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Commentaries/Opinions

Bill Cosby

A Final Sad Thought About Cosby

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, The Hutchinson Report — I have been hard line, uncompromising, and relentless in my criticism of Bill Cosby’s sexual crimes and in my withering call for justice for his victims, Yet, I must say that I felt a pang of deep remorse and sadness in gazing at the picture of Cosby being led out of the Pennsylvania courtroom with his head bowed, and his hands manacled. It…

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Black Space, White Blindness

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Why white Americans have such a hard time picturing a middle-class black neighborhood. By Henry Grabar, Slate — In John Sayles’ 1984 movie The Brother From Another Planet, a card shark is riding a northbound A train that is about to make the 66-block jump from Midtown to Harlem. “I have another magic trick for you,” he says. “Wanna see me make all the white people disappear?” The conductor announces the train…

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Obama reminded his audience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that the current troubles “did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause.

In Illinois, Obama Hits the Midterm Campaign Trail—and Trump

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker — One hazard of the trolling that the United States has been subjected to from the White House for the past twenty months is that even the most alarming patterns can be hard to discern, and the most prominent dots impossible to connect. Yet a seemingly different pattern preceded the speech that Barack Obama delivered on Friday, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in which he…

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Rahm Emanuel is leaving, but the damage he's caused needs to be reversed.

After Rahm Emanuel’s Neoliberal Nightmare, the Next Chicago Mayor Must Embrace Reparations

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

Emanuel’s pro-corporate policies ravaged Black and Latinx communities across Chicago. His successor will be tasked with reversing this trend. By Saqib Bhatti, In These Times — This week, Chicagoans celebrated Rahm Emanuel’s announcement that he will not seek another term as mayor. But while Emanuel’s departure is welcome news to many, the next mayor of Chicago will have to come up with an aggressive plan to repair the damage that Emanuel’s…

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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a mass in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Russia, on Jan. 7, 2018

Why Putin is an ally for American evangelicals

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By Melani McAlister, The Conversation — The close relationship between American evangelicals and Russia has lately been discussed widely in the news media. In particular, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint in July against a Russian woman, Maria Butina, for trying to use the National Prayer Breakfast, a star-studded affair, as a “back channel of communication” with prominent American religious and political leaders. Among them is Franklin Graham, son of the well-known evangelist, Billy Graham…

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The Slaves Rebel - image by Mr. Fish, Truthdig

The Slaves Rebel

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig — The only way to end slavery is to stop being a slave. Hundreds of men and women in prisons in some 17 states are refusing to carry out prison labor, conducting hunger strikes or boycotting for-profit commissaries in an effort to abolish the last redoubt of legalized slavery in America. The strikers are demanding to be paid the minimum wage, the right to vote, decent…

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Fugitives escaping the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

The Eastern Shore of Maryland is the birthplace of many black revolutionaries. Why?

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

By WP BrandStudio, The Washington Post — Within just four years, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, two of America’s most influential and notable abolitionists, were born in close proximity on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Douglass was born in 1818 in Talbot County; four years later, Tubman was born just a few miles south, in Dorchester County. When it came to their approaches to abolitionism, the difference between them was “marked,”…

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