsletter after he made several false statements when he met with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, which we'll seek to unpack, as the Trump administration rolled back several police reforms that were implemented after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. But first, please note that there will be no Climate Focus tomorrow, but Sustainable Switch will be back as usual on Tuesday. Now, back to the Trump and Ramaphosa meeting where the U.S. President made several false statements and misrepresented some facts about the alleged persecution of South Africa's white minority during a contentious Oval Office meeting. Ramaphosa tried to rebuff the assertions but was frequently interrupted by Trump, who repeated the claims. Trump had staff play a video consisting mostly of years-old clips of inflammatory speeches by some South African politicians that have been circulating on social media. Three South African courts have ruled against attempts to have those clips designated as hate speech, on the basis that it is a historical liberation chant, not a literal incitement to violence. 'A genocide of white farmers in South Africa' The universally recognized definition of genocide is provided by the United Nations in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted on December 9, 1948. Click here, opens new tab for the full text on the United Nations' website. As for the false statement made by the President of the United States, this conspiracy theory has been propagated by some fringe groups of white South Africans since the end of apartheid in 1994. It has been circulating in global far-right chat rooms for at least a decade, with the vocal support of Trump's ally, South African-born Elon Musk. They accuse the South African government of being complicit in the murders of white farmers in remote rural parts of the country, either by encouraging them or at least turning a blind eye. The government strongly denies this. The high court in Western Cape province ruled that claims of white genocide were "clearly imagined and not real" in a case earlier this year, forbidding a donation to a white supremacist group on those grounds. South Africa has one of the world's highest murder rates, with an average of 72 a day, in a country of 60 million people. Most victims are Black. 'Expropriating land from white farmers' Now for the claim that the government is expropriating land from white farmers without compensation, including through violent land seizures, in order to distribute it to Black South Africans. The government has a policy of attempting to redress inequalities in land ownership that are a legacy of apartheid and colonialism. But no land has been expropriated, and the government has instead tried to encourage white farmers to sell their land willingly. Some three-quarters of privately-owned farmland is still in the hands of whites, who make up less than 8% of the population, while 4% is owned by Black South Africans who make up 80%. Click here for a Reuters story on the background of South Africa's Black economic empowerment program to learn more about the facts of the country's inequality. Violating the rights of Black people in the U.S. There are other pressing developments made by the Trump administration this week. The U.S. Justice Department is abandoning efforts to secure court-approved settlements with Minneapolis and Louisville, despite its prior finding that police in both cities routinely violated the civil rights of Black people, a senior official said. Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the department's Civil Rights Division, announced that the department will be closing out investigations and retracting prior findings of wrongdoing against the police departments in Phoenix, Arizona, Memphis, Tennessee, Trenton, New Jersey, Mount Vernon, New York, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and the Louisiana State Police. Dhillon said control of police belongs with their communities rather than unelected bureaucrats. The move comes four days before the May 25 five-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer who knelt on his neck as Floyd repeatedly pleaded that he couldn't breathe. Floyd's killing, as well as the killing of Breonna Taylor who was shot to death by Louisville Police executing a no-knock warrant, sparked worldwide protests about racially-motivated policing practices during the final year of Trump's first term in office. ESG Lens Thames Water, at the center of a public backlash against Britain's privatized water industry, has halted a bonus scheme for its executives after ministers objected to the payouts. The company, which is Britain's biggest water supplier with 16 million customers, has been struggling with billions of pounds of debt. The British government wants to reform the water sector, which has been criticized by environmental groups and consumers for damaging Britain's rivers while raising customer bills and for failing to invest. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also subscribe here.
Boston Globe
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Breath after death: Remembering George Floyd
Like Emmett Till and the Tulsa Race Massacre. Like Fred Hampton. Like Amadou Diallo. Like Breonna Taylor. George Floyd died, and we cried and raged. Momentarily, we changed until the memories faded. Promises were made, but they were just band-aids to cover our pain and shame, to carry us over as we slid back into the reigns of what it means to make America great again. There was no racial reckoning, it was a beckoning, a calling to inch closer to progress. Five years later, what do we see: regress. Five years ago, I stood at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis where Floyd was murdered, where former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. His call for his mother — both a meditation and prayer — were his dying words and an incantation to heal. Advertisement Instead of healing, we're reeling. We live in an American chapter that seeks to destroy truth and uphold supremacy. Anything that mentions race, gender, or orientation is being targeted. To acknowledge racism, in our government's eyes, is to be anti-American. Advertisement 'When you look at the movement after George Floyd's murder and the movement to re-elect Donald Trump, what does it say about us that we have not answered the charge to wipe out racism,' says Michael Curry, NAACP board member and CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. 'We have let the movement for justice and equality get co-opted and called reverse discrimination.' To remember police brutality was always woven into the fiber of American practices is to also recall backlash comes with every uprising. Reconstruction. Jim Crow. The Civil Rights Movement. Reverse redlining and racist lending. Racism, the remix. 'People don't want to see the truth anymore, because it's traumatizing,' Curry said. 'It's more comfortable when we don't have to reconcile with the fact that someone would have that much hatred in their heart.' Police The Justice Department dropped consent decrees in Minneapolis and in Louisville, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor was killed in her home. Will Worcester and it's Hodan Hashi was 13-years-old when Advertisement Now, she, like me, like so many, is weary. We live in the back-and-forth of hope and heartbreak when we take account of the pain we carry and pass on, even as we fight to change things. 'At the federal level, we are in more danger than we were five years ago,' she says. 'I was told if I do well in school, get a degree, get a career, and check all of the boxes, I was told we would be fine. Now, I am 26. I did that. I have a career, I'm stable. But I'm also constantly in a state of survival. How do you feel safe when it feels like your very existence is under attack at all times?' Five years ago, at Floyd's funeral, tears welled as the Rev. Al Sharpton spoke about our suffering. 'The reason we could never be who we wanted to be and dreamed of being is you kept your knee on our neck,' Sharpton said of America. In a country where our Justice Department's civil rights division is focusing less on racism and equity and more on destroying diversity, fighting against brutality and injustice requires a masterclass in navigating gaslighting and violence. We have a president who falsely claims DEI efforts hurt white people, disappears immigrants and citizens, and is defunding education, the arts, and humanities in order to reshape culture in his image. Safety doesn't live here. Ron Harris was chief resilience officer of Minneapolis when I met him the day of Floyd's funeral. Since then, he ran for Congress and led the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign in Minnesota. When Donald Trump won, he needed to rest. Advertisement 'People are exhausted. We need to train up the next generation of leaders. A choir can carry a single note for an hour because there are enough people to compensate for those who need to catch their breath.' Now, he's a strategic consultant. Organizers pushed for accountability and did the work, he says. But we have to build movements that are sustainable outside of federal dollars, 'We need resources that can't be taken away with the stroke of a pen and the change of an agenda,' he says. 'What gives me hope is often times when the pendulum swings this far the other way, it is evidence of a reaction to progress. In these moments, leaders are born.' For Hashi, hope is found in community. 'I feel like I have people I can talk to and go to for support. That's what I try to hold on to, the people that keep me going.' The people . We must remember one another in our shared humanity and in the need to protect our personhood. 'Mama, I'm through,' Floyd called. He reached for the memory of her love and support. He wasn't just through, he was a through line connecting us to past, present, and promises to still be kept. Hope lies in memory of the folks we fight to remember, the people we work to be remembered by, and and for everyone, we pray, to never become an American goodbye. Advertisement Jeneé Osterheldt can be reached at
Forbes
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Five Years After George Floyd: 3 Priorities For Leading Now
Protestor outside courthouse. Minneapolis, Minnesota. -Photo by KEREM YUCEL Five years ago, the world watched George Floyd take his last breath beneath a police officer's knee. Just weeks earlier, police officers gunned down Breonna Taylor in her own home. These tragedies sparked a period of national angst and forced many Americans to confront a painful truth: In America, Black lives were being systemically undervalued. Five years later, not enough has changed. Between the corporate back-peddling and efforts in the political arena to avoid and hide harsh truths (for example, by suggesting that DEI is illegal when it is not), leaders may be unsure of the current state of affairs and their role in the solution. Some leaders may feel this problem is not theirs to tackle because most of the affected people do not look like them. However, inclusion is a leadership obligation. Silence creates confusion and shows a lack of courage. But there is good news. Leaders don't need to speak as much as they need to do something. This article documents the current disparities and offers three simple yet powerful actions a leader can take to enhance inclusion for everyone in their sphere of influence. Despite the widespread angst that followed these murders, realities for many Black Americans remain deeply inequitable. These disparities show up across every key measure of social and economic well-being. While the overall U.S. job market showed strength in April 2025, the unemployment rate for Black Americans remained much higher - 6.3% - than for White Americans - 3.8%. Black women experienced a significant setback. Their unemployment rate rose to 6.1% in April 2025, up from 5.1% in March, the highest level since 2022. Economic conditions are deteriorating for Black women. Far from improving, many key metrics are stagnant or worse since George Floyd was killed. Some persistent disparities show up in wealth and income, healthcare access and outcomes, life expectancy and maternal mortality. In the prologue to their book, 'Unequal Health,' a comprehensive, empirically-based examination of the causes of these heath disparities, the authors assert that 'anti-Black racism is a primary cause of racial health disparities.' According to research from the Albert Shanker Institute, the University of Miami and Rutgers University, 'African American students are twice as likely as white students to be in districts with funding below estimated adequate levels, and 3.5 times more likely to be in 'chronically underfunded' districts.' Black college students are underrepresented in college enrollment and completion rates and face challenges in accessing financial aid. In 2024, U.S. law enforcement killed more than 1,100 Americans, the highest number on record; nearly 25 percent were Black Americans. One in every 1,000 Black men in America is likely to die at the hands of police - a risk 2.5 times higher than for white men, and that risk continues across the life span. Black women face this risk, too, like Sonja Massey, who in July 2024 was fatally shot by a sheriff's deputy in her home in Springfield, Illinois, after calling 911 for help. This ongoing violence and fear of being victimized leave deep scars on individuals and across entire communities. Studies show that police killings of unarmed Black Americans contribute to an estimated 50 million days of poor mental health per year within Black communities that show up in every area of life. Despite this unsatisfactory state of affairs, the federal government is doing less to address these challenges. In an about-face from 2023, the U.S. Justice Department announced this week that it will dismiss lawsuits and consent decrees against the police departments that caused George Floyd and Breonna Taylor's deaths. The Justice Department had found, in 2023, that the Minneapolis Police Department, the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) and the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government (Louisville Metro) engaged in 'a pattern or practice of conduct in violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal law,' including excessive force, and unlawful searches, detainment, and arrests and unlawful discrimination against Black people and Native American people. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Justice Department have reversed their decades-long mission of representing protected groups. They are also dismantling the "disparate impact" doctrine, which, according to the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), 'refers to situations in which a subgroup of people is shown to be adversely affected by an employment process applied equally to everyone.' Removing the principle threatens enforcement of Title VI and Title VII protections. After summer 2020, corporate leaders, recognizing how bad things were, even in their own organizations, declared their intent to help make things better: starting with ensuring that their organizations were diverse (had a workforce that looked like America), equitable (enabled all employees to share in the "goodies" of organizational life), and inclusive (were places in which all employees could have positive day-to-day experiences, regardless of what they looked like or who they loved). That is what these leaders meant by diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and why they declared that DEI would become a business imperative. However, while leaders focused on actions that could enhance diversity, they did not pay as much attention to the 'E' - Equity and the 'I' – Inclusion in the DEI equation. They held town halls, hired DEI executives, and more black employees between summer 2020 and 2021. However, that hiring spree was short-lived, and according to data from the Wall Street Journal, the net effect was minimal, 'Corporate diversity pledges and DEI programs have generated a lot of controversy. They haven't generated as much diversity." Nor have their resolved the equity and inclusion challenges. Black representation in leadership roles has plateaued across most industries. For example, in the 60 years since the Fortune 500 list was created, fewer than 30 Black people have ever been the CEO of a Fortune 500 company (and only five of them have been Black women - one of whom was an interim CEO). Only eight Fortune 500 CEOs are Black, including two women selected for those roles since 2020. There is still a lot to do on the inclusion front, according to Pew Research data, the headline for which is 'Black workers' views and experiences in the U.S. labor force stand out in key ways.' Some employees even display the same "Karen-ing" phenomenon in the workplace, that is regularly discussed on social media. These facts are often missed in conversations about DEI, leaving a murky picture and leading to incorrect conclusions. CEOs are now largely silent on these issues, too, and they have slashed DEI budgets. Some organizations have stopped using the term DEI, even though many CEOs still want their organizations to be diverse, equitable, and inclusive. The leaders of some of America's most successful companies, such as Apple, Costco, Delta, elf Cosmetics, JPMorganChase, and Microsoft, still believe DEI is essential. They say this work helps them attract and retain a diverse and talented workforce that can deliver the futures they imagine. They also know inclusion is critical for employee engagement, innovation, and market competitiveness. If leaders still want the benefits of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace, but are hesitant to use the language of DEI, they need a practical, values-based path forward. These three actions offer that path. Many leaders have defaulted to tracking representation as the primary DEI metric, which can be insufficient because it does not address how leaders and colleagues treat one another within the organization. Genuine inclusion is not about who is in the room but how people are treated once they are there. Therefore, inclusion should come first. Inclusion ensures that new employees feel they belong and existing employees can work effectively with people from different backgrounds. As you move forward, don't abandon DEI—call it what it is: building a culture where inclusion leads and everyone benefits. It is essential to distinguish that the respect described here is not about niceness or civility. Genuine respect is the experience of being seen, heard, and valued. It's a universally-valued outcome that is tangible: you and your leaders can teach, model, measure, reinforce, and build it into your organization's systems and values. Respect is also a leadership strategy because it fosters environments where performance, collaboration, and trust can thrive. You create these environments when you center respect, like in the R-E-S-P-E-C-T EthosTM. In the context of any leadership effort, especially DEI, silence breeds confusion and distrust. Employees notice when leaders stop talking about inclusion, and they start filling in the blanks with whatever information they can find in informal networks (including social media). Leaders can minimize public commitments and reframe the work with new terminology, but it is impossible to build trust in a vacuum. Whatever you call your efforts - culture, belonging, fairness, innovation - your employees deserve to know what's changing, why it matters, and what's in it for them. Be transparent. Reaffirm your values. Clarify what you're doing to promote equity and inclusion. Be ready to answer tough questions, like: Employees who understand your intent can engage, support, and help you build the inclusive organization that is your leadership obligation. Five years after George Floyd and Breonna Taylor's deaths, their names still evoke both pain and promise. Although the pain persists and the promise is still to be fulfilled, there is a path forward, starting with leaders building inclusive workplaces infused with respect.
Black America Web
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Black America Web
Ben Crump Rip's Trump Administrations Decision To End Police Reform Agreement Reached In Wake Of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor
Source: Anadolu / Getty Famed civil attorney Ben Crump has weighed in on the MAGA-fied U.S. Department of Justice's recent decision to end Biden-era police-accountability agreements with Minneapolis and Louisville that came as a result of extensive investigations following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. It's the latest decision made by the DOJ's civil rights division that indicates the Trump administration's intent to halt any and all civil rights progress aimed at correcting systemic racism, except, of course, for the fictional systemic racism against white Americans (and, apparently, white Afrikaners in South Africa). First, here's Crump's full statement: 'Just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder — a moment that galvanized a global movement for justice — the U.S. Department of Justice has chosen to turn its back on the very communities it pledged to protect. By walking away from consent decrees in Minneapolis and Louisville, and closing its investigation into the Memphis Police Department while retracting findings of serious constitutional violations, the DOJ is not just rolling back reform, it is attempting to erase truth and contradicting the very principles for which justice stands. 'This decision is a slap in the face to the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tyre Nichols, and to every community that has endured the trauma of police violence and the false promises of accountability. These consent decrees and investigations were not symbolic gestures, they were lifelines for communities crying out for change, rooted in years of organizing, suffering, and advocacy. 'These moves will only deepen the divide between law enforcement and the people they are sworn to protect and serve. Trust is built with transparency and accountability, not with denial and retreat. 'But let me be clear: We will not give up. This movement will not be swayed or deterred by fickle politics. It is anchored in the irrefutable truth that Black lives matter, and that justice should not depend on who is in power. 'We will continue to fight for the reforms we know are necessary. For federal oversight that holds police departments accountable. For an end to the brutalization of our communities. For a future where justice is not an exception, but the rule.' Mind you, the announcement of the DOJ decision also came just one day after it was announced that the very same DOJ approved a nearly $5 million settlement for the family of Ashli Babbitt—the Jan. 6 Capitol rioter who got herself shot and killed by a Capitol police officer, Lt. Michael Byrd, while climbing over a barricade inside the Capitol building that rioters were warned not to breach. It's almost as if this administration isn't even bothering to hide its not-so-subtle intention to make white supremacy great again. It's worth noting that, according to The Washington Post, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey responded to the DOJ's announcement that it will rescind the police reform agreement by declaring that his city will still follow through with it. Leaders in Louisville reportedly said the same. 'We will comply with every sentence of every paragraph of the 169-page consent decree that we signed this year,' Frey said during a recent news briefing. Of course, it's also worth mentioning that the DOJ said it also plans to close investigations into local police departments in Phoenix, Memphis, Oklahoma City and other cities that were launched under President Joe Biden. In short: if you want any semblance of police reform, you pretty much have to be a Jan. 6 Capitol rioter. SEE ALSO: Op-Ed: Unpacking Trump's Factless Claims About 'White Genocide' Trump's DOJ Thinks Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Hired Too Many Black People, So It Launched An Investigation SEE ALSO Ben Crump Rip's Trump Administrations Decision To End Police Reform Agreement Reached In Wake Of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
