Category: social justice

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A White Woman Earns the ‘Anti-Karen’ Title After She’s Filmed Yelling About Voting Rights

Whenever a video of a white woman complaining  ends up online, you can be assured she’s destined to become the next “Karen.” After all, there certainly hasn’t been a shortage of epic incidents captured on video to show just how ignorant some “Karens” can be.

However, this time, a viral video of a white woman screaming has earned her the “Anti-Karen” nickname. That’s what happens when you’re caught on camera making an impassioned plea for voting rights.

Thanks to CBS46 freelance reporter Barmel Lyons, the entire world can meet Anti-Karen. She posted the video of the woman yelling about voter oppression on Twitter, and it has since blown up across the social media sphere.

So how did this all begin?

In early June, Georgia held a primary election that featured ridiculously long lines and voter repression. Given the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic, that only made the situation worse. Citizens rightfully grew frustrated with the process. But none expressed their outrage more profoundly than Anti-Karen.

In the video, she explains that she ran for office before and actually worked for Barack Obama in the White House. Of course, that might be difficult to verify, but we’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.

“This is wrong! This is America. Please, god, help us. I mean it.

This is a crisis in our world to make us not exercise our right to vote. I tweeted all the major networks, so, everybody tweet the networks! The radio stations, everybody, please everybody.

We can not tolerate this. I love you! I love civil disobedience, let’s work together. I have to go home to take medicine, but I love you.”

The Anti-Karen drew plenty of support on social media for speaking up about a major issue that concerns civil liberties.

Despite being from New York, even Murray understands that this issue is bigger than a single state. And thanks to Anti-Karen, perhaps more people will be active in making sure voting rights are no longer suppressed.

Have you ever witnessed someone making an impassioned speech in public? How did you respond? Did they deliver a powerful message?

Tell us more in the comments below!

The post A White Woman Earns the ‘Anti-Karen’ Title After She’s Filmed Yelling About Voting Rights appeared first on UberFacts.

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The 2020 Social Justice Kittens Calendar Is Pretty Great

This is what you really need to get 2020 started off on the right foot! These kittens are fighting for social justice, and they’re here to remind you every month next year that they’re not going to stand for society’s BS any longer.

Let’s see what these social justice warrior kittens have to say in this calendar from
Sean Tejaratchi.

1. Those pesky “facts.”

Photo Credit: Amazon

2. Forego free speech…

Photo Credit: Amazon

3. Beware.

Photo Credit: Amazon

4. Forget about your opinion.

Photo Credit: Amazon

5. Time to listen.

Photo Credit: Amazon

6. Always does.

Photo Credit: Amazon

7. Doesn’t feel safe.

Photo Credit: Amazon

8. Are you part of the problem?

Photo Credit: Amazon

9. Love rage.

Photo Credit: Amazon

10. So-called allies.

Photo Credit: Amazon

What do you think? Feel like 2020?

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A Homeless Mother Went to Jail for Enrolling Her Son in the Wrong School District

You’ve heard all about the college cheating scandal in the news – a bunch of super rich people and celebrities paid to get their average kids into Ivy-caliber schools – but for most of the country, there was little surprise that the education system (higher or otherwise) is rigged to favor the wealthy.

This case, in which a homeless woman was arrested and forced to spend time in jail simply for putting her son in a public school (which, in theory, are for everyone), really drives that point home for people still unsure how wealth inequality in America works.

In 2011, Tanya McDowell was a homeless mother in Bridgeport, Connecticut, when she was charged with first-degree larceny for enrolling her son Andrew in a Norwalk, Connecticut, kindergarten class.

McDowell says that though she and her son slept in a Bridgeport apartment at night, during the day they lived in her van or visited shelters for food.

She took a plea deal and received five years in prison (she served them concurrently with a sentence stemming from charges of selling drugs to support herself and her son), but only regrets part of what she did.

“Who would have thought that wanting a good education for my son would put me in this predicament? I have no regrets seeking a better education for him. I do regret my participation in this drug case.”

McDowell isn’t alone, either, according to New York City public defender Rebecca J. Kavanagh.

“In Ohio, Kelley Williams-Bolar was charged for lying about her residency to get her child into a better school and ordered to pay restitution of $30,000. When she did’t pay it she was sent to jail for 15 days.”

Since all public schools aren’t created equal, the practice of using friends and family’s addresses to enroll children in a “better” school district isn’t all that uncommon. It’s hard to blame poor communities and communities of color for wanting access to what should be the same for everyone – especially once you learn that white school districts get about $23 billion more in state and local funding than their nonwhite counterparts.

So while people like McDowell spend five years in jail for wanting their children to have what is available to other children, wealthy folks like Felicity Huffman get off with a slap on the wrist.

Kavanagh says this type of injustice is fairly common.

“This is really just an extension of what people do to get admitted to university already – donating money to buy buildings and fund endowments. The line between legal and illegal, donation and bribe, is blurred.”

She’s also quick to remind us that, regardless of Huffman’s (and others) sentence in this latest “scandal,” McDowell and those like her have suffered an injustice.

“While there is a part of us that may feel some sense of vindication at the idea of these parents serving five years in prison because Tanya McDowell served five years in prison when she was so much more deserving, that’s not justice. Justice is for Tanya McDowell to have never been charged, convicted, or sent to prison and to have the same educational opportunity for her son as these parents have for their children.”

As for McDowell, she hopes that things will be different for others – including her own son – in the future.

“I’m not only doing it for Andrew. I’m doing it for any other parent, any other child out there that has the potential to succeed and excel at a certain level and is just being deprived, period. My son exceeded all of my expectations.”

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