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Race

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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ew York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon speaks at the NYC Cannabis Parade and Rally on May 5, 2018. Nixon has been criticized by black leaders for saying that marijuana licenses could be a “form of reparations.”

Cynthia Nixon called marijuana licenses a “form of reparations” for black people. Not exactly.

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

Marijuana reform can help black communities. That doesn’t make it “reparations.” By P.R. Lockhart — New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon is facing criticism after suggesting that giving black people access to marijuana licenses could serve as a “form of reparations” for black communities. The controversy started after Nixon, who is challenging current Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the state’s upcoming Democratic primary, appeared at the NYC Cannabis Parade on May…

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William Barber

William Barber Takes on Poverty and Race in the Age of Trump

By Commentaries/Opinions

After the success of the Moral Monday protests, the pastor is attempting to revive Martin Luther King, Jr.,’s final—and most radical—campaign. By Jelani Cobb — At first glance, the crowds of people congregating on a block of Mulberry Street, a stretch of squat brick buildings near downtown Memphis, on the morning of April 4th, might have been there for a variety of reasons. The street venders selling T-shirts and posters…

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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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Starbucks workers in Seattle

Black employees in the service industry pay an emotional tax at work

By Commentaries/Opinions

Alicia Grandey — The arrests of two black men who were waiting for a friend at a Starbucks in Philadelphia have raised questions about how race determines how customers are treated. But does race also affect how the employees are treated within the service industry? Prior research shows that black workers in people-oriented occupations – health care, service and sales – are rated lower by customers and supervisors than are white workers, even when…

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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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Black people simply do not see the same response to our complaints as we do when the victims of injustice include white people.

Make Change by Hitting the National Wallet: Reparations for Racial Injustice

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

There’s reckoning around our toxic culture of sexual abuse. But Black Americans are left waiting for remedies for white supremacy past and present. It’s time to #PayUp. By Bertha Lewis — #MeToo and #TimesUp are more than hashtags. They are movements to hold sexual harassers accountable and to deliver justice to victims and survivors of sexual abuse and harassment. While the call for justice for women who have been sexually…

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Image: Ronald Reagan, with Nancy Reagan, signing the Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1988

The Untold Story of Mass Incarceration

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Vesla M. Weaver — Two new books, including National Book Award nominee ‘Locking Up Our Own,’ address major blind spots about the causes of America’s carceral failure. Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman, Jr.; Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform by John F. Pfaff

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