By The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA ) — What we witnessed in the Starbucks situation was White Supremacy plain and simple. It affected most, if not…
By The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA ) — What we witnessed in the Starbucks situation was White Supremacy plain and simple. It affected most, if not…
By Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com — Chris Hedges gave this talk Friday at the Left Forum in New York City. W.E.B. Du Bois, more than any intellectual this nation produced in the first half of the 20th century, explained America to itself. He did this not only through what he called the “color line” but by exposing the intertwining of empire, capitalism and white supremacy. He deftly fused academic disciplines. He possessed unwavering…
By Charles M. Blow, The New York Times — Racist comments don’t hurt my feelings. Not at all. However, I find that people assume that they are hurtful, both the persons spewing them and those empathic about the perceived pain. But I register no such pain. I’m from the Toni Morrison school of morality on the subject of race. As she once told Charlie Rose: “I always knew…
By Matthew Bowman, The Conversation — On June 1 of this year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – or the Mormons – will celebrate the 40th anniversary of what they believe to be a revelation from God. This revelation to the then-President of the Church Spencer W. Kimball – which is known as “Official Declaration 2” – reversed longstanding restrictions placed on people of black African descent in the…
The latest from the legendary filmmaker, which made its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, features a David Duke character who sounds awfully familiar to Donald Trump. By Richard Porton, The…
By Rochaun Meadows-Fernandez, Truthout — Institutional racism caused me to have a medical emergency a month after giving birth to my son. The emergency was entirely preventable. Following the birth,…
How Kanye’s ignorant comments fortify the most pernicious lies of white supremacy. By Clint Smith — This past week, in an interview with TMZ, Kanye West claimed that slavery was a choice. “When you hear about slavery for 400 years … 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” he said. Much has already been written about West’s recent exploits on and off Twitter. In the past week, he has publicly embraced…
Kanye West wants freedom—white freedom. By Ta-Nehisi Coates — I could only have seen it there, on the waxed hardwood floor of my elementary-school auditorium, because I was young then, barely 7 years old, and cable had not yet come to the city, and if it had, my father would not have believed in it. Yes, it had to have happened like this, like folk wisdom, because when I think of that…
By A.T. McWilliams — While visiting the newly opened National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama — a hallowed and harrowing enshrinement bearing the names of over 4,000 black people lynched in the Jim Crow South — I was reminded of stories my grandparents told me as a child. Stories of my great-grandfather, once chased by Ku Klux Klan members on horseback before swimming to safety, preferring possible death by drowning…
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…
By Mark Karlin, Truthout — By detailing the growth of the slave trade in the 17th century, Gerald Horne reveals how white supremacy, capitalism and the original sin of slavery in the Western Hemisphere became intertwined. Current politics are so chaotic, staggering and fast-paced that we rarely hear of how we arrived at this moment of the resurgence of white supremacy in historical context. However, Professor Gerald Horne, author of The…
How white Americans used lynchings to terrorize and control black people. By Ed Pilkington in Montgomery, Alabama — Vanessa Croft was driving home after work in Gadsden, Alabama, last month when…