For the first time in March 2014, the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) collected data regarding how early learners are disciplined during the 2011-12 school year.

That report showed that while black children represent 18 percent of preschool enrollment, they accounted for 48 percent of students receiving one or more suspensions. White children, on the other hand, represented over 40 percent of the total enrollment, but a little more than 25 percent of such suspensions.

A suspension involves the removal of a student from school for violations of a school’s code of conduct for one or more days. These violations could vary depending on the state and local school district policies. They could include infractions such as tardiness, dress code violations, failure to follow directions and “willful disobedience.” In public schools, short-term suspensions typically are 10 days or less. More than 10 consecutive days of suspension require greater due process rights.

A March 2016 OCR report shows a continuation of the disturbing trends and disparities of the 2014 report. This time, the OCR provided more data by breaking down preschool suspension rates based upon race and gender. For the 2013-14 year, the report shows that black children attending public preschools were 3.6 times more likely to receive one or more suspension compared to their white counterparts.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/america-racial-inequality-starts-preschool/

For May, there will be no “third way” or “Liberal Conservatism”. She is seen as being to the right of Cameron, who represents the more centre-right element of the party.

We can expect May’s leadership to be defined by the Brexit talks. May has cast herself, not just since the referendum vote, but since her arrival in parliament, as a steady pair of hands. She will need to live up to that reputation in a political environment which is unpredictable and tumultuous.

The lack of a longer leadership campaign means that May has not been pressured on any of her policies, nor has she had the opportunity to explain and justify them to the party and the public.

It seems likely that Britain’s new PM will attempt to “steady the ship”, securing Britain’s relationship with the EU. She said as much in a speech outside parliament when her leadership was confirmed. Brexit, she said, means Brexit, and securing a good deal must be the top priority.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/meet-theresa-may-united-kingdom-new-prime-minister/

Amidst the fallout from last week’s shooting in Dallas, where gunman Micah Johnson killed five police officers, we need to reflect on MLK’s pragmatic triangulation. The differences between then and now are more of degree than of kind. King described one side as “a force of complacency, made up in part of…a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses.” But in 2016, the ‘do-nothingism’ of the 1960s has been replaced by a ‘do little-ism’: a similarly elite strata does just enough to give off the impression that something is being done, but not enough where something substantive is actually done. Incrementalism of the 2010s is a step forward from the ‘do-nothingism’ of the 1960s, but both are nonetheless driven by a similar force of complacency that is characteristic of elite insulation.

King described the other force as “one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence.” Whereas there are reasons to believe that this force of bitterness and hatred exists today, it is important to distinguish the characterisation of these forces. King identifies this other force with black nationalist groups and the Nation of Islam, whereas the shooter in Dallas is, as far as we know, not affiliated with any group. In both instances however, there is an element of nihilism about the inefficacy of mainstream political institutions to address issues of racial violence, to the extent that questions of reciprocity emerge, particularly relating to self-defence. If the police are persistently killing blacks and the institutions supposedly responsible for holding the police accountable find themselves incapable (or unwilling) to do anything substantive about it, then what duties and obligations do these non-rights-bearing citizens have to other members of the polity?

The incident in Dallas has nevertheless elevated this ethical question into a tactical one. Actions that were considered beyond the pale are now on the table. Extending the boundaries in such a manner is frightful, and hence raises the stakes of the political. Individuals will continue to suffer as long as systemic abuses continue to go unabated. The price of exonerating the guilty is to further expose the innocent. We have seemingly reached a breaking point wherein instances of racial violence engender a level of political exhaustion that leads some to perform the ultimate act of political nihilism.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/reading-martin-luther-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail/

An inmate who shot and killed two Berrien County Courthouse bailiffs Monday was being prosecuted for allegedly kidnapping a 17-year-old girl, feeding her methamphetamine, raping her and keeping her in a shed, officials said Wednesday.

The details emerged Wednesday, two days after Larry Darnell Gordon, 44, died during a Berrien County courthouse rampage that left the two bailiffs, Joe Zangaro, 61, and Ron Kienzle, 63, dead.

MORE HERE: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/07/13/prosecutor-berrien-shooter-raped-drugged-teen/87037332/

"It's not the 'Real Housewives' series, but it could be the Real Convention Delegates of Cleveland," said Timothy Walch, an Iowa-based political author who's studied conventions.

Convention organizers plot tightly scripted, carefully choreographed exercises in promoting their candidates. They want party insiders to depart as enthusiastic workers for the would-be president, and they hope to enlist millions of television viewers in the cause.

But something always goes wrong and the infomercial turns into an unscripted reality show. No one can control the weather, a scandal, windier-than-usual politicians. Riots. Strange optics. Awkward vice presidential picks.

The potential for surprises seems even greater this year, given presumptive nominee Donald Trump's disdain for scripts, and his reality TV inclinations.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/10-things-go-awry-gop-convention/

By Jake Johnson

In his 1946 essay reviewing former Trotskyist-turned-reactionary James Burnham’s book “The Managerial Revolution,” George Orwell made several observations that resonate just as powerfully today as they did when they were first published.

“The real question,” he wrote, “is not whether the people who wipe their boots on us during the next fifty years are to be called managers, bureaucrats, or politicians: the question is whether capitalism, now obviously doomed, is to give way to oligarchy or to true democracy.”

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The so-called “ignorant masses” understand that “there is too much power concentrated in the hands of a few big companies,” and that “the government doesn’t do enough for older people, poor people or children.” But it is elites whose entrenched interests undercut any attempt to remedy these trends.

There is, in short, an appetite for social democracy in the United States, but it is elites — economic and political — who stand in the way and insist that such an appetite is the result of excessive imagination.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/alternative-fervent-nationalism-social-democracy/

Former U.S. Republican Congressman Joe Walsh reacted to the murders of five policemen at a protest against police brutality on Thursday by declaring “war” on President Barack Obama and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Snipers from rooftops in Dallas targeted police officers in the city’s downtown, killing five and wounding six more in an attack that police said was a premeditated ambush. It is one of the deadliest attacks on police in U.S. history.

Police arrested three people and a fourth gunman killed himself with a gunshot, according to local media. The fourth gunman had warned of bombs planted in the city but authorities are yet to comment on the validity of his claims.

"This is now war. Watch out Obama. Watch out Black Lives Matter punks. Real America is coming after you," he tweeted following the attack, before later deleting the post.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/dallas-shootings-former-congressman-threatens-obama/

When President Barack Obama touches down Friday in Poland, he'll land on a continent roiled by the British vote to leave the European Union, but he is there to confront the critical juncture facing another Western institution: NATO.

The 28-nation military alliance is contending with a confluence of challenges, including Russian incursions in the east, attacks by Muslim extremists on European capitals and the threat of cyberwarfare. Together, they are testing whether NATO is capable of reshaping itself for 21st-century battles, or at risk of becoming a Cold War-era relic.

Even the Republican seeking to succeed Obama, Donald Trump, has openly questioned NATO's relevance and capacity to serve U.S. interests.

"There hasn't been another inflection point like this for the alliance since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in '89 to 1991," said Ambassador Doug E. Lute, the U.S. permanent representative to NATO.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/nato-critical-point-since-soviet-union-broke/