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Rakem Balogun on being secretly watched by the FBI: ‘It’s tyranny at its finest.’

Black activist jailed for his Facebook posts speaks out about secret FBI surveillance

By News & Current Affairs

Exclusive: Rakem Balogun spoke out against police brutality. Now he is believed to be the first prosecuted under a secretive US effort to track so-called ‘black identity extremists’ By Sam Levin, The Guardian — Rakem Balogun thought he was dreaming when armed agents in tactical gear stormed his apartment. Startled awake by a large crash and officers screaming commands, he soon realized his nightmare was real, and he and his…

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Patricia Newton

Black Psychiatrists, Patients Share History of Trauma

By Black Family Summit News, News & Current Affairs

In accepting the 2018 Solomon Carter Fuller Award, Patricia Newton, M.D., M.A., M.P.H., noted that many of the same challenges that Fuller faced a century ago are still present for African-American psychiatrists and patients. Fuller is celebrated as the first African-American psychiatrist. He worked closely with Alois Alzheimer and Emil Kraepelin in Germany, and he lectured at the Clark University conference in 1909 when Sigmund Freud made his only U.S.…

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Brazilian rapper Nega Gizza attends the launching of her bid for the country's October elections in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil May 8, 2018

Afro-Brazilian Candidates Seek to Prolong Marielle’s Legacy

By News & Current Affairs

They represent Favela Front of Brazil, a political movement attempting to unify the voting power of favelas and other poor black neighborhoods historically overlooked and underrepresented in Brazilian politics. By teleSUR — Let’s have a round of applause for our companion Marielle, who was one of our greatest supporters in this process,” Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Anderson Quack, who is running for Congress, told a cheering crowd of nearly 200 people assembled late Tuesday…

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A vintage car driver waits for tourists after Hurricane Irma caused flooding and a blackout, in Havana, Cuba September 12, 2017

U.S. trade embargo has cost Cuba $130 billion, U.N. says

By News & Current Affairs

HAVANA (Reuters) – A United Nations agency said on Tuesday an “unjust” U.S. financial and trade embargo on Cuba had cost the country’s economy $130 billion over nearly six decades, coming up with the same estimate as the island’s communist government. Although many U.S. allies join Washington in criticizing Cuba’s one-party system and repression of political opponents, the United States has lost nearly all international support for the embargo since…

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New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon speaks at the NYC Cannabis Parade at Union Square Park on May 5, 2018.

Cannabis Industry Could Be ‘A Form of Reparations’ Says Cynthia Nixon

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

By Mona Zhang — “I don’t know whether you heard this or not, but I want to legalize cannabis in New York state,” said Cynthia Nixon on Saturday at the NYC Cannabis Parade. The crowd cheered for the candidate who is challenging Governor Andrew Cuomo. Nixon made marijuana a central part of her campaign when she announced adult-use legalization as her first policy plank in early April. On Saturday, she was one of…

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A quarter million Herero are estimated to live in Namibia today, with the population growing in recent years.

Why The Herero Of Namibia Are Suing Germany For Reparations

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

By Daniel A. Gross — Mbakumua Hengari grew up in the 1970s on a farm in southern Africa, in what is today the nation of Namibia. The arid soil around his family’s homestead was sandy and grassy, a poor fit for staple crops, so he and seven siblings subsisted on a modest herd of cattle, sheep and goats. Hengari blames systematic racism for his family’s poverty — and he and…

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FraserNet Announces its 2018 PowerNetworking Conference Key Speakers and Programs

FraserNet Announces its 2018 PowerNetworking Conference Key Speakers and Programs

By News & Current Affairs

Cleveland, Ohio – FraserNet, Inc., has announced that its 2018 PowerNetworking Conference (PNC) will be held July 4-8, at the Gaylord Hotel and Conference Center, on the National Harbor in Prince George’s County, Maryland. This year’s conference top global experts will focus their training on financial literacy, business development and wealth building through personal “subject matter” excellence, effective networking and collaboration.

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Lezley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown, prays with Benjamin Crump, attorney for the families of Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Stephon Clark, at the IOP's forum on the Black Lives Matter movement four years after Brown's slaying.

Black Lives Matter: A next chapter

By News & Current Affairs

Discussion of Michael Brown’s killing also reflects on how to improve conditions By Clea Simon (Harvard Correspondent) — Four years after Michael Brown was shot to death by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., young people of color are still dying. Still, as a panel discussion at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum noted on Monday, a movement has grown at the same time. With a new documentary shedding light…

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Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel, left, with predecessor and patron Raul Castro in Havana on April 19, 2018.

Cuba’s New President Vows to Defend Socialist Revolution

By News & Current Affairs

President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the new period would be characterized by “modernization of the economic and social model.” Cuba’s new president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, began his term on Thursday with a promise to defend the socialist revolution led by the Castro brothers since 1959, giving a sober speech that also emphasized the need to modernize the island’s economy. A stalwart of the ruling Communist Party, Diaz-Canel was sworn in to replace…

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