Police officers in Denver violated the rights of protesters during the huge 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd, a federal jury said Friday. As a result, 12 protesters were awarded a total of $14 million in damages after a three-week trial that lawyers involved in the case characterized as the first trial in a lawsuit that challenged police tactics during the 2020 protests that broke out across the country after the killing of Floyd.

“Woke” is the label the aggrieved conservative suburbanite puts on the indignity of having to call their Starbucks barista “they” and finding Ibram X. Kendi on their child’s school reading list. But as the Democrats prepare for the midterm election cycle, anti-wokeness has become a key theme about the party’s future. Woke activists have been chief culprits in Terry McAuliffe’s loss in the Virginia governor’s race, correspondents tell us, and the electoral ground loss generally by the Democrats (The Hill, 11/7/21).

At a party over the weekend I was introduced to a college professor, and fell into conversation with him about teaching and Covid. Then I asked about how wokeness affects his teaching. I had no idea of the man’s politics, but I would bet the farm that he is a liberal, given that his academic field skews heavily to the left.

He told me that there is a lot of stress on professors at his university regarding grading students of color. He said everyone is afraid of being accused of racism if a black student doesn’t like his grade. The anxiety around this is deep, he said.

As some of the most contentious Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 erupted in Portland, Ore., last spring, 29-year-old Cameron Whitten started getting a deluge of messages. Friends from all corners of his life were checking in on him.

"At first I was like, 'Did something happen to me?' " says Whitten. Realizing people were just concerned about his well-being, he reached out to other Black people to ask: "Are you having white people message you too?"

The Great Awokening is gathering speed.

Hardly a week — and sometimes barely a day or an hour — goes by without a fresh incident of "cancel culture" or another "woke" scandal breaking in the news.

More than half a year after George Floyd's death during a police encounter ignited nationwide protests and discussion around racial justice, Americans' belief that race relations is the top problem facing the country remains higher than it was before those events.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — As the U.S. marks the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, many event organizers, mindful that the 19th Amendment originally benefited mostly white women, have been careful to present it as a commemoration, not a celebration.

An Iowa State University instructor’s syllabus warned students that anti-Black Lives Matter and pro-life viewpoints are “grounds for dismissal.”

Instructor Chloe Clark’s English 250 syllabus includes a “giant warning” advising students that only certain views would be permitted during her classes. “I take this seriously,” she notes at the end of the warning.

Ever since the NBA announced that it would return to action on July 31, debate has swirled around two central questions: Would the bubble be safe, and would the playoffs boost or distract from the national Black Lives Matter protest movement that erupted after George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin and three other Minneapolis police offers on May 25? The first question has been answered in the affirmative twice now, but the latter remains very much unsettled.

Along with endorsing players putting social justice messages on the backs of their jerseys, the NBA is working with the players union to paint “Black Lives Matter” on both sides of the courts in Walt Disney World arenas, where the league will play when it resumes its coronavirus-paused season in late-July. Despite the league’s efforts to incorporate social justice themed protests into its games, some players are still planning on opting out of playing in order to focus on activism.