Tuesday, August 20, 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.
Vice President Kamala Harris is looking to tap into the same energy and broad support that lifted Barack Obama to his presidency in 2008. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images via Capital B)
Can Kamala Harris recreate the political momentum of 2008?: The vice president is seeing a diverse electorate standing with her as she sets her eyes for the White House. Black men, Black queer men, young people, Latinos, white women, and “white dudes” have mobilized in large numbers to organize voters and raise money for Harris. The League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization in the U.S., endorsed a political candidate — Harris — for the first time since its founding more than 90 years ago. Even Republicans have come on board.
This is the kind of diverse electorate that boosted former President Barack Obama to victory, Capital B’s Brandon Tensley writes.
Tensley spoke to a number of organizers like Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC, a national organization focusing on political engagement, who finds the mobilization fascinating — not just because it has raised large amounts of money — but “because it’s been a moment when the idea of diversity, which the GOP has been attacking forever, has been seen as a good thing.”
“We’ve had these different identity and affinity groups saying, ‘We’re for this version of America, and we’re going to align across our identities to move it forward,’” Shropshire said.
Capital B also takes a look at what Black voters can expect from a Harris-Walz ticket, and how Harris’ vision for the economy could boost Black communities.Read more from Capital B here →
Day 1 of the DNC was surprisingly inspiring — here are our takeaways: After a nearly 5-minute standing ovation, President Joe Biden took the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Monday and established a story of showing up for democracy and essentially saving it from chaos and violence under former President Donald Trump, writes URL Media’s Ishena Robinson, who is in Chicago this week covering the convention.
“I love my job, but I love my country more,” Biden declared, referencing his decision to drop out of the race and make way for Harris’ ascension.
There were fiery speeches throughout the evening, with Rep. Jasmine Crockett referring to Trump as a “78-year-old lifelong predator, fraudster and cheat known for inciting violent mobs.” Hillary Clinton highlighted Harris’ potential to back abortion rights from the highest office, describing the “barrier that would fall for all of us” were she to win. Harris herself made a surprise appearance. The vice president’s friends and family were also there to speak about her upbringing.
“After day one, Harris has been positioned as a president our children can look up to. But it will be crucial to see how she defines herself from her party’s main podium,” Ishena writes.
Stay tuned for more coverage of the convention, where Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Tim Walz, and VP Harris are still slated to speak. URL Media partners are also covering the DNC, with Prism reporting on the pro-Palestinian protests outside Chicago's United Center; WURD Radio conducting live interviews with DNC organizers, including Chair Jaime Harrison; and Capital B featuring the speeches from the Democratic Party’s Black leadership.
The Kansas City Defender hosts “Black August Grocery Buyout,” distributes $2,000 to Black families: In honor of Black August — a time dedicated to commemorating Black freedom struggles and highlighting Black resistance — The Kansas Defender distributed $2,000 to Black families during their “Black August Grocery Buyout” launch at supermarket Price Chopper.
As the KC Defender staff notes, the event was not just an act of mutual aid, but a “powerful expression of our ongoing commitment to impacting the material conditions of our community.”
The staff took their efforts to Price Chopper, “where we could directly impact Black families, single mothers, elders and more, who continue to bear the brunt of economic oppression.”
The Grocery Buyout was funded through a fundraising drive that raised $7,000 in just 12 hours prior to their previous buyout. “The outpouring of support allowed us to establish the Grocery Buyout Fund, which we pulled from for this Buyout,” according to the staff.
“As we reflect on this event, we are reminded that our work is far from over.”
Immigrant rights activists sound alarm on AI in asylum and visa processing: For years, the Just Futures Law advocacy group and immigrant rights organization Mijente have sounded the alarm over tech and data driving deportation raids, as well as the use of location tracking tools for surveillance along the border.
Now, in the recent “Automating Deportation” report, they’re calling attention to the “pervasive” AI elements that are being used — not just by Department of Homeland Security agencies charged with detaining and deporting immigrants — but by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which processes millions of applications a year dealing with work permits, green cards and naturalization.
With “Predicted to Naturalize,” an AI tool that apparently did not develop, USCIS explored a model that could predict when lawful permanent residents would be eligible to naturalize. Through “Asylum Text Analytics,” USCIS uses AI to identify “plagiarism-based-fraud” in asylum and withholding applications.
Julie Mao, co-founder and deputy director of Just Futures Law, points to research showing a pattern of DHS disproportionately denying asylum to Black, Latino and Muslim immigrants, and fears that this “bias” could be amplified if an agency like USCIS is developing and training AI bots “to basically replicate existing human decisions based on discriminatory data.”
U.S. Treasury sanctions former Haitian President Michel Martelly (The Haitian Times)
In the latest episode of URL Media's Twice as Good podcast, hosts
Sara Lomax and Mitra Kalita discuss the stakes of the presidential election after President Joe Biden stepped down in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris on the 2024 Democratic ticket. What contradictions exist in the Democratic Party and within VP Harris’ legacy? And what lessons can the American left learn from the global fight against the far right? Joining the discussion are Epicenter NYC editorial director Femi Redwood and Scroll’s politics editor Shoaib Daniyal.
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