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Editors’ Choice

Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, center, celebrating a goal with his teammates during Brazil’s World Cup match against Serbia on Wednesday.

Is Neymar Black? Brazil and the Painful Relativity of Race

By Editors' Choice

Ever since his “It’s not like I’m black, you know?” comment, Neymar has served as a focal point in Brazil’s cultural reckoning with racism, whitening, identity and public policy. By Cleuci de Oliveira, New York Times — Years before he became the most expensive player in the world; before his Olympic gold medal; before the Eiffel Tower lit up with his name to greet his professional move from Barcelona to…

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Ben Jealous addresses supporters at a primary-election-night party on June 26, 2018.

Ben Jealous Is Ready to Make Maryland America’s Laboratory of Democracy

By Editors' Choice

The former NAACP head’s big win in a key gubernatorial primary sets him up as a Democrat who can run and win with a bold progressive vision. By John Nichols, The Nation — Ben Jealous entered the race for governor of Maryland with a remarkable résumé—Rhodes scholar, investigative journalist, past president of the Rosenberg Foundation, founding director of Amnesty International’s US Domestic Human Rights Program, youngest-ever national president of the NAACP, high-profile…

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The GOP’s Racist Rot Began Long Before Trump

By Editors' Choice

The party’s rot didn’t begin with this president, but it’s collapsing beneath him. By Goldie Taylor, The Daily Beast — The Republican Party is in tatters. After spending decades investing in hyper-partisan, mean-spirited political shenanigans that gave safe harbor to white nationalists who believe this land belongs solely to them, they may finally pay a price for callously putting a madman in the Oval Office. There are, of course, the…

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The Empire Windrush, photographed a few years after its famous journey from Jamaica to Tilbury Docks. PA Archive

Empire Windrush: how the BBC reported Caribbean migrants’ mixed reception in 1948

By Editors' Choice

By James Procter, The Conversation — Amid the celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the arrival of Empire Windrush from the Caribbean in 1948, much has been made of the warm welcome that once greeted those migrant men and women in Britain’s hour of need, as postwar reconstruction got underway. But it’s important Britain remembers that moment for what it was: a story of mixed reception. Despite and because of…

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E.L.A.M., a medical school on the outskirts of Havana, offers international students who pledge to practice in underserved areas a chance to pursue medicine without incurring catastrophic debt.Photograph by Adalberto Roque / AFP / Getty

Why African-American Doctors Are Choosing to Study Medicine in Cuba

By Editors' Choice

A school in Havana is offering students who pledge to practice in underserved areas a chance to pursue medicine without incurring catastrophic debt. NOTE: If it wasn’t for the close relationship that the Late Rev Lucius Walker had with Fidel Castro, it would have been very difficult for this program to come into existence. — SEA By Anakwa Dwamena, The New York Times — In the countryside of western Havana,…

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The Second Sight of W.E.B. Du Bois

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By Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com — Chris Hedges gave this talk Friday at the Left Forum in New York City. W.E.B. Du Bois, more than any intellectual this nation produced in the first half of the 20th century, explained America to itself. He did this not only through what he called the “color line” but by exposing the intertwining of empire, capitalism and white supremacy. He deftly fused academic disciplines. He possessed unwavering…

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Patrick Semansky / AP / Katie Martin / The Atlantic

DeRay McKesson Talks About the Hardest Job He’s Ever Had

By Editors' Choice

How the activist made a career of social justice. By Lolade Fadulu, The Atlantic — In 2015, DeRay McKesson quit his $110,000-a-year job as a human-resources official at Minneapolis Public Schools and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to join the second year of protests in Ferguson over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a white police officer. Soon afterward, McKesson, along with other activists, launched Campaign Zero, a ten-point plan…

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