edith_keeler4d ago

#MUSKdataCenterMemphis
#MuskDataCenterPollutes
#BlackNeighborhoods

“Colossus Failure”: Elon Musk’s Data Centers Face Lawsuit for Polluting Black Neighborhoods in Memphis
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/4/22/memphis_xai_data_center_pollution_keshaun

“Colossus Failure”: Elon Musk’s Data Centers Face Lawsuit for Polluting Black Neighborhoods in Memphis

As tech companies scramble to build massive new data centers to power artificial intelligence, marginalized communities are bearing the brunt of the environmental harms. In Memphis, Tennessee, Elon Musk’s xAI operates over two dozen methane gas-burning turbines without legal permits to power its data centers, Colossus 1 and Colossus 2, polluting the nation’s largest majority-Black city with toxic emissions. The NAACP is suing xAI for violating the Clean Air Act. “We are, unfortunately, a cautionary tale about what will and possibly can happen if you don’t have the right rules and guardrails in place,” says KeShaun Pearson, the executive director of Memphis Community Against Pollution. Pearson says pollution from xAI’s energy generation is already “at a level even higher than our Memphis International Airport.” Meanwhile, the company has created far fewer jobs than it initially promised. “This has been terrible for our region, and it’s terrible for our future, because our community is going to continue to suffer. Our children have the highest rate of ER visits for respiratory illnesses and issues in the state of Tennessee, and it’s only going to continue to get worse.”

Democracy Now!
DoomsdaysCWAug 12, 2025

#Trump’s rhetoric about #DC echoes a history of #racist narratives about urban crime

By MATT BROWN
Updated 11:30 AM EDT, August 12, 2025

Excerpt: "As D.C. the #NationalGuard arrived at their headquarters Tuesday, for many residents, the prospect of federal troops surging into #neighborhoods represented an alarming violation of local agency. To some, it echoes uncomfortable historical chapters when politicians used language to paint historically or predominantly #BlackCities and [#BlackNeighborhoods] with racist narratives to shape public opinion and justify aggressive police action."

Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-washington-dc-takeover-race-39388597bad7e70085079888fe7fb57b

#Racism #WashingtonDC #TrumpTakeover #Authoritarianism
#FascismInTheUSA #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#USPol #TrumpIsARacist #TrumpIsAWhiteNationalist #BlackLivesMatter #BlackCitiesMatter #ACAB

Trump's DC police takeover echoes history of racist narratives about crime

President Donald Trump's rhetoric in his federal takeover of Washington police echoes that of conservative politicians going back decades who've denounced American cities with majority non-white populations or progressive leaders as crime-ridden and in need of outside intervention. The Republican president has taken control of Washington’s law enforcement and ordered National Guard troops to deploy onto the streets of the nation’s capital. Guard troops arrived at their Washington headquarters Tuesday. Trump argues the extraordinary move is a response to a public safety crisis. Advocates in Washington's Black community say they'd been preparing for a potential federal crackdown since 2020, when Trump deployed U.S. troops during racial justice protests after George Floyd's killing.

AP News
Ms. Que BanhAug 23, 2024

Another #book on my reading wishlist.

White Burgers, Black Cash
Fast Food from Black Exclusion to Exploitation
By: Naa Oyo A. Kwate

The long and pernicious relationship between #FastFoodRestaurants and the #AfricanAmerican community.

Today, #FastFood is disproportionately located in #BlackNeighborhoods and marketed to #BlackAmericans through targeted #advertising. But throughout much of the 20th century, fast food was developed specifically for White urban and suburban customers, purposefully avoiding Black spaces. In White Burgers, Black Cash, Naa Oyo A. Kwate traces the evolution in fast food from the early 1900s to the present, from its long #history of #RacistExclusion to its current damaging embrace of urban #BlackCommunities.

Fast food has historically been tied to the country’s self-image as the #LandOfOpportunity and is marketed as one of life’s simple pleasures, but a more insidious history lies at the industry’s core. White Burgers, Black Cash investigates the complex trajectory of restaurant locations from a decided commitment to #Whiteness to the #disproportionate densities that characterize Black communities today. Kwate expansively charts fast food’s racial and spatial transformation and centers the cities of #Chicago, #NewYork City, and #WashingtonDC, in a national examination of the biggest brands of today, including #WhiteCastle, #KFC, #BurgerKing, #McDonalds, and more.

#Bookstodon #ReadingList #Education #Racism #USBlackHistory #WhiteSupremacy #SystemicRacism #USRacism #Nonfiction

Gladwyn d’SouzaOct 18, 2023

#CorruptRobertsCourt will hear #redistricting to prevent #OnePersonOneVote: decades of #development and #gentrification on the island have nearly obliterated #Blackneighborhoods and #native owned #businesses.

#GentrificationWithoutRepresentation

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-hears-case-alleged-bleaching-exclude-black/story?id=103863016

SCOTUS hears case over alleged 'bleaching' to exclude Black voters in South Carolina

Republican state legislators argue political affiliation was the guiding factor.

ABC News
AnnotherMar 9, 2023

“A federal judge ruled that a robocall operation led by 2 conspiracy theorists ahead of the #2020election violated Section 11(b) of the #VotingRightsAct , the #KuKluxKlanAct of 1870, the #CivilRightsAct & #NewYork civil rights laws. The right-wing activists sent over 85,000 robocalls to discourage voters in predominantly #Blackneighborhoods from #votingbymail in 2020.”

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/court-rules-right-wing-conspiracy-theorists-illegally-intimidated-voters-in-2020/

Court Rules Right-Wing Conspiracy Theorists Illegally Intimidated Voters in 2020

Read more here.

Democracy Docket