By Alan J. Singer, HNN — The video-recorded murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a young Black man killed by two white vigilantes while jogging near Brunswick, Georgia, has focused attention on Georgia’s…
By Sen. Hank Sanders — It was a lynching. It was a lynching on February 23, 2020. It was a lynching in Brunswick, Georgia. It was a lynching in the United States of America. It was a lynching in the 21st Century. The video is so graphic. It makes my whole body draw up. It makes my mind shiver. It makes my spirit whither. It challenges my hopes for Black people in…
By Diane Goldstein, Filter — The brutal killing of Ahmaud Arbery, by a retired member of law enforcement and his son in Brunswick, Georgia on February 23, will be seared in…
How modern disaster relief has hurt African American communities By Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, The New Republic — Ethel Freeman became famous in death, even though no one knew her name. For months, she was one of the many nameless people who lost their lives in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s deadly intersection of race and class. Her son, Herbert Freeman Jr., had successfully rescued the 91-year-old retired school employee from…
By Sue Sturgis, Facing South — This week marked a decade since the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers and injuring 17 others and triggering the worst oil spill in U.S. history. From the initial blast on April 20, 2010, until the well was sealed four months later, 200 million gallons of crude oil poured into Gulf waters…
By Max Elbaum, Organizing Upgrade — I have never been prouder of the people of my home state than over the last twelve days. I went to John Marshall High School in Milwaukee, class of 1964. It was after coming home from school one day that I watched on television as non-violent Civil Rights protesters were attacked with dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham, Alabama. A few weeks after I…
Vantage Point Radio April 20, 2020 — On this edition of Vantage Point, host Dr. Ron Daniels aka The Professor talks with guests Monifa Bandele, Larry Hamm and callers. Topics: The Movement for Black Lives Policy Agenda, Coronavirus Pandemic Strikes People’s Organization for Progress and The Professor on the Soapbox.
Public officials lament the way that the coronavirus is engulfing black communities. The question is, what are they prepared to do about it? By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker —…
By Hillary Leung, Time — Jay has been locked in his apartment in the southern Chinese megacity of Guangzhou since April 9—when a doctor, local official and a translator delivered a mandatory quarantine order due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The order came despite the fact that he hasn’t traveled in three months, is showing no symptoms of the disease and hasn’t come into contact with anyone who has tested positive. The English teacher,…
Covid-19 is disproportionately killing black people because the whole system is worse for us. By Stacey Patton, The Washington Post — Black America is ground zero for covid-19. Alarming health…
As data emerges that African Americans are suffering disproportionately from Covid-19, medical practices from past epidemics shed light on a history of racism. By Brentin Mock, CityLab — Just a month ago, there was chatter about how African Americans have a unique racial immunity to the novel coronavirus. Now that data is emerging that African Americans are actually contracting Covid-19 at alarming rates, the new chatter is just the opposite: that African…
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…