Russia’s troll army was not interested in stirring up generic ‘chaos’ in America. The Kremlin is strategically tapping into the inexhaustible fuel source of white grievance. By Spencer Ackerman, Daily Beast — Not many Russians are likely to understand a shotgun formation or the strategy behind not punting on fourth down. But between September and December 2017, social-media accounts now associated with the Kremlin-backed troll farm known as the Internet…
“We Are Marching To Say That Black Women’s Lives Matter…” By Taryn Finley, Huff Post — Black activist groups marched on the National Mall and Justice Department in Washington, D.C. on Saturday to raise awareness about the injustices black women face. Black Women’s Blueprint, BYP100 and Trans Sistas of Color Project and other groups have united for the March for Black Women. The event’s co-chairs are activists Farah Tanis, Bré…
Interview by Alicia Menendez, Bustle — Patrisse Cullors is an organizer, artist, and freedom fighter. In 2013, following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, Patrisse co-founded…
By Steve Dubb, Nonprofit Quarterly — The acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin took place on July 13, 2013. Reaction to the acquittal led to the birth of what is now known as the Black Lives Matter movement. Chauncey Alcorn, writing in Mic, recalls the movement’s origins: Criminal justice reform advocate Patrisse Cullors sat at the edge of her bed in a Susanville, California, motel room,…
By Patrisse Cullors, HuffPost — Right after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer in July 2013, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and I were devastated. We’d been following the proceedings closely. We’d watched the media criminalize 17-year-old Trayvon and humiliate his family to justify his cold-blooded murder presumably because his assailant was white-presenting. Still, we were sucker-punched by the acquittal. We stood perplexed; hadn’t we elected our first black president? Yet it was clear;…
By Chantal Da Silva, Jessica Durham and Alexis Wierenga, Newsweek — Black Lives Matter. It has been five years since Patrisse Khan-Cullors, now 34, first shared those three words on Facebook, reminding Americans that black lives do matter at a time when it felt like they did not. News that George Zimmerman, 34, had been acquitted of all charges in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin sent shock waves across the U.S. on…
By April Glaser, Slate — On Thursday, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released a trove of about 3,500 Facebook and Instagram ads purchased by Russian operatives to influence the 2016 election and exploit and attempt to worsen America’s polarized political climate in the months that followed. The ads reveal a sophisticated campaign clearly aimed at supporting Donald Trump’s presidential bid and inflaming Americans on some of the most divisive social and…
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…
By Chris Hedges — No leader, no matter how talented and visionary, effectively defies power without a disciplined organizational foundation. The civil rights movement was no more embodied in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. than the socialist movement was embodied in Eugene V. Debs. As the civil rights leader Ella Baker understood, the civil rights movement made King; King did not make the civil rights movement. We must focus on building new,…
By Emma Lacey-Bordeaux — (CNN) — Students around the country are again taking to the streets. It’s the latest mass action since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that claimed seventeen lives and galvanized young people to act in the long-stalled debate over guns. Some activists are heartened by the attention being paid to the issue but they raise questions about how these students get viewed versus the treatment of…
Maurice Mitchell wants the WFP to be a political home for working-class people of every race. By Collier Meyerson — The Working Families Party, a progressive political political party that is active in 19 states, just announced that its longtime national director, Dan Cantor, has been succeeded in the role by Maurice Mitchell. The first black person to hold the post, Mitchell has two decades of experience in political and…
By Tanvi Misra — This will “give us a better sense of who black people are, where we are, and what we hope and dream for,” says Alicia Garza, the…