Terence Crutcher Case Heads to Jury. SCOTUS Race Case. Senators Press 2020 Election Truth
Quick Read
Summary
Takeaways
- ❖The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that police officer Betty Shelby is not entitled to qualified immunity, allowing the Terence Crutcher family's wrongful death lawsuit to proceed after a 10-year battle.
- ❖A Mississippi death penalty case before the Supreme Court highlights a pattern of racial discrimination in jury selection by the same prosecutor and judge, echoing a prior overturned conviction.
- ❖Former President Trump signed an executive order limiting mail-in voting, which panelists deemed unconstitutional and an attempt to rig elections, despite his own use of mail-in ballots.
- ❖Trump's judicial nominees repeatedly evaded questions about the 2020 election winner and the January 6th Capitol attack during Senate hearings, demonstrating a lack of independence.
- ❖A new report, 'The Ultimate Overcomers,' reveals that 70% of Black women entrepreneurs lost $100,000 or more in revenue due to anti-DEI policies, with 68% experiencing growth delays.
- ❖The B Collective and Aramenta Project are building an 'economic ecosystem' for Black women businesses, focusing on internal commerce, capital aggregation for acquisitions, and a legal defense fund to combat discriminatory policies.
- ❖Georgia State Representative Tanya Miller is campaigning to become Georgia's first Black woman Attorney General, emphasizing the AG's crucial role in defending voting rights and challenging federal overreach.
Insights
1Qualified Immunity Denied in Terence Crutcher Case
The United States 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a previous dismissal, ruling that former Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby is not entitled to qualified immunity. This decision allows the Crutcher family's wrongful death lawsuit to proceed against Shelby personally, a decade after the unarmed Terence Crutcher was shot and killed.
Attorney Deario Solomon Simmons stated, 'Our case was dismissed. It was revived yesterday by the 10th circuit and a powerful opinion and we are excited about this opportunity to finally get some justice for the Crutcher family.'
2Trump's Executive Order on Mail-in Voting Deemed Unconstitutional and Politically Motivated
Former President Trump signed an executive order attempting to limit mail-in voting by directing the postal service to only send ballots to an 'approved list of voters' and suggesting individual barcodes for each ballot. Panelists criticized this as an unconstitutional, hypocritical, and desperate attempt to rig future elections, noting its inevitable legal challenges and the lack of fraud in mail-in voting.
Roland Martin called it an 'unconstitutional order.' Nicole Robinson stated, 'He has used mail-in voting himself. His own constituents use mail-in voting. So nobody wants this... We know that there is no fraud in mail-in voting.'
3SCOTUS Hears Case on Racial Bias in Jury Selection
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in 'Pitchford v. Kaine,' a Mississippi death penalty case challenging racial discrimination in jury selection. The case involves a prosecutor who eliminated four Black potential jurors, despite the county being 40% Black, and has a history of similar misconduct that led to a previous Supreme Court conviction overturn.
Roland Martin highlighted, 'The fact that the same prosecutor, the same judge in this previous case are being challenged here.' The defense argued the trial court failed to properly apply Batson v. Kentucky, which prohibits race-based peremptory strikes.
4Anti-DEI Policies Devastate Black Women-Owned Businesses
A new report, 'The Ultimate Overcomers,' details the severe economic impact of anti-DEI policies on Black women entrepreneurs. The study found 70% of participants lost $100,000 or more in revenue, with 68% experiencing delays or cancellations of planned business growth due to policy shifts and a 'chilling effect' in corporate America.
Nick Colbert Johnson stated, 'The report found 53% of black women entrepreneurs in the study reported losing contracts or clients with 70% of black women-owned business owners reporting losses of $100,000 or more in revenue.'
5Judicial Nominees Evade Questions on 2020 Election and January 6th
During Senate confirmation hearings, several Trump judicial nominees provided evasive, 'canned' responses when asked directly who won the 2020 election and if the U.S. Capitol was attacked on January 6th, 2021. Senators criticized their refusal to acknowledge basic facts as a fundamental lack of independence and impartiality required for federal judges.
Senator Blumenthal noted, 'You tweeted on January 6th in a post saying in reference to the 2020 election results, a certify lie is still a lie. I'm asking you, who won the 2020 election?' The nominees consistently responded by referencing constitutional processes without stating a winner.
Bottom Line
The 'defunding of Black America' through the dismantling of DEI infrastructure extends beyond direct DEI jobs, impacting a vast economic ecosystem of Black-owned businesses, nonprofits, and their employees through reduced government contracts, grants, and corporate engagement.
This broader understanding reveals that attacks on DEI are not just about specific roles but a systemic effort to economically disenfranchise Black communities, requiring a more holistic and collective response.
Black entrepreneurs and organizations must proactively build and strengthen internal economic ecosystems, fostering inter-business commerce and creating legal defense funds to challenge discriminatory policies with empirical data on damages.
The strategic use of 'states' rights' by Democratic Attorneys General, many of whom are African American, is emerging as a powerful tool to push back against federal overreach and defend civil liberties, a significant inversion of its historical association with discrimination.
This reappropriation of a historically problematic legal concept demonstrates an evolving legal strategy that can protect marginalized communities and advance progressive agendas, particularly in states with strong Democratic AGs.
Progressive movements should prioritize electing more Democratic Attorneys General and support their collaborative efforts to challenge federal policies, leveraging state-level legal power to safeguard voting rights, consumer protections, and other critical issues.
Opportunities
Build Internal Economic Ecosystems for Minority Businesses
Create and scale networks like the B Collective, where Black women entrepreneurs intentionally do business with one another, aggregate capital for acquisitions, and collectively go to market. This fosters resilience against external discriminatory policies and drives internal wealth creation.
Develop a Legal Defense Fund for Businesses Impacted by Discriminatory Policies
Establish a fund to support legal challenges against anti-DEI or other discriminatory policies that cause measurable economic harm to minority-owned businesses. This requires collecting comprehensive data on damages to build strong legal cases.
Acquisition-Focused Business Growth for Minority Entrepreneurs
Shift focus from solely starting new businesses to acquiring existing, cash-flow positive businesses, especially from retiring owners. This strategy allows for immediate scale, preserves legacy, and can be supported by aggregated capital from within a collective.
Symbolic Jewelry with Social Mission and Community Reinvestment
Create a jewelry brand where each piece carries an inspiring message or symbol, directly linking sales to community reinvestment initiatives like affordable housing or educational programs in impoverished areas. This builds a brand around purpose and impact.
Key Concepts
Economic Ecosystem
This model describes the interconnected network of small businesses, nonprofits, employees, and vendors within a community, illustrating how policies impacting one part (e.g., government contracts or grants) create a 'downflow' effect, influencing revenue, employment, and community donations. The B Collective exemplifies building a resilient internal economic ecosystem among Black women entrepreneurs.
White Backlash
This historical pattern suggests that periods of significant Black success are often followed by a 'white backlash,' leading to policies or actions designed to undermine or reverse that progress. The anti-DEI policies impacting Black women's businesses are framed as a contemporary example of this phenomenon, necessitating collective and intentional counter-strategies.
Lessons
- Support Black-owned businesses and initiatives like the Black Star Network and the B Collective to strengthen internal economic ecosystems and combat the 'defunding of Black America.'
- Actively participate in local and state elections, focusing on races for District Attorneys and Attorneys General, as these officials hold significant power in ensuring fairness in the justice system and defending civil rights.
- Educate yourself and others on the full scope of 'DEI infrastructure' beyond just jobs, understanding how attacks on DEI impact contracting, grants, and funding for HBCUs and nonprofits, and advocate against such policies.
Building Economic Resilience for Black Women Entrepreneurs
**Foster Internal Commerce:** Prioritize doing business with other Black women-owned enterprises within a collective to circulate capital and create a self-sustaining economic loop.
**Aggregate Capital for Strategic Acquisitions:** Pool resources to acquire existing, successful businesses, particularly those whose owners are retiring, to ensure continuity, expand market share, and build generational wealth.
**Develop Legal Defense & Advocacy:** Collect robust empirical data on the economic damages caused by discriminatory policies (e.g., anti-DEI) to build strong legal cases and establish a legal defense fund to fight offensive battles in court.
**Expand Internationally:** Explore and intentionally pursue business opportunities in global markets, especially in regions like Africa, where there is a demand for exceptional businesses and less susceptibility to domestic discriminatory policies.
**Provide Education & Pipeline Development:** Offer training and mentorship for aspiring entrepreneurs and displaced professionals, guiding them in establishing successful contracting or IT businesses and connecting them with solid business practices.
Notable Moments
Trump's judicial nominees repeatedly evaded direct questions about who won the 2020 election and whether the Capitol was attacked on January 6th during Senate confirmation hearings.
This demonstrated a profound lack of independence, impartiality, and willingness to acknowledge basic facts, raising serious concerns about their fitness for lifetime judicial appointments and the integrity of the judiciary.
Quotes
"Qualified immunity does not appear in the constitution. Qualified immunity is not in the statute... Qualified immunity was something that was created by the courts back in the early 1980s and it's used as a shield to protect cops that do wrongdoing so they cannot be held accountable."
"This is another tactic that they are using to try to rig the next election. They want to be able to throw out votes on mass... He is desperate to hold on to power any way that we can. This man lies. This man cheats. This man steals. And that's exactly what he's trying to do with this next election."
"If you study the history of black people in this country, there's never been a period of black success that was not followed by white backlash."
"My predicament doesn't determine my destiny. And those powerful words kind of lived within me... I could follow my inner light or I could follow what's around me and become what's around me. And I start to choose that inner light."
Q&A
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