Author: Jakiyah Haywood

Jakiyah Haywood was a Digital Intern at UnmutedCo.

Acting Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli said Sunday that he does not believe that George Floyd’s life would have been spared if he had been white. What We Know: Floyd, a black man, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis last month. His death has sparked nationwide protests against racism and police violence. Asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer if he thought Floyd would still be alive if he were white, Cuccinelli said, “No, I don’t think he would.” “What I heard in that eight-and-a-half minute clip was someone who was a bully, who is…

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After months of coping with the staggering physical and mental health effects of COVID-19, Black people have had to witness the back-to-back deaths of unarmed Black people. What We Know: Those tragedies have encouraged mass protests throughout the country and around the world. Dear Culture Podcast hosts Natasha S. Alford and Todd Johnson sat down with Dr. Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated 5, who was wrongfully convicted in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, in which a white woman was raped and assaulted. Given his personal experience with racism in the criminal justice system and the country’s current state of unrest over racial violence, Dear Culture posed the question to. Dr. Salaam,…

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President Donald Trump, on Thursday, shared a letter on Twitter that referred to the peaceful protesters who were forcibly dispersed from a park near the White House on Monday evening as “terrorists”. What We Know: The letter from veteran attorney and former Trump lawyer John Dowd appears to be addressed to former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and rebuts Mattis’ Wednesday statement castigating Trump’s response to the nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. “The phony protesters near Lafayette were not peaceful and are not real,” Dowd’s letter claimed, without citing any evidence.…

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Finntech CEO, Ryan Williams, stated that the United States is experiencing a “reckoning” over race, justice, and inequality that has been decades in the making. What We Know: “We’ve been hallucinating as a country for a long time,” said Williams, the 32-year-old African American founder of Cadre, a startup disrupting the real estate industry with the support of elite investors including George Soros, Mark Cuban, and Peter Thiel. Williams, who was on the cover of Forbes in February 2019, said the unrest gripping the United States means these long-simmering issues can no longer be ignored. “There are huge opportunity gaps that exist in this…

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A state investigator alleged Thursday that a white man was heard saying a racial slur as he stood over Ahmaud Arbery’s body, moments after fatally shooting the black man with a pump-action shotgun. What We Know: According to ABC 7, in a hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed with a murder trial, the lead Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent in the case testified that Travis and Greg McMichael and a third man in another pickup, William “Roddie” Bryan, used their trucks to chase down and box in Arbery, who repeatedly reversed directions and ran into a ditch…

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Miami-based rapper, Trina, is facing heat online for her comments criticizing protests over police brutality. What We Know: Trina spoke on her radio show with rapper Trick Daddy on Monday morning about the nationwide protests that were sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck. Focusing on the protests in Miami, Trina said that she wants the city to enforce a stricter curfew, which many cities across the US have adopted amid the protests. “They need to make the curfew at 6 pm to 6 am, that’s how I…

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska broke with many of her Republican colleagues Thursday, applauding an op-ed by General James Mattis that condemned President Donald Trump’s actions this week. What We Know: Mattis’ bold approach to holding President Trump accountable is what prompted Murkowski’s actions. “When I saw General Mattis’ comments yesterday I felt like perhaps we are getting to a point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up,” Murkowksi said on Capitol Hill. The comments were a stark contrast to many of her other Republican colleagues…

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Department of Defense adviser, James Miller, has resigned effective immediately, from the military’s science board, citing what he believed to be a violation of conduct from Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. What We Know: In his resignation letter to Esper, James Miller Jr., who served as the US undersecretary of defense for policy from 2012 to 2014, recalled that he swore an oath of office to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” and “to bear true faith and allegiance to the same,” similar to what the defense secretary had done before he took office. “On Monday, June…

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Former Vice President, Joe Biden, met with black leaders at a church in his home state of Delaware on Monday to talk about police brutality, racism, and the impact of the Trump presidency on minority America. What We Know: With his medical mask lowered onto his chin, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee heard the concerns of community leaders in Wilmington about the relationship between police and people of color. He pledged to create a police oversight board within his first 100 days in office, an idea backed by reformers who say a national standard for police behavior is needed. “The…

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Civil rights leaders has condemned Facebook’s inaction on President Donald Trump’s recent series of controversial posts from  following a conversation Monday between their groups and top Facebook execs, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. What We Know: Zuckerberg is setting “a very dangerous precedent,” read a statement from the organizations, which included the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Color of Change. “We are disappointed and stunned by Mark’s incomprehensible explanations for allowing the Trump posts to remain up,” the groups said in their joint statement. “He did not demonstrate understanding…

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