black power

  • Tommie Smith and John Carlos to Join 2016 Olympic Team at White House

    Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the U.S. Olympic sprinters who raised their fists during the 1968 Olympics, will join the U.S. Olympic team at the White House next week for its meeting with President Barack Obama, the Charlotte News & Observer reports. In the last week, the tide has continued to turn for the two…

  • The Half-Woke CliffsNotes to Homophobia and Misogyny 

    I never used CliffsNotes. Not because I believed in some uncompromising code of ethics that made me reject shortcuts in favor of hard work and discipline. My mother just wouldn’t let me use them. When I was a rising 10th-grader, I tried to get her to purchase a copy of the CliffsNotes for Albert Camus’…

  • Political Prisoner Chelsea Manning Goes on Hunger Strike Over Lack of Medical Treatment 

    Coinciding with the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising and a national prison work strike to raise awareness about inhumane conditions, political prisoner Chelsea Manning, 28, has begun a hunger strike, citing lack of proper medical treatment and “high-tech bullying.” Manning’s act of resistance begins one week after political prisoner and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, 62,…

  • What The Secret Life of Pets Gets Wrong About Black Power and White Privilege

    There is no such thing as a kids movie anymore. Those days ended around the time that Aladdin and his genie were bopping around a fake Agrabah on a magic carpet. In the last 25 years or so, exclusively children-targeted programs have moved to Netflix, Cartoon Network or direct-to-video. Somebody in Hollywood wisely realized that…

  • 50 Years Ago Stokely Carmichael Called for ‘Black Power,’ Galvanizing a Movement

    Fifty years ago this Thursday, the call for “black power” by Stokely Carmichael in Greenwood, Miss., transformed the black freedom struggle. Frightening white citizens while transforming black identity, the black power movement’s call for radical political self-determination challenged liberal frameworks for racial equality in profound ways that continue to reverberate to this day. Black power…

  • A Silenced Ali Was a Likable Ali for White People

    “I am the greatest.” There will be thousands of well-deserved tributes to Muhammad Ali, and all will talk about his transformation from heavyweight boxing champion to international humanitarian. And that is important to note. But the thing most will miss is how Ali’s voice—a bold black and Muslim voice that spoke eloquently for the aspirations…