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Editors’ Choice

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison’s Black Art Spoke in a Nation That Would Silence Us

By Editors' Choice

By Eisa Nefertari Ulen, Truthout — “To create art amid sorrow or oppression is to insist on excavating meaning from the dull senselessness of pain. It is to be alive and speaking back. Art dives headfirst into the uncharted perils and delights of the human condition. For people whose humanity is often denied, taking that plunge with an audience is inherently rebellious.” —Hannah Giorgis My mother called to tell me…

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Thomas Cole: The Course of Empire: Destruction (1836)

America Is Not Rome. It Just Thinks It Is

By Editors' Choice

By Tom Holland, NYR Daily — When Edward Gibbon embarked on his great history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, he began his narrative with the accession of Commodus. Marcus Aurelius, the father of the new emperor, was a man who, in the noblest traditions of the Roman people, had combined the attributes of a warrior, a statesman, and a philosopher; Commodus was none of these. “The…

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Civil rights advocates carry placards during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in Washington

Truth and Reconciliation: Addressing Systematic Racism in the United States

By Commentaries/Opinions, Editors' Choice

By Danyelle Solomon — 2019 marks the 400th anniversary of Africans sold into bondage arriving on Virginia’s shores. It has been 156 years since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, 55 years since the end of Jim Crow, and 51 years since the civil rights movement. All of these moments in U.S. history represent crossroads—moments where the country made a choice or where people demanded that the words on the pages of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights became more than words; that policies and practices were equitably distributed among all people, not just a select few…

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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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