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Black America Web
a day ago
- Politics
- Black America Web
This The New PBS?! Viral Kids Cartoon Teaches Slavery As ‘No Big Deal', Company's Co-Founder Wants To Indoctrinate Children With Right-Wing Ideology
A right-wing nonprofit media company called PragerU is facing backlash after a resurfaced video downplayed slavery amid talks that it could become the new PBS. Source: Moussa81 / Getty The clip, featuring a cartoon version of Christopher Columbus, suggests the institution of slavery was 'as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world.' In the video, Columbus goes further, stating: 'Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? Before you judge, you must ask yourself, 'What did the culture and the society of the time treat as no big deal?'' This framing, packaged in a colorful cartoon format for kids, is part of PragerU's library of 'educational' videos. The Grio reports that PragerU co-founder Dennis Prager has been blunt about his mission, admitting the goal of the programming is to indoctrinate children into right-wing ideology. MSNBC adds that PragerU said in its 2022 annual report that it openly said it wanted to battle it out with PBS and Disney. 'Arming parents and educators with the pro-America content they are craving — we are going toe-to-toe with massive youth media companies like PBS Kids and Disney,' While the videos mimic the style of regular children's programming, the messaging has drawn heavy criticism. According to The Grio, previous PragerU clips have denied Native American history, dismissed Indigenous Peoples' Day as 'designed to make Americans feel guilt,' denied climate change, and pushed Islamophobic rhetoric. Ew. Despite the controversy, PragerU has gained official partnerships in states like Alaska, Louisiana, and South Carolina, with The Grio confirming Florida became the first state in 2023 to approve PragerU content for public school curricula. The biggest endorsement yet has come from the Trump administration. On July 24, President Trump signed a bill slashing $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — a move that threatens PBS, NPR, and more than 1,500 local stations. Just one day later, PragerU joined forces with the Department of Education to unveil a White House museum exhibit titled 'The Road to Liberty.' The exhibit even used AI-generated 'commentary' from the Founding Fathers that leaned heavily into conservative talking points. This is a continuation of Trump's wider cultural push. Previously reported by BOSSIP, his administration has launched a 'comprehensive review' of Smithsonian museums — including the National Museum of African American History and Culture — with the stated aim to 'celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.' The impact is already being felt. The National Museum of American History temporarily removed references to Trump's two impeachments, while National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet resigned after Trump claimed he had fired her. Let's be clear: a cartoon Columbus trying to convince kids that slavery was 'no big deal' is not only disgusting — it's dangerous revisionist history. With PragerU circling as a possible replacement for PBS and Trump actively reshaping museums, we're seeing an attempt to rebrand America's darkest truths under the banner of 'exceptionalism.' If slavery can be brushed off as a minor inconvenience, what else might be 'erased' next? #BanPragerU The post This The New PBS?! Viral Kids Cartoon Teaches Slavery As 'No Big Deal', Company's Co-Founder Wants To Indoctrinate Children With Right-Wing Ideology appeared first on Bossip. SEE ALSO This The New PBS?! Viral Kids Cartoon Teaches Slavery As 'No Big Deal', Company's Co-Founder Wants To Indoctrinate Children With Right-Wing Ideology was originally published on
Axios
08-08-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Scoop: Philly nears final decision on Frank Rizzo statue
The yearslong legal battle for possession of Philadelphia's Frank L. Rizzo sculpture appears to be coming to an end. Why it matters: The monument of the city's former tough-on-crime mayor and police commissioner remains controversial even after it was removed from Center City at the height of the 2020 racial justice protests. Driving the news: The Frank L. Rizzo Monument Committee — which commissioned and donated the bronze sculpture to Philly in 1998 — has reached a settlement with the city over the monument, the committee's lawyer George Bochetto tells Axios. The city's Art Commission is poised to review a proposal to remove the sculpture from the city's art collection at its Wednesday public meeting. If approved, ownership of the statue would be transferred to the Rizzo committee as part of the city agreement to settle litigation, city spokesperson Bruce Bohri tells Axios. What they're saying: "This review fulfills a promise made to Philadelphians and comes after thoughtful consideration of the diverse perspectives of our residents," Bohri said. The other side: The Rizzo committee expects to take possession of the statue sometime after Labor Day. And Bochetto says the city is expected to pay $85,000 to repair damages to the statue. The city didn't comment on the potential payment. Bochetto says this is another example of the Kenney administration's overreach that is being corrected. The big picture: The review comes after a court recently reversed another order from former Mayor Jim Kenney that replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is reviewing several items at Philly's national parks as part of an effort to restore monuments, statues and the like that were changed or removed since 2020. Catch up quick: The 9-foot Rizzo statue, which formerly sat outside the Municipal Services Building, was a flashpoint during the 2020 racial justice demonstrations when protesters defaced, burned and attempted to topple it. Kenney issued an emergency order to remove the statue in June 2020, citing a threat to public health, safety and welfare. The city placed the statue in storage, where it's sat ever since. The Rizzo committee filed a lawsuit to reclaim the statue soon after its removal. Context: There's long been debate over Rizzo's legacy. To supporters, he was an Italian American hero and a tough-on-crime mayor and police commissioner. To opponents, he's a symbol of racism, bigotry and unchecked brutality, particularly for those in the Black and LGBTQ communities. What to watch: The committee wants to put the monument back on display. Jody Della Barba, head of the Rizzo committee, told Axios they have at least one location in mind for it, but declined to provide further details.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Patty Pansing Brooks announces 2026 bid to return to Nebraska Legislature
Former State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska News Service) LINCOLN — Former State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks announced her 2026 candidacy Friday to return to the Nebraska Legislature, a day after the current officeholder said she would not seek reelection. State Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln announced her decision not to run again Thursday, leaving the central Lincoln seat open, as first reported by the Nebraska Examiner. Just 24 hours later, Pansing Brooks 'enthusiastically' threw her hat in the ring with Raybould's support, one of more than 70 current and former officials to endorse Pansing Brooks. 'People keep calling me saying, 'What should I do?'' Pansing Brooks told the Examiner. 'And I keep thinking, 'Well, what should I do to help this country right now?' The main thing that I know that I can do is run for office.' Pansing Brooks, 66, said she hopes to be an example for others to run for office and get involved in these 'very strident times.' During her first two terms in office, 2015 to 2023, Pansing Brooks said she worked to be a voice to bring people together, elevate conversations and help people see other sides to issues. If elected back to Legislative District 28, Pansing Brooks said she would continue uplifting juvenile justice reform, combatting human trafficking, defending workers' rights, protecting public education, supporting small businesses, expanding correctional programming for successful reentry and ensuring access to and equity in health care, 'right where I left off in 2022.' Among Pansing Brooks' previous successes: protecting survivors of human trafficking from prostitution charges, mandating new juvenile room confinement standards and reports and shielding survivors of sexual assault and sex trafficking before criminal charges are filed. 'There's still work to do,' she said. Pansing Brooks has a history of working with conservative colleagues, such as with former State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan on dyslexia. The pair toured schools and passed laws to increase interventions for students with dyslexia and require teachers to be educated about the disability. Pansing Brooks also worked closely with former State Sen. Tom Brewer, a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe and the Legislature's first Native member, notably to help pressure the closing of four beer stores in the village of Whiteclay in Brewer's north-central Nebraska district. For decades, the stores helped fuel alcoholism for the neighboring Pine Ridge Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota. The duo also worked to add 'Indigenous Peoples' Day' to state law alongside Columbus Day. Brewer is one of many former conservative colleagues of Pansing Brooks to have already endorsed her 2026 campaign. Pansing Brooks, if elected, would join a handful of lawmakers to return after being term-limited. She said she knows there will be 'horrible days,' as there were before and that it might be tough. However, Pansing Brooks said, 'There's goodness and kindness to share, important laws to make and ways to support our fabulous Nebraskans.' Since 2023, the one-house Legislature has been increasingly divided on partisan lines. Pansing Brooks would return as lawmakers have a heightened focus on the LGBTQ community that she advocated for during her time in office. She had proposed legislation attempting to outlaw discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, which other senators picked up after her absence. 'I care about the rights of people to live and to be who they are, to not have prejudice against them, no matter what group they're in,' Pansing Brooks said. 'But I'm also going to be there to learn and listen and try to figure out if there's new steps where I'm needed or new issues where I'm needed, then that's what I'll do.' Another lawmaker who returned after being term-limited, former State Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha, declined to seek reelection in 2022, in part because of how much the institution had changed in the four years he was gone. Lathrop endorsed Pansing Brooks, with whom he served. Just one lawmaker has been term-limited twice since the voter-approved restrictions took full effect after 2006: former State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha. Pansing Brooks said that, if elected, she would not return with any assumptions that she would be treated differently than other 'newbie' lawmakers. She said she knows she would need to make new friendships and gain trust, which she's ready to do, and that Nebraska could be a model for Congress on working together. In 2022, Pansing Brooks was the Democratic candidate for Nebraska's 1st Congressional District, falling short to U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb. Flood, a former colleague, repeatedly sought to tie Pansing Brooks to national Democratic policies and party leaders. Pansing Brooks in that 2022 congressional race won her legislative district by a slightly greater percentage of votes than Raybould did that year. It is Lincoln's most progressive legislative district. A bipartisan group of former senators endorsed Pansing Brooks, including State Sens. Kathy Campbell, Bob Krist, John McCollister, DiAnna Schimek, John Stinner, Tony Vargas and Lynne Walz. She is endorsed by current State Sens. Machaela Cavanaugh, John Cavanaugh, Danielle Conrad, Wendy DeBoer, George Dungan, John Fredrickson, Dunixi Guereca, Megan Hunt, Margo Juarez, Terrell McKinney, Dan Quick, Raybould, Victor Rountree and Ashlei Spivey. All but Hunt, a nonpartisan progressive, are Democrats in the officially nonpartisan Legislature. Other early endorsements include Bob Kerrey and Ben Nelson (former governors and former U.S. senators), former Nebraska Lt. Govs. Kim Robak and Maxine Moul and Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird. Pansing Brooks, who had been a Republican for much of her life until the 2000s, including a stint as Lancaster County GOP chair, said she's honored by conservative friends she made in the Legislature who have now endorsed her. 'It makes me realize that this is possible. We don't all have to be divided and in circular firing squads, just firing away at each other,' Pansing Brooks said. Pansing Brooks added that the Legislature is special and that she hopes lawmakers can continue to find common ground. 'We've done that in the past,' Pansing Brooks said. 'We can continue to do it.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Equal tax treatment among Wabanaki Nations poised to come to fruition this year
Participants in a Wabanaki Alliance rally on Indigenous Peoples' Day at the Maine State House in Augusta. (Photo by Jim Neuger/Maine Morning Star) After a 2022 change left out the Mi'kmaq Nation from reform, legislation to ensure equal tax treatment among all of the Wabanaki Nations secured the approval of both chambers of the Maine Legislature this week. LD 982, sponsored by Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Cumberland), passed the House of Representatives and Senate on Tuesday without roll call votes. The bill would exempt the Mi'kmaq Nation from state sales and income tax for activities occurring on tribal trust or reservation lands and allow the Tribe to generate sales tax revenues from sales on their own lands — the same rights afforded to the other Wabanaki Nations. The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Nation were granted these rights under a 2022 tax revision, also proposed by Talbot Ross, which brought them on par with the rules that apply to other tribal nations throughout the country. Compared to other federally recognized tribes, the Wabanaki Nations are treated more akin to municipalities than sovereign nations because of the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. But the Mi'kmaq Nation was not referred to in the Settlement Act and only received federal recognition later in 1991. Last session, the Legislature passed a law known as The Mi'kmaq Nation Restoration Act that put the Tribe on par with the rest of the Wabanaki Nations. LD 982 therefore builds upon the restoration act and the tax revision. This change was previously attempted last session with legislation proposed by State Treasurer Joseph Perry, then representing Bangor in the Maine House. While that bill received favorable committee and chamber votes, it got caught up in end-of-session procedural fights and ultimately died without final action when lawmakers adjourned. The bill this session ultimately becoming law is not yet guaranteed. It has several associated costs, which means it's likely to go to the appropriations table, where bills with fiscal notes that are not already provided for have to vie for funding. This bill would decrease the state's general fund by $4,750 in fiscal year 2025-26 and $45,150 in fiscal year 2026-27. It would also result in ongoing annual transfers of $500 to the Mi'kmaq Sales Tax Fund and result in revenue decreases to the Local Government Fund. There would also be a one-time cost — $19,300 — to fund computer programming costs associated with the provisions of this bill. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former Senate President Troy Jackson enters race for governor
Maine Senate President Troy Jackson speaks at a Wabanaki Alliance rally on Indigenous Peoples' Day at the Maine State House in Augusta. Oct. 9, 2023. (Photo: Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star) Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson is running for governor in the 2026 election. The fifth-generation logger announced Monday that he will join the Democratic primary, saying in a news release from his campaign that 'too many Democrats have lost touch with working people or shown they're not up to the fight.' 'I know what it's like to punch a clock, live paycheck to paycheck, be treated like I didn't matter while some billionaire got rich off my back – and how to turn that feeling of powerlessness into action,' he added. Jackson is the fourth Democrat to join the race. He will face Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who announced her bid in late March, as well as Kenneth Pinet and Angus King III, the son of independent senator and former governor Angus King Jr., who announced his run earlier this month. The Allagash-native said he is running for governor to help not only working families and seniors, but also to build a Maine where the children raised here can afford to stay. During his time as a legislator, Jackson focused on lowering prescription drug costs, passing universal school meals, as well as securing funding for rural hospitals and veterans' homes. He termed out last year. Jackson is kicking off his campaign with a statewide tour from Kittery to Madawaska. It starts Monday with a rally at the Kittery Town Wharf followed by a tour of Auburn Manufacturing, Inc. and the Lockwood Mill in Waterville. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
