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VIDEO: Troy Davis: 'There's Simply Too Much Doubt'
Besides agreeing with Amnesty International that executing Troy Davis is absolutely a question of an international human rights violation, Melissa Harris-Perry, a Tulane professor and columnist at the Nation, said in an MSNBC interview that “although closure is important, it is insufficient as a basis for taking the life of someone when there’s simply too…
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Democracy's 'Freedom Dreams' After 9/11
Tulane professor Melissa Harris-Perry, in her blog at the Nation, writes about a book on the politics of freedom and equality whose final chapter was written in direct response to the events of Sept. 11. Not long after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Robin Kelley, the award-winning historian of race and labor in the…
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Farewell to My Uterus
After a four-year battle with uterine fibroids, I am finally surrendering. Last Monday, I checked into N.Y. Presbyterian Hospital and underwent a hysterectomy. I am 34 years old. I fought back with hormones and holistic treatments. I have had second and third opinions in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. I’ve seen black doctors and white,…
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My Obama Inauguration Diet
Monday is the official start of my Obama inauguration diet. Having secured the nomination, I believe that Barack can beat John McCain in the general election. This means that after months of binging on the primaries, I have just over six months to get in shape, and I have a lot of work to do.…
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Dear Class of 2008
I know that everyone is saying, “Congratulations.” We say it because we are proud of you and what you have accomplished. I want to say something else; something that others may not say. “I am sorry.”We have a lot of reasons to apologize.We have taught you to think of education as a program, formula or…
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Happy Birthday, Malcolm
I am part of the generation — the post civil-rights generation, post-black power generation — that turned Malcolm X into a T-shirt and cap. He was our symbol of racial discontent and political angst. Though we did not live through the brutal repression of Jim Crow, we knew for ourselves, in our own way, the…
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Dear Gov. Dean: Are You Ready to Lead?
Dear Gov. Dean, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are not tied. You know this. There is little chance of a gracious settlement offer from the Clinton camp. The slim margin in Indiana gives her just enough rationale to stay in it. Given that she will not voluntarily withdraw, Mr. Dean, I am asking you to…
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Wright Prophet, Wrong Direction
Reverend Jeremiah Wright has spent the last several days carefully placing himself within the prophetic tradition of African American religion. I attempted to place him in this same context here on The Root when I explained that he, like the biblical Jeremiah, is among the truth tellers who regularly warn the government that divine destruction…
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How the Bronx Turned Green
It’s not surprising that many African Americans give Earth Day a pass. When you live poorer and die younger in the land of plenty, it can be hard to get excited about protecting the planet at large. The oppression of black people covers centuries of troubled terrain from forced agricultural labor, to contemporary land loss,…
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Rape and Race: We Have to Talk About It
I witnessed something truly astonishing on Monday night: a public discussion of black women’s experiences of sexual violence at the hands of black men. It was an intergenerational group of black men and women, gay and straight, survivors and perpetrators, all grappling with the legacy of rape and race. The experience was unusual because black…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
