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'You've Left an Indelible Mark on The Root': Giving Danielle Belton Her Flowers
The first time Danielle Belton and I chatted by phone was in 2017. At the time, I was still working in Miami at Univision when she, Genetta Adams, and The Root approached me to write a three-part series for the website about climate gentrification and its effects on Black, low-income neighborhoods in my hometown. Obviously,…
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'Kinder, Gentler Cages Are Still Cages': How Prison Abolitionists Are Working Towards a Less Carceral Future
“We’re not saying that people are not responsible for the harm that they commit. What we’re saying is that prisons aren’t the way to resolve those harms.” — Kim Wilson, Ph.D., Co-host and producer, Beyond Prisons podcast text Last summer’s racial reckoning was the first time many people in the United States ever heard of…
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'Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic': Why This Abolitionist Believes Biden's Executive Order on Private Prisons Isn't the Progressive Measure He Thinks It Is
“If we want to transform society, we can’t just shun [incarcerated folks] and pretend that they don’t exist and lock them up and throw away the key. That kind of thinking is really at the root of reform.” — Kim Wilson, Ph.D., Co-host and Producer, Beyond Prisons podcast text Kim Wilson, Ph.D., is the living…
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Racial Segregation and Concentrated Poverty: The History of Housing in Black America
“The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the federal government writ large in the first seven decades of the 20th century. [HUD] invested billions of dollars in racial segregation and concentrated poverty.” —Sheryll Cashin, law professor and author text On Jan. 26, 2021, President Joe Biden signed four executive orders designed to address racial…
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28 Days of Black Joy: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered New Content When the Reruns Are Enuf
My Netflix account hates me. There are only so many emails, push notifications and alerts the streaming platform can send me (cough, and that I can ignore, cough) about watching the latest, most anticipated, or record-breaking series and movies before I potentially face some serious, unknown ramifications like a character in an episode of Black…
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Black BTS Fans Share Why They 'Purple' This K-Pop Group
“Black people, we’re not a monolith. But I feel like sometimes, you know, we kind of look at each other funny for being into things that don’t fit within the box of ‘Blackness,’ which I think can be kind of limiting sometimes. Like, I love my Blackness. And yours.” —Sabrena Khadija, Illustrator and K-pop fan…
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28 Days of Black Joy: How I (Lost and) Found My Fit Family During the Pandemic
I taught my last spin class at Push Pedal NYC on March 9, 2020. That same week I flew down to my parents’ home in Miami for a quick weekend visit—and am now coming up on month 11 of my stay. Like many others, staying active has not only been key to me maintaining a…
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From the Uninsured to the Unhoused: Rep. Cori Bush Advocates COVID-19 Vaccine Education for Our Most Vulnerable
Cori Bush is a renaissance woman. Not only is the Missouri congresswoman the first Black woman to represent the state’s First Congressional District, she’s also a registered nurse, ordained pastor for the people of St. Louis, community organizer, single mother, and the first activist from the Black Lives Matter movement ever elected to the United…
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Kamala Harris May Reshape How People View the Vice Presidency Forever
“The symbolism alone of having a Black woman vice president and going around the world—representing the Red, White, and Blue—I think it’s really going to, again, reinvigorate the world toward American values.” —Ravi Perry Ph.D., Chair of Political Science, Howard University text The day many thought would never arrive is finally here: Donald Trump’s presidency…
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Don't Call Them 'Urban Issues': Why the Biden-Harris Administration Needs to Address Black Interests for What They Are
“To the extent that the Biden-Harris administration understands the power of their rhetoric and is willing to work with all kinds of groups throughout the country to ensure that African-American interests remain at the forefront of their agenda, that’s important.” — Ravi Perry Ph.D., Chair of Political Science, Howard University text Howard University professor Ravi…