Tag: Black Lives Matter
Feds targeted BLM activists to foil racial justice protests
“The federalization of protest-related charges was a deliberate and cynical effort to target and discourage those who protested in defense of Black lives.” by Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams August 19, 2021 As Black Lives Matter protests…
Why Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘Whitey on the Moon’ still feels relevant today
Recent space flights by multi-billionaires highlight the extreme economic inequality in America. Joe Raedle/Getty Images A.D. Carson, University of Virginia Not long after the July 20, 1969, Moon landing, Gil Scott-Heron – a poet hailed as…
Poor People’s Campaign to march against Manchin obstructionism in West Virginia
‘We Are Coming’ “Manchin’s positions are wrong, constitutionally inconsistent, historically inaccurate, morally indefensible, economically insane, and politically unacceptable,” said the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II. by Brett Wilkins, Staff Writer June 8, 2021 …
As the Palestinian minority takes to the streets, Israel is having its own Black Lives Matter moment
Israeli-arabs gesture and wave Palestinian flags at Israelis in a Jewish community building, during renewed riots in the city of Lod on May 11. Oren Ziv/picture alliance via Getty ImagesJames L. Gelvin, University of California, Los…
Violent overthrow of government – DÉJÀ VU
by Wade Rathke May 11, 2021 New Orleans There are some in America who live in denial about our history, despite the fact it is riddled with violence and contemptuous of democracy. For them the…
Getting the lead out
by Wade Rathke May 20, 2021 New Orleans I’m not sure that there has ever been a day in America when people could say, “Let Newark lead the way!” If there was, it was a…
Ancient Christian thinkers made a case for reparations that has striking relevance today
Particularly notable is the fact that Tertullian makes the case for reparations to be paid to the descendants of the Israelites who had been forcibly enslaved centuries earlier. by David Lincicum, University of Notre Dame Sunday,…
Hundreds say menstrual cycles impacted after exposure to police tear gas at Oregon protests
“This isn’t a coincidence. Something’s going on,” said one person who was exposed. by Julia Conley, staff writer Thursday, April 29, 2021 Hundreds of people reported in a new study that they experienced abnormal menstrual…
Chauvin guilty on all counts, including murder of George Floyd
One racial justice advocate said that there are “no victories today,” for “justice would mean George Floyd is still with us.” by Brett Wilkins, staff writer Tuesday, April 20, 2021 After deliberating for…
‘Entire system is to blame’: Outrage builds after police union leader says officer killing of unarmed teen was ‘heroic’
“Ending this isn’t just about consequences for who pulls the trigger. It’s about admitting to and confronting an entire system that exists to protect, defend, and cover up state violence.” by Julia Conley, staff writer Friday,…
Footage of Chicago Police shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo fuels outrage
“If you’re shooting an unarmed child with his hands in the air, it is an assassination,” said an attorney for the boy’s family. by Jessica Corbett, staff writer April 15, 2021 Editor’s note: The video…
Rights defenders decry advancement of Oklahoma anti-protest bills
‘The OK Legislature Wants Us Dead’ The head of the state’s ACLU accused Oklahoma lawmakers of “attempting to silence the voices of their constituents and criminalize vital calls for accountability and racial justice.” by Brett Wilkins,…
“I felt hate more than anything”: how an active duty airman tried to start a Civil War
The Effort to Overturn the Election Steven Carrillo’s path to the Boogaloo Bois shows the hate group is far more organized and dangerous than previously known. by Gisela Pérez de Acha, Kathryn Hurd and Ellie Lightfoot,…
How Black poets and writers gave a voice to ‘Affrilachia’
by Amy M. Alvarez, West Virginia University and Jameka Hartley, University of Alabama April 4, 2021 ‘Untitled’ from the series ‘Imaging/Imagining.’, Photo by Raymond Thompson, Jr . Appalachia, in the popular imagination, stubbornly remains poor…
Georgia GOP transforms 2-page bill Into 93-page assault on Voting Rights
‘Hijacking of Democracy in Plain Sight’ “Surprising advocates, legislators, and voters with a nearly 100-page bill is undemocratic and unacceptable.” by Jake Johnson, staff writer Thursday, March 18, 2021 Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups…
Stop Stacey: We don’t think so
by Abby Zimet, Further columnist March 9, 2021 Almost 60 years later, the fight goes on. Georgia’s ” horror” of a new voter suppression law, dubbed “Jim Crow 2.0” and passed the day after Bloody Sunday,…
Shifting Sands on Police Tactics
by Wade Rathke March 8, 2021 New Orleans In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, we heard from a former mayor and activist in the area. He wanted to do…
How inequity gets built into America’s vaccination system
People eligible for the coronavirus vaccine tell us they are running up against barriers that are designed into the very systems meant to serve those most at risk of dying of the disease. We plan to…
The Gift of Ecological Humility
These Afro-Indigenous practices challenge ideas of human supremacy. “I love to think of nature as unlimited broadcasting stations, through which God speaks to us every day, every hour.” —George Washington Carver, Tuskegee University, 1930 by Leah Penniman…
There was a time reparations were actually paid out – just not to formerly enslaved people
by Thomas Craemer, University of Connecticut Friday, February 26, 2021 No guessing who in this 1864 depiction may have been compensated after slavery ended. API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images The cost of slavery and its legacy of…
How a mass suicide by slaves caused the legend of the flying African to take off
The flying African, despite a genealogy rooted in St. Simons, has no single point of origin. A shifting present continues to rewrite the past. These differences across versions only underscore the strength of the myth’s central…
Citing anti-KKK law, NAACP and Rep. Bennie Thompson sue Trump and far-right allies over Capitol attack
“Donald Trump needs to be held accountable for deliberately inciting and colluding with white supremacists to stage a coup, in his continuing efforts to disenfranchise African-American voters.” by Brett Wilkins, staff writer Tuesday, February 16, 2021…
Slave-built infrastructure still creates wealth in US, suggesting reparations should cover past harms and current value of slavery
by Joshua F.J. Inwood, Penn State and Anna Livia Brand, University of California, Berkeley Sunday, February 14, 2021 The Port of Savannah used to export cotton picked by enslaved laborers and brought from Alabama to Georgia…
Why a shootout between Black Panthers and law enforcement 50 years ago matters today
by Paul Ringel, High Point University Members of the Black Panther Party outside the High Point property raided by police. Sonny Hedgecock/High Point Enterprise, CC BY-SA In the early hours of Feb. 10, 1971, police surrounded…
