Tuesday, February 18, 2024
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A View From the Ground
News and information about politics, government, civic participation and engagement from URL Media's network of Black and Brown publishers.
Good evening. Today we’re covering false reports of federal agents in New York City’s Sikh community and its response, as well as a new investigative series on cyber scams, Kamala Harris’ expected appearance at the NAACP Image Awards, and more. By the way, WURD Radio is hosting “Race, Manhood and Power: Commemorating 60 Years Since the Ascension of Malcolm X to Ancestorhood,” this Friday, February 21. The event will revisit his legacy and build new mobilization efforts, and run from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Community College of Philadelphia. Learn more here. Plus, we’re bringing you the latest updates at url-media.com as events unfold. Have a question? Write to us at [email protected].
Credit: Amir Khafagy for Documented
After false ICE raid reports, New York Sikhs mobilize against misinformation: Gurdwaras, the Sikh houses of worship, double as vital community centers where people can get a free hot meal and a place to rest. New York City is no exception, where a concentration of gurdwaras operating in Richmond Hill, Queens, sustain one of the largest Sikh populations in the country, Documented reports.The Sikh commitments to open arms and community service are well known, making gurdwaras in NYC a vital landing place for many migrants. In the last two years, they housed nearly 400 recent East Asian arrivals, Japneet Singh, a Sikh community member and NYC Council candidate, told the outlet.Yet this openness also means they are targets for Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids — as well as false claims that such raids have occurred. On January 27, two Indian outlets reported that ICE agents had raided gurdwaras throughout the tri-state area, including Richmond Hill. The reports spread fear but were quickly shut down by Sikh leaders as false, turning that fear into anger. Such misinformation destabilizes the community, including the role of gurdwaras, since people become wary of coming to their doors. Some suspect that the Indian government knew this and intentionally spread the rumors about ICE to shake the Sikh community. It wouldn’t be the first time the Indian State targeted Sikhs, as the two have a centuries-long contentious relationship, Documented explains. In any case, the community was thankful that gurdwaras were able to react quickly to counteract the false information. Sikh leaders are also taking further steps to prepare and protect their community going forward, including ‘Know Your Rights’ training and legal aid for immigrants. Desis Rising Up & Moving, an organization empowering South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities, is hosting defense trainings on identifying and reporting ICE, as well as building Sikh rapid response teams in the event of a real raid. Communities around the nation are doing the same, and you can help them. Get educated on what to do if ICE is (actually) at the door, donate to a local immigrant bond fund or nonprofit, and support immigrant-owned businesses.Learn more in Documented → Plus: How San Franciscans are navigating ICE sightings (El Tecolote)
Kamala Harris to receive NAACP Image Award: In her first major appearance since leaving office as Vice President, Kamala Harris is set to receive the Chairman’s Award at the NAACP Image Awards ceremony this Saturday, February 22, according to AsAmNews. The event will recognize Harris’s time served in office, as well as her record-breaking campaign against President Donald Trump. After becoming the first African American and South Asian American woman to lead a major party’s ticket for President, some are now speculating that she could run for California governor next year, or for president again in 2028, AsAmNews explains. The Image Award categories range from politics to entertainment to art. Prior recipients of the Chairman’s Award include former President Barack Obama when he was a senator, as well as Samuel L. Jackson, Rep. Maxine Waters, the late Rep. John Lewis, and most recently, Amanda Gorman. You can watch the ceremony on CBS and BET, starting at 8 p.m. ET, live from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California. More from AsAmNews →
India’s cyber-scam epidemic is part of a multibillion global industry: Ever wonder who is on the other side of that scam phone call or email? Scroll is setting out to answer that question, and many more, with a four-part series uncovering the shadows of the global cyber-scam industry that rakes in about $40 billion every year. A parallel video series is also being produced and posted on YouTube. In the first part of the series, the outlet details how Chinese crime syndicates based in Southeast Asia are able to lure hundreds of thousands of people in need of work across Asia and Africa into the scamming world with fake, lucrative-sounding job offers. They might think they are going to Thailand or Malaysia with a good shot at providing for their family, when they are actually trafficked to scam compounds in casino towns across Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, Scroll reports. In Cambodia, the government mainly turns a blind eye because many of these locations are owned by powerful oligarchs within the Cambodian People’s Party — which has been in power for over 45 years. Get the full story →
How Samuel L. Jackson’s activism got him expelled: Samuel L. Jackson has commanded attention on screen for decades, and he certainly turned heads during his recent performance with Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. But did you know about his activist roots? While attending Morehouse College in 1969, Jackson and other students sought specific changes at the school and in the community, including a Black voting majority on the board of trustees and more academic opportunities for Black studies, PushBlack explains. They took brave action by locking themselves and trustees inside a campus building for 29 hours. One of those trustees was none other than Martin Luther King Sr.The move got the students a negotiation, but Jackson was expelled from the school. After a visit from the FBI, his mother sent him to Los Angeles for two years, but he returned to Morehouse in 1971, this time to study drama. “I decided that theater would now be my politics,” he told Parade in 2008, per Watch the Yard. More from PushBlack →Plus: Unpacking Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl 2025 Halftime Show (TANTV)
The Black origins of house music (Black History Year)
Check out our Currency of Impact dashboard, a new tool designed to revolutionize media buying conversations and put community impact on the foreground. Dive into our impact tracker and case studies highlighting demonstrated impact across the URL Media network. This project was co-produced with the Reynolds Journalism Institute. Visit it here.
