The 44 Percent: Proud Boys photo op with police, Texas senate & race in Haiti
One headline pretty much sums up how an already divided America has become even more fractured since the Jan. 6 insurrection in the nation’s capitol.
If racism and misogyny is truly the hill this country wants to die on, then count me out. Maybe America can’t do better because she isn’t better. Why come this far just to fall short when it matters most? Then again, maybe that’s the point of racism, just as the great Toni Morrison says: to keep you running in circles.
INSIDE THE 305
Proud Boys got photo ops with Miami police chief. He says he didn’t know who they were.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but this one needs only 11:
Proud Boys should not be welcomed at Cuba Protests in Miami.
OUTSIDE THE 305
In city where assassinated Haiti president is to be buried, politics of color take root
Race, however artificially constructed a concept, continues to be an issue not just in America but around the globe. Haiti is no different, and my colleague Jacqueline Charles takes readers on a deep dive into how those color politics play out in the city of Cap-Haitien.
Texas bill set to become law in September removes requirement to teach KKK as “morally wrong”
The right’s assault on “critical race theory” took a turn to the days of Reconstruction with the Texas Senate’s passage of a bill that bars teaching a history of racism. One piece of the legislation in particular prevents the teaching of Klu Klux Klan, which has reigned terror on Black Americans, Jews, immigrants and the LGBTQ community for more than a century, as “morally wrong.”
“What we’re doing with this bill, we’re saying that specific reading list doesn’t belong in statute,” Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes, told Bloomberg Law.
Included in said “reading list” were literature referencing women’s suffrage, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech and Native American history.
Two of three Broward brothers stuck in the Dominican Republic have returned home
On a lighter note, two of the three Broward brothers who had been stuck in the Dominican Republic for nearly a year came home late last week.
John, 21, and Lovinsky, 27, Nalus arrived at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport last Thursday, leaving a third brother, Lonelson, and a nightmarish memories of what was supposed to be a late summer, island getaway:
The brothers allege they were set up with a four-pound package of marijuana planted in their white Hyundai Tucson rental car on Aug. 2 — just days after arriving in Santo Domingo where they went to reconnect with family including an older brother, who had temporarily moved there from neighboring Haiti because of the violence. They were locked up and eventually released, but their passports and cellphones were confiscated and they could not leave the Dominican Republic pending the outcome of their court case.
In the near year that followed, the brothers lost jobs and possibly a college scholarship. Speaking to the Miami Herald via text, Lonelson said the day was rather “emotional.”
“They made it [home] safe. I’m happy,” he said, soon after his brothers landed back home. “It’s not the end...but I’m excited. I have been crying all day.”
HIGH CULTURE
‘I feel like a rock star.’ $NOT’s individuality has him on the precipice of hip-hop stardom
Rolling Loud Miami kicks off today at 4 p.m. and what better way to ring in the festivities than by reading about $NOT, a Brooklyn-born, West Palm Beach-bred artist who’ll take the stage later today.
Where does “The 44 Percent” name come from? Click here to find out how Miami history influenced the newsletter’s title.
