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Ben Jealous

Is Ben Jealous What Progressives Want?

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The former NAACP chief wants to turn Maryland into a progressive beacon, fusing Bernie-style economic policy with racial justice. But first he has to win his gubernatorial primary. By Adam Serwer, The Atlantic — Ben jealous, a tall, gregarious man wearing a suit, stepped to the center of the room at Morgan State University. The comedian Dave Chappelle, wearing stylishly torn clothes and clutching a cup of coffee, took a seat…

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Jamaican immigrants aboard the "Empire Windrush" in 1948.

The Caribbean Immigrants Who Transformed Britain

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By Kaila Philo, The New Republic — Seventy years ago today—June 22, 1948—a passenger ship carrying 492 Jamaican immigrants arrived in Essex, London. The Empire Windrush was the first of many ships to come, as the British government recruited migrants from the Caribbean Commonwealth to help rebuild the economy after World War II. These arrivals came to be known as the Windrush generation. “It is unclear how many people belong to the Windrush generation,…

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In this March 24, 2018 file photo, protesters fill Pennsylvania Avenue, as seen from the Newseum, during the “March for Our Lives” rally in support of gun control in Washington. Rachel Einwohner, a Purdue University sociology professor, says, “With the rise of social media, it’s definitely a lot easier for people to mobilize more quickly and you don’t necessarily need to have one charismatic leader like Dr. King, who had almost some kind of magical quality… But you still do need some powerful message that really resonates with a lot of people.”

Social media is the new heart of political protests

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By Sharon Cohen — The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. marching arm-in-arm with other civil rights activists. Cesar Chavez hoisting a picket sign in a farm workers’ strike. Gloria Steinem rallying other feminists for equal rights. During the 1960s and into the 1970s, amid the turbulence of protests for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, every movement seemed to have a famous face — someone at a podium or at the front of a march who possessed a charismatic style, soaring oratory and an inspiring message.

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‘Despite Europe’s commendable patience, its failure to understand what animates Trump has enabled him.’ Photograph: Alba Vigaray/EPA

Dear Europe, if you want to stop Trump, sanction his companies

By Commentaries/Opinions

Trump can easily weather broad sanctions on the US economy. But sanctions targeting his own companies will sting in a way that he cannot ignore By Keith Ellison, The Guardian — Donald Trump has opened the largest rift between the US and its European allies since George W Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq. From the Paris accord, to the Iran nuclear deal, to pushing for the inclusion of Russia in a…

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Zora Neale Hurston

Witnesses for the Future

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Zora Neale Hurston’s drive to tell the story of the slave trade’s last survivor By Emily Bernard, The New Republic — “You have seen how a man was made a slave,” Frederick Douglass wrote in his 1845 autobiography, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. “You shall see how a slave was made a man.” These words herald the moment when Douglass masters his master, the sadistic overseer and “negro-breaker,”…

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Divest From the Business of Incarceration

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By Ron Jacobs, Counter Punch — The Trumpist policy of kidnapping children at the border has begun to shine a light on the nature of imprisonment in the United States for people who didn’t pay attention before. Over 60% of all detained immigrants are in private prisons. CoreCivic is one of the biggest private prison corporations in the United States. CoreCivic used to be called Corrections Corporation of America but…

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Trump’s War on Children is an act of State Terrorism

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By Henry Giroux, Counter Punch — State terrorism comes in many forms, but one of its most cruel and revolting expressions is when it is aimed at children. Separating children from their parents is indeed a form of terrorism and it points not only to a society that has lost its moral compass, but has also descended into such darkness that it demands both the loudest forms of moral outrage…

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The Republican Party Moves From Family Values to White Nationalism

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The migrant crisis signals an end to one era for the GOP—and the terrifying start of a new one. By Alex Wagner, The Atlantic — Sitting in the Cabinet Room on Wednesday, surrounded by a largely white, male group of Republican lawmakers and administration officials, President Trump attempted to defuse a bomb of his own making. “We have compassion, we want to keep families together,” he said as he signed an…

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