Inland Empire Progressive

The conservative backlash to the Black Lives Matter movement wasn’t born out of some deep philosophical difference. It was born out of pure, unfiltered panic. Panic that the country might actually have to reckon with the idea that systemic racism exists. Panic that the police might not be perfect. Panic that someone, somewhere, might kneel during the national anthem and make them think about someone else’s pain. When that panic wasn’t enough conservatives embraced the alt-right, that lovable band of “free thinkers” whose idea of intellectual rebellion is posting racist memes and complaining that women won’t date them. Conservatives didn’t just tolerate the alt-right they gave them a platform, a microphone, and a seat at the table. Nothing rallies a conservative crowd faster than fear: fear of immigrants, fear of Black people marching for justice, fear of the country changing into something that doesn’t look like a 1950s sitcom. Conservatives didn’t stumble into this mess they cultivate...

Columbus Day the annual celebration where conservatives engage in revisionist histrionics to celebrate the villain of the story. It's a day when historical revisionism reaches its peak, and the inconvenient truths about Christopher Columbus are conveniently swept under the rug. Currently, 30 states and three U.S. territories recognize Columbus Day in some form and only 20 states and grant state workers a paid day off for the holiday. Yet, conservatives continue to champion this day, ignoring the fact that Columbus's voyages led to the colonization and decimation of Indigenous populations across the Americas. But why let pesky details like genocide and cultural erasure get in the way of a good celebration? After all, Columbus was Italian American, and what better way to honor Italian heritage than by celebrating a man who paved the way for centuries of oppression? States need to take a more enlightened approach like New Mexico that have replaced their paid Columbus Day holidays...

Whenever a young Black man is accused of harming a white woman, conservatives do more than report. They are attempting to resurrect, I would say purposefully, centuries racial bigotry. From antebellum slave patrols to Jim Crow lynchings, from the Scottsboro Boys to Emmett Till, the trope of the dangerous Black male and the innocent white female has been among the most potent myths in America. It is as old as the society that built race into law, fear into culture. And in 2025, it seems that nothing has changed. The  Charlotte  light rail stabbing suspect’s criminal history is ostensibly a factual account of DeCarlos Brown Jr.’s alleged killing of a Ukrainian refugee. But beneath the surface lies the continuation of a narrative that does more than inform it terrorizes, ostracizes, frames, and judges before verdicts. It treats Brown not merely as a defendant, but as a symbol. Immediately, the man is not the accused but framed by his criminal past. Even before trial. Conservative...

Stop and Frisk: You would think that after the Manhattan Federal Court ruled that Stop and Frisk was unconstitutional, Mayor Bloomberg et al., would humbly concede. However, that was not the case. Instead, Bloomberg et al., have taken on an aggressive campaign to continue to defend New York City's racist policy. For years now individuals like Bloomberg have been unable to give any reasonable explanations for the disproportionate stop and frisk, arrest and sentencing of minority males. However, the one thing they have all been sure of is that, it is irrefutably not racially motivated. Well thank you Mayor Bloomberg, because of the careful stats that your PD took, it is in fact irrefutably racially motivated and unconstitutional. Honestly when you think about it, there is no defending it without defining yourself either as racist, egomaniac, arrogant, or all of the above. The stats speak for themselves. Now, I'm wondering what's up with the true motive behind Blo...