Amid pandemic, poultry workers must be protected
Long before COVID-19, poultry workers labored in processing plants where hazardous conditions — and a lack of safety precautions — were the norm. The pandemic has only made things worse. If poultry plants are forced to operate (thanks to President Trump’s executive order), their workers should not have to risk their lives and those of their families. Last week, a CDC report noted that 20 meatpacking workers have died from the coronavirus and almost 5,000 have been infected.
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Why white supremacists are targeting Zoom meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic
White supremacists have harassed people through the video conferencing app Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic, part of a broader trend in which they exploit emerging online platforms to promote hate before companies can sufficiently adapt to their presence. As with similar moments in recent history, like the widespread use of pseudonymous Twitter accounts to harass journalists, women and minorities during the 2016 presidential election, the goal of these loosely organized online campaigns is to scare up media coverage and project a false image of cultural dominance.
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Anti-LGBTQ group pushes voter fraud conspiracy theories amid COVID-19
Branching out of its usual anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice rhetoric, the Family Research Council has begun to push longtime right-wing conspiracy theories about voting by mail. The group wrote last month that “scammers” are after your vote — relying on a right-wing trope about imagined rampant voter fraud that the right has peddled for years to derail attempts to make voting more accessible. The voter fraud myth is widely used to defend and pass measures — like photo ID laws — ­­­­that suppress voting rights, specifically for people of color, younger people, elderly people and people with low incomes.
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SPLC’s Civil Rights Memorial Center publishes children’s activity book online
This week, the Civil Rights Memorial Center published the Civil Rights Activity Book, a new online children’s activity book that commemorates the heroes of the civil rights movement. The downloadable book includes coloring pages for the martyrs who are listed on the Civil Rights Memorial, a word search, a crossword puzzle that requires knowledge about the civil rights movement, a list of major events during the movement, a maze tracing civil rights icon Rosa Parks’ walking path from work to home, and descriptions of major people in the movement, followed by the question, “Who am I?” Not to worry, though: All the answers are at the end of the book.
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News You Should Know

Florida is planning something for its worst troublemakers: a prison-within-a-prison (Miami Herald)

Trump’s support for Michigan protesters sends a dangerous message (CNN)

Google and the cost of ‘data voids’ during a pandemic (Wired)

Private prison company’s special operations unit pepper sprayed immigrant detainees. They joked about it online. (WNYC Studios)

Fresh lawsuits challenge vote-by-mail limits in four Southern states (The Fulcrum)

Documentary looks at 1970s racial tension between Vietnamese, whites in Texas town (NBC News)