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Racism

Theodore Roosevelt was one of many U.S. presidents who was racist.

Presidents have a long history of condescension, indifference and outright racism towards Black Americans

By Editors' Choice

President Woodrow Wilson told Black leaders, ‘Segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen.’ He was one in a long line of racist American presidents. By Stephen A. Jones and Eric Freedman — The fury over racial injustice that erupted in the wake of George Floyd’s killing has forced Americans to confront their history. That’s unfamiliar territory for most Americans, whose…

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In Wilkerson’s view, racism is only the visible manifestation of something deeper, a hidden system of social domination.

Isabel Wilkerson’s World-Historical Theory of Race and Caste

By Editors' Choice

By comparing white supremacy in the U.S. to the caste system in India, her new book at once illuminates and collapses a complex history. By Sunil Khilnani, The New Yorker — As the summer of 1958 was coming to an end, Martin Luther King, Jr., was newly famous and exhausted. All of twenty-nine years old, he had been travelling across the country for weeks promoting his first book, “Stride Toward…

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Staff Surveys Reveal Widespread Racism at the United Nations

By News & Current Affairs

United Nations (IPS) — As it continues to vociferously preach the virtues of equality—advocating equal rights for all, irrespective of race, sex, language or religion– the United Nations has been quick to condemn racism and racial discrimination worldwide. But how hypocritical is it when racism raises its ugly head in its own backyard— particularly in Geneva which, ironically, is home to the UN Human…

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Deante Campbell of Sanford joins student protesters during a demonstration June 4 against institutional racism at South Portland Police Station.

Teenagers lead the way in Black Lives Matter movement

By News & Current Affairs

Nationally and in Maine, young people of color are leading protests and asking their local leaders to address systemic racism. By Megan Gray, Press Herald — Mariam Beshir spent the days leading up to her graduation from Gorham High School organizing a Black Lives Matter march in her town. She wanted to celebrate. But she knew that Tamir Rice should have graduated from his own high school this year if…

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Long before President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for COVID-19, the pandemic was ravaging the country’s poor neighborhoods and prisons.

How Jair Bolsonaro and the Coronavirus Put Brazil’s Systemic Racism on Display

By Reparations

By Anakwa Dwamena, The New Yorker — Several months before the coronavirus first arrived in Brazil, this spring, a series of man-made tragedies befell Maria Marques Martins dos Santos. On November 12th, dos Santos, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of three, whose five-foot frame is crowned by curly brown hair, was at her home, in Favela do Amor, in São Paulo. Just after midnight, her fourteen-year-old son, Lucas, went out to buy soda and…

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