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Editors’ Choice

Protests and lawsuits against North Carolina's notorious anti-transgender "bathroom bill" have led to a legal settlement that's being hailed by human rights advocates. But lawmakers in other states are continuing to target the transgender community with discriminatory proposals.

Southern lawmakers continue attacks on transgender people amid crisis of violence

By Editors' Choice

By Benjamin Barber, Facing South — This year has seen the continuation of an alarming epidemic of violence against transgender people in the United States. At least a dozen transgender people have been killed already this year, most of them women of color, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Nine of these murders have occurred in the South — yet lawmakers in Southern states have continued to target the transgender community…

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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)

Ilhan Omar is Fighting for the White Working Class-Even as They Chant ‘Send Her Back’

By Editors' Choice

By Domenica Ghanem, Newsweek — Over the last month I have watched in awe as Rep. Ilhan Omar has responded to hate with not just grace, but policy. As a Muslim American woman myself, it’s hard to imagine being in her position, with the president of the United States leading a mob chanting “send her back.” Yet Omar is continuing not only to do her job but to overperform at…

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A man representing the Freedman's Bureau stands between armed groups of Euro-Americans and Afro-Americans in this illustration from 1868.Alfred R. Waud, Harper's Weekly

The US Gave Slavers Their Land Back. What About Black Folks’ Reparations?

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

H.R. 40, the bill for a commission to study reparations, can help fulfill the promise of “40 acres and a mule.” By Taru Taylor, Truthout — The U.S. government was on the wrong side of history when they reneged their promise of “40 acres and a mule” to formerly enslaved Black Americans in 1865. Exactly 154 years later, let’s pass H.R. 40, the bill for a commission to study reparations, and…

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President Donald Trump hands his pen to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, after signing an executive order reorganizing the executive branch.

Trump’s Racism Is Part of His Larger Con

By Editors' Choice

The Trump Show isn’t exactly popular, but it does mask a plutocratic agenda that’s even less palatable. By Matthew Yglesias, Vox — On Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump traveled to North Carolina to arouse the faithful by reiterating his racist crusade of the moment — a campaign to drive Rep. Ilhan Omar out of the country and back to Somalia, a country she left when she was 6 years old.…

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A group of Trump supporters display their "Women For Trump" and "Keep America Great" signs during the "Make America Great Again" rally held at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

How a bunch of dangerous myths brought us the ‘president for white people’

By Editors' Choice

By Chauncey DeVega, Salon — Today’s Republican Party is the largest, most powerful and most dangerous white racist organization in the United States — if not the world. Donald Trump, the president of the United States, is its leader. These are plain if not understated facts. No embellishment is needed. The examples are many. Over the last few days Donald Trump has repeatedly dug into his bucket of racist political scatology, saying…

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A statue of President James Monroe at Highland, his former plantation in Virginia.

James Monroe Enslaved Hundreds. Their Descendants Still Live Next Door.

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

A small African-American community has existed less than 10 miles from the president’s former plantation for generations. Only recently has the full extent of their relationship been revealed. By Audra D. S. Burch, The New York Times — CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — So many Monroes in rural Albemarle County remember the moment they asked a parent or grandparent if they were somehow connected to the nation’s fifth president, James Monroe. The…

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The bronze statue called "Raise Up" at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a memorial to honor thousands of people killed in lynchings, on April 23, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala.

White supremacy must be undone — institution by institution

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

By Michael Gerson, The Washington Post — The national debate on race — which the president has made more angry and urgent with his racial demagoguery — is hindered by imprecise language. Most whites do not feel personally guilty for the United States’ long history of imposed white supremacy. A white man who has lost his job at the coal mine, or the daughter of a recent Ukrainian immigrant, probably…

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Maurice Mitchell

A Socialist Afro-Punk Rocker Challenges the Two-Party System

By Editors' Choice

By Nick Fouriezos, OZY — Maurice “Moe” Mitchell stalks the stage aggressively, barking lyrics in pointed contrast to his black T-shirt, which reads in bold white letters: “Don’t Shoot.” It’s August 2014, and the socially conscious punk rocker is grieving. Not just because this Afropunk Fest show is his band Cipher’s first in three years after the death of its drummer Danny Bobis, but also because, less than three weeks earlier, the…

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A relief sculpture of the goddess Mami Wata on the wall of a voodoo temple in Benin.

Mermaids Have Always Been Black

By Editors' Choice

The uproar over Disney casting Halle Bailey as the Little Mermaid overlooks generations of Caribbean and African folklore. By Tracey Baptiste, The New York Times — As a young child growing up in Trinidad and Tobago within sight and walking distance of the Caribbean Sea, I was gripped by the intrigue of mermaids. I was introduced to one version of a mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, whose tale of a magical girl…

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