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Donald Trump: He Was Made in America
Donald Trump continues his march to the Republican presidential nomination, spurred on by tapping into the racist paranoia of white conservatives all across the country who have found in him a leader who gives voice to their base nature. As the inevitable drum beats, many white liberals have basked in their own sanctimonious outrage that…
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Bernie Sanders’ ‘Ghetto’ Gaffe Gave Clinton Supporters the Ammunition They Needed
Before the Democratic debate in Flint, Mich., Sunday, critics of presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders claimed that he didn’t have an intersectional, socioeconomic racial analysis. But after his triggering use of the loaded words “ghetto” and “poor” when answering a question about his “racial blind spots” posed by CNN’s Don Lemon, many of those same critics now…
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Can a Radical Black Movement Find a Place in the Democratic Party?
As Democrats square off over the electability of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders, questions about the future of the Democratic Party continue to rise to the surface. Though numerous reports show Sanders as the most likely to beat Donald Trump in a general election, there are some Clinton supporters who continue to preach of…
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The Red or the Blue Pill? When Black Voters Refuse to Get High on Political Promises
In the midst of the two-party, seemingly now two-candidate, political brawl this country finds itself engaged in, there are young black voters who are saying no to politics as usual, no to a Democratic Party that has morphed into a moderate Republican Party, and no to a Republican Party that believes in big government only…
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Call a Thing a Thing: Scalia’s Judicial Terrorism Should Not Be Celebrated
Justice Antonin “Nino” Scalia was racist, charismatic, misogynist, intelligent, homoantagonistic, witty, a good friend and a judicial terrorist. He was all these things, multifaceted in the ways that all human beings are, and he should be remembered as such. Still, in the days since his death, the communities he attacked viciously with his decisions over the course…
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Black Feminists Don’t Owe Hillary Clinton Their Support
Over the course of the last few days, I have been accused of both protecting and vilifying Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The reason for this is as simple as it is complex: People of color, especially black women, have to hold so many things in tension regarding race, gender and class that depending on…
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Think Green: Jill Stein on ‘Abusive’ Political Relationships, Restorative Justice and Bernie Sanders
Election cycle 2016 has kicked into high gear, and the unrelenting battle for political power between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party has taken center stage. This political paradigm is not new. In a 1956 piece titled, “Why I Won’t Vote,” published in The Nation, W.E.B. Du Bois issued a statement many considered radical…
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Former OKC Officer Daniel Holtzclaw Sentenced to 263 Years in Prison to Be Served Consecutively
Former Oklahoma City Police Officer Daniel Holtzclaw, 29, has been sentenced to serve 263 years behind bars—the maximum sentence—for the rapes and sexual assaults of seven black women and one underage black girl. He will serve each year consecutively. During the sentencing hearing, Holtzclaw’s victims spoke out about how traumatic their experiences were. Janie Liggons, 59,…
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#ReclaimMLK: My Apology to the ‘Most Dangerous Negro’ in America
I practiced for weeks, and when the big day came I was ready. My hair was styled in the way that Southern mamas do their daughters’ hair for special occasions—a pressed, puffy ponytail on top, with the rest hanging and curled beneath a large part, some ribbon probably lost to memory. I felt special in…
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Rape Culture: Why Prison Rape Needs to Be a Part of the Discussion
In less than two weeks, former Oklahoma City Police Officer Daniel Holtzclaw will be sentenced for the rapes and sexual assaults of seven black women and one black child. And if this is to be a rare instance in which Lady Justice holds black women in her unfamiliar embrace, he will serve 263 years in prison. Justice, however—no…