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IBW21

IBW21 (The Institute of the Black World 21st Century) is committed to enhancing the capacity of Black communities in the U.S. and globally to achieve cultural, social, economic and political equality and an enhanced quality of life for all marginalized people.

Plaque depicting warrior and attendants (16th-17th century), Edo peoples, Benin kingdom, Nigeria.

Liberating the precolonial history of Africa

By Editors' Choice

The West focuses only on slavery, but the history of Africa is so much more than a footnote to European imperialism. By Toby Green / Edited by Sam Haselby, Aeon — To understand the complexity and significance of West African history, there is no better thing to do than to go to Freetown. Sierra Leone’s capital is sited in the lee of the ‘lion-shaped’ mountain that gives the country its…

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St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ambassador to the UN, I. Rhonda King

SVG has ‘no geo-political axe to grind’: UN envoy

By News & Current Affairs

By Nelson A. King — In becoming the smallest nation ever to serve on the prestigious United Nations Security Council, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ambassador to the UN, I. Rhonda King, says the country has “no geo-political axe to grind.” “This day is a historic one, not only because we are the smallest nation ever to sit on the Security Council but also, perhaps, because the urgency of now…

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Rev. Amos Brown

San Francisco needs to establish a reparations fund

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

By Rev. Amos Brown, SF Chronicle — For the city’s black community, it is long past time for San Francisco to prove it’s “the city that knows how” — to prove it knows how to make amends for its historic injustices to that community. As we mark the celebration of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it is time for San Francisco to establish a reparations…

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Bernie Sanders on Reparations

NYT questions Bernie Sanders on Reparations: ‘I’m a strong co-sponsor’ of HR 40

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

By Dana Sanchez, The Moguldom Nation — Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker have said they support some form of reparations, but Bernie Sanders has declined to do so, insisting instead that “there are better ways” to help Black communities “than just writing out a check.” Wanting it both ways, Sanders denies that he has rejected reparations. However, unlike former Vice President Joe Biden, Sanders is willing to talk about it. During…

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Dr. Ralph E. Gonsalves, Sir Louis Straker and staff at the Mission to the United Nations.

SVG begins ‘historic journey’ on UN Security Council

By Editors' Choice

By Nelson A. King, Caribbean Life News — As St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Wednesday officially assumed a non-permanent seat on the United Nations’ Security Council, the country’s Ambassador to the UN, I. Rhonda King, says the “historic journey” begins with “Three Stories and a Prayer: The Manifestation of the Prophetic Imagination.” “With the audacity of David, the widow’s faith, the spirit of Chatoyer, the prayer of Saint Francis…

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Mourners carry a cross in Port-au-Prince, in January, 2019, to honor the victims of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti

Haiti Faces Difficult Questions Ten Years After a Devastating Earthquake

By Editors' Choice

By Edwidge Danticat, The New Yorker — This past December, as what would have been my mother’s eighty-fourth birthday approached, I kept dreaming of death. In the most frequent of these dreams, my mother, who died, of ovarian cancer, in October, 2014, in Miami, is telling me to run out of the single-story house where I spent most of my childhood, in Port-au-Prince, before the house falls on top of me…

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Meghan Markle

Black Britons Know Why Meghan Markle Wants Out

By Commentaries/Opinions

It’s the racism. By Afua Hirsch, NYT — The British press has succeeded in its apparent project of hounding Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, out of Britain. The part it perhaps didn’t bargain for, however, is the loss of Prince Harry — a much loved royal and a key part of the family’s global brand — along with her. In a statement released this week, the couple said they want to “carve out…

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Gov. Phil Bryant / Mike Espy

Far-right Mississippi governor predicts ‘1000 years of darkness’ if state elects first black senator in over 139 years

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Alex Henderson, AlterNet — When Democrat Mike Espy lost Mississippi’s special U.S. Senate runoff election to Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in 2018, he performed relatively well for a Democrat in a deep red state: Espy won 46% of the vote. Espy is running against Hyde-Smith again in 2020, and far-right Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is predicting that terrible things will happen if Espy wins. Journalist Joe Jurado analyzes Bryant’s…

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