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After the Sale: Slaves Going South from Richmond by Eyre Crowe, 1853 (Now hanging in the Chicago History Museum)

The Second Amendment was ratified to preserve slavery

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

By Thom Hartmann, AlterNet — The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says “State” instead of “Country” (the Framers knew the difference – see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia’s vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that . . . and we all should be too.

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Movie Black Panther

The Tragedy of Erik Killmonger

By Commentaries/Opinions

The revolutionary ideals of Black Panther’s profound and complex villain have been twisted into a desire for hegemony. Black Panther is a love letter to people of African descent all over the world. Its actors, its costume design, its music, and countless other facets of the film are drawn from all over the continent and its diaspora, in a science-fiction celebration of the imaginary country of Wakanda, a high-tech utopia that is a fictive manifestation of African potential unfettered by slavery and colonialism.

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Latin American Presidents. From left to right: Evo Morales (Bolivia), José Mujica (Uruguay), Dilma Rousseff (Brazil), Cristina Fernandez (Argentina), Rafael Correa (Ecuador) in 2014

The Strategic Challenge for the Latin American Left

By Commentaries/Opinions

Mass-Media has become the main opposition to the progressive governments of the region. By Rafael Correa, Telesur — After the long and sad neoliberal night of the 1990s – which broke entire nations like Ecuador – and since Hugo Chávez won the Presidency of the Republic of Venezuela at the end of 1998, the rightist governments of the continent began to be overthrown like houses of cards, bringing Popular governments and aligned with ‘Socialism of Good Living’ across our America.

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Black Women Are The Embodiment Of Black Glory

Black Women Are The Embodiment Of Black Glory

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Tyece Wilkins — In the basement of East City Bookshop on a brisk D.C. night, Morgan Jerkins filled the room with her signature blend of intellect and style. It was the fifth night of her 17-stop tour for This Will Be My Undoing, a book I’d stumbled upon only a few days prior and instantly fallen head over heels in love with. My copy was already beginning to wear at…

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Cotton weighing during harvest time in the Mississippi Delta

To Remake the World: Slavery, Racial Capitalism, and Justice — By Walter Johnson

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

By Walter Johnson — In Memory of Cedric Robinson (1940–2016) It is a commonplace to say that slavery “dehumanized” enslaved people, but to do so is misleading, harmful, and worth resisting. I hasten to add that there are, of course, plenty of right-minded reasons for adopting the notion of “dehumanization.” It is hard to square the idea of millions of people being bought and sold, of systematic sexual violation, natal…

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Cosplayers portraying characters from the 2018 US superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character, Black Panther, pose in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi on February 14, 2018

“Black Panther”: Rip Off the Racial Mask

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Nicholas Powers, Truthout — Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers. Was this the Promised Land? Black people partied on the escalator. I was going to my seat and asked if the movie was good. “Yooo,” they cheered; a teen mimed a silent explosion from his head. We laughed and slapped hands. Black Panther is more than a film. For two hours, it lets us leave the imagery of people of…

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U.S. Census

Who Counts?

By Commentaries/Opinions

How the Trump administration’s scheme to rig the census threatens American democracy By Eric H. Holder Jr., New Republic — In his first year in office, Donald Trump and his administration have launched a daunting number of direct and open attacks on long-respected American rights and freedoms—threatening immigrants, the media, health care, transgender rights in the military, and much else. But there have been other, indirect and behind-the-scenes attacks, too, which may be no less damaging to…

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United Auto Workers and Nissan employees in August 2017 after a failed unionization bid. High profile battles have put a spotlight on the links between economic and racial justice.

How Black Lives Matter Breathed New Life Into Unions

By News & Current Affairs

As Black Lives Matter and other social justice campaigns focus more on economic inequality, unions see an opportunity. By Mike Elk, The Guardian — After decades of decline unions have found a new champion in efforts to organize workers: the Black Lives Matter movement. Unions have suffered as manufacturing has moved south away from their old strongholds in the north of the US. Membership rates were 10.7% in 2016, down from 20.1% in 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time the shift from manufacturing to service industry jobs has hurt them too.

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