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The conversation is happening. Will you be a part of it? By Nick Fouriezos, OZY — What happens when you get a room of 100 Black men from Baltimore discussing new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh? Or Colin Kaepernick and policing? What about President Donald Trump and the economy? You get the first episode of Take On America With OZY, taped at the War Memorial in Charm City with the midterm…
By Katrina Vanden Heuvel — If Democrats flip the House, the Congressional Progressive Caucus will have the leaders, agenda, and institutional muscle to drive the debate. “Only in the darkness can you see the stars,” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us. Now, even in the bleak night of Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, there are stars that offer hope. If Democrats take back the House…
Baltimore is going through the same policing pangs as the rest of the nation, but worse. By Nick Fouriezos, OZY — This is a homecoming for Gary Tuggle, only going home for him means having a gun strapped to his hip and at least five other officers flanking him while casing the East Baltimore block he played on as a kid. The 54-year-old is the interim police chief of Charm City,…
Hint: It has to do with race. By Zack Beauchamp, Vox — One of the most puzzling elements of the 2016 election, at least for a lot of Americans, was the millions of voters who switched from voting for Barack Obama in 2012 to Donald Trump in 2016. Somewhere between 6.7 million and 9.2 million Americans switched this way; given that the 2016 election was decided by 40,000 votes, it’s…
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Latest Commentary
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Audio by WNYC Studios — Journalist and activist Ida B. Wells is in some ways a forgotten figure, overlooked even in black civil rights history. But her reporting on lynchings across the South was unwavering in its mission: calling America out on racial injustice. And, why black women are no longer willing to play the role of “Magical Negro” in U.S. politics. The United States of Anxiety recently recorded a…
‘Close to the point of no return’: Historian explains how Trump uses authoritarian tools more powerful than Hitler’s secret police. By Chauncey Devega, Salon — History can teach us many lessons about Donald Trump and his rise to power. As shown by his deeds, words and policies, Trump is an authoritarian and a demagogue who has, so far, been restrained by America’s weakened democratic institutions and norms. Trump has repeatedly shown…
Fifty years ago this week, two proud Olympians raised their fists to call attention to social injustices. Their gesture made my heart swell with pride. By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Guardian — In the summer of 1967, 100,000 fashion-forward and social-forward youth gathered in San Francisco in what has famously been called the Summer of Love. Similar gatherings occurred throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, all in an effort to reject the…
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Editors’ Choice
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A Black sailmaker was helping to lead the anti-slavery movement long before it was popular in America. By Sean Braswell, OZY — In the spring of 1842, several thousand Philadelphians poured into the streets for one of the largest funerals in the city’s history. It was a remarkable sight: An interracial procession that included everyone from poor Black laborers to wealthy White merchants to sea captains and shippers. On that…
JOHANNESBURG – Earlier colonialists came by boats to "the new world" and expanded their empires by building railroads, farms and infrastructure. Today's colonialists are digital; they implement communication infrastructures such as social media in order to harvest data and turn it into money. This threatens the upcoming democracies in Africa, as they experience explosions of fake news and misinformation with tribal violence and democratic unrest as dire consequences.
New candidates will create opportunities for Democrats across the country—if the establishment is willing to back them. By Steve Phillips, The Nation — Old wineskins must make room for new wine.” During the Rainbow Coalition days of the 1980s, Jesse Jackson used that biblical reference to press the Democratic Party to make structural and strategic changes in order to seize the opportunities presented by the country’s demographic revolution. Today, this…
After losing in 2012, the GOP enacted the harshest limits on voting since Jim Crow. It could make the difference this year from Florida to North Dakota. By Jay Michaelson, Daily Beast — With Democrats furious over Donald Trump, and many Republicans furious over the treatment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the 2018 elections are likely to see the highest turnout of midterm voters in recent history. But those voters will…
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Ties between African countries and China are complex. Understanding this matters
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