Skip to main content
Tag

U.S.

Maj. Gen. Roger L. Cloutier Jr., the chief of staff for U.S. Africa Command, at the Pentagon on May 10. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

The future is African — and the United States is not prepared

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Salih Booker and Ari Rickman, The Washington Post — Salih Booker is the executive director of the Center for International Policy. Ari Rickman is a research fellow at the Center. Beginning in 2035, the number of young people reaching working age in Africa will exceed that of the rest of the world combined, and will continue every year for the rest of the century. By 2050, one in every…

Read More

The Second Sight of W.E.B. Du Bois

By Editors' Choice

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…

Read More
racial segregation

The resegregation of America

By Editors' Choice

By Ryan Cooper, The Week — If you want to get a good measure of the intense racial segregation of Washington, D.C., just head southeast on the Green Line subway around 5 p.m. Once that train leaves the L’Enfant Plaza station, it will reflect the demographic fact that east of the Anacostia River, the city is overwhelmingly black. This sort of thing is not at all uncommon. Indeed, a recent study…

Read More
‘Something’s wrong in America.’ William Barber, a pastor, is one of the co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign.

Hundreds arrested as activists pick up where Martin Luther King left off

By News & Current Affairs

The Poor People’s campaign kicked off 40 days of nonviolent protest on Monday, reviving King’s anti-poverty efforts and demanding action. By Lauren Gambino — Hundreds of low-wage workers, faith leaders, civil rights organizers and liberal activists were arrested in demonstrations in Washington and in cities across the US on Monday as they resumed the work Martin Luther King left unfinished. Fifty years after King launched the Poor People’s Campaign against economic inequality, militarism…

Read More
Donald Glover, AKA Childish Gambino, attending the world premiere of Solo: A Star Wars Story

The rise of Donald Glover: how he captured America

By Editors' Choice

The award-winning writer, actor, singer and rapper has dominated the internet with his provocative, politically charged hit This is America, the latest step in an illustrious, unconventional career By Katie Bain, The Guardian — Try, if you can, to watch This Is America, the new music video from Childish Gambino, while keeping your eyes off the man in the camera’s gaze. It’s not easy. You may have to watch it twice,…

Read More
Rakem Balogun on being secretly watched by the FBI: ‘It’s tyranny at its finest.’

Black activist jailed for his Facebook posts speaks out about secret FBI surveillance

By News & Current Affairs

Exclusive: Rakem Balogun spoke out against police brutality. Now he is believed to be the first prosecuted under a secretive US effort to track so-called ‘black identity extremists’ By Sam Levin, The Guardian — Rakem Balogun thought he was dreaming when armed agents in tactical gear stormed his apartment. Startled awake by a large crash and officers screaming commands, he soon realized his nightmare was real, and he and his…

Read More
Donald Trump advertised his ambitions to dismantle Barack Obama’s achievements throughout the election campaign. Photograph: Pool New/Reuters

The anti-Obama: Trump’s drive to destroy his predecessor’s legacy

By Editors' Choice

From the Iran deal to TPP to climate change, ‘the whole thing that animates and unites his policy views is antipathy towards Obama’ By David Smith, The Guardian — When Donald Trump pulled out of the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, hardline conservatives celebrated, European leaders winced and Barack Obama made a rare, lengthy public statement. Trump’s decision was “misguided” and “a serious mistake”, Obama said, as his signature foreign policy achievement…

Read More
The literature on the African slave trade, Hurston wrote, had endless “words from the seller, but not one word from the sold.

Zora Neale Hurston’s Story of a Former Slave Finally Comes to Print

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

Hurston spent years turning an account of the transatlantic slave trade into a book. Then the manuscript languished for nearly nine decades. By Casey N. Cep — Captain William Foster left Mobile in secret and returned the same way. On July 8, 1860, he dropped anchor in the waters off the coast of Mississippi, hid his cargo below deck, slipped ashore, and travelled overland to fetch a tugboat from Alabama.…

Read More
Kanye West

Wake Up, Mr. West!

By Commentaries/Opinions

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…

Read More
I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye — Article by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Image by Glenn Harvey

I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye

By Commentaries/Opinions

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…

Read More