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VOLUME 98 - NUMBER 31
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2019
TELEPHONE 919-682-2913
PRICE 50 CENTS
Trump tweets,
stays out of
sight for hours
after shootings
By Jonathan Lemire
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) - As the nation reeled from two mass
shootings in less than a day, President Donald Trump spent the first
hours after the tragedies out of sight at his New Jersey golf course,
sending out tweets of support awkwardly mixed in with those pro
moting a celebrity fight and attacking his political foes.
Americans did not glimpse the Republican president in the im
mediate aftermath of a shooting in El Paso, Texas, that killed at least
20 people and, hours later, one in Dayton, Ohio, that claimed at least
nine lives. Not until Trump and the first lady prepared to fly back to
Washington in the late afternoon Sunday did he appear before cam
eras.
“Hate has no place in our country, and we’re going to take care of
it,” Trump declared before boarding Air Force One.
While connecting “hate” and mental illness to the shootings,
Trump made no direct mention of gun laws, a factor brought up by
Democratic officials and those seeking their party’s nomination to
challenge Trump’s reelection next year. He also ignored questions
about the anti-immigration language in a manifesto written by the El
Paso shooter that mirrors some of his own.
Trump tried to assure Americans he was dealing with the problem
and defended his administration in light of criticism following the
latest in a string of mass shootings.
“We have done much more than most administrations,” he said,
without elaboration. “We have done actually a lot. But perhaps more
has to be done.”
Never seemingly comfortable consoling a nation in grief, Trump
will be carefully watched for his response to the attacks, again invit
ing comparison to his predecessors who have tried to heal the country
in moments of national trauma.
Investigators focused on whether the El Paso attack was a hate
crime after the emergence of a racist, anti-immigrant screed that was
posted online shortly beforehand. Detectives sought to determine if it
was written by the man who was arrested.
In recent weeks, the president has issued racist tweets about four
women of color who serve in Congress, and in rallies has spoken
of an “invasion” at the southern border. His reelection strategy has
placed racial animus at the forefront in an effort that his aides say is
designed to activate his base of conservative voters, an approach not
seen by an American president in the modern era.
Trump also has been widely criticized for offering a false equiva
lency when discussing racial violence, notably when he said there
were “very fine people, on both sides,” after a white supremacist rally
in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the death of an anti-rac
ism demonstrator.
The shootings will likely complicate that strategy, and Democrats
who are campaigning to deny Trump a second term were quick to lay
blame at the president’s feet.
“You reap what you sow, and he is sowing seeds of hate in this
country. This harvest of hate violence we’re seeing right now lies at
his feet,” Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said on NBC’s “Meet the
Press.” “He is responsible.”
White House aides said the president has been receiving updates
about both shootings.
“The FBI, local and state law enforcement are working together
in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio,” Trump tweeted Sunday morning.
“God bless the people of El Paso Texas. God bless the people of Day-
ton, Ohio.”
His first tweet after the El Paso shooting on Saturday hit similar
notes, with Trump calling it “terrible” and promising the full sup
port of the federal government. But just 14 minutes later, he tweeted
again, a discordant post wishing UFC fighter Colby Covington, a
Trump supporter, good luck in his fight that evening. That was soon
followed up with a pair of retweets of African American supporters
offering testimonials to Trump’s policies helping black voters, though
the president polls very poorly with black people.
Trump’s two eldest sons attended the UFC fight, while social me
dia photos show that Trump stopped by a wedding at his Bedminster
club on Saturday night.
The motive for the Dayton shooting, which happened in a pop
ular nightlife district, was not immediately known. But Democrats
pointed to the El Paso attack and blamed Trump for his incendiary
rhetoric about immigrants that they say fosters an atmosphere of hate
and violence.
Federal officials said they were treating the El Paso attack as a
domestic terrorism case. ' 1
Trump’s language about immigrants, and his hardline policies,
loomed over the El Paso shooting.
He has described groups of immigrants as “infestations,” declared
in his campaign kickoff that many of those coming from Mexico were
“rapists,” deemed a caravan of Hispanic migrants as invaders and
wondered why the United States accepted so many immigrants from
“shithole countries” like Haiti, El Salvador and African nations. Crit
ics also point to his campaign proposal to ban all Muslims from en
tering the United States, his suggestion that President Barack Obama
was not born in the United States and his administration’s efforts to
curtail asylum and separate immigrant children from their parents at
the border.
The president also has repeatedly been denounced for being slow
to criticize acts of violence carried out by white nationalists, or deem
them acts of domestic terrorism, most notably when he declared there
were good people on “both sides” of the deadly clash in Charlottes
ville in 2017. The number of hate groups has surged to record highs
under Trump’s presidency, according to the Southern Poverty Law
Center.
“He is encouraging this. He doesn’t just tolerate it; he encourages
it. Folks are responding to this. It doesn’t just offend us, it encourages
the kind of violence that we’re seeing, including in my home town
of El Paso yesterday,” former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a 2020 Demo
cratic contender, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He is an open,
avowed racist and is encouraging more racism in this country. And
this is incredibly dangerous for the United States of America right
now.”
Pulitzer Prize Winning novelist Alice Walker.
Alice Walker: Hometown Celebrates
Literary Legends 75th Birthday
By Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D.,
NNPA Newswire Culture and Entertainment Editor
Alice Walker, one ofthe premiere writers ofthe 20th Century, was honored in July by
her hometown of Eatonton, GA for her 75th Birthday (Alice Walker 75). Hundreds of
people flocked from all over the country to Walker’s birthplace to celebrate the birthday
of the Pulitzer Prize winning author.
The activist, who was born February 9, 1944 in Eatonton left in 1961 to attend Spel
man College, eventually enrolling at Sarah Lawrence College due to controversy sur
rounding her political activism at Spelman.
Walker’s legacy of activism and storytelling was on full display at the event, which
was held at the Georgia Writers Museum and included a day of activities and events
to honor Walker’s life and achievements. The event was co-chaired by award-winning
author Valerie Boyd, editor of Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice
Walker, which will be released in 2020 and Lou Benjamin, founder of Eatonton’s Briar
Patch Arts Council.
Walker, who lived just outside of town, acknowledged this was the first time she had
been to Eatonton and was unaware the Plaza Arts Center existed, which is where many
of the festivities were held.
The day kicked off with a screening and discussion of the American Masters Docu
mentary, Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth followed by a discussion with the filmmaker
Pratibha Parmar and scholar Salamisha Tillet at The Plaza Arts Center.
Celebrants were able to take bus tours of the area and see Walker’s birthplace while
fellow authors and poets and friends paid tribute to the game changer, who was clearly
touched by the praise, humbly thanking the audience throughout the day of events.
An American Marriage novelist Tayari Jones read from the novel Meridian, poet
Daniel Black read Walkera’s short story “Flowers,’ and poet Kamilah Aisha Moon read
Walker’s poem, “How Poems are Made.” Journalist and author Evelyn C. White of
fered remembrances of friendship and activism and classically trained Gospel violinist
Melanie R. Hill performed a medley of songs honoring the legend.
Perhaps the most poignant part of the program was when Walker’s daughter Rebecca,
read several pieces including “Now That Book Is Finished,” a poem Walker wrote
about Rebecca when she was a child. Rebecca’s son Tenzin, 14, performed an original
song he composed entitled, “Sun and Steam,” which he played beautifully on the piano.
Rebecca Walker’s words, expressions of love and gratitude to her mother and Tenzin’s
performance were symbolic ofthe reconciliation between Walker and her daughter who
had been estranged during a difficult period. Walkera€™s former husband Melvyn R.
Levanthal was also in attendance.
The special birthday celebration ended with Walker taking the stage of The Plaza Arts
Center for a candid conversation with Boyd, author of the award-winning biography
Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. Walker and Boyd’ “ended with
an invitation for all attendees to take the stage and dance with the celebrated author to
two of her favorite songs, “Rock Steady,” by Aretha Franklin and - by Stevie Wonder,
concluding a lovely day of celebration of one of the 20th Century’s greatest writers.
This article was written by Nsenga K Burton, Ph.D., founder & editor-in-chief of The
Burton Wire. An expert in intersectionality and media industries, Dr. Burton is also a
professor of film and television at Emory University and co-editor ofthe book, Black
Womend€™s Mental Health: Balancing Strength and Vulnerability. Follow her on Twit
ter @Ntellectual or @TheBurton Wire.
Walker s legacy of activism and storytelling was
on full display at the event, which was held at the
Georgia Writers Museum and included a day of
activities and events to honor Walker s life and
achievements.
Sporadic
outages at
Schan and
a new host
after mass
shooting
NEW YORK (AP) - The on-
line message board 8chan suf
fered sporadic outages recently
after its cybersecurity provider
cut it off for what it called a
“cesspool of hate” following
mass shootings in Texas and
Ohio.
But the board, which has a
history of use by violent ex
tremists, also quickly found a
new online host. That company
also provides such support for
Gab.com, another social me
dia site frequented by white
supremacists that doesn’t ban
hate speech.
Schan was up and down
after the security company
Cloudflare said it would no
longer provide services that
protect web sites from denial-
of-service attacks that can
make them unreachable.
The operators of Schan said
there might be downtime in the
next one or two days as the site
sought a solution, and online
records indicated the site had
been moved to a new domain
host: Sammamish, Washing
ton-based web services provid
er Epik.com.
The company bills itself on
its site as “the Swiss bank of
domains.” Epik.com did not
immediately respond to re
quests sent by email and via
LinkedIn
Police are investigating
commentary posted on Schan
and believed to have been writ
ten by the suspect in a shooting
that killed 20 people in El Paso,
Texas.
If there is a connection, it
would be the third known in
stance of a shooter posting to
the site before going on a ram
page following mass shootings
at two New Zealand mosques
in the spring, and another at a
California synagogue.
The suspect in El Paso “ap
pears to have been inspired”
by discussions on Schan, said
Cloudflare CEO Matthew
Prince in a blog post on his
company’s site. He said a sus
pect in an earlier shooting at a
synagogue in Poway, Califor
nia, also posted a “hate-filled
’open letter’” on Schan, as did
the mosque attacker in Christ
church, New Zealand.
“Schan has repeatedly
proven itself to be a cesspool
of hate,” wrote Prince. “They
have proven themselves to be
lawless and that lawlessness
has caused multiple tragic
deaths.”
Prince acknowledged that
little can be done under current
rules to silence sites like Schan.
Two years ago, Cloudflare
terminated service to the Daily
Stormer, a neo-Nazi and white
supremacist site.
“Today, the Daily Stormer is
still available and still disgust
ing,” Prince wrote. “They have
bragged that they have more
readers than ever. They are no
longer Cloudflare’s problem, but
they remain the Internet’s prob
lem.”
In fact, the Daily Stormer’s
new security provider, BitMiti-
gate, was purchased in Febru
ary by Epik.com , whose CEO
is Robert Monster of Bellevue,
Washington.
In November, Monster de
fended in a blog post his com
pany’s decision to host Gab.com
after its previous domain host,
GoDaddy, dropped it.