Notre Dame students are smart—no doubt about that—but there’s a difference between being intelligent and being informed. You may excel in the classroom, but education needs worldly context beyond your ND bubble. This weekly column exists to keep you up to date with the latest happenings around the nation in 500 words or less. We do the research, you do the reading. HCNDXO
This week, HCND is looking at events related to the rising racial tensions.
1. Dylann Roof Indicted on Federal Hate Crime Charges
Roof in custody.
Dylann Roof is accused of killing nine people in a predominately black church in Charleston, South Carolina. On Wednesday, he was indicted on federal hate time charges. He has also been charged by the state with nine counts of murder, which means that if he’s found guilty, he could face the death penalty.
Roof has been charged with a federal hate crime because South Carolina does not have hate crime laws.
2. Texas Officials Deny Editing Sandra Bland’s Video
Sandra Bland, a black woman, was arrested during a routine traffic stop and died in her jail cell three days later. A coroner’s report said her death was a suicide and that she used a trash bag to strangle herself. Her family contests this, saying that she had just been offered a job and that suicide didn’t make sense. The dash-cam video Texas Authorities released on Tuesday shows a white state trooper arresting Bland and has jumps in the footage. Investigators say the jumps are from technical issues.
3. The Ku Klux Klan and New Black Panther Party Protest at South Carolina Capital
Eight days after officials removed the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds, the KKK and the New Black Panthers appeared at simultaneous rallies outside of the State House. The police made five arrests and the South Carolina Department of Public Safety estimated that the crowd had about 2,000 people at one point. This was reportedly the first Klan rally outside of the State House since the 1980’s.
A photo of a black man, Leroy Smith, who runs the state Department of Public Safety, helping a white demonstrator wearing a swastika in the heat has gone viral.
4. Atticus Finch is Revealed to be a Racist
Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch
Harper Lee’s classic American novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was her only published work until this summer when she released Go Set a Watchman. This is from an adult Scout’s (now Jean Louise) point of view and it reveals that Atticus Finch, the saint of To Kill a Mockingbird, is actually a racist. While many readers are upset about the revelation, many critics, including Thomas Mallon, believe that that this portrait of a beloved character is a much more realistic and “more nuanced” portrayal of the times.
5. Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter Protesters
During a panel where Sanders was focusing on education and economics, Black Lives Matter protesters interrupted him in an effort to get him to address question of racism as a sole issue. He noted that the criminal justic system was prejudiced but kept returning to his primary topics, irritating the protesters as it seemed to them that he was evading the question. Sanders was clearly annoyed and reportedly canceled the meetings he had planned with the same activists.
Bernie Sanders, a self-professed socialist, is the only challenger in the Democratic primary run to garner any real support against Hillary Clinton.
6. Nicki Minaj Calls Out MTV for VMA Nominations
Minaj took to Twitter to address her frustration about the lack of recognition her clips “Anaconda” and “Feeling Myself” received. She wrote, “When the ‘other’ girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination .” While some suggested that “Anaconda” wasn’t nominated for Video of the Year because it was too provocative, Minaj’s fans were quick to point out that Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball” video won because it was provocative. Minaj’s boyfriend, Meek Mills, also tweeted: “I don’t really trip about the awards…I know they gone give em to the white kids doing it…. That’s why we buy Rollie’s and shit our own trophies!”
“Anaconda” broke Vevo’s record for the most views in 24 hours when it was released, with 19.6 million views the first day.
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