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Black Space, White Blindness

By Commentaries/Opinions

Why white Americans have such a hard time picturing a middle-class black neighborhood. By Henry Grabar, Slate — In John Sayles’ 1984 movie The Brother From Another Planet, a card shark is riding a northbound A train that is about to make the 66-block jump from Midtown to Harlem. “I have another magic trick for you,” he says. “Wanna see me make all the white people disappear?” The conductor announces the train…

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The University of Glasgow has examined the historical slave-holding record of benefactors. Photograph: University of Glasgow

Glasgow University to make amends over slavery profits of past

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

University received ‘significant financial support’ from slavery in 18th and 19th centuries. By Martin Belam, The Guardian — Glasgow University has announced a programme of “reparative justice” after a year-long study discovered that the university benefited from the equivalent of tens of millions of pounds donated from the profits of slavery. The report states that although the university itself “adopted a clear anti-slavery position”, during the 18th and 19th centuries…

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Stacey Abrams is running in Georgia to become America’s first black female governor.

In Georgia governor’s race can a black woman make history?

By Editors' Choice

Progressive Democrat Stacey Abrams is taking on Trump-style Republican Brian Kemp in a state where all 82 of its governors have been white men. By David Smith, The Guardian — In “Sweet Auburn”, a short walk from the birthplace and stone tomb of Martin Luther King Jr, salon owner Terrica Jones is silking hair with a ceramic iron and contemplating an opportunity that once seemed unthinkable: to vote for a black woman…

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“Ayanna Pressley (January 10, 2014–Boston Convention and Exhibition Center)

The Rise of the Black, Left Candidate

By Editors' Choice

By Cyndi Suarez, Nonprofit Quarterly — Last week, Boston enacted its own version of what may be a national trend—black progressive candidates, many of them women, beating centrist incumbents and challenging traditional ideas about viability, strategy, and some would even say the soul of the Democratic Party. Before I go on, we should acknowledge that we are seeing a challenge to the disproportionally high rate of white leadership in many aspects…

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The purse of an attendee at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee rally addressed by President Barack Obama, Anaheim, California, September 8, 2018.

Resistance Means More Than Voting

By Editors' Choice

By Garry Wills, NYR Daily — When former president Barack Obama called on the nation to oppose Donald Trump at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign last week, he said there was only one way to do it, by voting. This was a criticism of the internal resistance supported by the anonymous op-ed writer in The New York Times. Obama said that people who “secretly aren’t following the president’s orders” are not defending democracy: “These…

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Obama reminded his audience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that the current troubles “did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause.

In Illinois, Obama Hits the Midterm Campaign Trail—and Trump

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker — One hazard of the trolling that the United States has been subjected to from the White House for the past twenty months is that even the most alarming patterns can be hard to discern, and the most prominent dots impossible to connect. Yet a seemingly different pattern preceded the speech that Barack Obama delivered on Friday, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in which he…

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Rahm Emanuel is leaving, but the damage he's caused needs to be reversed.

After Rahm Emanuel’s Neoliberal Nightmare, the Next Chicago Mayor Must Embrace Reparations

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

Emanuel’s pro-corporate policies ravaged Black and Latinx communities across Chicago. His successor will be tasked with reversing this trend. By Saqib Bhatti, In These Times — This week, Chicagoans celebrated Rahm Emanuel’s announcement that he will not seek another term as mayor. But while Emanuel’s departure is welcome news to many, the next mayor of Chicago will have to come up with an aggressive plan to repair the damage that Emanuel’s…

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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a mass in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Russia, on Jan. 7, 2018

Why Putin is an ally for American evangelicals

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Melani McAlister, The Conversation — The close relationship between American evangelicals and Russia has lately been discussed widely in the news media. In particular, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint in July against a Russian woman, Maria Butina, for trying to use the National Prayer Breakfast, a star-studded affair, as a “back channel of communication” with prominent American religious and political leaders. Among them is Franklin Graham, son of the well-known evangelist, Billy Graham…

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