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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.

At a time when Colombia’s peace implementation is threatened in part by government failures to fulfill obligations under its peace accord with the FARC, global advocates are encouraging international solidarity with women who are struggling for a peace that includes their human rights. (Photo: darioadn.co)

Afro-Colombian Women Mobilize for Justice and Healing on International Women’s Day

By News & Current Affairs

In Colombia, women are demanding an end to the impunity, silence and invisibility that fuel attacks on female human rights defenders. Tumaco – Afro-descendant women’s organizations in Colombia are marking International Women’s Day by highlighting Black women’s role in peacebuilding and calling for reparations for conflict-related gender-based violence and other human rights violations. As members of communities that have long suffered governmental neglect, Afro-Colombian women and girls have faced disproportionate rates of conflict-related human rights violations with minimal access to justice or services. Ongoing violence in the wake of Colombia’s peace accord with the FARC, including killings of human rights defenders and displacement of entire communities, has especially impacted Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Peoples.

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Notes on the Capitalist Origins of Racial Oppression in the United States

By Commentaries/Opinions

By W. T. Whitney — When white people shed exculpatory myths and acknowledge the truth about slavery, they’ve arrived at what descendants of enslaved people know about only too well. But they need not stop there. They could test the proposition that historical memory contributes to undermining racial oppression. Members of a small family group – myself included – showed up September 25, 2017 at the Freedom House Museum in…

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The Kerner Commission was formed amid riots in Detroit in 1967

Half-century of US civil rights gains have stalled or reversed, report finds

By News & Current Affairs

Assessment 50 years after Kerner Commission points to child poverty and school segregation, along with emboldened white supremacists. By David Smith — Civil rights gains of the past half-century have stalled or in some areas gone into reverse, according to a report marking the 50th anniversary of the landmark Kerner Commission. Child poverty has increased, schools have become resegregated and white supremacists are becoming emboldened and more violent, the study says.…

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Do guns preserve freedom?

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

By Ryan Cooper — Many conservatives believe they do. In one representative example, National Review’s David French argued that we need a heavily armed citizenry in case the government turns tyrannical and America’s private gun owners need to wield the threat of gunning down police and soldiers to preserve their liberty. For the Second Amendment to remain a meaningful check on state power, citizens must be able to possess the kinds and categories…

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Slave sale, Charleston, South Carolina.

When Emancipation Finally Came, Slave Markets Took on a Redemptive Purpose

By Reparations

During the Civil War, the jails that held the enslaved imprisoned Confederate soldiers. After, they became rallying points for a newly empowered community By Jonathan W. White, Smithsonian — For decades before the Civil War, slave markets, pens and jails served as holding cells for enslaved African-Americans who were awaiting sale. These were sites of brutal treatment and unbearable sorrow, as callous and avaricious slave traders tore apart families, separating…

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