Oscar-nominated actor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/celebrities">Djimon Hounsou</a> says he’s struggling to make ends meet despite his successful <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hollywood">Hollywood</a> career.
The 60-year-old has appeared in major films such as “Amistad,” “Gladiator,” “In America,” “Blood Diamond,” “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Captain Marvel,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Shazam!,” “A Quiet Place Part II,” “A Quiet Place: Day One,” and both “Rebel Moon” films. But he says he hasn’t gotten the recognition he deserves.
Hounsou made the remarks during a conversation on CNN’s African Voices Changemakers. 
&#8220;I’m still struggling to make a living,&#8221; he said, per <a href="https://people.com/djimon-hounsou-says-hes-still-struggling-to-make-a-living-in-hollywood-8773111">People</a>. &#8220;I’ve been in the filmmaking business for over two decades with two Oscar nominations and many blockbuster films, and yet, I’m still struggling financially. I’m definitely underpaid.&#8221;
The actor said he thinks The Academy snubbed him for his role in Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad” (1997). Hounsou pointed out that he received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance but didn’t get a nod for the Oscars.
&#8220;I was nominated for the Golden Globe, but they ignored me for the Oscars because they thought that I had just come off the boat and the streets,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Even though I successfully did that, they just didn’t feel like I was an actor to whom they should pay any respect.&#8221;
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/">JOIN THE MOVEMENT IN ’25 WITH 25% OFF DAILYWIRE+ ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS WITH CODE DW25</a>
&#8220;This conceptual idea of diversity still has a long way to go. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/systemic-racism">Systemic racism</a> won’t change like that anytime soon,&#8221; Hounsou added.
The Beninese-born actor emigrated to the United States at 23 after establishing a modeling career in Paris. He appeared in music videos and a few small parts before his breakout role as Cinqué in “Amistad.” Since then, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his roles in “In America” (2004) and “Blood Diamond” (2007). 
Hounsou has made similar statements before. In March 2023, he told The Guardian he had “yet to meet the film that paid me fairly.&#8221;
“I still have to prove why I need to get paid,&#8221; the actor <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/16/i-felt-seriously-cheated-djimon-hounsou-on-the-oscars-poor-pay-days-stardom-and-struggle">said</a> at the time. &#8220;They always come at me with a complete low ball: &#8216;We only have this much for the role, but we love you so much and we really think you can bring so much.&#8217;”
&#8220;Viola Davis said it beautifully. She&#8217;s won an Oscar, she&#8217;s won an Emmy, she&#8217;s won a Tony and she still can&#8217;t get paid,” he added.

Djimon Honsou

Oscar-Nominated Actor Says He’s ‘Underpaid,’ ‘Struggling’ Because Of ‘Systemic Racism’

Oscar-Nominated Actor Says He's 'Underpaid,' 'Struggling' Because Of 'Systemic Racism'

Celebrities

Entertainment

Hollywood

Systemic Racism

U.S.

It&#8217;s not every day that you accidentally stumble upon a vast conspiracy among the nation&#8217;s various local police departments — especially when it&#8217;s a conspiracy that relates to the upcoming presidential election. But yesterday, as I was watching some reporting about New York City&#8217;s decision to decriminalize jaywalking, that&#8217;s exactly what I did.
In case you missed it, yes, New York&#8217;s city council just voted to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyc-legalizes-jaywalking-supporters-complain-laws-against-it-had-racial-implications" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decriminalize jaywalking</a>. No one&#8217;s going to get any more tickets for crossing against the light, or for walking in the middle of the street. Technically, jaywalkers still don&#8217;t have the right of way, so I guess they might have some liability if they cause an accident. But realistically, it&#8217;s open season for jaywalking in the city. The mayor, Eric Adams, didn&#8217;t take any official action on this bill to decriminalize jaywalking — probably because he&#8217;s busy with the Biden administration&#8217;s attempts to throw him in prison — so the bill has now automatically become law.
Here&#8217;s a report on the new law from a local news station. And as you listen to this, pay close attention to what the male anchor says in the beginning:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 NY Jaywalking" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5gpOg5MXeuU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
That&#8217;s an interesting little hypothetical. The Democrat politician asks: &#8220;When was the last time you said, &#8216;I&#8217;m happy they caught that jaywalker?'&#8221; And then the reporter says &#8220;Never.&#8221; Therefore, we&#8217;re meant to conclude we don&#8217;t need the law against jaywalking.
First of all, if you&#8217;ve ever been unfortunate enough to drive a vehicle in New York, then the answer to this question would be a resounding &#8220;Yes.&#8221; You would scream with joy if the police arrested every single pedestrian who was walking in the road, even if they were there legally. Pedestrians make driving about a million times slower and more annoying in New York. Drivers in New York wouldn&#8217;t shed a single tear if it became a capital offense to jaywalk.
But even if we pretend that&#8217;s not true, it&#8217;s a pretty interesting argument that these women are advancing, if you think about it. They&#8217;re saying that, if you&#8217;ve never stopped yourself and said, &#8220;I&#8217;m happy they caught that guy for violating law X,&#8221; then we don&#8217;t need law X anymore.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1476-the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
It&#8217;s arguably not a bad way of looking at things, but coming from Democrats in New York, it&#8217;s a pretty entertaining approach. Imagine these people applying this principle to, say, New York&#8217;s business records law — the one they accused Trump of violating. Prior to Trump, has anyone in the history of New York ever found themselves saying that they&#8217;re really glad that someone was held accountable for victimless, misdemeanor record keeping violations that happened 7 years ago? Obviously the answer to that question is no. So why do we have those laws on the books? It would be fun to watch that politician (and the reporter) answer that particular question.
It would also be entertaining to ask these women whether we should get rid of, say, the entire tax code while we&#8217;re at it. After all, I don&#8217;t see anyone celebrating IRS agents who audit people for not reporting $600 they just received on Venmo. So why don&#8217;t we decriminalize every single accounting offense and tax code violation? Those aren&#8217;t rhetorical questions. It&#8217;d be a great idea. But of course, these questions never occur to Democrats in New York. They&#8217;re enforcing &#8220;equity,&#8221; not logic.
In any event, back to my conspiracy. You may have noticed how the anchor (and the politician) explained the reasoning for this new law. But let&#8217;s focus on the anchor for now, because he actually seems pretty skeptical of the law. As the anchor put it, &#8220;The overwhelming majority of jaywalking tickets were given to minorities. So why didn&#8217;t they just level the playing field on these tickets?&#8221;
In other words, the anchor wants to know why the police didn&#8217;t simply ticket more white people for jaywalking, while ticketing fewer blacks and Hispanics. Wouldn&#8217;t that solve the whole problem? If we did that, then instead of 90% of jaywalking tickets going to black people and Hispanics, we could make it closer to, say, 40%. And then racial equity will be achieved.
This is the kind of question you only ask when you&#8217;ve been subjected to decades of lies about crime statistics by Democrats like Kamala Harris and Barack Obama, to the point that you actually believe them. It&#8217;s a question that makes a very significant assumption that happens to have no basis in reality. And that assumption is that members of every racial group are jaywalking at precisely the same rates.
If you truly believe that assumption is true, then there is indeed a vast conspiracy among thousands of local police departments, all over the country. There&#8217;s no other explanation for what&#8217;s going on. That&#8217;s because, as I&#8217;ve discovered, these so-called &#8220;racial disparities&#8221; in jaywalking enforcement happen to exist everywhere — not just in New York. 
Here&#8217;s a report from San Diego from a couple of years ago, for example. For some reason, they interviewed a guy who had a beef over his jaywalking ticket. And then they get into the statistics, which reveal just how deep the rot goes in the San Diego police department. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 SAN DIEGO" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pBJ7hnmDTvs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
So, 16% of the tickets went to blacks, even though they make up only 6% of the population. And this is &#8220;proof,&#8221; according to the activist, that the police are racist. There can&#8217;t be any other explanation for that data. And she doesn&#8217;t stop there: &#8220;Black people are disproportionately affected by almost every type of decriminalization.&#8221;
Well, that gives you some sense of just how widespread the conspiracy is. Across every type of crime, across the entire country, the police are enforcing laws in a racist manner. It can&#8217;t possibly be that different demographic groups are committing different rates of crime. That&#8217;s just unthinkable. Instead, you&#8217;re commanded to think that any difference in crime statistics must be due to one thing and one thing only, which is racist cops.
A few weeks ago, I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-shockingly-easy-test-has-been-deemed-racist-heres-why" target="_blank" rel="noopener">talked about</a> how the DOJ used this &#8220;reasoning&#8221; during the Obama administration to sue various police departments for enforcing the law. One of the cities they went after was Ferguson, Missouri — which also happens to have an issue with &#8220;disproportionate&#8221; jaywalking tickets. That&#8217;s how vast this conspiracy of racist traffic cops is. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="003 FERGUSON" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tg1GXIhx0_g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The data just keeps coming in. If you&#8217;re keeping track, from New York to San Diego to Ferguson, racist traffic cops are &#8220;targeting&#8221; black Americans for jaywalking. In fact these racist cops are so brazen that they&#8217;ll often target these black Americans *on video*. That&#8217;s what happened in Jacksonville a few years ago. This is a video from Vox that tries really, really hard to present a police officer as racist for doing his job and enforcing the law. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="004 JACKSONVILLE" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e55nNeWNX8o?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
From this clip, we can conclude that even when there&#8217;s video of a cop enforcing the law in a calm and impartial way — and even when everyone concedes that these people were jaywalking — we&#8217;re told it&#8217;s still racist because of those statistics. It doesn&#8217;t matter if black people are on video jaywalking, basically. It&#8217;s illegal to ticket them for it because then you&#8217;ll have a &#8220;disparate impact.&#8221;
It&#8217;s hard to overstate how widespread this moral panic has become. Over the past few years, especially at the height of BLM, there were national news stories about supposedly &#8220;racist&#8221; jaywalking arrests. Here&#8217;s one of them in Tulsa:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="005 TULSA" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FEhJTNQ8Z-Q?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The lawyer&#8217;s not even arguing his client is innocent, really. He&#8217;s implying that the optics are bad for the police because they should know that it&#8217;s racist to enforce jaywalking laws against black people. 
This incident made national news. There was a legal battle that stretched on for years. Apparently the police eventually paid a $20,000 settlement over it. And they did nothing wrong. When people are in the middle of the road, you can grab them and arrest them. You can even put them on the ground when they&#8217;re not responding. That&#8217;s how the law should work. But in cities like New York, it&#8217;s not the law anymore.
This is a battle the Left has waged for a very long time. Last year, the Left-wing outlet Mother Jones published an article <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/02/legalize-jaywalking/">entitled</a>, &#8220;The Case for Legalizing Jaywalking.&#8221; It makes all the predictable &#8220;disparate impact&#8221; arguments, where they assume that any statistical disparity is somehow proof of racism. 
And then there&#8217;s <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/02/legalize-jaywalking/">this paragraph</a>, which is a real doozy:
<blockquote>The notion that pedestrians should be relegated to sidewalks and allowed to cross the street only when a walk sign tells them it’s safe is a relatively new phenomenon. &#8230; Groups ranging from the Chicago Motor Club and the Automobile Club of Southern California to the National Safety Council and the Boy Scouts began using the word &#8216;jaywalker&#8217; in the late 1910s and early 1920s to insult pedestrians who had the audacity to enter the roadway outside of intersections. &#8230; Los Angeles passed the first anti-jaywalking ordinance in 1925, which became a model for other cities across the country. Discrimination soon followed.</blockquote>
Yes, according to Mother Jones, the idea that you shouldn&#8217;t walk in the middle of the street is a &#8220;relatively new phenomenon&#8221; that only began in the late 1910s and early 1920s. It&#8217;s possible — and I&#8217;m just spitballing here — that one reason for this change might be that cars themselves are a relatively new phenomenon that only became popular in the late 1910s and early 1920s. Maybe that&#8217;s why the idea of jaywalking came about &#8220;relatively recently,&#8221; as in, a century ago. This is like saying air sickness is a relatively new phenomenon that only began after people started flying in airplanes. It kind of goes without saying.
<h3><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH&#8217;S &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a></h3>
But this is the level of &#8220;argument&#8221; you get when &#8220;equity&#8221; is the objective. You have to act surprised that we didn&#8217;t have jaywalking laws before we had cars. You&#8217;re reduced to inventing vast conspiracies to explain inconvenient data. In essence, you have to make yourself as dumb as Kamala Harris — all in the service of a delusional and counterfactual ideology.
In this particular case, the consequences couldn&#8217;t be any more obvious. You can visit any third-world country to see what it’s like when cars and pedestrians share the road equally. It&#8217;s total chaos. I’m not usually one to defend government regulation, but our roads are clearly safer and more orderly because of the laws and regulations in place. New York City is getting rid of a common-sense law that obviously makes the roads safer for everyone.
And they&#8217;re doing it because of the same guiding principle that the Biden-Harris administration outlined in a day-one executive order, which is to pursue &#8220;equity&#8221; in all aspects of government. We&#8217;ve talked a lot about the specific policy ramifications of electing someone like Kamala Harris, but this is another consequence that&#8217;s worth talking about. Presidents don&#8217;t just set policy. They also set a tone and a broader agenda. They set an example for people to follow all over the country.
A Kamala Harris administration would encourage and incentivize many more laws like the one that just passed in New York. A second Trump administration, on the other hand, would send a very clear signal that people are tired of lawlessness. It would mean that we can finally put an end to the fiction that every police department in the country is conspiring to &#8220;target&#8221; any particular racial group. It would be a rebuke of the policies of &#8220;racial equity&#8221; that have gotten so many people killed, across every demographic. That&#8217;s a rebuke that, for people living in New York, may come too late. But for the rest of us, it can&#8217;t come soon enough.

New York City traffic

NYC Is Decriminalizing Jaywalking In The Name Of ‘Equity’

NYC Is Decriminalizing Jaywalking In The Name Of 'Equity'

Crime

Discrimination

Ferguson

Jaywalking

Matt Walsh

New York City

Opinion

Police

San Diego

The newly-appointed DEI chief at the State Department claimed that America&#8217;s institutions are &#8220;riddled with racism&#8221; and based on a “failed historical model&#8221; in a now-deleted article.
Zakiya Carr Johnson was appointed as the department’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer last week by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who boasted that she brings “expertise and a fresh perspective on how we build a workforce that reflects America.&#8221;
Johnson, who previously served as senior adviser and director of the first Race, Ethnicity, and Social Inclusion Unit in the department under former President Barack Obama, made scathing criticisms of the United States in a now-deleted article published in October 2019 on the website of Fair Share of Women Leaders, a feminist organization.
“In every position I have held, from junior associate to Senior Advisor, there have been opportunities to challenge the forces that seek to silence women and those most vulnerable in society,” she <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200808200921/http://fairsharewl.org/it-will-start-with-movements-like-these/">wrote</a>, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/new-state-department-diversity-chief-believes-us-failed-historical-model-colonizing-past">reported</a>. “There are mechanisms and cultures which dispute the humanity and ability of people like me to be trusted to lead,” she added before saying that America’s institutions are “often riddled with racism, patriarchy and exclusion.”
“These are chinks in the armor of traditional leadership that refuse to reconcile with a colonizing past, or recognize that time has run out for experimentation and tweaking of a failed historic model,” Johnson wrote, also affirming the tenets of Critical Race Theory and stating that “we cannot have equity without dismantling structural racism, patriarchy and heterosexism.”
She also <a href="https://fairsharewl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/FairShare_Action_Paper_en.pdf">co-authored a guide</a> called “Feminist Leaders for Feminist Goals” for the same organization, providing a how-to playbook for feminists to usurp &#8220;a culture of male and/ or white dominance&#8221; in organizations.
&#8220;Feminist leadership must change power structures. In order to achieve transformative change, we must analyze and question existing power structures and how they affect decision-making,” the guide reads. “How can we redefine, value, use, share and distribute power differently?&#8221;
Johnson claimed again in a 2020 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG1PmqQX4Ow">webinar</a> with the Feminist Leadership Project that America’s institutions are racist and sexist. &#8220;Because we live and work within systems… so deeply rooted in patriarchy and colonialism and racism and otherism, we tend to be very resistant to shifts and changes,” Johnson said. “A culture of misogyny has allowed men to act without consequence and it becomes part of what we believe is normal, right?”
Johnson was previously a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activist and owned two organizations: a DEI consulting firm called Odara Solutions and Black Women Disrupt, an effort to support black women entrepreneurs.
The State Department has spent at least $77 million taxpayer dollars on DEI efforts in just two years, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-state-department-forced-to-disclose-multi-million-dollar-cost-of-bidens-diversity-agenda">exclusively reported</a>.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
The department has also pushed transgenderism across the globe, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-state-department-forced-to-disclose-multi-million-dollar-cost-of-bidens-diversity-agenda">employing former activist</a> Jessica Stern as its &#8220;Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons.&#8221; Stern has visited at least 22 countries across all six habitable continents, even attending a “transgender visibility” march in Brazil.
The Biden administration has leveraged the more expansive federal bureaucracy to push DEI, with the president even issuing <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/06/25/executive-order-on-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-accessibility-in-the-federal-workforce/">executive orders</a> to embed leftist policies throughout the government.
Former President Donald Trump has said he would gut the federal bureaucracy through his own executive orders if elected. “We will pass critical reforms making every executive branch employee fireable by the President of the United States,” Trump said at a rally, <a href="https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2022/03/trump-threatening-return-and-expansion-schedule-f/363145/">touting</a> the plan. “The deep state must be brought to heel.&#8221;

Sec. of State Anthony Blinken

State Dept’s New DEI Official Said America’s Institutions Are ‘Riddled With Racism,’ Based On A ‘Failed Historical Model’

Antony Blinken

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

General

Politics

Racism

State Department

The City of San Francisco has issued a formal apology to its black residents for what it calls &#8220;decades of systemic and structural discrimination.&#8221;
On Tuesday, city supervisors <a href="https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-black-reparations-apology-8967c828a52c8ce6ac08c77027a23187" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted</a> unanimously 11-0 in favor of a resolution containing the city&#8217;s formal apology to black San Franciscans.
&#8220;This historic resolution apologizes on behalf of San Francisco to the African American community and their descendants for decades of systemic and structural discrimination, targeted acts of violence, atrocities, as well as committing to the rectification and redress of past policies and misdeeds,&#8221; said Supervisor Shamann Walton, the sole black member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
&#8220;We have much more work to do, but this apology most certainly is an important step,&#8221; Walton said.
Despite its leftist politics, San Francisco is not the first U.S. city to issue a formal apology for racism.
In 2022, Boston became the first major city to issue a formal apology for its role in slavery. A city council resolution that passed in a unanimous vote <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/17/1105824756/boston-takes-rare-step-of-apologizing-for-its-role-in-slavery-and-its-lasting-ha" target="_blank" rel="noopener">condemned</a> the &#8220;dastardliness&#8221; of slavery and the city&#8217;s legacy of &#8220;systemic white supremacy and racism.&#8221;
San Francisco&#8217;s formal apology is one of the less expensive proposals put forward by the city&#8217;s African American Reparations Advisory Committee, which was set up in 2020 by the Board of Supervisors.
The committee came up with the idea of giving each qualifying black resident <a href="https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-black-reparations-5-million-36899f7974c751950a8ce0e444f86189">$5 million in reparations</a> and a guaranteed income of nearly $100,000 a year.
However, the chairman of the committee <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/02/27/san-francisco-reparations-black-5-million/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> they did not use a mathematical formula to come up with the $5 million number.
John Dennis, chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/02/27/san-francisco-reparations-black-5-million/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> last year that he was open to a conversation about reparations but criticized the committee’s report as unserious.
“This is just a bunch of like-minded people who got in the room and came up with a number,” Dennis said last February. “You’ll notice in that report, there was no justification for the number, no analysis provided. This was an opportunity to do some serious work and they blew it.”
Meanwhile, California in 2020 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nearly-60-of-california-voters-oppose-cash-reparations-for-slavery-poll">established</a> its own Reparations Task Force whose goal was to determine what cash slavery reparations could look like for black Californians.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
In June, California’s task force sent its final <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/full-ca-reparations.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> to the legislature. The report suggested several remedies for slavery, including monetary payments for the descendants of African American slaves <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/06/30/sparks-fly-at-californias-final-reparations-task-force-meeting-nows-the-time-for-a-divorce/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">amounting</a> to $1.2 million for some people.
California voters are against cash reparations for slavery by a 2-to-1 margin, according to a September poll.
Nearly 60% of California voters said they oppose cash reparations payments, compared with 28% who said they would support it, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nearly-60-of-california-voters-oppose-cash-reparations-for-slavery-poll">poll</a> from the University of California Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found.

Golden Gate Bridge tower with San Francisco cityscape in the background in California

San Francisco Issues Formal Apology To Black Residents For ‘Decades’ Of Discrimination

San Francisco Issues Formal Apology To Black Residents For 'Decades' Of Discrimination

Apology

California

San Francisco

Social Issues

&#8220;Anti-racist&#8221; author <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/clearly-a-witch-hunt-lefties-blame-racism-for-ouster-of-allegedly-plagiarizing-harvard-prez" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ibram X. Kendi</a>, &#8220;1619 Project&#8221; author Nikole Hannah-Jones, and a number of others claimed that the long-awaited exit of Harvard University President Claudine Gay was a coordinated racist attack — and the backlash was immediate.
Kendi claimed that Gay&#8217;s ouster — which came on the heels of her disastrous Capitol Hill testimony and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ap-blasted-for-article-labeling-plagiarism-as-new-conservative-weapon-in-wake-of-claudine-gay-resignation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">multiple accusations of plagiarism</a> impacting more than half of her published academic works — was the result of a &#8220;racist mob&#8221; eagerly gunning for a black woman in a position of power.
&#8220;Racist mobs won’t stop until they topple all Black people from positions of power and influence who are not reinforcing the structure of racism. What these racist mobs are doing should be obvious to any reporter who cares about truth or justice as opposed to conflicts and clicks,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Too often mainstream reporters join the racist mob or give it credibility—as they did in this case—just as they did a century ago.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Too often mainstream reporters join the racist mob or give it credibility—as they did in this case—just as they did a century ago.
&mdash; Ibram X. Kendi (@ibramxk) <a href="https://twitter.com/ibramxk/status/1742265894560997415?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He later cheered The Associated Press, calling it &#8220;real journalism&#8221; when the outlet identified plagiarism as a &#8220;conservative weapon&#8221; against academics they did not like.
&#8220;This is journalism. Getting closer to what truly happened and why. &#8216;The plagiarism allegations came not from her academic peers but her political foes, led by conservatives who sought to oust Gay and put her career under intense scrutiny in hopes of finding a fatal flaw,'&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This is journalism. Getting closer to what truly happened and why. “The plagiarism allegations came not from her academic peers but her political foes, led by conservatives who sought to oust Gay and put her career under intense scrutiny in hopes of finding a fatal flaw.” <a href="https://t.co/fJrAJYdHpJ">https://t.co/fJrAJYdHpJ</a>
&mdash; Ibram X. Kendi (@ibramxk) <a href="https://twitter.com/ibramxk/status/1742515298513633284?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro warned the AP, &#8220;When grifter extraordinaire Ibram X. Kendi praises your &#8216;journalism,&#8217; you should start thinking about another career.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
When grifter extraordinaire Ibram X. Kendi praises your &quot;journalism,&quot; you should start thinking about another career <a href="https://t.co/Zh2f4uSckP">https://t.co/Zh2f4uSckP</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1742551211604131953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;This is bad journalism and inaccurate; allegations were first made on an academic message board. The latest round of plagiarism discoveries precipitating Gay&#8217;s firing came from an anonymous academic. The accusations came from her peers. Rufo and Brunet only publicized them,&#8221; Mark Hemingway pointed out.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This is bad journalism and inaccurate; allegations were first made on an academic message board. The latest round of plagiarism discoveries precipitating Gay&#39;s firing came from an anonymous academic. The accusations came from her peers. Rufo and Brunet only publicized them. <a href="https://t.co/Sh0Jp3w1XZ">https://t.co/Sh0Jp3w1XZ</a>
&mdash; Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) <a href="https://twitter.com/Heminator/status/1742577135988994518?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;You see, only her peers are allowed to notice she was a serial plagiarist, but her peers would never do that for political reasons, as evidenced by this and other reactions. Therefore, Gay should have been awarded total protection,&#8221; Red State&#8217;s Bonchie explained.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1704388683927000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3I6mRFAXwtIL3ePgYnnWcN">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
You see, only her peers are allowed to notice she was a serial plagiarist, but her peers would never do that for political reasons, as evidenced by this and other reactions. 
Therefore, Gay should have been awarded total protection. <a href="https://t.co/ipmijF3XhW">https://t.co/ipmijF3XhW</a>
&mdash; Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) <a href="https://twitter.com/bonchieredstate/status/1742529417337880828?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The 1619 Project&#8221; author Nikole Hannah-Jones took a slightly veiled approach, claiming that Gay&#8217;s exit was nothing less than the desired result of a &#8220;well-executed plan.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Well, they got what they wanted from their well-executed plan. <a href="https://t.co/SsdhSYYnEk">https://t.co/SsdhSYYnEk</a>
&mdash; Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) <a href="https://twitter.com/nhannahjones/status/1742248159060074827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I love the part of the plan where they went back in time and got Claudine Gay to plagiarize a bunch of s***,&#8221; @RBpundit posted in response.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I love the part of the plan where they went back in time and got Claudine Gay to plagiarize a bunch of shit. <a href="https://t.co/BgPXN5Wx74">https://t.co/BgPXN5Wx74</a>
&mdash; RBe (@RBPundit) <a href="https://twitter.com/RBPundit/status/1742267645380935912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Step 1: Encourage Ph.D. student/prof to plagiarize numerous times; Step 2: Get her hired as Harvard President; Step 3: Have her show contempt for Jewish students&#8217; safety in front of Congress; Step 4: Expose all the previously encouraged plagiarism,&#8221; another laid out the steps of the alleged &#8220;plan.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Step 1: Encourage Ph.D. student/prof to plagiarize numerous times Step 2: Get her hired as Harvard President Step 3: Have her show contempt for Jewish students&#39; safety in front of Congress Step 4: Expose all the previously encouraged plagiarism
Well executed <a href="https://twitter.com/real_chrisrufo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@real_chrisrufo</a> <a href="https://t.co/OfQsIoLDuh">https://t.co/OfQsIoLDuh</a>
&mdash; Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) <a href="https://twitter.com/awstar11/status/1742259014531195175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Even self-appointed congressional fire alarm Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) got in on the action, claiming that Gay&#8217;s ouster was an attempt to intimidate other black men and women who aspired to positions of power.
&#8220;This isn’t about plagiarism or antisemitism. This is about racism and intimidation. This makes no one safer. The only winners are fascists who bullied a brilliant &amp; historic Black woman into resignation. 2024 will be a battle for truth, democracy and our shared humanity,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This isn’t about plagiarism or antisemitism. This is about racism and intimidation. This makes no one safer. 
The only winners are fascists who bullied a brilliant &amp; historic Black woman into resignation. 
2024 will be a battle for truth, democracy and our shared humanity.
&mdash; Rep. Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (@JamaalBowmanNY) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamaalBowmanNY/status/1742334850953101385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Dan McLaughlin <a href="https://twitter.com/baseballcrank/status/1742391755264176234" target="_blank" rel="noopener">summed up</a> the situation: &#8220;When Jamaal Bowman sounds the alarm, you know what that means.&#8221;

21st Annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival

The Usual Suspects Claim Gay’s Ouster Was Coordinated Racist Attack. It Doesn’t Go Well.

The Usual Suspects Claim Gay's Ouster Was Coordinated Racist Attack. It Doesn't Go Well

1619 Project

Claudine Gay

Education

Harvard University

Ibram X. Kendi

Media

Nikole Hannah-Jones

The dance company behind a Christmas video the White House shared on social media this week promotes a slew of woke books, educational resources, and ways to engage in progressive activism.
First Lady Jill Biden <a href="https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/1735074586721468855?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1735074586721468855%7Ctwgr%5Ed0cb76526edc7d9127d7bfa1a7e5f97758b76d7c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.dailywire.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D668339action%3Dedit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared</a> the video to X on Wednesday, calling it a &#8220;playful interpretation of The Nutcracker Suite.&#8221; The video featured costumed dancers tap dancing their way through White House rooms decorated for Christmas.
The aesthetics of the video were quickly <a href="https://twitter.com/Heminator/status/1735286934912561174" target="_blank" rel="noopener">compared</a> to the brightly colored costumes of the nefarious government antagonists in &#8220;The Hunger Games&#8221; movie series.
The dancers are from Dorrance Dance, a dance company based in New York City, which has an entire tab on its website devoted to &#8220;antiracism.&#8221; The company focuses on tap dance, which it <a href="https://www.dorrancedance.com/education">claims</a> was &#8220;born on the slave plantation.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A bit of magic, wonder, and joy brought to you by the talented tappers of Dorrance Dance, performing their playful interpretation of The Nutcracker Suite.
Enjoy! 💕 <a href="https://t.co/qXtCm4t37o">pic.twitter.com/qXtCm4t37o</a>
&mdash; Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/1735074586721468855?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
https://twitter.com/jeremycarl4/status/1735347801826181322
A section of the Dorrance Dance website called &#8220;educate yourself&#8221; <a href="https://www.dorrancedance.com/anti-racism-education-landing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">links</a> to a Google doc that provides definitions of white privilege, systemic racism, and white fragility. The document also delves into microaggressions, what it means &#8220;if you stay silent about racism,&#8221; how &#8220;White Feminism excludes women of color,&#8221; and how to talk to children and &#8220;racist&#8221; family members about racism.
The document recommends reading &#8220;How to Be an Antiracist&#8221; by Ibram X. Kendi and &#8220;White Fragility&#8221; by Robin DiAngelo, among other similar books.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1702741302552000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0j7iIgqNi0bR5AgQ4rgPM4">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
The Dorrance Dance site also <a href="https://www.dorrancedance.com/anti-racism-urgent-action" target="_blank" rel="noopener">links</a> to another document that encourages people to celebrate Juneteenth, post about local protests on social media, and discuss &#8220;policing in America&#8221; during work staff meetings.
The dance company also <a href="https://www.dorrancedance.com/anti-racism-action-for-justice-change">encourages</a> people to sign petitions to &#8220;defund the police&#8221; and charge the medical examiner for allegedly minimizing George Floyd&#8217;s cause of death, among a slew of other leftist racial justice causes.
Dorrance Dance also encourages readers to join their local Black Lives Matter chapter and get involved in prison abolition work as well as vote and contact their congressional representatives about leftist causes.
Michelle Dorrance, the company&#8217;s founder, who is white, explains why &#8220;antiracism work&#8221; is important to her in a note on the website.
&#8220;It is from this place of white privilege that I invite you to join me in lifelong antiracism work,&#8221; Dorrance <a href="https://www.dorrancedance.com/antiracism-michelles-why" target="_blank" rel="noopener">states</a>. &#8220;Understanding how deeply embedded white supremacy, racism, and colonialism is in our culture is paramount to understanding our role (as white people) in perpetuating it, and embracing our job to dismantle it.&#8221;
The Biden administration has expressed its commitment to promoting &#8220;racial equity&#8221; <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/equity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">since</a> President Biden&#8217;s first day in office.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-HOLIDAY-BIDEN-CEREMONY

Dance Company Behind ‘Hunger Games’ White House Christmas Video Promotes ‘Antiracist’ Activism, Defunding The Police

Dance Company Behind 'Hunger Games' White House Christmas Video Promotes 'Antiracist' Activism, Defunding The Police

Anti-Racism

Biden Administration

Christmas

Jill Biden

Joe Biden

Race

Robin DiAngelo

Woke Culture

A writer for the sports blog Deadspin was skewered online after doubling down on his accusation that a child wore &#8220;blackface&#8221; to a Kansas City Chiefs game.
The small boy wore an American Indian headdress and painted half his face red and the other half black at Sunday&#8217;s game against the Las Vegas Raiders in Nevada.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Of course. Also, though it is sometimes offensive, there&#39;s nothing inherently wrong with &quot;blackface.&quot; (Just ask Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Billy Crystal, Robert Downey Jr., Sarah Silverman, Dan Aykroyd, John Slattery, et al.!) <a href="https://t.co/ALZr3xiMGm">https://t.co/ALZr3xiMGm</a>
&mdash; Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1729321050821832880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Bruh. This kid is like 12. I know you idiots are obsessed with calling everyone racist but perhaps he was just honoring his favorite team?? <a href="https://t.co/ol8GRCkHa6">https://t.co/ol8GRCkHa6</a> <a href="https://t.co/jETWc4Pcm6">pic.twitter.com/jETWc4Pcm6</a>
&mdash; Olivia Rondeau 🇺🇸 (@rondeaulivia) <a href="https://twitter.com/rondeaulivia/status/1729303646708359380?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Deadspin senior writer Carron Phillips spotted the child and penned an article on Monday calling on the NFL to &#8220;speak out against&#8221; the young fan.
&#8220;It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once. But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time,&#8221; Phillips <a href="https://deadspin.com/roger-goodell-kansas-city-chiefs-fan-black-face-native-1851048905" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
Phillips also threw a barb at the NFL, saying the league has &#8220;relentlessly participated in prejudice&#8221; and should have already changed the Chiefs&#8217; name.
&#8220;This is what happens when you ban books, stand against Critical Race Theory, and try to erase centuries of hate,&#8221; Phillips wrote.
Later in the day on Monday, Phillips doubled down on his accusation.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
&#8220;For the idiots in my mentions who are treating this as some harmless act because the other side of his face was painted red, I could make the argument that it makes it even worse. Y’all are the ones who hate Mexicans but wear sombreros on Cinco,&#8221; Phillips wrote in an X post.
Phillips was immediately pummeled in the replies to his post, which garnered thousands of responses. The Community Notes feature on X also added a note saying the writer &#8220;failed to provide full context&#8221; that the boy&#8217;s face paint is a reference to the football team.
The Daily Wire&#8217;s Michael Knowles <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1729321050821832880" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commented</a> that &#8220;though it is sometimes offensive, there&#8217;s nothing inherently wrong with &#8216;blackface,'&#8221; citing the many Hollywood performers who have performed in blackface over the years, including Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Robert Downey Jr., and Billy Crystal.&#8221;
&#8220;Deadspin writer here is trying to ruin the life of a child while insisting he’s actually the good guy in this situation,&#8221; one X user <a href="https://twitter.com/jameslynch32/status/1729283036007596279" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
&#8220;This race-hustling loser is tripling-down on attacking a young kid as &#8216;Racist!&#8217; for wearing Kansas City Chiefs face-paint,&#8221; another X user <a href="https://twitter.com/mrddmia/status/1729385180517769351" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve spent decades paying some of the dumbest and most sensitive people alive to produce absolute drivel like this,&#8221; posted Wilfred Reilly, a political science professor at Kentucky State University.
The Daily Signal reporter Tony Kinnett wrote, &#8220;as a federally-registered member of the Cherokee Nation, I give any and all of you full permission to wear headdresses and tribal clothing. Paint your face red. Do a rain dance (then repent and seek Jesus). Also bring back the Cleveland Indians.&#8221;

AFC Championship – Cincinnati Bengals v Kansas City Chiefs

Deadspin Writer Torched For Accusing Child Of ‘Blackface’ At Kansas City Chiefs Game

Deadspin Writer Torched For Accusing Child Of 'Blackface' At Kansas City Chiefs Game

Deadspin

Kansas City Chiefs

Mainstream Media

Sports

New York City will pay nearly $2 billion to black and Hispanic people who wanted to become teachers but failed the exam, settling a lawsuit that alleged that the disparate passage rates showed that the test was racist.
Some individuals who never worked as teachers will get more than $1 million each, and could even get pensions which will inflate the cost well beyond $1.8 billion, the <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/15/nyc-bias-suit-black-hispanic-teachers-and-ex-teachers-rich/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a> reported. The Post interviewed 64-year-old Herman Grim, who will be paid $2,055,383 after failing the test &#8220;a lot.&#8221; He could not provide any examples of how the questions were racist.
One anonymous Brooklyn principal told The Post the city was “crazy” to settle the case because “The standards are the standards &#8230; To hire people who are not qualified and change the requirements because a certain group didn‘t pass the test is bulls**t.”
The settlement concerns the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, which prospective teachers took between 1993 and 1995. More than 90% of whites passed the test, while only 53% of blacks and even fewer Hispanics did.
But the idea that those statistics prove that the test was racist, rather than properly reflecting knowledge levels, is undercut by the results of the teaching exams used since. Most states use an exam called Praxis to credential their teachers.  According to a <a href="https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/ETS-NEA-2011-01.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2011 study</a> co-written by the National Education Association teaching union, Praxis&#8217; results were similar to the New York City test. &#8220;The largest differences exist for African-American test takers, with passing rates that are lower than White test takers by 35% or more,&#8221; the NEA study found.
The NEA said that&#8217;s because Praxis is also racist — but its own study did not support that, according to the book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Race-Bottom-Uncovering-Destroying-Education/dp/0063056720" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Education</a>.&#8221; &#8220;The results from our analyses were consistent with results from similar tests of academic skills, such as the SAT and ACT. That is, we found significant differences in average scores between test takers of different racial/ethnic subgroups,&#8221; the study said. The teaching exam also correlated with GPA, where blacks tended to have lower GPAs as well as teaching exam scores.
Nonetheless, by 2017, 12 states including New York had moved to a more subjective test called edTPA. That was designed to address claims that the other tests didn&#8217;t actually identify who would be good in the classroom, and allowed people to submit videos of themselves teaching. &#8220;But in New York State, black prospective teachers failed the edTPA at nearly twice the rate of whites and Hispanics,&#8221; the book found.
&#8220;In 2017, New York State scrapped its requirement that teachers must pass a literacy test &#8216;because just 46 percent of Hispanic test takers and 41 percent of black test takers passed it on the first try, compared with 64 percent of white candidates,&#8221; the book said.
Teaching exams are notoriously easy, essentially measuring whether the teacher could pass the class she is teaching. Praxis&#8217; creators said that &#8220;All of the content and skills in the three Praxis 1 tests &#8230; cover skills that do not exceed a high school level.&#8221;
&#8220;Race to the Bottom&#8221; said the fight to lower teaching standards amounted to viewing schools as a jobs program for adults even when it harmed children. &#8220;In 21 New York City schools, only 10 percent or fewer of fifth graders, even excluding immigrants who were still learning English, passed English language arts exams in 2019. Being taught to read by teachers who themselves cannot read is unlikely to correct this devastating statistic,&#8221; it said.
Teachers unions argue that it is important to have more minority teachers because blacks learn better when they have a black teacher. But &#8220;besides amounting to arguing for segregated classrooms, here, educators&#8217; ineptitude at math is apparent. A large study often cited as showing a correlation between having a teacher of the same race and better test scores, based on a long-term analysis of black and white students in Florida, found that the improvement was 0.004 to 0.005 standard deviations for reading. Statistically, that means the effect is virtually meaningless,&#8221; &#8220;Race to the Bottom&#8221; found.

Mayor Adams Announces UFT Contract

NYC To Pay $1.8 Billion Over Old ‘Racist’ Teaching Exam. But Blacks Performed Poorly On Newer Exams, Too

NYC To Pay $1.8 Billion Over Old 'Racist' Teaching Exam. But Blacks Performed Poorly On Newer Exam, Too

Teachers Unions

California&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gavin-newsom-praises-reparations-task-force-doesnt-endorse-plan-for-1-2-million-payouts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reparations Task Force</a> raised eyebrows with a few of its recent proposals — namely suggesting that black residents should not be held responsible for back child support debt and public urination laws should not be enforced at all.
According to the task force&#8217;s <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/full-ca-reparations.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">final report</a>, &#8220;discriminatory laws&#8221; are responsible for the large number of black children born to unwed mothers — resulting in a higher percentage of black fathers who owe child support.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
California Reparations Task Force calls for eliminating child support debt for Black residents <a href="https://t.co/zqK1ZPGkCn">https://t.co/zqK1ZPGkCn</a>
&mdash; Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1676199189166915587?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Additionally, the report determined that the state&#8217;s 10% interest applied to back child support debt makes it more difficult for black fathers to further their educations while trying to keep ahead of payments. For those reasons, the task force has called for the interest on such child support payments to be waived and for back child support debt to be erased if the debtor is black.
&#8220;The Task Force recommends that the Legislature enact legislation to terminate all interest accrued on back child support, requiring only the payment of the principal owed. At a minimum, the proposal recommends that the Legislature eliminate the prospective accrual of interest on child support debt for low-income parents,&#8221; the report read.
Additionally, the report called for a total ban on police enforcing public urination laws.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
California reparations task force calls to ban police from enforcing public urination laws <a href="https://t.co/NGzR8VvpjO">https://t.co/NGzR8VvpjO</a>
&mdash; Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1676225641765560322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/california-reparations-task-force-calls-ban-police-enforcing-public-urination-laws?intcmp=tw_fnc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Arguing</a> that the enforcement of public urination laws — as well as other &#8220;public nuisance&#8221; offenses — amounted to &#8220;criminalizing poverty,&#8221; the task force found that having police as the first point of contact raised the risk of a confrontation that could turn violent.
Advocating for a &#8220;public health&#8221; approach rather than one rooted in law enforcement, the task force said, &#8220;This disconnect often results in the use of excessive and sometimes fatal force that falls disproportionately on Black individuals. Given the devastating impacts of this kind of over-policing, the Task Force recommends that the Legislature prohibit law enforcement from criminally enforcing public disorder infractions and other low-level crimes.&#8221;

The Definition of Reparation

California Reparations Task Force Wants Black Residents Free To Skip Out On Child Support

Gavin Newsom

Reparations

Slavery

A CNN panel on Monday blasted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tim-scott-fires-back-at-obama-over-race-comments" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sen. Tim Scott</a> (R-SC) and former United Nations <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nikki-haley-says-war-in-ukraine-one-we-have-to-win-defeat-risks-world-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ambassador Nikki Haley</a> because the two 2024 presidential candidates denied that &#8220;systemic racism&#8221; exists.
During &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/nickfondacaro/status/1670823530005504005?s=46&amp;t=5nB3R1hthzMlYMrXjZyN8Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN This Morning,</a>&#8221; the hosts talked about Scott and Haley firing back at former President Barack Obama after Obama took a swipe at them for not being &#8220;serious about addressing systemic racism.&#8221;
The former South Carolina <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-announces-presidential-town-hall-with-nikki-haley" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Republican Governor Haley</a> tweeted, &#8220;[Barack Obama] set minorities back by singling them out as victims instead of empowering them. In America, hard work &amp; personal responsibility matter. My parents didn&#8217;t raise me to think that I would forever be a victim. They raised me to know that I was responsible for my success.&#8221;
While <a href="https://twitter.com/votetimscott/status/1670447991717785602?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scott</a> said Obama &#8220;missed&#8221; an opportunity to &#8220;unite the country,&#8221; and he repeated what he&#8217;s been saying, that the &#8220;truth&#8221; of his life &#8220;disproves the lies of the radical Left.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
CNN panel claims Republicans like Amb. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott have betrayed their races and genders. LZ Granderson scoffs at Scott and says it&#39;s &quot;unfortunate&quot; he believes America is not systemically racist. He falsely claims Haley doesn&#39;t see embrace her heritage. <a href="https://t.co/iF8nGORg8t">pic.twitter.com/iF8nGORg8t</a>
&mdash; Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1670823530005504005?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 19, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Los Angeles Times Opinion columnist LZ Granderson said the pushback didn&#8217;t work and said that it&#8217;s &#8220;unfortunate&#8221; Scott doesn&#8217;t &#8220;acknowledge&#8221; that systemic racism is what led to it taking &#8220;100 years&#8221; to get the Republican African American from the South elected in the Senate.
&#8220;And what&#8217;s even more unfortunate is when you look at that tweet from Governor Haley, I mean Ambassador Haley, the pronoun ‘them,’ distancing herself from minorities, despite being a racial minority herself, reveals a lot more about her understanding of how she factors into race in this country more so than Obama&#8217;s impact on minorities or how minorities view themselves in general,&#8221; Granderson added.
CNN&#8217;s Senior political analyst Ron Brownstein said both Haley and Scott&#8217;s comments were very revealing because the &#8220;assertion that systemic discrimination does not exist against minorities and against women is a defining, maybe the defining unifying belief of the Republican coalition in the Trump era.&#8221;
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-102078">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
During <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tim-scott-scolds-the-view-over-dangerous-offensive-comments-about-black-people" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scott&#8217;s</a> recent appearance on &#8220;The View,&#8221; the senator admonished the hosts over what he described as &#8220;dangerous, offensive, and disgusting&#8221; messages airing on the show about success among black people being the &#8220;exception and not the rule&#8221; following his announcement for president.
Scott was asked by co-host Sunny Hostin to explain his claim that he doesn&#8217;t believe in &#8220;systemic racism&#8221; as she pressed him to then to define &#8220;systemic racism.&#8221;
&#8220;One of the reasons why I&#8217;m on the show is because of the comments that were made frankly on this show that the only way for a young African American kid to be successful in this country is to be the exception and not the rule,&#8221; Scott said.
&#8220;That is a dangerous, offensive, disgusting message to send to our young people today, that the only way to succeed is by being the exception,&#8221; he added.

Tim Scott, Nikki Haley

CNN Panel Upset Republicans Tim Scott, Nikki Haley Deny ‘Systemic Racism’

Barack Obama

Nikki Haley

Republicans

Tim Scott

The following excerpt is taken from Heather Mac Donald&#8217;s new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/When-Race-Trumps-Merit-Sacrifices/dp/1956007164/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1O8S3UD04SV6E&amp;keywords=heather+mac+donald&amp;qid=1681832109&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=heather+mac+donald%2Cstripbooks%2C115&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">When Race Trumps Merit</a> now available from <a href="https://store.dailywire.com/products/when-race-trumps-merit-by-heather-mac-donald" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DW Books</a>.
<h2>Medicine’s Racial Reckoning</h2>
The a priori truth that health disparities are necessarily the product of systemic racism has devalued basic science and encumbered medical research with red tape. The fight against cancer has been particularly affected.
Cancer grant applications must now specify who, among a lab’s staff, will enforce diversity mandates and how the lab plans to recruit underrepresented researchers and promote their careers. White and Asian oncologists are assumed to be part of the problem of black cancer mortality, not its solution, absent corrective measures. According to the NIH, leadership of cancer labs should match national or local demographics, whichever has a higher percentage of minorities. In Baltimore, which is over 60 percent black, only 10 percent of black eighth graders can read proficiently. Should Johns Hopkins’s comprehensive cancer center nevertheless have 60 percent black physician-administrators? 
Grant applicants seek the services of the burgeoning diversity-consulting profession to make sure that their proposals sound the right diversity notes. As with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Freeman Hrabowski scholarships, an insufficiently robust diversity plan means that a cancer research proposal will be rejected, regardless of its scientific merit. Discussions about how to beef up the diversity section of a grant proposal have become more important than discussions about tumor biology, reports a physician-scientist. “It is not easy summarizing how your work on cell signaling in nematodes applies to minorities currently living in your lab’s vicinity,” the researcher says. Mental energy spent solving that conundrum is mental energy not spent on science, he laments, since “thinking is always a zero-sum game.”
A lab’s diversity gauntlet has just begun, however. The NIH insists that participants in drug trials must also match national or local demographics. If a cancer center is in an area with few minorities, the lab must nevertheless present a plan for recruiting them into its study, regardless of their local unavailability. Genentech, the creator of lifesaving cancer drugs, held a national conference call with oncologists in April 2022 to discuss products in the research pipeline. Half of the call was spent on the problem of achieving diverse clinical trial enrollments, a participant reported. Genentech admitted to having run out of ideas.
There is no evidence that racist researchers are excluding minorities from drug trials on nonmedical grounds, nor has anyone presented a theory as to why they would. The barriers to such drug trial diversity include a higher incidence among blacks of disqualifying comorbidities, more challenging personal lives, and a suspicion of the medical profession (which that same profession constantly amplifies with its drumbeat about racism). Those barriers to drug-trial diversity are not recognized by grant evaluators, however.
In May 2022, a physician-scientist lost her NIH funding for a drug trial because the trial population did not contain enough blacks. The drug under review was for a type of cancer that blacks rarely get. So there were almost no black patients with that disease to enroll in the trial in the first place. It’s better, however, to foreclose development of a therapy that might help predominantly white cancer patients than to conduct a drug trial without black participants.
The diversity-driven requirement of racial proportionality in drug trials is perplexing, since diversity advocates insist that race is a social construct, without biological reality. Suggesting that genetic differences exist between racial groups will brand you a racist. The AMA’s Organizational Strategic Plan to Embed Racial Justice and Advance Health Equity sneers that “much of medicine still looks for cultural, behavioral or even genetic explanations” to explain racial gaps in life expectancy. Such a focus rests on “discredited and racist ideas about biological differences between racial groups,” according to the AMA. In May 2022, the American Association of Pediatrics announced that it was eliminating “race-based” medicine, defined as including a patient’s race in assessments of some health risks. If race does not exist, as received wisdom now has it, then the racial makeup of clinical trials should not matter.
The idea that race is merely a social construct is anti-scientific, however. DNA analyses show that there are at least five distinguishable races. The refusal to acknowledge race is also anti-health. Blacks with sub-Saharan roots have a high rate of kidney disease, for example, thanks in part to a more frequent genetic mutation. Drug companies have sought a treatment for that mutation. The reaction to that research has been unhinged. A lecturer in ethics at Columbia University and author of the book Medical Apartheid told the New York Times in May 2022 that knowledge about the genetic variant might drive the medical establishment toward “a blame-the-victim approach signaling an inherent flaw in African Americans.” This is fictional. No one thinks that possessing a genetic mutation means that the possessor is inherently flawed.” The activists are terrified, however, that work in basic science will supplant the political crusade against white supremacy. They would rather stop medical progress than improve blacks’ quality of life, if doing the latter acknowledges biological reality.
Biological reality comes into play in another kidney-related area. A common blood test for kidney health understates healthy kidney function in black patients. Nephrologists therefore adjusted the test results for black patients to estimate their kidney function with greater accuracy. Then the activists showed up, arguing that this correction must be abolished. The American Society of Nephrology and the National Kidney Foundation announced that they no longer supported the separate reporting of the kidney function measure for black patients. The University of Pennsylvania health system, among others, proudly presented its changed reporting protocol as part of the fight against medical racism. A more complicated diagnostic formula was widely adopted. But no patient was damaged by the original, more straightforward formula, nor was that original formula based on racism.
This is an excerpt taken from Heather Mac Donald&#8217;s new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/When-Race-Trumps-Merit-Sacrifices/dp/1956007164/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1O8S3UD04SV6E&amp;keywords=heather+mac+donald&amp;qid=1681832109&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=heather+mac+donald%2Cstripbooks%2C115&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">When Race Trumps Merit</a> now available from <a href="https://store.dailywire.com/products/when-race-trumps-merit-by-heather-mac-donald" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DW Books</a>. Used with permission. 
Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a New York Times bestselling author. She is a recipient of the 2005 Bradley Prize. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The New Criterion.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>

Heather Mac Donald Examines The Dangers Of Diversity Mandates In Medicine In New Book

Books

Doctors

Heather Mac Donald

Readers Pass

National Public Radio (NPR) employees accused the network&#8217;s CEO of racism during a virtual all-staff presentation last week detailing financial metrics and diversity level updates following the organization slashing approximately 10% of its workforce. 
NPR officials laid off 84 employees last week and halted production on four seasonal podcasts, including Invisibilia, Louder Than a Riot, and Rough Translation. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-03-30/tensions-flare-inside-npr-after-staff-layoffs-and-town-halls">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported network officials would cut another 13 employees from the digital team.
Following the exodus from ex-staffers, Lansing and other executives reportedly tuned into a Zoom meeting to address the news department and the programming team, taking questions from employees that included how many employees of different races and identities were laid off compared to those who retained their job. 
&#8220;We&#8217;re here today to take your questions and see if we can move together through this,&#8221; Lansing said, according to a recording of the meeting that Bloomberg obtained, adding that the network would have run out of money in approximately three years if the company kept its entire staff. 
At one point during the meeting, The Wall Street Journal reported a laid-off black employee grilled Lansing about why some podcasts lacked marketing support, called out by name the executives for repeating statements they made in the past concerning more accountability, and questioned how the network would make diversity essential.
Lansing pointed to the network&#8217;s mission statement and told the group to &#8220;turn down the rhetoric&#8221; and refrain from naming the executives.
&#8220;I would never, ever, on your worst day, call you out by name in a meeting with 827 people,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Let&#8217;s please keep in mind nobody is happy about this. Nobody is more unhappy about it than those affected, but certainly, everybody in the company, beginning with me, this is the last thing we wanted to do.&#8221;
Despite Lansing&#8217;s remarks about making such decisions, a group of employees reportedly accused him of &#8220;tone-policing,&#8221; causing them to feel offended and uncomfortable with the conversation, which he said should have been more civil.
Employees began calling Lansing&#8217;s response &#8220;racist&#8221; during the Zoom meeting. 
One employee referenced a segment from NPR&#8217;s Code Switch titled &#8220;When Civility Is Used As A Cudgel Against People Of Color.&#8221; 
&#8220;Civility is a weapon wielded by the powerful,&#8221; one person wrote, according to screenshots of the chat viewed by Bloomberg.
&#8220;This meeting has made me more afraid for the future of public media than any conversation I have had in a very long time,&#8221; wrote another.
In an email, NPR Chief Communications Officer Isabel Lara told Bloomberg that the organization creates &#8220;forums for internal staff conversations and respects the hard questions that come from our staff.&#8221; 
&#8220;We value the feedback we receive and acknowledge that this is an incredibly difficult time for everyone in our organization,&#8221; Lara said. &#8220;Our staff has the right and duty to hold NPR leadership accountable,&#8221; adding the organization has committed to creating and maintaining an environment where &#8220;we treat our colleagues with the utmost compassion, respect and dignity, and we will continue to provide opportunities for everyone in the organization to provide feedback on this process and support continuing dialogue.&#8221;
In a February <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/npr-sees-sharp-decline-in-ad-revenue-announces-10-of-staff-face-layoffs">memo</a> distributed to NPR staff, CEO John Lansing broke the news that the network would have to cut most vacant positions and lay off around 10% of its current staff — approximately 100 employees — amid a &#8220;sharp decline&#8221; in advertisement revenues. 
Lansing broke the news nearly three months after pledging the nonprofit media organization would attempt to avoid layoffs as the network said it would lose approximately $10 million from the current fiscal year budget.
&#8220;Our financial outlook has darkened considerably over recent weeks,&#8221; Lansing wrote in the memo published by The Hollywood Reporter. &#8220;At a time when we are doing some of our most ambitious and essential work, the global economy remains uncertain. As a result, the ad industry has weakened and we are grappling with a sharp decline in our revenues from corporate sponsors.&#8221;
According to the outlet, the company employs over 700 individuals, with about 490 people filling the newsroom and 230 staff members in the programming division. Lansing told NPR staffers that officials had created a plan to address a $20 million sponsorship revenue fall-off for the current fiscal year, but new projections show at least a $30 million shortfall.

USA – Washington DC – Headquarters of National Public Radio

NPR Employees Cry Racism Amid CEO Discussing Mass Layoffs

Liberalism

National Public Radio (NPR)

Menu