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 said: to keep you running in circles.
INSIDE THE 305
Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo poses with Proud Boys member Gabriel Garcia, who is facing trial for entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Acevedo said he did not who Garcia was when he took the photo. - Handout
A man yells for justice during a memorial service for assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise in the Cathedral of Cap-Haitien, Haiti, Thursday, July 22, 2021. Moise was killed in his home in Port-au-Prince on July 7. Matias Delacroix AP
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.
Members of the Ku Klux Klan participate in cross burnings after a “white pride” rally in rural Paulding County near Cedar Town, Ga. Born in the ashes of the smoldering South after the Civil War, the KKK died and was reborn before losing the fight against civil rights in the 1960s. John Bazemore AP, file
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 teaching of the Ku 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” was literature referencing women’s suffrage, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech and Native American history.
On Thursday, July 15, 2021, brothers Lovinsky, 27, left, and John Nalus, 21, right, is greeted by a family friend, Randy Kurtz, center, upon their arrival in the United States after being detained in the Dominican Republic just short of a year on an alleged drug charge. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com
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 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
American rapper, singer, and songwriter Edy Edouard, known professionally as $NOT, performs in front of a crowd of 300 people at the Lake Park Black Box inside The Kelsey Theater in Lake Park, Florida, on Saturday, May 15, 2021. Daniel A. Varela dvarela@miamiherald.com
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.
C. Isaiah Smalls II is a sports and culture writer who covers the Miami Dolphins. In his previous capacity at the Miami Herald, he was the race and culture reporter who created The 44 Percent, a newsletter dedicated to the Black men who voted to incorporate the city of Miami. A graduate of both Morehouse College and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Smalls previously worked for ESPN’s Andscape.
