
By Gil B. Manzon Jr. — “If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets.” Actor and comedian Chris Rock made this astute statement during…
By Gil B. Manzon Jr. — “If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets.” Actor and comedian Chris Rock made this astute statement during…
By Keisha N. Blain, the Conversation — Black History Month is an opportunity to reflect on the historical contributions of black people in the United States. Too often, however, this history focuses on black men, sidelining black women and diminishing their contributions. This is true in mainstream narratives of black nationalist movements in the United States. These narratives almost always highlight the experiences of a handful of black nationalist men, including…
By John W. Whitehead — “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” —Abraham Lincoln History has a funny way…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson — California congresswoman Maxine Waters minced no words when she flatly declared that she will not attend Trump’s State of the Union Address on January 30….
Around the world, the labor of poor people fuels the rising concentration of wealth. By Benjamin Dangl, AlterNet — Forida is a 22-year-old sewing machine operator in a clothing factory in Dahka, Bangladesh. She often works 12-hour days producing clothing for brands such as H&M and Target. Sometimes, during busy production cycles, the hours are even longer. “Last year, I worked until midnight for a full month,” Forida said. “I…
By Garikai Chengu — Four hundred and eight years ago today King Phillip III of Spain signed an order, which was one of the earliest examples of ethnic cleansing. At…
By Jason Opal, The Conversation — U.S. President Donald Trump’s bigotry is no longer in question. Most recently he has called Haiti, the largest Black nation in our hemisphere, a “shithole” whose people “all have AIDS.” The man’s a racist, period. So are many of his fans. The puzzle is how Trump came to be a symbol of national pride for evangelical Protestants who value strict morality and good manners. In 2016, 80 per cent of…
By Ryan Cooper, The Week — President Trump is the most coarsely racist person to hold his office since Woodrow Wilson or even Andrew Johnson, and it’s never more obvious than…
His “shithole” remark reveals the motive behind his immigration policies. By Jeet Heer — Meeting with leaders from both parties yesterday to craft a bipartisan immigration deal, President Donald Trump uttered words that are likely to define his presidency. When lawmakers raised the issue of protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries, the president reportedly asked, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” He added, “Why do we…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson — Trump predictably wasted no time in crowing that he was the reason for the big plunge in the black jobless rate. It was part his…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson — During the 2004 presidential campaign then Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry mildly protested the towering hurdles to ex-felon voting in dozens of states. Kerry raised…
An alleged comment by President Trump about Haiti and AIDS revived a stigma that goes back several decades. By Edwidge Danticat, The New Yorker — In the early nineteen-eighties, soon after cases of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (aids) were first discovered in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control named four groups at “high risk” for the disease: intravenous drug users, homosexuals, hemophiliacs, and Haitians. Haitians were the only ones solely identified by…