mass incarceration
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The Pretrial Profit System: How Corporations Make Billions Arresting Poor Blacks
In 2008, 18-year-old Demorrea Tarver was out with some friends when he was stopped by the police. Officers found a handgun in the handbag of a minor who was riding with Tarver (Tarver said he didn’t know about the gun) and a small amount of marijuana. The cops arrested Tarver and charged him with three…
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7 Reasons Black America Should Fight Marijuana Prohibition
Take a deep breath. Can you smell the weed smoke billowing in from Colorado and California? Have you read about the citizens of Maine and Massachusetts who turned into zombies from puffing blunts all day? Have you seen the news reports about the scores of people in Oregon and Nevada who overdosed on marijuana? No.…
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Watch: Kalief Browder’s Family Discusses the Documentary Series That Exposes His Tragic Story
Time: The Kalief Browder Story is a six-part docuseries based on the story of Kalief Browder, who spent three years at New York City’s Rikers Island jail without being convicted of a crime. He was arrested at age 16 for a robbery he did not commit. During that time, he endured about two years in…
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Google Just Dropped $11,000,000 to Make Sure #BlackLivesMatter
Of course, the company didn’t phrase it that way because it would have to spend another $11 million cleaning up all the mess from the white people’s heads that exploded. But according to USA Today, Google just pledged $11.5 million in grants and funding to help organizations fight racial bias. Specifically, Google’s philanthropic division wants…
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#FitTheDescription: The White Privilege Behind Drug Crimes [Retracted]
RETRACTED (6/12/18): This story has been removed because we have discovered it was in breach of our editorial standards. If you’d like to know more, you can read an editor’s note here. A cached version of the story is available here for transparency.
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#FitTheDescription: The Dehumanizing Brutality of Mass Incarceration
Mass incarceration is a crisis. It is a capitalist and racist endeavor that has purposely targeted black and Latinx communities through discriminatory policing, bigotry framed as legislation, and a deep-seated fear of blackness and “otherness.” This system is, in large part, fueled by mainstream media for the sole purpose of pathologizing black and Latinx people until trapping them…
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13th and the Invisibleness of Black Women
Acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th was released on Netflix last week. Masterfully produced and directed by DuVernay, it is a poignant documentary detailing white America’s continual, desperate and ever-changing attempts to maintain racial and legal domination over black people. What has emerged as common knowledge through the Movement for Black Lives is laid out clearly and…
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Hey Bernie, Hillary: Do You Really Care About Police Brutality in Calif., or Do You Just Want Votes?
As Californians prepare to vote in the presidential primary Tuesday, there’s one person we know for sure who won’t be participating. In fact, we will never know which candidate could have earned the vote of Jessica Williams Nelson, a 29-year-old woman from San Francisco. That’s because on May 19, Williams Nelson was shot dead by a…