black lives matter
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White People Didn't Do This: On Nipsey Hussle and Conspiracy Theories
A few years ago, someone told writer Anna Merlan that I would be a good person to interview for a book she was working on about conspiracy theories. When she informed me that she was going to dedicate a chapter to black conspiracies, I was startled to find out that she had never heard of…
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A North Carolina Pizzeria Called the Police to Help Fire a Black Activist Who Was Targeted By ‘Deplorables’
Demonstrators in North Carolina are protesting a pizza chain whose management called for police protection when the owners fired a worker on his day off because the employee’s activism made him the target of a local Pro-Trump group. While that may sound like the plot of every black movie ever, this is not a synopsis…
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A Word: How We Fight White Supremacy Reminds Us That ‘We’ Have the Power
What does it mean to fight white supremacy today? After centuries of trying, those of us actively committed to doing so know that grand gestures are well outnumbered by daily acts expressed in myriad ways with varying levels of visibility. This is the message of How We Fight White Supremacy, a new African American anthology…
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Making It Matter: Alicia Garza Joins Marie Claire Magazine as Contributing Editor and Columnist
She’s helped amplify countless black voices across the world, and now, Alicia Garza will have an even larger platform. The Black Lives Matter co-founder, who is also Director of Strategy and Partnerships at the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and founder and principal of Black Futures Lab, is now the new contributing editor of women’s…
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ACLU and Center for Media Justice Sue FBI for Records on Surveillance of Black Activists
America has a history of secretly surveilling black organizations that gather in the name of equal rights. It happened during the 1950s and 1960s, through the notorious Counterintelligence Program (“COINTELPRO”). It happened with the Black Panthers and during the black uprising of negro leaders including Ida B. Wells, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr, and…
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Power: For Those Who Survive Police Violence, Their Black Lives Matter, Too [Watch]
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Marie Cullors wears many hats: activist, author, abolitionist, white supremacy slayer. But one role many may not know of Cullors is that of “artist.” Cullors, currently a 2019 MFA candidate at the University of Southern California, has been flexing her creative muscles since before she came to international prominence as…
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Mother Demands Answers and Policy Change After Her Son Was Forced to Urinate in Classroom Trash Can
Sonia Mongol, mother of an 8-year-old student at Manhattan Place Elementary in Los Angeles, says her son was forced to urinate in a trash can after his teacher refused to let him use the bathroom, urinating on himself in the process, according to NBC12. A tearful Mongol told local media that she plans to take…
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Playwright Loy A. Webb Brings The Light to Where #MeToo, #MuteRKelly and #BlackLivesMatter Converge
Three years ago when Loy A. Webb crafted The Light, the burgeoning playwright had no idea where the world would be when her play had its New York premiere last month. The Logan Vaughn-directed drama is set in today’s Chicago and turns the idyllic concept of millennial black love on its head as a couple,…
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With On the Come Up, Bestselling Author Angie Thomas Continues Her Crusade: ‘I Can See Myself Writing About Black Girls From Here on Out’
Angie Thomas, author of the breakout novel The Hate U Give, remains steadfast about the types of stories she wants to tell, how she wants to tell them and to whom she’s speaking. In the poignant, powerful debut—pegged a “Black Lives Matter book”—Thomas introduced us to 16-year-old Starr Carter, a witty, complicated, code-switching black girl…
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The Black Cop Behind the White Hood: Ron Stallworth Talks BlacKkKlansman, Unequivocally Supports Black Lives Matter
When I first heard the synopsis for BlacKkKlansman—a black police officer infiltrates the Colorado chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with the help of a white, Jewish surrogate—I thought to myself, “Wow, you can’t make this shit up.” Turns out, they didn’t. About five years ago, The Root interviewed the real-life Ron Stallworth for the…