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Paying homage to Fidel Castro at Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana in 2016

In Cuba’s Change of Leadership, More Black Officials in Power

By Editors' Choice

By Frances Robles and Azam Ahmeda — As the departing Cuban president, Raúl Castro, tells it, even too many of the radio and television newscasters in Cuba are white. It “was not easy” getting the few black broadcasters now on the air hired, Mr. Castro said in his retirement speech Thursday, a remarkable admission considering the state controls all the stations. So it was all the more extraordinary to see…

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Group shot of storytellers at TMI Project's inaugural #blackstoriesmatter performance, which debuted on March 25, 2017 at the Pointe of Praise Church in Kingston, NY. Photo courtesy of TMI Project.

Why Black Stories Matter: They Build Empathy and Heal Trauma

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Isabelle Morrison — When she was growing up, Rachel Bailey was taught that only rich, self-indulgent White people suffered from mental health issues. Black people were supposed to be tougher. Although she remembers struggling with what was later diagnosed as bipolar disorder since she was 4 years old, it wasn’t until age 34 that she began to seek treatment, checking herself into a psychiatric ward after a…

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Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement

Why feminism and racism have a lot to do with the gun debate

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Emma Lacey-Bordeaux — (CNN) — Students around the country are again taking to the streets. It’s the latest mass action since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that claimed seventeen lives and galvanized young people to act in the long-stalled debate over guns. Some activists are heartened by the attention being paid to the issue but they raise questions about how these students get viewed versus the treatment of…

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Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel, left, with predecessor and patron Raul Castro in Havana on April 19, 2018.

Cuba’s New President Vows to Defend Socialist Revolution

By News & Current Affairs

President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the new period would be characterized by “modernization of the economic and social model.” Cuba’s new president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, began his term on Thursday with a promise to defend the socialist revolution led by the Castro brothers since 1959, giving a sober speech that also emphasized the need to modernize the island’s economy. A stalwart of the ruling Communist Party, Diaz-Canel was sworn in to replace…

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Police officers monitor activity outside as protesters demonstrate inside a Philadelphia Starbucks, where two men were arrested.

A Starbucks arrest shows how black Americans are robbed of their power

By Commentaries/Opinions

Men arrested for ‘loitering’ had no choice but to keep their heads down, out of fear for their lives. For black people, it’s a familiar situation. By Rochaun Meadows-Fernandez — After video footage went viral of two black men being arrested in Starbucks for “loitering”, many were outraged. The two men had entered Starbucks for a meeting and were instead faced with the profiling and discrimination black people experience on a daily basis.

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Cuba's First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel listens to Vietnam's Communist Party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong at University of Havana.

Who Is Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba’s New President?

By Commentaries/Opinions

Cuban National Assembly elected Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez to succeed Raul Castro as country’s head of state. By teleSUR— The Cuban National Assembly elected Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez, a 57-year-old Cuban born two years after the island’s socialist revolution, as the country’s new head of the Council of State and therefore the president of the Caribbean country. During his speech after he was sworn-in, Diaz-Canel vowed to be faithful to the legacy of late Cuban President Fidel Castro and…

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"Here we're proving—with data and analysis spanning 50 years—that the problem is both structural barriers for the poor in hiring, housing, policing, and more, as well as a system that prioritizes war and the wealthy over people and the environment they live in," said John Cavanagh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies. (Photo: Poor People's Campaign/Twitter)

Decrying System That Favors ‘War and the Wealthy,’ Poor People’s Campaign Unveils Agenda to Combat Poverty, Racism, and Militarism

By Commentaries/Opinions

“The Democrats talk about the middle class. The Republicans talk about the military. No one’s talking about the poor.” By Jake Johnson — In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s original campaign against poverty that kicked off 50 years ago next month, leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) on Tuesday announced plans to revive Dr. King’s radical moral vision with mass action nationwide and unveiled a series of ambitious demands aimed…

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