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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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Former vice president Joe Biden speaking with supporters at a community event in Iowa, 2019.

Joe Biden’s Campaign Is Making It Very Clear: They Will Push Austerity in the White House

By Commentaries/Opinions

By David Sirota, Jacobin — Almost no one noticed it, but earlier this month, a top Joe Biden advisor indicated that the entire agenda Biden is campaigning on won’t be pursued once he’s in the White House. Instead, Biden’s inner circle appears wedded to the ideology of austerity. he Democratic convention has sucked up all the political oxygen in America — so much so, that most people missed Team Biden…

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A healthcare worker sits on a bench near Central Park in New York City, on Mar. 30, 2020.

Why the U.S. Is Losing the War on COVID-19

By Commentaries/Opinions, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

Failed leadership, a distrust of scientists, and cultural attitudes have all combined to result in an inadequate response to COVID-19. By Alex Fitzpatrick, TIME — It is a frightening time to live in the United States. COVID-19, a novel disease as ruthless as it is seemingly random, is picking us off by the thousands; even many of those who “recover” may never truly be the same again. The pandemic has…

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Clockwise from top left: Police officers in Minneapolis; two Camden County, N.J., police vehicles; an officer at a Minneapolis gas station; and Sister Chabree Muhammad, with kids in Camden in July.

Police Reform: Here’s How America Should Rethink Safety

By Editors' Choice

America’s Policing System Is Broken. It’s Time to Radically Rethink Public Safety. By Josiah Bates and Karl Vick, TIME — In Minneapolis, the first days after George Floyd’s killing exist in memory as kind of a blur. Even so, the burning of the Third Precinct police station on May 28 was a signal event, and not only for residents of the south side, where Floyd was killed and so many buildings went…

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free men, women, and children in Richmond, Va., 1865

Calling on white Americans: Reparations for slavery are due

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

The legacy of slavery is far from resolved. It persists every day and everywhere. By David Gardinier and Karen Hilfman, The Boston Globe — Since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a white police officer, and the resounding anti-racist uprisings around the world, the concept of reparations has picked up momentum in national conversations and has sparked new public curiosity and interest. Among Black people and their ancestors,…

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Kamala Harris

The Hoopla Over the Kamala Harris VP Selection Obscures the Many Young People of Color Who Are Winning Offices Nationally

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute — Joe Biden’s pick of Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) as his running mate for the 2020 Democratic presidential ticket has generated strong responses. While many Democrats are elated at the idea of seeing a brown-skinned woman of Indian and Jamaican heritage in such a position, progressives are debating one another about Harris’ mixed record on bread-and-butter issues such as criminal justice reform, foreign policy,…

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A civil rights marcher suffering from exposure to tear gas holds an unconscious Amelia Boynton Robinson after mounted police officers attacked marchers in Selma, Ala., as they were beginning a 50-mile march to Montgomery to protest race discrimination in voter registration.

The Voting Rights Act was signed 55 years ago. Black women led the movement behind it.

By Commentaries/Opinions

By N’dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today — In March of 1965, Amelia Boynton Robinson walked with hundreds of other protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Boynton Robinson, who planned the march from Selma to the Alabama capital of Montgomery along with Rev. C.T. Vivian and others, was struck with a baton by Alabama state troopers that day. “They came from the right, the left, the front and started beating people,” she told The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, in…

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