Author: YES!

Seeking Justice: History shows that civility is an ineffective tool to end racism

During his inauguration address on Jan. 21, 2021, Joe Biden pledged to end the country’s “uncivil war,” which had been raging during the four years of Trump’s presidency. Especially when it came to race, the theme of Biden’s winning campaign, “Redeem the Soul of the Nation,” as well as his appeal to many White voters, was that he could bring a sense of decency, unity, politeness, and reconciliation — in other words, civility — to a nation that was deeply polarized. Biden claimed he was motivated to run for president in the first place after being horrified by the...

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On Healing America: Using our anger to build bridges instead of burning them

President Biden campaigned on “restoring the soul” of America. His campaign slogan, “Build back better,” promised an end to deeply entrenched partisanship. Days before his monumental inauguration to the presidency, millions of Americans were praying that this toxicity plaguing our country will begin to dissipate under stable leadership, and that—with a new president — our political system will become functional. “We need to work together to give each other a chance to lower the temperature,” Biden said back in December. “We may come from different places, hold different beliefs, but we share in common a love for this country.”...

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Ending this Uncivil War: Unity is impossible without accountability

President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took the oath of office shortly before noon Eastern time on January 20, and in his low-key manner ended an era in which the evil in the U.S. government could not be underestimated, and started a new one that promises to be better. It is now up to Biden and his incoming team to make sure they use their powers for good. Simply not being a mendacious and corrupt would-be autocrat is an awfully low bar to reach. The times call for inspired leadership and an aggressive platform of reform. There have already been...

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Unequal Justice: Standing Rock activists react to passive response by police during Capitol Insurrection

On January 6, while Congress was certifying the 2020 election results, hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC. They smashed windows, broke through doors, breached the building, and ran through it, snapping photos of themselves carting off documents and artifacts. No attacking force has rampaged through the Capitol since 1814, when British soldiers torched it during the War of 1812. Tasked with protecting lawmakers and the building, the Capitol Police’s response was wildly disorganized. Their actions ranged from shooting a woman dead to taking a selfie with a rioter. Officers were pepper-sprayed and hit with...

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Domestic violence survivors say police have allowed brutality and racism to flourish

The first time Cat Brooks sought help from the police to deal with her violent husband was also the last. She was a 19-year-old college student, married to a man 10 years her senior. One night, after beating her severely, her husband called the police to their Las Vegas home. Brooks was bruised, scratched, and bleeding, and assumed they would take her side. But her unscathed husband insisted Brooks had attacked him, a victim-blaming tactic not uncommon among domestic abusers. The officers, all White like her husband, whisked Brooks, who is Black, to jail. They released her back to...

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Victimization of the vulnerable: An American love of patriarchal violence at every level of society

Content Warning: This story includes brief descriptions of sexual abuse. On the night of November 8, 2016, I sat on my sofa, excited to watch the first woman, Hillary Clinton, be elected president of the United States. But instead, I cringed as more states turned red than blue. Donald Trump won the presidency. My nervous system slowly began to contract, its silent way of saying, “We’re not safe.” I found myself catatonic in bed for the next four days. “My father is in the White House,” my mind kept repeating, over and over again. Seven years before, I had...

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