Both stories published Friday the 13th.
One in four US Black men under 50 support Trump for president, NAACP poll finds
Patrick Watson, 40, a small business owner in the Chicago suburb of Lisle, said he recorded the October statements by Haley when he was president of the NAACP’s DuPage County branch. The branch also covers the counties of Kane, Kendall and Will, and part of northwest suburban Cook County.
Watson told Illinois Times he had complained to the national NAACP for months about what he called Haley’s disregard for NAACP bylaws on acceptable business practices.
“She tends to create her own facts and creates her own reality,” he said.
Watson also said Haley has engaged in “hate speech against the LGBTQ community.”
He said Haley, in a November monthly video meeting with Illinois NAACP officials, questioned national NAACP officials’ use of “they” and “them” pronouns preferred by certain staff members. According to Watson, Haley said, “What the hell is that?”
Watson said he resigned from his post on Dec. 12 in protest of Haley’s conduct and requested her resignation. That same day, he notified the media about Haley’s October comments and provided an approximately two-minute section of a recording of the two-hour-long video meeting.
“I could no longer be a part of the organization,” he said. “Hate has no home in the organization.”
Watson said he also notified the national NAACP and the media because Haley is campaigning to be named to the NAACP’s national board of directors in an internal election taking place in December and culminating at the end of the month.
In the video clip, Haley talked about immigrants who have been bused to Chicago and other Northern cities from the U.S. border with Mexico.
Apparently in response to comments made by other people on the call, Haley said Peoria, Springfield and other cities should prepare for immigrants wanting services and noted that cities are being more eager and generous about finding immigrants safe housing than they have in serving low-income Black people.
“But Black people have been on the streets for ever and ever, and nobody cares because they say that we’re drug addicts, we’ve got mental health issues. But these immigrants who come over here, they’ve been raping people, they’ve been breaking into homes, they’re like savages as well. They don’t speak the language, and they look at us like we were crazy because we were the only people in America who were brought over here against our wills and were slaves, sold into slavery.
“But everybody else who comes over here? We’re so kind, we’re so friendly. You need some clothes, you need a place to stay? We’re gonna make it happen. So brother, I feel your pain. I’m right there with you. I’m trying not to be a (N-word), but you know I’m pro-Black.”
Pritzker called Haley’s comments on the video “reprehensible” and told the news media he hoped she would apologize.
The governor said “people should recognize that immigrants in this country are all around us” and “virtually all of us came here from somewhere else. So remarks like that are commentary on our entire society.”
Pritzker’s press office didn’t respond when asked what the Democratic governor thought about Haley’s apology.
Watson said he doubted the sincerity of Haley’s apology because she directed it to “anyone who may have been hurt or offended.”
Watson called the national NAACP’s suspension of Haley “a great first step to begin the healing of the community to show there’s no hate in the organization.”
The Dec. 14 statement from the Illinois NAACP said Watson received “an unprecedented and embarrassing ‘vote of no confidence’ by his branch members on Nov. 14.”
But Watson said such votes are not provided for in NAACP bylaws. He said the alleged vote apparently was conducted by a handful of people supporting Haley and didn’t represent a majority of branch members.
Veronica Espina, founder and president of the Springfield Immigrant Advocacy Network, didn’t comment on Haley’s apology or suspension but said she was “sad and upset” after hearing Haley’s taped comments.
“It’s not just disappointing. It’s hurtful,” Espina said.
“The NAACP has a history of supporting immigrants and refugees in this country,” she said, adding that low-income Black people and immigrants often live in the same neighborhoods and share the same concerns and challenges.
“We need to stop using the lens of ‘them vs. us,’” Espina said, adding that those who oppress marginalized groups benefit when those groups criticize each other.
“They divide and conquer,” Espina said. “It’s a way of thinking we need to reject. There are resources out there.”
A joint statement from the network and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said the groups rejected Haley’s comments on the video:
“Divisive rhetoric damages communities. It reinforced harmful stereotypes, which, in turn, hurt entire groups of people. Apologies must include strategies to begin dialogue, deliberate actions to repair relationships and commitment to share accurate information.”
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.
https://www.illinoistimes.com/news-opinion/haley-suspended-by-naacp-17819921
From the story:
Canceling $10,000 per borrower would cost around $321 billion and completely forgive the loans of about one-third of student loan borrowers.
This is all BS, of course. Millions of those borrowers can afford to pay off their loans themselves.
Student loans are another form of welfare for far too many borrowers of color, who dig themselves into a deep hole with government and education establishment encouragement and never get a degree, both of which also profit off the scheme. Meanwhile colleges continue to increase the cost of tuition knowing there is a ready source of government loan funding to pay for it.
Forgiving student loan debt without paying attention to income will inevitably be a handout to millions upon millions of high earners like Representative AOC who drives a Tesla Model 3 while reducing the average black loan balance by less than 20%.
If you make over $74k you are in the top 20% of all wage earners in the United States in 2020. You can afford to pay your obligations. AOC is in the top 4% of all wage earners.
Handing $10k in loan forgiveness to American elites isn't a vote-buying scheme. It's a Democrat patronage payment.
