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It Should Be Easy For Only Black Republican in Senate to Vote Against Nominee Who Helped Craft Strategies That Hurt Black Voters
This should not have been a close call for Tim Scott, the black Republican representing South Carolina in the U.S. Senate, the first black man to be elected to such a seat from a Deep South state since Reconstruction, the black man who took to the Senate floor a few years ago to speak passionately…
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The One Place Colorblindness Will Benefit Black People: America’s Courtrooms. The Supreme Court Should Take Note
Black people usually recoil when we hear a white person say, “I don’t see color,” and with good reason. It usually denotes a form of racial denialism, at best, and a subtle, yet clear implication that there is something wrong with race, and specifically, something wrong with being black. But there is one venue that…
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Don’t Be Naive: Avoiding Calling Trump Supporters Racist Won’t Convince Them to Vote for Democrats
I have a confession to make: I spent nearly two decades in a mostly white evangelical church in South Carolina. The staff was mostly white. The pastor was white. The music was, well, mostly white. My son and daughter, now 17 years old and 14 years old, respectively, were dedicated in that church. My wife’s…
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Hollow Gesture Alert: Billionaire New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Would ‘Very Much Like’ to See Kaepernick Back in the NFL
These are the words of a billionaire owner of an NFL franchise, the words of the most (or second most behind Jerry Jones) influential owner in the league, the man whose team is led by a 41-year-old quarterback and a backup who probably isn’t even good enough to be fourth-string: “I would very much like…
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With Bigotry on the Ballot, the Midterms Feel Like a Potential Back to the Back of the Bus Moment
During the final weeks and days of this midterm cycle, President Donald Trump has been busy rallying bigots and those in his base comfortable with bigotry. According to polling data from the final NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll before Tuesday’s elections, it may be working, at least a bit. While Democrats remain strongly favored to…
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I'm an Intersex Black Woman. My Voice Matters. Listen
Editor’s note: Intersex Awareness Day is October 26. I was born intersex. It is a condition in which a child is born with male and female genitalia. I came to America seeking asylum because the condition made me a target in my country, where being associated with the LGBTQ community is illegal and could get…
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Abrams’ Flag-Burning Incident: That’s What They Force You to Do as a Black Person in the South
In 1992, when Stacey Abrams was in college, she participated in a protest where there was a burning of a Georgia state flag that had been redesigned in 1956 specifically to incorporate the Confederate battle flag emblem in it, in a clear attempt to make a statement against the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. That history…
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A Midterm Reminder: Don’t Make Colin Kaepernick’s One Big Mistake
Colin Kaepernick has done more than most to increase the urgency for criminal justice reform and racial equality. He has withstood being vilified by those who care more about a quiet state of injustice than an uncomfortable peace, including President Donald Trump. He has lost the ability to use his enormous athletic ability at the…
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‘Black Skinned Storm Trooper’ Who Foreshadowed Kaepernick to Be Honored at TIDAL X: Brooklyn
Before Colin Kaepernick was born, a couple of black dudes, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, raised a couple of black-gloved fists to the sky as the U.S. national anthem played after they earned a couple of Olympic medals in Mexico City. They were protesting racial injustice and inequality during a decade in which Martin Luther…
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Kanye, Come Get Your Boy: Trump Increasing Deportations of Black People to Country Known for Black Slavery
It’s getting hard to sustain the outrage, but we must. The Trump administration has now increased the deportation of undocumented immigrants back to Mauritania, a country known for enslaving its black residents. Yes, you read that right, literal black slavery. Immigration policies and practices are never easy, and even administrations with the best of intentions…
