Idina Menzel sings the National Anthem
President Barack Obama pretends to wipe a tear from his eye when First Lady Michelle Obama says it’s their last Easter Egg Roll at the White House
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Malia Obama, Sasha Obama, and Maisy Biden
First lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama doing the Whip and the Nae Nae
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President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama cheer on kids during the Easter Egg Roll race
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President Barack Obama holds up Stella Muñoz in the air
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Continue reading ‘#EasterEggRoll: The President And First Lady’s Day’
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a new paper shows one place where the law has been a clear success: narrowing the race gap in health insurance. So why aren’t more Democrats shouting that from the rooftops. In 2013, the year before most of the law’s provisions for subsidized insurance took effect, non-elderly blacks were 47 percent more likely than whites to be uninsured.
For American Indians, that figure was 93 percent; for Hispanics, 120 percent. In 2014, not only did the share of whites without insurance fall; the share of blacks and Asian Americans fell by more. The difference between whites and Hispanics shrank, from 14 percentage points to 11.8 percentage points. What’s odd about the race gap isn’t its persistence, but that its narrowing isn’t more celebrated as one of the law’s accomplishments. Narrowing the race gap in health insurance counts unequivocally as progress.
More here
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Obamacare is closing insurance's race gap. Where's the celebration? bv.ms/1Oe5vHa https://t.co/uHDI0tjykY
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Bloomberg View (@BV) December 19, 2015
Dyson says: “Yes She Can”
In this very title lies the crux of a derailed argument that Michael Eric Dyson’s latest travelogue pushes in the New Republic about President Obama vs. SOS Hillary Clinton. How does Dyson arrive at this grand flourish? He traveled with Mrs. Clinton from New York to Atlanta, observed her interaction with the “old Black Guard,” Black Lives Matter activists, and concluded: “Yes She Can.” Can, What? Stay tuned.
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But first, some cold hard FACTS before we indulge Dyson any further. In case he missed it, Prez Obama ALWAYS says: “Yes WE Can”, not “Yes I can”. He never lost sight of the collective effort required to drive the disparate gears that grind within this country toward the collective good.
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And Contrary to Dyson’s erasure of the Obama Administration’s tangible achievements for Americans, and especially minorities, this is where we have been these past 7 years in three key areas: a) Economy & Employment, b) Healthcare, c) Incarceration rates
1. We suffered a financial catastrophe in 2007-2008 that collapsed not only US economy but global financial system too. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act aka Stimulus Package was passed in early 2009 to put a floor beneath the abyss that people were falling into. Unfortunately, many Liberals joined GOP to mock the unprecedented scope of the Stimulus and missed its remarkable successes . And as with most Obama policy successes, the real value of the stimulus has been better known to its enemies, than its beneficiaries. Here are the numbers:
2. At Prez Obama’s inauguration we were losing 800,000 jobs per MONTH! Unemployment rates skyrocketed to 10.1% before his 6th month in office. Today, after more than 13 million net jobs added that Jobless rate is at 5%. The rate for African Americans is higher but it has seen a dramatic decline.
The wide differences in state level rates offer a more complex picture
No doubt there is a persistent unemployment gap whose structural roots predate the Obama presidency. But trend lines are moving in the desired direction.
More importantly this administration tackled one of the cankers at the heart of African American and other minorities’ joblessness and poverty rates: HEALTHCARE
Continue reading ‘M.E. Dyson Misses Prez Obama’s Forest for Symbolic Trees’
I have been spooked these last 10 days by the insanity that erupted here in the US since the Paris terrorist attacks. I wanted to give words to my thoughts. But I froze. Then I rediscovered this piece I began writing in April 2013, but had abandoned for being too alarmist! If only I knew….
Here is the piece completed with a few edits…
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April 6 marked the (21st) anniversary of the launch of the genocidal nightmare in the central African country of Rwanda that ended 100 days later with 800,000 people dead, and a nation scarred deeply. That was 11.4% of the total population of 7 million. Nearly three-quarters of those massacred were Tutsis who comprised 14% of the entire population.
The word “anniversary” seems inappropriate because although it is technically a neutral term it still invokes positive associations and anticipation. No one should anticipate a genocide nor look forward to marking milestones in its aftermath. Yet mark, we must. The lessons are not simply framed in dog-eared history tomes or award winning films about a bygone tragedy. The lessons are here. With us. Today.
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In societies wracked by mass economic, social and political faultlines the signs are always there for a Rwanda Redux, or a Srebrenica. Hate Radio. Divide and conquer. Nihilism. Opportunistic politicians and cultural loudmouths. Group resentment. Grievance. Silence and apathy from the majority population. Now, all of these do not a genocide trigger. But they exist to be manipulated if conditions ripen.
“The Rwandan genocide resulted from the conscious choice of the elite to promote hatred and fear to keep itself in power. This small, privileged group first set the majority against the minority to counter a growing political opposition within Rwanda. Then, faced with RPF success on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, these few power holders transformed the strategy of ethnic division into genocide. They believed that the extermination campaign would reinstate the solidarity of the Hutu under their leadership and help them win the war, or at least improve their chances of negotiating a favorable peace. They seized control of the state and used its authority to carry out the massacre. (UnitedHumanRights.Org)”
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Watch @POTUS go behind the camera in Alaska to talk about the impacts of climate change: go.wh.gov/Alaska
amp.twimg.com/v/ac968ba5-c57…
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The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 02, 2015.@POTUS takes you to the edge of a glacier in his latest Alaska travelogue: go.wh.gov/Day2InAlaska #ActOnClimate http://t.co/UBBr4ZEGdo
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The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 02, 2015****
US President #Obama has secured enough support in US Senate to ensure Iran nuclear deal will go into effect bbc.in/1UmUMx1
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BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) September 02, 2015The #IranDeal is the best available option to block Iran from a bomb. It is in our national security interests. twitter.com/nytimes/status…
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Vice President Biden (@VP) September 02, 2015****
Prosecution scores two big wins in Freddie Gray case huff.to/1NNAdph http://t.co/P84Gni2qVj
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HuffPost BlackVoices (@blackvoices) September 02, 2015US judge refuses to drop charges against 6 Baltimore police officers in death of Freddie Gray bbc.in/1NaueLh http://t.co/ePjga8zKFp
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BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) September 02, 2015****
From my friend @Sophfronia's Facebook Page. Worth sharing. Tell your brother we feel his pain and we are sorry. Xo http://t.co/C000zXMEwB
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Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) September 01, 2015when the Black Panthers exercised their 2nd Amend rights & showed up strapped to Courthouses n such Reagan mad swift gun control moves
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MichaelaAngela Davis (@MichaelaAngelaD) September 02, 2015****
The #IranDeal will "reassure the world that even the hardest problems can be addressed successfully by diplomatic means" —Sec. @JohnKerry
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The Iran Deal (@TheIranDeal) September 02, 2015Now that Obama reversed the economic collapse, passed Obamacare, killed bin Laden & got the #IranDeal I wonder what the next failure will be
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David Corn (@DavidCornDC) September 02, 2015****
EXCLUSIVE: @ShondaRhimes poses with cast of @ScandalABC, @GreysABC, and @HowtoGetAwayABC: trib.al/KAMUqNk http://t.co/oYhp9VySSe
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Essence Magazine (@essencemag) September 02, 2015From where I sat... @EW @essencemag @people #TGIT photo shoot. 😎 http://t.co/dyHMU6ER4v
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Darby Stanchfield (@darbysofficial) September 02, 2015****
So it boils down to this: Trump suffers from Obama size-envy. Crowd size, that is, and maybe more…
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75,000 show up at Obama campaign in Oregon May 18, 2008
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But first, it was only a matter of time before the object of Prez Obama’s ridicule at the White House Correspondents’ Dinners in 2011 and 2015, would be prompted to redeem his ego. Behold, the Trump2016 presidential run.
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In 2011, President Obama chose deliberately to inflate Trump’s gargantuan ego, using the very vehicle of birtherism to surgically puncture Trump’s pompous ass at the precise moment for maximal humiliating effect, the night before the OBL operation. That we the American people enjoyed the take down of the hotair without knowing about the OBL mission underway, only prolonged the deliciousness of the schadenfreude when we found out the next night when POTUS interrupted Trump’s “Apprentice” show to deliver the unbelievable news. Trump was doubly slayed. We roared!
As icing on the cake, Prez Obama gave us a spoof sneak peak into what a Trump White House might look like, complete with gaudy Trump insignia plastered all over the WH exterior, plus female posse wading in the WH fountain. We found the idea of a Trump presidency absurd. But Trump began dreaming big.
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The coup de grace came this year, when POTUS Obama raised and then immediately dashed Trump’s hope of the President engaging him again in full glare of the cameras. POTUS simply said “Donald Trump is here…..still”, then moved on to the next segment. Ouch!
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I posit that Trump’s mind was made up that night to run for President by hook or crook. How do we know this? Answer: Trump himself is the fire breathing clue. A narcissist thrives on attention, and President Obama flippantly cut off that oxygen on an important media stage, the same one on which he had been humiliated irreparably in 2011. Trump could deal with the ridicule during the previous WHCDs, because they accrued to him media notoriety. Media attention is the currency of Trump’s very existence. But to be swatted away like a fly with nary a word more from Prez Obama to indulge his outsized narcissism? Naw. He had to get even.
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The lies
Officers were called to the a local community pool around 7:15 p.m. local time to respond to a “disturbance involving multiple juveniles at the location, who do not live in the area or have permission to be there, refusing to leave,” the McKinney Police Department said in a post on its Facebook page. Other calls also advised that the teens were “actively fighting,” police said. “First responding officers encountered a large crowd that refused to comply with police commands. Nine additional units responded to the scene. Officers were eventually able to gain control of the situation,” police said.
Then the truth emerged
However, video later emerged of one officer aggressively handcuffing and detaining teens who described themselves as bystanders, before wrestling a girl in a bathing suit to the ground and drawing his weapon on others who came to her aid. Brooks, the 15-year-old who shot the YouTube video, told BuzzFeed News many students had arrived at the end-of-school celebration at the pool on guest passes. “I think a bunch of white parents were angry that a bunch of black kids who don’t live in the neighborhood were in the pool,” said Brooks, who is white. Grace Stone, a white 14-year-old, told BuzzFeed News that when she and her friends objected to the racist comments about public housing an adult woman then became violent. When police arrived on scene, teens began fleeing. That’s when Brooks began his recording. “Everyone who was getting put on the ground was black, Mexican, Arabic,” he said. “[The cop] didn’t even look at me. It was kind of like I was invisible.”
More here
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McKinney, Texas. 7/6/15. There were "too many black" kids at a party. Officers arrive. America. [TW] http://t.co/jiE3fLW5I7
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deray mckesson (@deray) June 07, 2015Texas Police Officer Suspended After Pulling Weapon On Teens During Pool Party buzzfeed.com/davidmack/texa… http://t.co/4tTsOYj9ey
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BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) June 07, 2015****
So this whole incident started because of white adults yelling racist comments at black kids
buzzfeed.com/davidmack/texa…
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DarkSkintDostoyevsky (@daniecal) June 07, 2015When the cop grabbed the girl, swung her around ny her braids & her friends ran up to help her, THAT COP PULLED HIS GUN ON THE BOYS.
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Reagan Gomez (@ReaganGomez) June 07, 2015****
I await the excuses for why this officer had to throw a 14 year old girl to the ground and pull a gun on bystanders. buzzfeed.com/davidmack/texa…
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Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) June 07, 2015As always, I can’t imagine this happening to a group of white teenagers.
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Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) June 07, 2015****
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For all white people who think the polices actions were justified at the pool party read this http://t.co/fzbJzs9Ewy
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Miranda Killgallen (@WillBrianna) June 07, 2015Black people are not safe around cops and that is horrific. #McKinney buzzfeed.com/davidmack/texa… youtube.com/watch?v=R46-XT… http://t.co/DwkM4WWdd8
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Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) June 07, 2015****
the problem is us white folks.
WE'RE THE FUCKING PROBLEM twitter.com/ZahidArabFox4/…
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SheriffFruitfly (@sherifffruitfly) June 07, 2015FYI, the White people who can never find anything wrong with police brutality aimed at Black people want police to do exactly that.
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Propane Jane (@docrocktex26) June 07, 2015****
.@sherifffruitfly Yup. Police harass and attack black people because too damn many white people want them to.
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Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) June 07, 2015@jbouie White people know you can get black people arrested very easily.
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Glenn Fleishman (@GlennF) June 07, 2015****
Blackness isn't criminal.
Please teach your children this important lesson, so maybe our great-grandchildren stand a chance.
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Feminista Furiosa (@FeministaJones) June 07, 2015Maybe people will remember this video the next time they wanna ask a Black girl/woman why she didn't just call the police when...
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Feminista Furiosa (@FeministaJones) June 07, 2015****
Yesterday was all praise for Serena. A black excellence highlight. Today we are reminded, again, of the reality. It's traumatic
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Dee (@DeeRene_) June 07, 2015Non-Black parents cannot afford to be reactive or passive about race.
You MUST teach your children that Blackness isn't a crime. EARLY.
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Feminista Furiosa (@FeministaJones) June 07, 2015****
"Why did you run?!"
"Well, officer, you barrel rolled in here like it was Dessert Storm, and I'm human, so I was scared."
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Cocky McSwagsalot (@MoreAndAgain) June 07, 2015Per @buzzfeednews, the white 15 YO who shot the video says the incident began when white adults denigrated black kids who came to the party
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Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 07, 2015****
The adults who allegedly told these kids they don’t belong are as much of the problem as the cop who assaulted them. bzfd.it/1Jx2DBU
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Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) June 07, 2015Are we still doing this in 2015? "Well my loved ones wouldn't be foolish enough to..." to what? Go to a pool party & expect 2 leave alive?
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Reagan Gomez (@ReaganGomez) June 07, 2015****
Pulled his gun on them for naturally reacting to seeing their friend a young girl roughly handled, #merica. twitter.com/reagangomez/st…
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JerRie (@rieVAMPED) June 07, 2015My dad, a fireman, once told me "Show me a cop or a gym coach and I'll show you an aggression disorder." twitter.com/dyrbert/status…
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Peretz (@Rex4711) June 07, 2015****
I shouldn’t be relieved that this ended in “just” a body slam to a child that’s probably less than 100lbs, and not in gunfire.
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love supreme queen. (@indiaEss) June 07, 2015McKinney Police Department Internal Affairs
2200 Taylor Burke Drive
McKinney, TX 75071
ia@mckinneytexas.org
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Miss Skelt (@tweetmsskelt) June 07, 2015****
A good cop would have checked that bad cop for his conduct and immediately stopped the harassment. Anything less makes you one of them.
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Boo Radley (@ClauGasol) June 07, 2015Places black children can't go:
1.) the park
2.) a pool party
3.) to their father's house
4.) to the store
5.) home
6.) to sleep
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Shakima (@miesh_b) June 07, 2015****
The more I think about it, while America en masse has not experienced war on home turf, Black people can't say the same at all.
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Cocky McSwagsalot (@MoreAndAgain) June 07, 2015Our churches have been bombed. Our neighborhoods have gone up in flames, across this country.
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Cocky McSwagsalot (@MoreAndAgain) June 07, 2015****
That piece of shit barrel rolled, like he was under enemy fire, surrounded by a bunch of unarmed kids in bathing suits
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DarkSkintDostoyevsky (@daniecal) June 07, 2015I mean cops beating Black teens at swimming pools. That's Jim Crow
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W.E.B.B.I.E DuBois (@fivefifths) June 07, 2015****
IF YOU ARE THREATENED BY EVERY FUCKING THING, DON'T BE A COP OR IN ANY POSITION OF AUTHORITY
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Thotye (@MissZindzi) June 07, 2015"Everyone was breaking the law but you got caught!"
A cop said this to a young black boy who he ran after while passing white children.
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Counting Down (@HerSoulWrites) June 07, 2015****
1 of those boys is going to say to his mama "All I wanted to do was help her and they almost killed me!" and it will stay with him for life
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Feminista Furiosa (@FeministaJones) June 07, 2015Anytime you think Black folk are too sensitive, stop and really consider what we have to deal with daily. Then multiply it by gender for BW.
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Elon James White (@elonjames) June 07, 2015****
The saddest truth about the #MckinneyTX police brutality incident is GRATITUDE that no CHILD was KILLED. @JoyAnnReid
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(@Only4RM) June 07, 2015White people think OTT police action vs black kids doing nothing wrong was justified, film at 11 twitter.com/zahidarabfox4/…
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Danielle (@abradacabla) June 07, 2015****
Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I refuse to be afraid of children. Tell them to quiet down. Demand to talk to a parent. Be an adult.
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Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 07, 2015That video of the cop assault on black teens in TX illustrates perfectly how easily a racist rogue cop overpowers any calmer fellow officers
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Joey (@60th_Street) June 07, 2015****
and how they do absolutely nothing to stop him. making them complicit in his brutality regardless of their initial handling of the situation
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Joey (@60th_Street) June 07, 2015the instinct was to protect him, not the children. one cop escalated this entire situation and all the other cops let it happen.
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Joey (@60th_Street) June 07, 2015****
The police force seems to be staffed almost entirely of folk who were bullies in high school and thought, "How could I get paid to do this?"
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Dejected June (@dyrbert) June 07, 2015Imagine you're just living your life as you. But you're constantly reminded that uncontrollable aspects of "you" are deemed criminal.
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Elon James White (@elonjames) June 07, 2015****
#FACT: The *reason* given for needing police at the scene is that there were "too many" BLACK kids at the pool. twitter.com/KansasNickole/…
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(@Only4RM) June 07, 2015Just finished a shootout, killing nine vs. swimming while Black. http://t.co/PSWg83aaWw
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Rusty Redenbacher (@rustymk2) June 07, 2015****
Bikers got to text & soothe their nerves after killing 9 ppl. Black kids thrown to the ground for carrying deadly towels.
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The Yellow Bandit (@SimplyCecilia) June 07, 2015Focus of concern at the 3:11 mark when the officer briefly pulls gun out & points it at people youtu.be/R46-XTqXkzE http://t.co/nSrEAU0Ov5
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Zahid Arab (@ZahidArabFox4) June 07, 2015****
I can't tell you how many Black families tell me they contained their loved ones emergent psychiatric illness for fear of calling the cops.
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Propane Jane (@docrocktex26) June 07, 2015They'll force a floridly psychotic person into their own car rather than enlist local authorities who they don't trust not to kill them.
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Propane Jane (@docrocktex26) June 07, 2015****
Meanwhile, there are certain White folk who call the cops the minute they see a Black person simply walking down their street.
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Propane Jane (@docrocktex26) June 07, 2015*TW* In 1964 they were pouring battery acid on us, in 2015 police are called when there's "too many" of us #McKinney http://t.co/CXAPhQzQi6
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(@nealcarter) June 07, 2015
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President Barack Obama participates a discussion on poverty at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Georgetown hosted the Catholic Evangelical Leadership Summit on fighting poverty in America
President Barack Obama participates in a discussion on poverty with (L-R) moderator E.J. Dionne, Jr., Robert Putman Professor at Harvard University, and Arthur Brooks President of the American Enterprise Institute
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“I am a black man who grew up without a father, and I know the costs that I paid for that." —Obama #PovertySummit snpy.tv/1HbU5No
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The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 12, 2015“It would be powerful for our faith-based organizations to speak out on this.” —Obama on poverty #PovertySummit snpy.tv/1FbMNtm
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The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 12, 2015****
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President Obama on the need to make common investments that expand opportunity for our kids. #PovertySummit snpy.tv/1Fc4Hwf
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The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 12, 2015RT if you agree: It’s time to expand opportunity by investing in early childhood education. #PovertySummit http://t.co/jGFM67ogN5
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The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 12, 2015****
Obama White House.gov WH Tumblr The People’s View