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Roger Goodell and Jay Z

They Didn’t Kneel For This

By Commentaries/Opinions

The NFL is Colin Kaepernick’s antagonist. Expecting billionaire team owners to be serious about social justice, with or without Jay-Z, is a mistake. By Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone — “Inspire Change” could be something you say if you are trying to make people aware of a particular problem. But with regards to the National Football League and racial injustice, that job is already done. Colin Kaepernick, along with his fellow football…

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HBCU

It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges

By Commentaries/Opinions

They attract money and attention to the predominantly white universities that showcase them, while HBCUs struggle. What would happen if they collectively decided to go to black schools? By Jamele Hill, The Atlantic — In the summer of 2018 Kayvon Thibodeaux, who was then ranked as the top high-school football player in America, visited Florida A&M University, in Tallahassee. When a player of Thibodeaux’s caliber visits a perennial football power—say,…

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Slave Patrol

Slavery and the Origins of the American Police State

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

From the beginning, some Americans have been able to move more freely than others. By Ben Fountain, Medium — They were called patrollers or, variously, “paterollers,” “paddyrollers,” or “patterolls,” and they were meant to be part of the solution to Colonial America’s biggest problem, labor. Unlike Great Britain, which had a large, basically immobile peasant class that could be forced to work for subsistence wages, there weren’t enough cheap bodies…

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Traveling While Black, a virtual reality documentary, discusses the agony and trepidation of a people moving through a country that has not fully accepted them.

Traveling While Black: behind the eye-opening VR documentary on racism in America

By Commentaries/Opinions

In the Emmy-nominated virtual reality project, viewers are given an immersive historical experience on the depressingly topical dangers of being black in America. By Dream McClinton, The Guardian — The theatre has luxurious red velvet upholstered seats, grand ceilings and gilded trimmings. The rows of chairs stretch back into the ostensible blackness, with light beaming from the projector room. Ahead, archival footage of stylish black travelers pack the screen as…

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FBI agents walk past a memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh

Inside the White Supremacist Movement

By Editors' Choice

Michael German, a former federal agent, spent years infiltrating white supremacist groups. Here’s what he has to say about what’s going on now. By Joe Sexton, ProPublica — Late in 2017, ProPublica began writing about a California white supremacist group called the Rise Above Movement. Its members had been involved in violent clashes at rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, and several cities in California. They were proud of their violent handiwork,…

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Robert Mugabe

Robert Mugabe and the Fate of Democracy in Africa

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Robin Wright, The New Yorker — In a commemorative interview on his ninety-third birthday, in 2017, Robert Mugabe, who was President of Zimbabwe at the time, reflected on his new American counterpart. “When it comes to Donald Trump, on the one hand talking of American nationalism, well, America for America, America for Americans—on that we agree,” he told state television. “Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans.” The two men were wildly different in many ways,…

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