Skip to main content
Residents of St. Croix make their way around and under obstacles blocking a main road nearly a week after Hurricane Maria raked the US Virgin Islands.

The 2017 Hurricanes Didn’t Just Hit Puerto Rico — They Hit the Caribbean

By Commentaries/Opinions

Puerto Rico is getting the coverage it deserves, but an entire region has been upended by natural disasters this hurricane season. By Gabriela Thorne — When Hurricane Irma swept through the Caribbean in early September, the focus was not the damage wrought on the islands but on the fact that it would soon hit Florida. Then came Jose. Then came Maria. In the span a few of weeks, the Caribbean was devastated by three hurricanes…

Read More
African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) soldier greets a group of children during a patrol in the Kaa’ran district of Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Driven to Extremes – How Poverty Fuels Extremism, and How to Help Africa’s Youth

By News & Current Affairs

By Siddharth Chatterjee — Poverty is a blight, and one that disproportionately affects sub-Saharan Africa. It is a vast and complex issue whose tentacles reach into many areas, including climate change, sustainable development and–crucially–global security. The link between poverty and violent extremism is compelling, and means that if we want to address extremism, we must…

Read More
Dominica, 2 October Devastation after Hurricane Maria.

Ending Poverty in Next 13 years Means Boosting Resilience Now

By News & Current Affairs

By Jessica Faieta — This month the world marks two key International Days: for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October and for Disaster Reduction, four days earlier. It is no coincidence that they are profoundly connected. Reducing risks related to disasters has never been so urgent—and the Latin America and the Caribbean region bears witness to this. Seven hurricanes have hit the Caribbean…

Read More
Idris Elba as the Asgardian warrior Heimdall in Thor: the Dark World. (photo: Marvel/Yahoo)

Yes, White Supremacists, Some Vikings Were Muslims and Thor Was Brown

By Editors' Choice

By Juan Cole — The archeological identification of stylized Arabic text for God (Allah) and Ali (the prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law) in burial garments of the Vikings in Sweden has thrown white supremacists into a tizzy. While the garments could just be the result of trade with the Middle East, it can’t be ruled out that there were some converts to Islam. This possibility drove the Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, the…

Read More
Then-Governor Ronald Regan speaks on December 5, 1968. He later went on to become president of the United States, ushering in a severe era of neoliberal economic policy that has continued to this day. (Photo: Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images)

Out of Control: A Brief History of Neoliberal Deregulation in the USA

By Commentaries/Opinions

By T.J. Coles, Clairview Books — In the early 1970s, the Nixon administration pushed to eliminate what neoliberal advocates call “needless barriers to competition.” This was particularly true of the financial sector, where restrictions on local bank branches, prices for deposits (so-called regulation Q) and compartmentalization (i.e., allowing the interconnection of commercial, savings and insurance) were lifted.

Read More
Cassandra Welchlin

Voices of Resistance: Centering the Needs of Black Women in Mississippi

By News & Current Affairs

By Rebekah Barber, Facing South — As a child growing up in Jackson, Mississippi, Cassandra Welchlin witnessed the struggles her mother endured working as a maid. She also learned the importance of serving those in need from her foster grandmother, who instilled in her the importance of taking care of the community’s elderly and disadvantaged. Welchlin took those lessons…

Read More
Black Neighbors Band Together to Bring in Healthy Food, Co-op-Style

Black Neighbors Band Together to Bring in Healthy Food, Co-op-Style

By News & Current Affairs

By J. Gabriel Ware, Yes Magazine — A decade ago, researchers reported that more than half of Detroit residents live in a food desert — an area where access to fresh and affordable healthy foods is limited because grocery stores are too far away. Efforts since then to bring more grocery stores — and food security — to predominantly Black neighborhoods haven’t worked.

Read More