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A statue of President James Monroe at Highland, his former plantation in Virginia.

James Monroe Enslaved Hundreds. Their Descendants Still Live Next Door.

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

A small African-American community has existed less than 10 miles from the president’s former plantation for generations. Only recently has the full extent of their relationship been revealed. By Audra D. S. Burch, The New York Times — CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — So many Monroes in rural Albemarle County remember the moment they asked a parent or grandparent if they were somehow connected to the nation’s fifth president, James Monroe. The…

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A group of Trump supporters display their "Women For Trump" and "Keep America Great" signs during the "Make America Great Again" rally held at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

Race against time: How white fear of genetic annihilation fuels abortion bans

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Carla Bell, YES! Magazine — Last year, White people constituted 60% of the U.S. population, down from about 90% in 1950. It’s projected that by 2050, they will be the new minority and people of color will be the majority—a nightmarish prediction to some White people. Sen. Lindsey Graham voiced his concern of a demographic dilution at the 2012 Republican convention, when he said, “The demographics race we’re losing badly … not generating enough angry…

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The bronze statue called "Raise Up" at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a memorial to honor thousands of people killed in lynchings, on April 23, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala.

White supremacy must be undone — institution by institution

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

By Michael Gerson, The Washington Post — The national debate on race — which the president has made more angry and urgent with his racial demagoguery — is hindered by imprecise language. Most whites do not feel personally guilty for the United States’ long history of imposed white supremacy. A white man who has lost his job at the coal mine, or the daughter of a recent Ukrainian immigrant, probably…

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Sheila Jackson Lee says reparations commission would help "understand the hurts" of African-Americans

Sheila Jackson Lee says reparations commission would help “understand the hurts” of African-Americans

By HR 40 Congressional Hearing, News & Current Affairs, Reparations

By Emily Tillett, CBS News — The topic of reparations for the descendants of Americans who were enslaved has come up on the 2020 campaign trail and in the halls of Congress, as lawmakers continue to push for a commission to study and consider reparation proposals. One of those lawmakers, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, says some in Congress are now turning reparations into a “constructive discussion on the…

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Pete Buttigieg

Buttigieg releases 18-page plan to help African Americans and “complement” HR40

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

WASHINGTON (NBC News) — Working to prove himself to African American voters, Pete Buttigieg is releasing an 18-page plan Thursday to improve conditions and opportunity for black Americans on everything from the health care, education and criminal justice systems to entrepreneurship and access to credit. The wide-ranging plan constitutes Buttigieg’s initial version of a proposal for reparations for slavery. His campaign says it views it as a “complement” to H.R. 40, legislation working…

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Maurice Mitchell

A Socialist Afro-Punk Rocker Challenges the Two-Party System

By Editors' Choice

By Nick Fouriezos, OZY — Maurice “Moe” Mitchell stalks the stage aggressively, barking lyrics in pointed contrast to his black T-shirt, which reads in bold white letters: “Don’t Shoot.” It’s August 2014, and the socially conscious punk rocker is grieving. Not just because this Afropunk Fest show is his band Cipher’s first in three years after the death of its drummer Danny Bobis, but also because, less than three weeks earlier, the…

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A relief sculpture of the goddess Mami Wata on the wall of a voodoo temple in Benin.

Mermaids Have Always Been Black

By Editors' Choice

The uproar over Disney casting Halle Bailey as the Little Mermaid overlooks generations of Caribbean and African folklore. By Tracey Baptiste, The New York Times — As a young child growing up in Trinidad and Tobago within sight and walking distance of the Caribbean Sea, I was gripped by the intrigue of mermaids. I was introduced to one version of a mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, whose tale of a magical girl…

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Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Latin America and the Caribbean 2030 agenda at a critical point

By News & Current Affairs

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have undertaken a huge commitment to the 2030 agenda with important advances in the implementation of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Nevertheless, trends reveal that compliance with this global roadmap to 2030 is at a critical point in the region. The high-level political forum on sustainable development, taking place at United Nations Headquarters in New…

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Almost 2,000 white people gathered at a 1970 protest in Charlotte, N.C. against a court-ordered desegregation busing plan.

On Busing, Joe Biden, and the ‘Pervasiveness of White Backlash to School Desegregation’

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Esther Wang, Jezebel — The most widely discussed moment from last week’s Democratic primary debates was Kamala Harris’s pointed critique of Joe Biden’s defense of southern segregationists and his stance toward busing. That encounter—in which Harris shared her own story of being a young girl bused from her working-class neighborhood on the majority-black side of town to a predominantly white school in Berkeley Hills, and in which Biden appeared visibly flustered…

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