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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.

Convicts leased to harvest timber in Florida around 1915

Exploiting Black Labor After The Abolition Of Slavery

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can choose otherwise. By Kathy Roberts Forde and Bryan Bowman, University of Massachusetts Amherst — The U.S. criminal justice system is riven by racial disparity. The Obama administration pursued a plan to reform it. An entire news organization, The Marshall Project, was launched in late 2014 to cover it. Organizations like Black Lives Matter and The Sentencing Project are dedicated to unmaking a system that unjustly targets people of color. But how did we get this system…

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February 12, 2018
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A group of women, under a "Women's Liberation" banner, march in support of the Black Panther Party, New Haven, Connecticut, November 1969.

Building on a Deep Organizing History, Black Women Are Reshaping the Electoral Landscape

By Editors' Choice

By Eisa Nefertari Ulen, Truthout — Doug Jones in Alabama. Ralph Northam and Justin Fairfax in Virginia, Phil Murphy and Sheila Oliver in New Jersey: All Democratic wins made possible by Black women’s historical capacity for building organizational and structural power. This power — which was originally cultivated to protect and preserve Black bodies, to protect and preserve Black life — has commanded victories for the Democratic Party in 2017 and is…

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February 10, 2018
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A mural of reggae icon Bob Marley

As the world celebrates Bob Marley Day, reggae is changing and so are its fans

By News & Current Affairs

By Emma Lewis — Reggae icon Bob (Robert Nesta) Marley was born on February 6, 1945; his birthday is now celebrated around the world as Bob Marley Day. This year, he would have turned 73 years old. Marley’s hometown of Kingston, Jamaica, is now recognised by UNESCO as a Creative City of Music. As the anointed birthplace of reggae music, music-lovers from all over the world make the pilgrimage to the Bob Marley Museum in uptown Kingston, the site of Marley’s former home. Visitors also head downtown to tour Tuff Gong Studios, founded by Marley in 1965, and the “Culture Yard” in Trench Town, where Marley grew up, learned to play guitar and formed his band, the Wailers.

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February 9, 2018
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Ryan Jobson, Sharon Payne, and Caine Jordan discuss a community benefits agreement for the Obama Center and reparations from the University of Chicago.

Reparations and CBA Organizers Hold Teach-in

By Reparations

Reparations at UChicago (RAUC) and UChicago for a Community Benefits Agreement hosted a teach-in with guest speakers this past Tuesday. The speakers drew connections between seeking a community benefits agreement (CBA) for the Obama Presidential Center and demanding reparations from the University for benefiting from slavery.

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February 9, 2018
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Robert Mugabe

Struggle on my beloved country, Zimbabwe

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Brian T.Kagoro, Political analyst — I wanted to title this article ‘Cry My Beloved Country’. After all we recently had cholera outbreaks and our political parties are competing to demonstrate proximity to the West. It does not seem to matter under what terms and to what end Western support is secured. This flagrant courtship of the West defies logic of a liberation party and a social-democratic opposition formed by…

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February 9, 2018
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Philosopher Byung-Chul Han, in Barcelona

“In Orwell’s ‘1984’ society knew it was being dominated. Not today”

By Commentaries/Opinions

Speaking in Barcelona, South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han argues social values have been eroded by consumerist culture. Philosopher Byung-Chul Hal is one of the most recognized critics of the problems caused by the hyper-consumerist and neoliberal society after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In books such as Fatigue Society, Psychopolitics and The Expulsion of Difference (published in Spain by Herder), the South Korean-born German author takes aim at this society and its effects on the individual.…

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February 9, 2018
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