Free Republic

California is set to be the first state in the country to enact a law that will limit prosecutors’ ability to use rap lyrics as evidence in criminal cases. Assembly Bill 2799 will require a pre-trial hearing to determine if the lyrics are relevant to the case. Assembly member Reginald Jones-Sawyer Sr., says this bill will help protect rap artists, who are predominantly African American, and their freedom of speech. He also says he hopes the bill will help eliminate any racial bias that may exist when presenting evidence.

Aug. 23, 2020 is a night Kenosha residents can’t help but remember — but would rather forget. At the hands of vindictive Black Lives Matter groupies and other self-described racial justice activists, the Wisconsin town went up in flames two years ago today. Rogues started fires at government buildings. They set ablaze garbage trucks and torched upwards of 100 vehicles in the car lot owned by an Indian immigrant, smashing the windows of those who escaped the inferno. They vandalized the post office and a high school, and their flames completely consumed a century-old camera shop. That’s only a fraction...

NBA great Dennis Rodman called for an end to looting in response to the death of George Floyd, telling his social media followers Sunday that “we’re human beings, not f–king animals.” Businesses all over the country were ravaged during the weekend as protests continued to escalate after Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed in Minneapolis last week by a white police officer.

Not me. Dennis Rodman hasnÂ’t entered my thoughts at all as many of us continue to try to find some sanity during some insane times. Until today.Today I read a piece about RodmanÂ’s thoughts on the rioting and looting going on under the guise of protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. After doing so, I thought how good it is for some real talk to be emerging among all the usual support from the woke crowd for the protesters. ItÂ’s fine to support protests, it isnÂ’t fine to not make a distinction once the protests turn...

Questioning leftist propaganda is now a cardinal sin. Leftism is a discipline of doublethink, and nowhere is that more apparent than its approach towards morality. Moral relativism is the name of the game, until the ethic in question imperils the fragile architecture of the left’s inconsistent and collective mind. For many of the academicians at the American Historical Association, intellectual honesty and discourse makes you the chief among sinners. Six days ago, James H. Sweet, president of the AHA, published a written piece in the association’s editorial titled, “Is History History?” — and the ensuing fallout was described by one...

A bizarre string of events is unfolding at the American Historical Association (AHA). Last week, AHA president James H. Sweet published a column in the organization’s magazine on the problem of “presentism” in academic historical writing. According to Sweet, an unsettling number of academic historians have allowed their political views in the present to shape and distort their interpretations of the past. Sweet offered a gentle criticism of the New York Times’s 1619 Project as evidence of this pattern. Many historians embraced the 1619 Project for its political messages despite substantive flaws of fact and interpretation in its content. Sweet...

In a scathing op-ed, the wife of a slain black St. Louis police captain accused the Black Lives Matter movement and other progressive activists such as Vice President Kamala Harris of dividing America, blasting them as “supervillains.” Ann Dorn, a retired sergeant from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and widow of Capt. David Dorn, wrote in the op-ed published with Fox News Tuesday that her husband’s death was the product of Democrats and left-wing activists pushing an anti-law enforcement sentiment across the country. “Ultimately, David was murdered because the people who are supposed to protect our streets — active-duty...

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten admitted to sharing a false tweet claiming that certain books were banned in Florida on Sunday. The list, posted by an account called "Freesus Patriot," claimed that Florida has banned books such as, "To Kill a Mockingbird," and "A Wrinkle in Time." The account also tweeted that they would not reveal the source of the list. Weingarten was re-elected to lead the AFT in July, making it her eighth term as AFT president. Weingarten replied to another tweet pointing out that the list was "made up" and said that she should have...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- At least 20 people have been shot, one fatally, since Friday evening across Chicago. One person was killed and four others wounded in a shooting Friday evening in Homan Square on the West Side. In nonfatal attacks, at least five people were shot on city's South Side overnight Saturday, Chicago police said. Hours later, two people were wounded, one critically, in a shooting on the city's North Side early Saturday morning, Chicago police said. The shooting happened in the Rogers Park neighborhood's 2100 block of West Birchwood Avenue at about 5 a.m., police said. A 24-year-old woman...

An off-campus co-op for students at the University of California, Berkeley named the 'Person of Color Theme House' has banned white guests from entering common areas of the house. A list of house rules revealed that occupants were told 'many POC moved here to be able to avoid white violence and presence, so respect their decision of avoidance if you bring white guests.' While the student house aims to have an 'inclusive' environment, the rules specifically state 'white guests are not allowed in common spaces,' according to the list, which was posted on Reddit. The accommodation, which is located close...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge on Thursday declared a Florida law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that restricts race-based conversation and analysis in business and education unconstitutional. Tallahassee U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said in a 44-page ruling that the “Stop WOKE” act violates the First Amendment and is impermissibly vague. Walker also refused to issue a stay that would keep the law in effect during any appeal by the state. The law targets what DeSantis has called a “pernicious” ideology exemplified by critical race theory — the idea that racism is systemic in U.S. institutions...

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Some Black farmers say they are disappointed by a new U.S. agriculture debt relief program that stands to save thousands of farmers from foreclosure, after the plan failed to specifically target minorities as they had hoped. The program, included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed by U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday, follows an earlier debt relief program that provided aid based on race but ended in a web of litigation after white farmers sued to stop payments. The new program, which makes farmers eligible for relief based on economic precariousness rather than race,...

Don Lemon stated on July 27, 2013 in a commentary on CNN: "More than 72 percent of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock." CNN's Don Lemon says more than 72 percent of African-American births are out of wedlock In the middle of a national conversation about race following the George Zimmerman acquittal, CNN anchor Don Lemon gave an on-air commentary that went viral on social media. The focus of the commentary was a five-point list of recommendations. "Black people," Lemon said, "if you really want to fix the problem, here's just five things that you should...

An agreement between the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers union and the school district states that White teachers will be laid off before teachers of color, regardless of their seniority. The agreement, which was reached to end a two-week teacher strike last spring, says that starting this school year, "if excessing a teacher who is a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers in the site, the district shall excess the next least senior teacher, who is not a member of an underrepresented population."

Carol Barnes notes that human mental processes are controlled by melanin—that same chemical which gives Blacks their superior physical and mental abilities... ... Despite Clarke's recent assertions that her 1994 co-authored article for The Harvard Crimson was meant to "express an equally absurd point of view," it is not stated in the article that her and Kennedy's claims on Black vs. white genetics were not serious at the time. Ultimately, she did write about Black vs. white genetics, although she said it was written in response to The Bell Curve.

A legal filing by a Black firefighter in western New York alleges he was pressured by a superior into going to a party that contained racist imagery... Jones, a 14-year department veteran, became uneasy when he arrived at the house and saw a cardboard cutout figure of former President Donald Trump... Jones said he then saw a display mocking the Juneteenth holiday... , with Juneteenth flags displayed over buckets of fried chicken.

WASHINGTON — President Biden looks supercharged. On social media, his eyes glow Terminator-like in images depicting him as an all-powerful figure imposing his will on the nation. Known as “Dark Brandon,” the memes began as an ironic portrayal employing a nickname from the offensive, anti-Biden chant of “Let’s Go Brandon” embraced by former president Trump’s supporters. But after a slew of recent legislative wins, Democrats have appropriated the imagery to celebrate a president suddenly rejuvenated heading toward the fall midterm elections after a nearly yearlong stretch in which he seemed more impotent than almighty... “Over the last few months, it...

Senate hopeful John Fetterman (D., Pa.), a former mayor who is casting himself as the man who "worked to rebuild" the town of Braddock, Pa., missed more than a third of the borough’s monthly meetings during his time in office. Fetterman skipped 53 meetings as mayor of the Pittsburgh suburb from 2006 to 2018, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Fetterman has been dogged for years by criticism of his spotty work history. Jesse Brown, a former Braddock borough council president, said in 2015 that Fetterman "should have been at all council meetings," but stopped showing up...

A program overseen by a Minnesota teachers union runs a “cohort” of members advocating for “racial equity” in schools. Racial Equity Advocates (REA) is a program of the Minnesota Educator Academy’s Facing Inequities and Racism in Education (FIRE) project, which itself is a program of the Education Minnesota teachers union. “The FIRE program includes the Racial Equity Advocate cohort program and a series of professional development modules for educators to grow an anti-racism mindset and opportunities to engage with Education Minnesota’s members to interrupt and dismantle institutional racism,” a website for the program explains. The REA cohort program was created...

A Minneapolis teachers union contract stipulates that white teachers will be laid off or reassigned before “educators of color” in the event Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) needs to reduce staff. After the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and MPS struck a deal on March 25 to end a 14-day teacher strike, the two sides drew up and ratified a new collective bargaining agreement complete with various proposals. One of the proposals dealt with “educators of color protections.” The agreement states that if a non-white teacher is subject to excess, MPS must excess a white teacher with the “next least” seniority....