Skip to main content
All Posts By

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.

Image: Ronald Reagan, with Nancy Reagan, signing the Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1988

The Untold Story of Mass Incarceration

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Vesla M. Weaver — Two new books, including National Book Award nominee ‘Locking Up Our Own,’ address major blind spots about the causes of America’s carceral failure. Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman, Jr.; Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform by John F. Pfaff

Read More
Kimberlé Crenshaw, American civil rights activist.

Is it time for black women in America to take up arms?

By Editors' Choice

An interview with scholar-activist Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the term ‘insersectionality,’ on gender, race and armed militancy. By Nimmi Gowrinathan — For most American audiences, the female fighter exists in a land far, far away. To consider female militancy in this country, in our movements, requires a reckoning: the need to see police brutality against black women as state violence, checkpoints in school cafeterias as militarization, and the death rates…

Read More
A demonstration in Rome on March 25 to remember Brazilian councilwoman and activist Marielle Franco.

We Must Not Let Marielle Franco’s Killing Go Unpunished

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Jurema Werneck — My sister in struggle Marielle Franco was shot to death on March 14. I was abroad, working alongside other brave women who campaign against police killings of black youth in Brazil, Jamaica and the U.S. We had joined forces and were planning to make our voices heard in order to stop the constant stream of killings committed by some of those who are supposed to protect us. The news hit…

Read More
Brazilian president Michel Temer (L) and Argentine President Mauricio Macri arrive to pose for the official picture at the end of the Mercosur Summit in mendoza, 1080 km west of buenos Aires on July 21, 201

The Trumpification of the Latin American Right

By Commentaries/Opinions

South American conservatives have an unlikely new role model. By Omar G. Encarnación — Since Donald Trump became president, much has been said about the “Latin Americanization” of U.S. politics. The Washington Post, remarking on Trump’s nationalist demagoguery, referred to him as “the U.S.’s first Latin American president,” while an essay I wrote in Foreign Affairs shortly after the 2016 election termed Trump “A Caudillo in Washington,” a reference to the prototype of the Latin American strongman.…

Read More
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness speak during a bilateral meeting at 10 Downing Street, London, Tuesday April 17, 2018

UK leader sorry for Caribbean citizens immigration mix-up

By News & Current Affairs

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May made a personal apology Tuesday for the treatment of long-term U.K. residents from the Caribbean who have been asked to prove their right to stay in the country or face deportation. The plight of legal residents wrongly identified as living in Britain illegally has erupted as the country hosts leaders from the 53-nation Commonwealth of the U.K. and its former colonies. May…

Read More
A sign outside Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, during an April 5, 2018 demonstration staged by activist group 'Raging Grannies'

White Supremacy Is the Achilles’ Heel of American Democracy

By Editors' Choice

Even in a high-tech era, fears about minority political agency are the most reliable way to destabilize the U.S. political system. By Vann R. Newkirk — There are a million and one threads to the chaos currently unspooling about the Trump administration and the 2016 election. One might be forgiven for giving up on trying to navigate the intricacies of congressional Russia inquiries, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ever-widening probe, news…

Read More

Special Features on April 16th Edition of Vantage Point — Dr. Ron Daniels

By Vantage Point Radio, Video/Audio

Featured Topics: The Amazing National Black Writers Conference, Medgar Evers College; Another Report on the Newark As Model City Initiative; Report Back From Afro-Descendant Conference in Venezuela. Guests: Dr. Brenda Greene, Executive Director, Center for Black Literature, Medgar Evers College/CUNY, Brooklyn, NY; Dr. Charlene Sinclair, Director for Reinvestment, Center for Community Change, Washington, DC; Yvette Modestin, Founder/ Executive Director, Encuentro Diaspora, Boston, MA

Read More