Politics
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Banging From the Inside: Activist Cat Brooks Runs to Become Oakland’s First Black Woman Mayor
Oakland, Calif., has long been a bastion of historical and cultural reverie in blackness. The “Detroit of the West” holds a special place in African-American esteem: Oakland incubated a nascent Black Panther Party; gave us Hieroglyphics, Too Short, and MC Hammer; and nurtured icons such as Elaine Brown, Zedanya, and Killmonger. It even has its…
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Florida Is on Course to Restore Voting Rights to Residents Convicted of Felonies
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Marissa Alexander knows politics. No political race—judgeship, state representative, national—nor proposed amendment escapes her notice. That’s why during this midterm election season, she has sat down her 18-year-old twins at the dinner table to go over everything—the amendments and candidates that voters must choose from on Tuesday so that her children will be fully…
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Definitive Proof That Republicans Don’t Want You to Vote
Republicans support voter suppression. While that might be evident to many people, some are not convinced by anecdotal evidence, such as Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s efforts to purge black voters from the rolls. Even testimonials from Republican advisers who say long lines are part of his party’s toolkit; academic studies showing people in…
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Top Congressional Leaders on Both Sides Passed on Visiting Pittsburgh With Trump Because He’s Trash
Top Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle declined to join the president on his trip to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, in the wake of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, which left 11 people dead and several others injured. According to the Hill, “House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader…
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Trump Wants to End Birthright Citizenship. Here’s Why That’s Not Happening
President Donald Trump believes, like most white nationalists, that America is his country. Not sure how this belief came to be, but it’s certainly at the core of white nationalist rhetoric. By now everyone has seen footage of some exasperated racists shouting, “Get out of my country!” to some unsuspecting person who is trying to…
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White Evangelical Support of Trump Proves They’re More ‘White’ Than ‘Evangelical’
Although I attended a black church my entire life, I was ordained into the Southern Baptist Convention, an organization complicit in the rise of the alt-right and whose troubling racial history and contemporaneous actions revealed a deep commitment to ignoring the influence of white supremacy. Last year, I wrote a piece for the New York…
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Andrew Gillum Is Winning by Being His Natural, Black Self
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum isn’t afraid to tell you he is a proud black man. The political implications of being “too black,” long a concern for black candidates running for statewide or higher office throughout U.S. history, don’t scare him. He embraces his blackness because he believes in himself and knows black candidates before…
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Sarah 'Suckabee' Sanders Continues Defense of Hatemonger, the President of Whitekanda
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders aka “Suckabee” aka “The Devil’s Mouthpiece” continues to be the runaway leader in the administration’s competition for the “Worst Person Not Named Trump” award. In another standout performance since Saturday’s massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue that left 11 people dead, Sanders double-down on the president’s statement…
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Progressive Jewish Leaders to Trump: You're Not Welcome in Pittsburgh
Progressive Jewish leaders have a simple message for President Trump in the wake of the tragic shooting that left 11 people dead at the Tree of Life synagogue: Don’t bother coming to Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism. Oh, and stop being an absolute racist, xenophobe who hates refugees. According to The Washington Post,…
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Trump Has Figured Out What’s Triggering Violence in America. Hint: It’s Not Him
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has proven he does three things well: Lie Stoke white fear Place blame on anyone other than himself When he’s really at his best—usually during one of his rallies in some midwestern showplace arena that normally holds monster truck shows and cowboy competitions—he works through all three of his…