By Marisa Iati, The Washington Post — More than two decades after the Southern Baptist Convention — the country’s second-largest faith group — apologized to African Americans for its active defense of slavery in the 1800s, its flagship seminary on Wednesday released a stark report further delineating its ties to institutionalized racism. The year-long study by the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary found that all four founding faculty members owned slaves…
By Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker — Cory Booker, one of a half-dozen Democrats routinely mentioned as a Presidential contender, is a man of singularly intense enthusiasms. He is a vegan and, after a Rhodes Scholarship and finishing Yale Law, he famously moved into the Brick Towers housing project in the central ward of Newark, from which he would, before his thirtieth birthday, launch a political career, winning a seat on…
How Staying Power shook British history. When it was published in 1984 Staying Power vividly captured the struggle for black British identity. Nearly 35 years on it still has lessons to teach. By Gary Younge, The Guardian — “The very serious function of racism is distraction,” Toni Morrison argued in a lecture in Portland, Oregon, in 1975: It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and…
Nixon came in part to avoid attending the funeral, but he also brought a check—later lost—for her children’s education, according to a family friend finally telling the story. By Eleanor Clift, The Daily Beast — Nixon came in part to avoid attending the funeral, but he also brought a check-later lost-for her children’s education, according to a family friend finally telling the story. A secret kept for a half century…
By Greg Palast — It was a Republican, Martin Luther King Sr., who made John Kennedy president of the United States — for JFK’s saving Daddy King’s son, Martin Jr., from lynching. This harrowing and little known drama of terror and courage, confirmed for me by Martin Luther King III, changed American politics — and America — forever. On October 19, 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Georgia…
Without the startup ecosystems of the West, Nigerian entrepreneurs are building their nation, innovation by innovation. By Emily Feng, OZY — Any entrepreneur in Nigeria faces high operating costs brought on by the country’s unstable power supply, shaky internet and a fluctuating currency. Undaunted, Nigeria’s tech startups have proliferated, kick-starting a young but thriving tech scene that has earned Lagos’ colonial-era Yaba neighborhood — where many have their offices — the nickname…
You can attack the Palestinians in America uninterrupted, call to expel them and deny their existence. Just don’t dare say a bad word about Israel, the holy of holies. By Gideon Levy, Haaretz— Marc Lamont Hill is an American writer and lecturer in communications at Temple University in Philadelphia, and also an analyst with CNN. In a speech last week at a United Nations conference he called for “international action…
People cherished many expectations for Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency. Many of these were not necessarily realistic and may have derived from a sense of relief in the departure of Jacob Zuma, rather than what may have been possible for Ramaphosa to do. By Raymond Suttner, Polity — In the early months Ramaphosa engendered considerable confidence as a result of his apparently methodical, systematic and measured way of handling his office. This…
The party was the natural political conduit for the protest movement. It must not betray that trust. By Gary Younge, The Guardian — With just a few thousand votes between the two candidates for governor, election night during the US midterms in Wisconsin could not have been more tense. The slender lead kept flipping between Republican and Democrat as various precincts reported their results. Then shortly before midnight a local news presenter suggested,…
In philanthropy, we talk a lot about diversity but not a lot about racism, especially anti-black racism. By Tamara Copeland, The Chronicle of Philanthropy — There seems to be real discomfort in acknowledging the very thing that has torn our country apart for centuries. We seem unable to recognize and talk about how the contemporary relationship between white people and black people was shaped by slavery. In the Washington, D.C., region, grant…
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