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“This wave is growing much more quickly than the summer surge (as predicted),” Dobbs tweeted on Dec. 8. “But our future is in our own hands.”
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DOJ Sues Pearl Property Company for Racial Discrimination by Kayode Crown
December 9 - 22, 2020 • jfp.ms
A federal lawsuit filed in November alleges that property manager James Roe steered white prospective renters away from this apartment complex located in Pearl, which it alleges that he encouraged Black people to rent between 2016 and 2017.
Virtual Dirty Santa (or White Elephant)
Many offices, clubs or social groups tend to gather during December for a fun game of Dirty Santa, also known as White Elephant. For this game, participants purchase gifts (usually set at a specific price range for all involved) and bring them to the gathering. Each player draws a number from a bowl or otherwise receives a random number that dictates their turn order. Players take turns and may either open a wrapped gift or “steal” a gift that someone else has already opened. When a player steals a gift, the player who just had their gift stolen gets a chance to either open a new gift or steal someone else’s gift before the next person in the turn order gets to do the same. Often, all gifts have a limit to the amount of times they can be stolen, typically three. The game ends when the last person has opened or stolen a gift. Now, with the current pandemic, get-togethers have become more hazardous, but the fun of the holiday party can still live on, by moving the game to a virtual platform. One method would be to have everyone purchase and wrap a gift, per usual. Then, on the specified date, everyone joins the Zoom (or other video-call service), receives a random number and proceeds through the game, with players saying aloud whose gift they want to open or steal instead of physically selecting one. The giver opens their gift on camera when chosen. Someone should open a spreadsheet and keep track of everyone’s names, placement, gift they wrapped, the recipient of that person’s gift, how often a gift has been stolen and by whom, and the final results so that each person knows what gift they have at the end. Afterward, everyone can mail or drop off their gift to the final recipient. Happy Holidays!
Photo by Jan Romero on Unsplash
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Kayode Crown
B
etween 2016 and 2017, Pearl resident James Roe appeared to treat Black and white prospective renters of apartments in Pearl differently, steering potential white renters to certain facilities and Black prospects to others, a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice is claiming. The federal government named three apartment complexes in Pearl that it alleges were involved in the racial discrimination: Pearl Manor, Oak Manor, and 468 Place Townhomes. SSM Properties, LLC owned and operated them. This reporter made unsuccessful attempts to reach James Roe, with no response to calls to the same number listed online for Pearl Manor and 486 Place Townhomes. The Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, based in New Orleans, LA.,conducted the tests that formed the basis for the case. In their findings, LaFHAC alleged that Roe, a manager of SSM Properties, LLC, a company based in Pearl in the Jackson metro, engaged in housing racial discrimination. In November, DOJ sued Steve Maulding, the company owner, his wife, company agent Sheila Maulding and employee Roe. The court, on Nov. 12, demanded a response from the defendants latest Dec. 14. The court clerk told this reporter Monday that the defendants had not filed a response. LaFHAC said housing centers across the Gulf South get calls from African American residents who encountered suspected discriminatory actions that barred them from neighborhoods of opportunity, which prompted the testing project they carried out. “Housing providers discriminate by quoting African Americans higher rents or security deposits than their white counterparts, requiring African Americans to undergo more formal application processes, and generally providing them with subpar customer service,” LaFHAC’s report, “Denials, Discount, and Discrimination:
