By Jay Reeves, AP News — Many African Americans watching protests calling for easing restrictions meant to slow the spread of the new coronavirus see them as one more example of how their health, their safety and their rights just don’t seem to matter. To many, it seems that the people protesting — who have been predominantly white — are agitating for reopening because they won’t be the ones to suffer the consequences.
“Nothing about this movement is really black friendly.” By Nick Charles, NBC News — As protests erupt over stay-at-home orders and the clamor to reopen the economy becomes louder, the coalition of people storming state Capitols — some armed with semi-automatic weapons and most not wearing masks or observing social distancing guidelines — have had one thing in common: Almost all of them are white. African Americans, for the most…
When the shuttered economy reopens, how many black Americans will be left out in the cold? By William M. Rodgers III — As the COVID-19 pandemic worsened in April, many…
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called for coronavirus reparations for minorities, claiming higher numbers of COVID-19 fatalities in low-income communities stems from underlying inequality. By Ebony Bowden, New York Post —…
Pre-existing health conditions leave one group particularly vulnerable. By Charles M. Blow, NYT — Early Monday morning the email arrived. The subject line began, “ALARM AT THE GATE,” written in…
By Donne Levy, AlterNet — America is a deeply divided nation. That fact may be the only thing that Americans of all racial, ethnic, and political groups can agree about. A Washington…
In this conversation, moderated by the Dream Defenders’ Rachel Gilmer, Black women activists explain their support for Sanders’s campaign. By Teen Vougue — Senator Bernie Sanders has attributed his success in the 2020 presidential campaign to his “multigenerational, multiracial coalition” of supporters. Sanders’s win in Iowa has been credited in part to his support among the minority and immigrant voters who turned out to the “satellite” caucuses set up for those who couldn’t make it to…
Black Americans’ relocation back to the south is changing voting blocs and making Democratic races more competitive. This month, for the first time, South Carolina registered a million voters of color. By Kenya Evelyn, The Guardian — Najeema Davis Washington spent more than 15 years as a federal employee in Washington DC before she returned to Charleston, the city she left in 1996. She brought with her a progressive outlook…
Managing race relations from above. By Adolph Reed Jr., The New Republic — On September 18, 1895, Booker T. Washington gave his famous address to the Atlanta Cotton States 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…
‘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 Alan Singer, HNN — Author’s note: On January 9, 2020 I delivered the Martin Luther King, Jr. tribute lecture at the Uniondale Public Library in Uniondale, New York. The presentation…