By Patricia Yosha— Race Matters. At the beginning of 2020, the Social Justice Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter (FUUSE) sponsored two community discussions on racial issues and local racial history. Shortly after, the coronavirus pandemic took over, destroying lives inequitably among Black and brown people. Adding to that pain, police killings of Black people inspired demonstrations of racial reckoning all over the country. As we look…
By Marcus Harrison Green— There is no resolution I crave more than for us to stop binging on lies. Like most opiates, they are as lethal to progress as they are numbing to awareness. My desire catalyzed nearly four years ago as I moderated a panel discussion of “I Am Not Your Negro” in Columbia City. A multiracial audience packed the Ark Lodge Cinemas to watch the James Baldwin documentary….
By Peniel E. Joseph— This week marks the 155th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution that banned racial slavery. At the time this marked a new birth of American freedom, one that came at a such a high cost — and remains so incomplete — that many Americans tend to gloss over the contemporary challenges left in its wake. The end of 2020 also…
By Tom Phillips in Duque de Caxias— The shooting of two young black girls – who had between them enjoyed fewer than 11 years of life – has sparked outrage in Brazil and intensified the debate over police violence and structural racism in a country still grappling with the legacy of slavery. Witnesses claimed they had seen a police officer shoot into the community at about 8.30pm that night, although Rio’s…
By Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights— “Recognizing the Past, Repairing the Present, Building the Future” Excellencies, Colleagues, friends, It is my honour to address this Inaugural Commemoration of the European Day for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, with the theme: “Recognizing the Past, Repairing the Present, Building the Future.” I commend the European Parliament’s Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup for organizing this event alongside the…
By Elle Kehres, Chapelboro — At their town council meeting last week, Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle and Council Member Barbara Foushee presented a reparations resolution for the council to approve. 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck spoke with Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle about the legacy of slavery nationally, and how the town of Carrboro is working to change the course of history locally. “Essentially, it starts out explaining and acknowledging how…
By Jonathan M. Pitts, Baltimore Sun — The Maryland diocese of the Episcopal Church has become the latest religious institution to commit to making reparations for slavery and systemic racism, voting over the weekend to create a $1 million seed fund for programs that would benefit the African American community in Baltimore and beyond. More than 82% of delegates to the diocese’s annual general convention voted Saturday to establish the…
The conversation spans the width of various touchy topics—the 1898 Coup’s lingering debt, the “trend” of the Black Lives Matter movement, the responsibility of white people—and each panelist offers their thoughtful responses, bolstered by their years of research and experience. By Cierra Noffke, UNCW — On the evening of September 15, a virtual crowd gathered around monitors or cell phones to listen to a group of activists answer questions inspired by…
By Robert Reich – Since the first colonizers arrived in the United States to this very moment, wealthy elites have used the tools of theft, exclusion, and exploitation to expand their wealth and power at the detriment of Black, Latinx, Indigenous people, and marginalized people of color. It all boils down to this simple truth: Racism is profitable. The profitability of racism sparks a vicious cycle called the Oppression Economy:…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson — Robert Woodward certainly couldn’t have been shocked at Trump’s answer to his very loaded question. The question was whether he could understand any of the racial pain that African Americans feel. Trump stood the question on its head and accused Woodward of “drinking the Kool Aid.” Translated: Why should he or any other white guy like him feel any guilt, let alone empathy, at the…
Nearly all the improvement in the unemployment rate over the past few months has been for white workers. By Emily Peck, HuffPost — At first glance, the unemployment rate seems a lot less terrible than it did a few months ago. In April, at the start of the COVID-19 shutdown, the jobless rate was a record-high 14.7%. This month, the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate had dropped to 8.4%. But…
The country needs truth-telling and acceptance of our moral, legal, political, and sociocultural responsibilities. By Joyce Hope Scott, BU Today — This is a transformative moment in history in the United States as well as in the rest of the world. Despite myths of a post-racial society as a result of many positive social transformations, we are today again forced to examine our inheritance of America’s great sin—slavery and its…
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