Shayne Holland was asked to leave the pool in his own apartment complex Friday. When he showed proof of residency, an off-duty cop snatched his keys. Video shows both the cop and the property manager ordering him out. He is black; they are white.

"She didn't introduce herself, she didn't say hello," said Holland. "She says, 'do you live here?' I'm like, 'yes, I live here, I wouldn't be here if I didn't live here.'"

Holland said the woman pressed him further, asking him to tell her exactly where he lived.

"I'm like, 'I live over there, but if you're asking me for my address, I mean, I don't feel comfortable giving you my entire address without knowing who you are."

Holland said he showed the woman his key fob, which he used to get into the pool and the woman grabbed it out of his hand.

After a while, Holland said his property manager came out, recognized him, and still asked him to leave.

It's understandable if an upscale Indianapolis housing development like River Crossing is full of racists (or managed by one), but the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer acting badge-out as their henchman is another thing entirely. Read the rest

Liane Hornsey, Uber's HR chief, quit Tuesday after an investigation into racial discrimination found she "systematically dismissed internal complaints" about racism there.

The allegations raise questions about Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi’s efforts to change the toxic culture of the firm after he took over in August last year from former CEO Travis Kalanick following a series of scandals.

Khosrowshahi praised Hornsey in an email to employees, which was seen by Reuters, as “incredibly talented, creative, and hard-working.” He gave no reason for her departure. The allegations against her and Uber’s human resources department more broadly were made by an anonymous group that claims to be Uber employees of color, members of the group told Reuters.

They alleged Hornsey had used discriminatory language and made derogatory comments about Uber Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion Bernard Coleman, and had denigrated and threatened former Uber executive Bozoma Saint John, who left the company in June.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and as a midnight snack.

Photo: Uber handout. Read the rest

Seth Grossman is a white supremacist pundit who is now the GOP nominee for Congress in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District. Read the rest

More horrifying news from Donald Trump's racist 'zero tolerance' war on brown asylum seekers. Read the rest

Oregon State Representative Janelle Bynum, who is running for reelection, was canvassing in Clackamas County when one of her constituents called the police. Why? According to Bynum's Facebook post, the resident thought she was acting suspiciously "going door to door and spending a lot of time typing on (her) cell phone after each house."

She praised the deputy who responded for being professional, and said she asked him if she could meet the woman who made the call, but she was not available.

"The officer called her, we talked and she did apologize," Bynum said, without specifying the race of the caller.

(CNN) Read the rest

“I am requesting to reunite with my child...”

The Southern Poverty Law Center says this is a form some of their clients who have been detained under Donald Trump's racist “zero tolerance” program have been presented with, to request that ICE give back their children. Read the rest

“Every family is holy.” Read the rest

Remember when the words "shithole country" erupted from Trump's oozing, racist mouth-hole? Yeah, so does everyone else. Read the rest

A while back, I wrote about Faces of Auschwitz: a website dedicated to telling the stories of the prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp. It’s a passion project I’ve been collaborating on with photo colorist extraordinaire Marina Amaral, the Auschwitz Memorial & Museum and an amazing team of academics, videographers and other specialists.

For the past few months, we’ve been hard at work preparing content for the site while the good people at WordPress built us a fabulous online home. This past week, it all came together. The Faces of Auschwitz website is now live. You can check it out, here.

At a time when the politics of hate have once again found sway on the world stage and concentration camps have sprung into being at an alarming speed, we need to talk about how hate, bigotry and fear of the other can lead to tragedy on an unimaginable scale. It’s my opinion that one of the best ways to do this is to cite examples from the past.

KL Auschwitz did not start as a death camp, though all through its history, people did indeed die there. Located in Nazi-occupied Poland, it was initially used to contain Polish political prisoners, Russian POWs and other groups that the Nazis thought were a risk to their bullshit ideologies that they deserved to head up a new world order based on their racial supremacy. Of course, with Nazis being Nazis, it wasn’t long before other groups soon began to arrive at the camp: the Jews, of course, but also, religious leaders, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics, intellectuals, homosexuals, the Roma, and perhaps, worse of all, children. Read the rest

Oakland firefighter Kevin Moore, who is black, was doing vegetation-management inspections, in full uniform, with a radio and identification, when residents became suspicious and called police. According to a supervisor, the fire department sends out pamphlets before the inspections, hosts community meetings, and does everything else they can to spread the word. If nobody is home, the law permits firefighters to conduct an outdoor inspection anyway. One day last month, a resident called the police about Moore and another sent the cops video of Moore ringing a doorbell to do an inspection. Then last week, it happened again. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

As Moore was finishing up, he said he turned around to find the resident outside near the front steps of the house, video-recording him on a cell phone.

“He kind of startled me,” Moore said. “He says, ‘Well, what are you doing here?’ I say, ‘We’re here doing our annual vegetation inspection.’ Then he asks for ID. I say no problem. He takes a picture of my ID and says I need to get a different one. I’ve had that ID for years. It’s kind of dark, and I’m more of a dark-skinned black guy, but you can still see me.”

Moore said he suggested that if the resident were still concerned, he could simply look out onto the street where “a big red fire engine is right there.”

photo: @OaklandFireLive Read the rest

'Disease outbreaks and a lack of medical personnel await those imprisoned in Victorville, California.' Prison staff in Victorville say immigrant detainees are treated like 'cockroaches.' There's already an outbreak of scabies and a case of chicken pox among the detainees. Read the rest

An internal document shows the U.S. Navy has developed a plan to construct 'austere' tent cities capable of holding tens of thousands of immigration detainees on remote bases in California, Alabama and Arizona. Read the rest

Don't despair. Take action. Read the rest

“Toddlers are being detained.” Read the rest

She picks a Mexican restaurant. The irony is not lost on anyone.

Read the rest

In case you thought that kidnapping babies would awaken the moral consciences of Trump supporters, be told: Trump's approval rating hit its all-time peak on Monday, with 45% of Americans saying he is doing a good job. The administration is said to be planning even harsher measures before the midterms, including indefinite incarceration of kidnapped children. (via Naked Capitalism) Read the rest

"Well, we have an orchestra here. What’s missing is a conductor." That's the voice of a Border Patrol official, mocking a sobbing group of 10 terrified Central American children who've been separated from their parents at a US border-crossing. Read the rest