Activism

OPINION: How to Have a Happy New Year in 2024

Just before the Christmas holiday, Donald Trump was on the campaign trail in Iowa denouncing immigrants. “They’re ruining our country. And it’s true, they are destroying the blood of our country,” he said. Trump, the phlebotomist, was talking about the southern border, but the arrivals aren’t just from Mexico, or Central and South America. Increasingly, the border crossers have been Asian, particularly from China and India. He’s talking about all of us “others.”

Published

1 year ago

January 1, 2024

Oakland Post

Photo: iStock photo image.

By Emil Guillermo

This holiday season, I extend to you the gift of history.

But, first, consider the stark contrast in the recent immigration-speak between the two candidates who will more than likely be contesting for the U.S presidency in 2024: President Joseph R. Biden and former President Donald J. Trump.

There’s Biden. Then, there’s that other guy, the twice impeached, quadruple-indicted, former president who seems intent on driving the U.S. into full-speed reverse mode.

That would be the desire of Donald Trump, who as Liz Cheney says, has America sleepwalking into dictatorship.

Don’t think it can’t happen. Seventy percent of Republicans say, despite Trump’s criminality, they would rather see him return to the White House, according to a recent New York Times/Sienna College poll.

Good for them, bad for America.

There’s still enough time to reverse the reversal before Trump actually debases American democracy.

TRUMP’S VIEW ON IMMIGRANTS

Just before the Christmas holiday, Donald Trump was on the campaign trail in Iowa, denouncing immigrants. “They’re ruining our country. And it’s true, they are destroying the blood of our country,” he said.

Trump, the phlebotomist, was talking about the southern border, but the arrivals aren’t just from Mexico, or Central and South America. Increasingly, the border crossers have been Asian, particularly from China and India.

He’s talking about all of us “others.”

Compare Trump’s hate speech with the public statement Biden made on Dec. 17.

That day, President Biden honored Chinese immigrants by remembering the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first and only major law that barred a specific national group from immigrating to the U.S.

Even when the Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, some restrictions remained. Chinese may not have faced wholesale exclusion, but Chinese immigration was limited to just over 100 people a year. The racist quota was in place until the Hart-Cellar Act gave the U.S. the immigration reform needed in 1965.

“The Act, along with racism and xenophobia in other parts of American life, was part of the anti-Chinese “Driving Out” era which included the Rock Springs and Hells Canyon Massacre,” Biden added.

In Rock Springs, Wyoming, in 1882, at least 28 Chinese miners were killed and 15 injured by angry White miners who feared the Chinese were taking their jobs. Rioters then went on to burn down 80 homes in Rock Springs’ Chinatown.

Five years later in 1887, Oregon’s Hells Canyon Massacre, also known as the Snake River Massacre, saw 30 Chinese laborers gunned down by a gang of White horse thieves.

No one was ever held to account.

President Biden cared enough about that history when he remembered the anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

“Today, there are those who still demonize immigrants and fan the flames of intolerance,” Biden said in his statement. “It’s wrong. I ran for President to restore the soul of America. To bring people together and make sure we give hate no safe harbor.”

You want a Happy New Year? Let’s put the present in an historical context and keep moving forward, with undeniable clarity — together.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a micro-talk show on YouTube.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

6 days ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.