Politics
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‘That White Boy ’Bout to Lose’: The Inescapable Racial Politics of the Ga. 6th Special Election
I was on my way to the Jon Ossoff watch party at a fancy Westin in North Atlanta when I got a call from a good colleague of mine. Somewhere between a black millennial and Gen Xer, he was someone who’d worked on campaigns in Georgia and had a pretty good feel for what was…
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Add This to the List: The Dangers of Canvassing While Black in Ga.’s 6th District
“May I speak with Corbin, please?’ I said in my best “Not your neighborhood” smile. A middle-aged white woman came to the door, dressed in a salmon-colored workout top and pants. She had the confused look of a woman used to leaving her front door open and nobody knocking. “There’s no Corbin here,” she said.…
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Texas Governor Signs Bill Into Law Enforcing the Reporting of Police Shootings
Starting in September, any Texas law-enforcement agency that does not report a police shooting to the state attorney general within the allotted period could be fined $1,000 per day, with the penalty increasing if the agency commits the same infraction twice within a five-year period. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 245 into…
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Y’all Knew Kamala Harris Was Black, Right? Turns Out She’s Also Got an Extra-Special Super Power
I’m sure it is tempting, but can folks please avoid that comfy cliché, “a star is born,” to describe what’s happening now with California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris? First, as we know, Harris is a mature black woman. It is not at all unreasonable to say that being a mature black woman in 2017 usually…
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Will the Va. Shooting Sway the GOP on Gun Violence?
Just after 7 on Wednesday morning in the all-American Washington, D.C., suburb of Alexandria, Va., GOP congressional members were on a ball field practicing. The annual Democrats-vs.-Republicans baseball game was a day away, and the participants were just wrapping up a successful workout. Nobody suspected a mass shooting. Rep. Jeff Duncan, a Republican from South…
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Reported GOP Baseball Shooter Once Volunteered on Bernie Sanders’ Campaign: Report
The 66-year-old man arrested for the shooting of several GOP staffers during a baseball practice early Wednesday morning reportedly volunteered for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign. Police arrested James Hodgkinson shortly after the shooting. According to ABC News, Hodgkinson, of Bellevile, Ill., had several run-ins with the law, including domestic violence and several unlawful-weapons-discharge…
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On the Run 2017: Justin Fairfax Wins Democratic Primary for Lieutenant Governor of Va.
Justin Fairfax is one of only a handful of African Americans seeking statewide office in the 2017 election cycle, but after Tuesday’s primary, he’s managed to leap over his first major hurdle. Fairfax trounced his primary competitor Susan Platt 49 percent to 39 percent to secure the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor of Virginia. It…
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Happy Birthday, Mr. President: A Birthday Basket From Black America
What do you get the mediocre white man who’s been gifted everything from his real estate portfolio (see: father Trump) to the White House (see: Russia)? Well, The Root staff writer Michael Harriot and Senior Editor Stephen A. Crockett Jr. have come up with a few ideas—a few trinkets, if you will—that black America would…
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Jeff Sessions Hearing: Kamala Harris Did Her Best Kyrie Irving Impression, but Senate Dems Still Got Stuffed by GOP
On Monday night, the Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship over the Cleveland Cavaliers in five noncompetitive games. After all the excitement and anticipation going into the series, it was a series of uninteresting blowouts. Cleveland lost because even though their big three mostly came to play, the rest of the team disappeared, and…
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The Root Is Live-Blogging Jeff Sessions' Testimony to Congress Because We Hate Ourselves
Hello, y’all. I’m Michael Arceneaux, contributor to The Root and perpetual masochist. As the headline suggests, I’m here to live blog Attorney General Segregation Now, Segregation Forever Jeff Sessions’ testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. I’m surprised Sessions’ testimony is starting late given…