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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.

Donald Glover, AKA Childish Gambino, attending the world premiere of Solo: A Star Wars Story

The rise of Donald Glover: how he captured America

By Editors' Choice

The award-winning writer, actor, singer and rapper has dominated the internet with his provocative, politically charged hit This is America, the latest step in an illustrious, unconventional career By Katie Bain, The Guardian — Try, if you can, to watch This Is America, the new music video from Childish Gambino, while keeping your eyes off the man in the camera’s gaze. It’s not easy. You may have to watch it twice,…

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Russian Trolls Were Obsessed With Black Lives Matter

Russian Trolls Were Obsessed With Black Lives Matter

By News & Current Affairs

By April Glaser, Slate — On Thursday, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released a trove of about 3,500 Facebook and Instagram ads purchased by Russian operatives to influence the 2016 election and exploit and attempt to worsen America’s polarized political climate in the months that followed. The ads reveal a sophisticated campaign clearly aimed at supporting Donald Trump’s presidential bid and inflaming Americans on some of the most divisive social and…

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Rakem Balogun on being secretly watched by the FBI: ‘It’s tyranny at its finest.’

Black activist jailed for his Facebook posts speaks out about secret FBI surveillance

By News & Current Affairs

Exclusive: Rakem Balogun spoke out against police brutality. Now he is believed to be the first prosecuted under a secretive US effort to track so-called ‘black identity extremists’ By Sam Levin, The Guardian — Rakem Balogun thought he was dreaming when armed agents in tactical gear stormed his apartment. Startled awake by a large crash and officers screaming commands, he soon realized his nightmare was real, and he and his…

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Donald Trump advertised his ambitions to dismantle Barack Obama’s achievements throughout the election campaign. Photograph: Pool New/Reuters

The anti-Obama: Trump’s drive to destroy his predecessor’s legacy

By Editors' Choice

From the Iran deal to TPP to climate change, ‘the whole thing that animates and unites his policy views is antipathy towards Obama’ By David Smith, The Guardian — When Donald Trump pulled out of the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, hardline conservatives celebrated, European leaders winced and Barack Obama made a rare, lengthy public statement. Trump’s decision was “misguided” and “a serious mistake”, Obama said, as his signature foreign policy achievement…

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Patricia Newton

Black Psychiatrists, Patients Share History of Trauma

By Black Family Summit News, News & Current Affairs

In accepting the 2018 Solomon Carter Fuller Award, Patricia Newton, M.D., M.A., M.P.H., noted that many of the same challenges that Fuller faced a century ago are still present for African-American psychiatrists and patients. Fuller is celebrated as the first African-American psychiatrist. He worked closely with Alois Alzheimer and Emil Kraepelin in Germany, and he lectured at the Clark University conference in 1909 when Sigmund Freud made his only U.S.…

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Brazilian rapper Nega Gizza attends the launching of her bid for the country's October elections in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil May 8, 2018

Afro-Brazilian Candidates Seek to Prolong Marielle’s Legacy

By News & Current Affairs

They represent Favela Front of Brazil, a political movement attempting to unify the voting power of favelas and other poor black neighborhoods historically overlooked and underrepresented in Brazilian politics. By teleSUR — Let’s have a round of applause for our companion Marielle, who was one of our greatest supporters in this process,” Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Anderson Quack, who is running for Congress, told a cheering crowd of nearly 200 people assembled late Tuesday…

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A vintage car driver waits for tourists after Hurricane Irma caused flooding and a blackout, in Havana, Cuba September 12, 2017

U.S. trade embargo has cost Cuba $130 billion, U.N. says

By News & Current Affairs

HAVANA (Reuters) – A United Nations agency said on Tuesday an “unjust” U.S. financial and trade embargo on Cuba had cost the country’s economy $130 billion over nearly six decades, coming up with the same estimate as the island’s communist government. Although many U.S. allies join Washington in criticizing Cuba’s one-party system and repression of political opponents, the United States has lost nearly all international support for the embargo since…

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ew York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon speaks at the NYC Cannabis Parade and Rally on May 5, 2018. Nixon has been criticized by black leaders for saying that marijuana licenses could be a “form of reparations.”

Cynthia Nixon called marijuana licenses a “form of reparations” for black people. Not exactly.

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

Marijuana reform can help black communities. That doesn’t make it “reparations.” By P.R. Lockhart — New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon is facing criticism after suggesting that giving black people access to marijuana licenses could serve as a “form of reparations” for black communities. The controversy started after Nixon, who is challenging current Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the state’s upcoming Democratic primary, appeared at the NYC Cannabis Parade on May…

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The literature on the African slave trade, Hurston wrote, had endless “words from the seller, but not one word from the sold.

Zora Neale Hurston’s Story of a Former Slave Finally Comes to Print

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

Hurston spent years turning an account of the transatlantic slave trade into a book. Then the manuscript languished for nearly nine decades. By Casey N. Cep — Captain William Foster left Mobile in secret and returned the same way. On July 8, 1860, he dropped anchor in the waters off the coast of Mississippi, hid his cargo below deck, slipped ashore, and travelled overland to fetch a tugboat from Alabama.…

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