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Exclusive: Sen. Cory Booker Introduces Senate Bill to Study Reparations
Presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told The Root in an exclusive, hour-long interview at his home in Newark, N.J., that he unequivocally supports reparations for black people and that he is introducing a Senate version of the House bill on Monday that will form a commission to study reparations. Booker’s bill, Commission…
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Exclusive: John Delaney's 'Commitment to Black America' Includes Help for HBCUs and Beefed Up Police Oversight
Presidential candidate John Delaney is pledging to use federal dollars to fund start-up incubators at HBCUs, end the use of cash bail at the federal level, remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substance Act, and increase funding for body cameras for police officers, according to a copy of his “Commitment to Black America”…
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Andrew Yang Says His Kids Will Drink Flint Tap Water to Ensure Cleanliness and Explains How His Economic Plans Are 'More Modern' Than Bernie Sanders
In an exclusive interview with The Root, presidential candidate Andrew Yang said that he is open to opening a federal inquiry into why the residents of Flint, Mich., have gone years without clean drinking water and agrees that environmental racism is behind the lack of a sequent response to the crisis. Furthermore, he said that…
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Al Sharpton Credits Himself For All This Blackity Blackness Taking Over National Politics
If you’re a black candidate running for public office, your theme song can literally be, “And I’m black, y’all! And I’m blackity black and I’m black, y’all!” and still win because being a black and proud politician is now in, a marked shift in a country that for so long forced many black politicians to…
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Kirsten Gillibrand Officially Announces Candidacy For President
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand officially declared her candidacy for president this morning in a video announcement. She joins an already crowed field of candidates, including frontrunners Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Before today, Gillibrand was still in the exploratory phase. Her announcement comes as no surprise, as she has been traveling regularly Iowa,…
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New York City Gets An 'F' When It Comes To Awarding City Contracts To Black-Owned Businesses, According To City Comptroller
New York City sucks when it comes to awarding contracts to women and minority-owned businesses, according to the city comptroller office’s grading scale, as detailed in its 2018 report. Most of the city’s departments received a “D” for the fourth consecutive year for doling out a minuscule $1 billion in contracts (just 5.5 percent) to…
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Rep. Elijah Cummings Threw Rashida Tlaib Under the Bus to Dry an Obama Birther’s White Tears
White people don’t need black folk to comfort them and their white tears. U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings apparently didn’t get the memo. During Michael Cohen’s congressional hearing Wednesday, GOP Representative Mark Meadows pushed back against the former Trump lawyer’s assertions that President Donald Trump is racist. He did so by trotting out Lynne Patton, his…
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Exclusive: Kamala Harris Calls for Decriminalization of Sex Work, Unequivocally Calls Trump a Racist and Wants Reparations (Sort of)
U.S Sen. Kamala Harris, a frontrunner in the burgeoning 2020 race for the Democratic nomination for president, is addressing criticisms of her criminal justice record and, more recently, her stance on reparations. Harris told The Root that she supports reparations for black people, but that is not precisely what she told The Grio’s Natasha Alford…
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Detroit: Why The D Is the Blackest City of All Time
If I had to pick a song that defines my hometown of Detroit, it would be Dej Loaf’s “Try Me” because white supremacy has been trying to stamp a nigga out of this fine city since the Great Migration landed us there at the turn of the 20th century. We came up to Detroit to…
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In an Interview With The Root, Julián Castro Calls for Reparations for Black People
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro is willing to consider a plan that would lead to reparations for black Americans. The presidential candidate made that revelation during his interview with The Root. He also expressed his views about Donald Trump’s xenophobia, how he would address police brutality (and how he dealt with the…
