By Dr. Maulana Karenga — This is a reminder and reinforcement for Black Lover’s Day this month and each day all year round. It is not an exaggeration to state that there is no issue of greater importance, urgency or enduring impact in terms of the foundation, functioning and future of us as a community and a people than the quality of male/female relationships. Indeed, this speaks not only to…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson — Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a colossal problem if he has any hope of ever becoming President Bloomberg. And he knows it. It’s…
By Herb Boyd — When Africans were forcibly brought to America, they worked at the points of production. And whether as a multitude of enslaved workers on small farms, large plantations, in mines or elsewhere, black laborers were vital cogs in creating wealth for their owners. On a national scale, enslaved black laborers provided a workforce vital for the development of the American republic by bringing wage-free economic success and…
By Andrew Joseph Pegoda — During Black History Month and beyond, Americans are generally taught to believe that contact between white and black Americans was gradually prohibited after Reconstruction through a combination of social and legal traditions. Under the regime of Jim Crow segregation, two supposedly “separate but equal” societies gradually emerged — one for white people, another for black people — and lasted until the ’50s and ’60s. The two societies in that infamous phrase were never equal…
U.S. Civil Rights and Human Rights Groups Say Water is a Human Right — Express Solidarity with Struggle for Water Rights in Nigeria. February, 10, 2020, New York — The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) released a Statement today calling for a national and international movement to declare access to water a human right that should not be subject to profiteering by corporate interests. The Statement was released against the…
By Bill Smith, Evanston Now — The head of the Evanston City Council’s Reparations Subcommittee, Alderman Robin Rue Simmons, 5th Ward, has outlined a scheduled for the committee that calls…
This month is not only about commemorating our history but cementing and shaping our present-day legacy for future generations. By Derrick Johnson, president and CEO, NAACP — We find ourselves…
‘This was supposed to be reparations’ Why is LA’s cannabis industry devastating black entrepreneurs?
Black merchants affected by the war on drugs are denied licenses and thrown into debt as white owners thrive. By Sam Levin, The Guardian — A Los Angeles government program set up to provide cannabis licenses to people harmed by the war on drugs has been plagued by delays, scandal and bureaucratic blunders, costing some intended beneficiaries hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. Black entrepreneurs and activists across LA told…
By TBT News — “Reparation Bill Becomes Real As it Heads to the House and Senate: My background as a former sharecropper from Louisiana who went through the hard knocks of life is the very reason I’m a passionate advocate of Reparations for African American people. My story is fully documented in The Wall Street Journal. “I believe in reparations for ALL citizens of African American descent in this country, but primarily (and to…
By Melanie Eversley, (Politico) — Maybe money can’t buy love, but allies of President Donald Trump may think it can buy votes from Black Americans. Allies of the president are organizing events in Black communities, using their time there to praise Trump and hand out tens of thousands of dollars to those who show up, Politico is reporting. National Diversity Coalition for Trump Facebook page. The first such event took place last month in…
Evanston, Illinois, is levying a tax on newly legalised marijuana to fund projects benefiting African Americans in recognition of the enduring effects of slavery and the war on drugs By Eric Lutz, The Guardian — For years, Robin Rue Simmons watched Evanston, Illinois, “working hard” to resolve its racial disparities – but with little to show for its efforts. “Our gaps were widening,” the city alderman told the Guardian, citing the Chicago suburb’s…
By Shant Shahrigian — Mike Bloomberg took to the site of historic race riots in Tulsa, Okla., on Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend to propose sweeping plans to redress the economic legacy of generations of discrimination against African Americans. In an initiative similar to calls for reparations for slavery, the Democratic presidential candidate proposed $70 billion in investment in the country’s “100 most…