By Yu-Shan Wu, Chris Alden and Cobus van Staden, The Conversation — The complex relationship between Africa and China has become even more complicated this year. Initially, 2018 was set to reaffirm the bond through the latest Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit held in Beijing in September. The summit delivered its usual pageant of African leaders, side deals, and the announcement of a USD$60 billion financing package. The year also saw the recurrence of misgivings about…
Audio by WNYC Studios — Journalist and activist Ida B. Wells is in some ways a forgotten figure, overlooked even in black civil rights history. But her reporting on lynchings across the South was unwavering in its mission: calling America out on racial injustice. And, why black women are no longer willing to play the role of “Magical Negro” in U.S. politics. The United States of Anxiety recently recorded a live…
‘Close to the point of no return’: Historian explains how Trump uses authoritarian tools more powerful than Hitler’s secret police. By Chauncey Devega, Salon — History can teach us many lessons…
Fifty years ago this week, two proud Olympians raised their fists to call attention to social injustices. Their gesture made my heart swell with pride. By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Guardian…
Yale professor Jason Stanley enters a growing literary field with a sober examination of an inflammatory political concept. By Tom McCarthy, The Guardian — One of the insidious ironies of fascist politics, the philosopher Jason Stanley writes in his arresting new book, is that talk of fascism itself becomes more difficult because it is made to seem outlandish. The normalization of the fascist myth “makes us able to tolerate what was once…
The frontrunner in the presidential election is finding support from the country’s bankers. By John Paul Rathbone and Joe Leahy, OZY — The dramatic surge in Brazilian markets is not…
Remember Dr. Christine Blasey Ford… Mobilize the “Mob” to March on Ballot Boxes — Eradicate Trumpism
Image: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford Vantage Point Articles and Essays by Dr. Ron Daniels — We must never forget the humble, dignified and courageous testimony of a Dr. Christine Blasey…
We’re coming for their power. By Kai Wright, The Nation — Hell hath no fury like a white man scorned. If you take nothing else from the Senate’s confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, take that much. Know that the angry hysterics of Lindsey Graham and Charles Grassley and Orrin Hatch were a continuation of the long, howling tantrum that began when Donald Trump descended from his tower in 2015. It is…
How the right created the illusion of colorblindness. By Joshua Tait, The Washingtion Post — Americans are at an impasse in their understanding of racism today. The activist slogan “Black Lives Matter” is met by the rejoinder “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter.” Colin Kaepernick’s NFL protest about racial injustice is perceived only as an anti-American blast. President Trump tells reporters he is “the least racist person” they will…
By The Miami Times — The island of Haiti had a bittersweet last week. The sweet part of the week began on the evening of Oct. 3, when U.S. District…
By Monique Judge, The Root — Are you registered to vote? Have you confirmed that your voter registration is valid and ready to go for Election Day? Even if you think you are positively sure everything is OK with your registration, double-check it again—it’s imperative that you do. According to a report by Salon, voters in Georgia stand a 1 in 10 chance of having been purged from the voting rolls.…
By Chauncey Devega — Brett Kavanaugh is now a Supreme Court justice. The FBI’s limited investigation of the sexual assault accusations against him was clearly inadequate. Numerous leads were ignored and dozens of potentially important witnesses were not interviewed. Moving beyond a political cover-up to a level of gross malfeasance, the FBI — at the direction of Donald Trump’s White House — did not interview either Christine Blasey Ford or Julie Swetnick, two of Kavanaugh’s three…