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A mural of reggae icon Bob Marley

As the world celebrates Bob Marley Day, reggae is changing and so are its fans

By News & Current Affairs

By Emma Lewis — Reggae icon Bob (Robert Nesta) Marley was born on February 6, 1945; his birthday is now celebrated around the world as Bob Marley Day. This year, he would have turned 73 years old. Marley’s hometown of Kingston, Jamaica, is now recognised by UNESCO as a Creative City of Music. As the anointed birthplace of reggae music, music-lovers from all over the world make the pilgrimage to the Bob Marley Museum in uptown Kingston, the site of Marley’s former home. Visitors also head downtown to tour Tuff Gong Studios, founded by Marley in 1965, and the “Culture Yard” in Trench Town, where Marley grew up, learned to play guitar and formed his band, the Wailers.

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President Donald Trump shows an executive order entitled, 'Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch', after signing it beside members of his Cabinet in the Oval Office of the White House March 13, 2017 in Washington, D.C.

‘Kicking Off Black History Month,’ Trump Guts CFPB’s Ability to Curb Racial Discrimination by Banks

By News & Current Affairs

“These changes threaten effective enforcement of civil rights laws and increase the likelihood that people will continue to face discriminatory access and pricing as they navigate their economic lives.” By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams — In a move immediately condemned as yet another “shameful” effort by the Trump administration to roll back civil rights and reward big banks, the White House reportedly “stripped” a key Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) office of the power to take…

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Dave Warden, a bud tender at Private Organic Therapy (P.O.T.), a non-profit co-operative medical marijuana dispensary, displays various types of marijuana available to patients on October 19, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.

San Francisco Shows Nation Way Forward by Throwing Out Old Marijuana Convictions

By News & Current Affairs

“While drug policy on the federal level is going backwards, San Francisco is once again taking the lead to undo the damage that this country’s disastrous, failed drug war has had on our nation and on communities of color in particular.” By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams — Just weeks after a California measure legalizing the use of recreational marijuana went into effect, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced on Wednesday that…

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The Lincoln Emancipation Statue, paid for by former enslaved people and erected in Washington, D.C., in 1876, has been criticized for representing the history of slavery from a paternalistic perspective.

What Kids Are Really Learning About Slavery

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

A new report finds that the topic is mistaught and often sentimentalized—and students are alarmingly misinformed as a result. By Melinda D. Anderson — A class of middle-schoolers in Charlotte, North Carolina, was asked to cite “four reasons why Africans made good slaves.” Nine third-grade teachers in suburban Atlanta assigned math word problems about slavery and beatings. A high school in the Los Angeles-area reenacted a slave ship—with students’ lying on the dark…

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Maurice Bishop (1944-1983) - Maurice Rupert Bishop was a Grenadian revolutionary and the leader of New Jewel Movement – popular efforts in the areas of socio-economic development, education, and Black liberation – that came to power during the 13 March 1979 revolution that removed Eric Gairy from office

High Stakes for Grenada Election on Revolution’s Anniversary

By News & Current Affairs

The announcement of the March 13 election date on January 28 gave Grenadian voters and political parties only 45 days to prepare. By Earl Bousquet — Grenadians are getting ready to head to the polls in just six weeks. Voters have been registering to cast their ballots and a host of political parties have nominated candidates for the 2018 poll after the Government set the next General Elections for March…

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