“Be careful, and stay safe.” As I sat on my 42-minute flight from the Eastern Iowa Airport to Minneapolis-St. Paul, I replayed these words said in the days leading up to my trip. Everyone from my parents to the Little Village news director seemed to think I was entering a warzone by visiting the Twin […]
racism
Posted inCommunity/News
Protesters march to City Councilmember Pauline Taylor’s house, insist on abolishing the police
Following their march to Coralville on Thursday, where a line of law enforcement officers under the command of the Iowa State Patrol blocked them from reaching I-80, the Iowa Freedom Riders adopted a new tactic. Instead of marching to the highway, or making a circuit of downtown Iowa City, the IFR started leading protesters to […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: The greatest public safety threat to Black Americans is racism
By Laura Wang When New York City became the world epicenter of COVID-19 in mid-March, the country turned its gaze inward. The only news was coronavirus news, and Americans were a captive audience as we stayed home and watched the case numbers and death toll tick higher and the stock market plummet. Everything was unprecedented, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Protest organizers in Iowa City name themselves the Iowa Freedom Riders, present a list of 13 demands
Over the last week, the protests against racism and police violence in Iowa City that start at the Pentacrest and move through town have attracted the most public attention, and with good reason. Those marches have led to stand-offs with law enforcement officers, including one on Wednesday night during which an Iowa State Patrol officer […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Protesters in Iowa City march to I-80 on Friday night, sing in memory of Breonna Taylor
After almost a full week of extraordinary protests against racism and police violence in Iowa City, sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, much of what happened at the protest on Friday night felt somewhat familiar. A crowd of hundreds gathered at the Pentacrest to remember the victims of […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Coralville is quiet, one glass panel is broken in Iowa City as protests over racism and police violence continue
People gathered in front of the Coralville Police Department on Monday to protest racism and police violence, and express solidarity with others around the country moved to action following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. Some held signs, some chanted, some chalked messages on the sidewalk. Even though the protest was peaceful, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Coralville imposes a curfew, which Gov. Reynolds says are needed to stop ‘distractors’ from causing chaos
The city of Coralville announced a curfew on Monday afternoon, in response to a confrontation between the police and a crowd of approximately 150 near Coral Ridge Mall on Sunday night, as well as other acts of vandalism and theft that occurred. According to the Coralville Police Chief Shane Kron the persons involved in the […]
Posted inCOVID-19
‘When is enough enough?’ Hundreds gather in Iowa City to remember George Floyd and other victims of racism and police violence
It was obvious before you reached the Pentacrest on Saturday that the protest rally scheduled for noon was going to be different. Clinton Street was blocked off from Washington to Jefferson, and a traffic barrier at Dubuque Street kept cars off Iowa Avenue. The streets weren’t blocked for a march, but to allow the hundreds […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Additional security around black beauty products at Iowa City Walmart draws criticism
Finding herself low on hair products, Tarweeh Osman decided to make a 10 p.m. Walmart run on Thursday, Nov. 14. But when she walked into the health and beauty department at the Iowa City Walmart (919 Hwy 1 W), she couldn’t find what she was looking for. “I noticed that the ‘multicultural’ subsection in the hair products aisle was missing, so I
Posted inCommunity/News
Guns, fascism, infighting and couch-surfing: Researcher Serena Tarr recounts a year studying the alt-right
On March 4, 2018, after following around Richard Spencer and his alt-right entourage for months, Serena Tarr found herself in Michigan for the Foundation for the Marketplace of Ideas conference, organized by Kyle Bristow, the white nationalist attorney who used to sue colleges that rejected requests for Spencer to speak. But due to public pressure and possibly death threats, Bristow backed out at the last minute, and the “conference” was relocated to a house in Ann Arbor. Tarr followed.
Posted inCommunity/News
Steve King brings national attention to Iowa by retweeting a British neo-Nazi
Like many Iowans, the national media has grown so used to Rep. Steve King tweeting racist, xenophobic or just odd things that it takes a special tweet by King to attract attention. The eight-term Western Iowa congressman managed to serve up such a tweet on Tuesday. On its surface this tweet isn’t as arresting as his Monday tweet in which he decried a Swedish youth soccer program’s effort to accommodate players who don’t eat pork as a sign of that rightwing fantasy “the Muslim conquest of Europe,” while at the same time promoting Iowa’s pork industry.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Mission Creek headliner Cakes da Killa pushes back against racism and homophobia on the streets of Iowa City
Brooklyn rapper Cakes da Killa, in town for the Mission Creek Festival, experienced verbal harrassment after his show Thursday night, Afropunk reported. Their story followed a video Cakes da Killa posted on his Instagram around 4 a.m. Friday, showing the artist chasing an unknown individual down Burlington Street.
