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Lynette Monroe is a graduate student at Howard University. Her research area is public policy as it relates to education and conflict. You can follow her on Twitter @_monroedoctrine.

Three Misconceptions About the Black Vote

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Lynette Monroe, NNPA — Black people do vote. Let’s stop perpetuating the myth that Black people don’t vote. Besides, emphasizing negative behavior will not yield positive results. Positive language reinforces positive behavior. While statistics related to health and wealth routinely place Blacks as dead last, when it comes to voting, this is not the case. Black voter turnout is higher than any other minority group, but Black people still…

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A group of freshly minted lawyers at their call to the bar

How African courts glorify colonialism with wigs and gowns

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Sika-Ayiwa Afriyie, Face2Face Africa — The tradition of wearing horsehair wigs, perukes, ‘a term derived from the French word perruque (weaving wig)’ and gowns by the judiciary predates the 15th Century. In the 14th Century, during the reign of King Edward III, the accepted costume for nobles who appeared before the Court of the king was the robe. Later in the 17th Century, the gown was adopted together with the…

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The Outsider Democrats Who Built the Blue Wave

By Commentaries/Opinions

Grassroots activists have organized a movement stronger than Obama’s, and the midterm elections were just the beginning. By Micah L. Sifry, The New Republic — On Saturday, November 3, three days before the midterms, 200 volunteers gathered in Modena, New York, to canvass for Antonio Delgado, an African American lawyer and first-time congressional candidate. A local field staffer, a cheery young man named Todd, told me that so many people…

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Supporters of Ted Cruz react at his midterm election night party in Houston.

The midterms revealed the power of partisanship and whiteness

By Commentaries/Opinions

Democrats hoped for a huge rejection of Trumpism, but found two forces still hold an intoxicating political power. By Andrew Gawthorpe, The Guardian — The expectations we carry into elections always make it difficult to objectively assess their outcome. Before the midterms, Democrats hoped for a blue wave that would decisively hand them the House and perhaps more, while Donald Trump was poised to declare victory whatever the outcome. The morning…

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Honduran troops deploy in San Pedro Sula during the inauguration of Juan Orlando Hernández in January.

Why are so many people fleeing Honduras?

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Jackie McVicar, America Magazine — Though thousands of Hondurans left in recent weeks to form the main party of the so-called migrant caravan now making its way to the United States through Mexico, on a typical day hundreds of people leave Honduras, caravan or not. And as those hundreds depart, scores of others are returned after deportation from the United States. Many deportees will try their luck again. “We are living in calamity,…

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The American Civil War Didn’t End. And Trump is a Confederate President

By Commentaries/Opinions

His supporters hark back to an 1860s fantasy of white male dominance. But the Confederacy won’t win in the long run. By Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian — In the 158th year of the American civil war, also known as 2018, the Confederacy continues its recent resurgence. Its victims include black people, of course, but also immigrants, Jews, Muslims, Latinos, trans people, gay people and women who want to exercise jurisdiction over…

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Peter Cvjetanovic along with neo-Nazis and white supremacists at the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia on \ in Charlottesville, Va. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

“Trumpism:” The Hate that Produces Hate

By Vantage Point Articles

Vantage Point Articles and Essays by Dr. Ron Daniels — With the attempted assassination of a series of Democratic leaders and the savage murder of 11 worshipers in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in the past week, the American people are witnessing one of the most horrific seasons of hate and terror in recent memory. And, while there is debate about the link between rhetoric and the actions…

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