Twitter is the latest entanglement of the US Civil Rights Commission
- The overall goals of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission are “to keep the public interested in historical and current civil rights issues,” including posting regularly on social media.
- Republican Stephen Gilchrist proposed that public information be shared only if it receives a majority of votes. Democrat Michael Yaki accused him of trying to “put a basket on history”.
Conservative members of the federal civil rights commission on Friday pushed for changes to the way the agency operates to significantly limit the dissemination of information on historical civil rights issues and now.
The amendments proposed by Commissioner Stephen Gilchrist, a Republican appointed in 2020 by former President Donald Trump, are to change the US Civil Rights Commission’s strategic plan so that all information publicly – on a social network or elsewhere – it is necessary to get a majority vote from its members first.
The proposal was met with fierce resistance from Commissioner Michael Yaki, a Democrat, who argued that “the history of civil rights in this country has not depended on the domination of the majority”, citing the Examples of historical events like the Montgomery bus boycott, Rosa Parks, or March on Washington.
“That’s what happened,” Yaki said. “To say that only things approved by a majority of the committee should see the light of day is essentially putting a gabion in history and putting a gab on what this committee is supposed to do.”
The overall goals of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission are “to keep the public interested in historical and current civil rights issues,” including posting regularly on social media. But at least one cause for concern is the questionable tweets, said Commissioner Gail Heriot, an Independent. She did not provide any examples of those tweets at the committee’s monthly meeting on Friday.
“We’re talking theoretically and conceptually, because we don’t have any real-world examples of what needs to be fixed,” said Commission President Norma Cantú.
Although the attempt failed by a 4-3 vote after a Republican commissioner walked out of the meeting, it showed an ideological divide within the independent bipartisan body.
Since the end of 2020, the committee has faced a political stalemate, with a 4-4 stalemate resulting in the death of a report on a year and a half study examining the impact of COVID-19 on COVID-19. with minority voting rights, simply because the majority could not agree to its release.
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It also resulted in two reports that failed to convey the findings and recommendations of policy action by the president or Congress, a key part of the committee’s role. The first report on racial disparities in maternal health and the second on Civil rights implications of cash guarantees, released on Thursday.
In an email from Friday to US TODAY, Heriot detailed her concern that “social media comments on behalf of the committee are often one-sided and often not the position of the committee.” Generally speaking.”
“Sometimes those comments are highly partisan,” said Heriot, who was appointed to the committee on the recommendation of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
One example she cites was a May 25 tweet that read: “Today we honor George Floyd as we reflect on the anniversary of his death, reminding us of the the police continued to use force.” It includes a link to a 2018 report on civil rights and policy practice and a CNN article on the anniversary.
“While I suspect that all Committee members (and all of our state advisory committee members) will extend their condolences to the family of George Floyd, at no point have they given up. vote in his honor,” she wrote in the email.
In another example, Heriot provided a tweet from National Agriculture Day last March that read, “This is an important day to not only honor farmers across America, but also to remember that disparities still exist for black farmers in America” The tweet linked to a 1965 report by the agency as well as an article on the online agricultural news site.
Heriot said she believes the committee has not addressed the issue since 1965 and has not come to a position as to whether “disparities still exist for Black farmers.” She added, “If such disparity existed, the Commission would not have investigated its cause.”
The committee’s chief of staff, Mauro Morales, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, reviews the content that will be made available to the public. He said on Friday that he had been informed of concerns about “our social media bias”, but when he asked the commissioners as an example, he did not. receive.
“These modifications are a solution to a problem,” says Morales. “Part of our clearinghouse’s responsibility is to report on historical events.” He said the agency released a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., on a recent federal vacation and included a link to a hate crime report.
“That’s how we use our social network,” he told the commissioners. “It’s never libelous and demeaning, it never promotes any kind of political opinion… We don’t have any prejudice and if we do, let’s point it out. me and we’ll cancel it and we’ll change it.”
Gilchrist did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.