slavery
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Ala. Cop Fired After Facebook Posts Reference Slavery, Michelle Obama
A Talladega, Ala., police officer was fired after racist posts, apparently from his Facebook page, surfaced on social media earlier this week, Talladega City Manager Patrick Bryant confirmed earlier this week, the Daily Home reports. Another one bites the dust. Officer Joel Husk reportedly shared posts from the Last American Patriots and from Donald Trump,…
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Using Genetic Testing to Better Understand the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
The recent opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is part of a long and slow national reckoning on race, but some chapters on race are still missing from our nation’s history. Documenting that history may be aided by a project recently launched by the direct-to-consumer genetics-testing company 23andMe. Our…
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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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Watch: How Did the Stars of The Birth of a Nation Practice Self-Care While Shooting This Intense Film?
Black trauma stems back as far back as slavery. Knowing that our ancestors were treated worse than animals—brutalized, dehumanized and demeaned—and that this terrible legacy of racism has carried on to our modern and “progressive” times is a painful truth that we must face every day. When movies like The Birth of a Nation are…
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The National Museum of African American History and Culture Is The Blackest Thing I’ve Ever Seen This Week…and Ever
I’ve been to the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) twice so far – yes, that was a stunt – and it is easily the second Blackest place I’ve ever been in life. The Blackest? I’m glad you asked. That would be in the southeastern quadrant of Washington, DC, where…
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The Conversation on Slavery and Its Legacy Has a Place at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
Thomas Jefferson. The mention of the name of our nation’s third president, for some Americans, brings to mind the Declaration of Independence, the founding of our country and Jefferson’s home, Monticello. For many others, his name is inextricably linked to a woman who could not access the independence guaranteed by the declaration he penned: Sally…
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Georgetown University to Offer Admissions Advantage to Descendants of 272 Slaves It Sold
Georgetown University is looking to atone for its troubled history regarding slavery by offering preferential status in the admissions process to the descendants of 272 slaves who were sold in order to keep the university afloat, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, the university’s president, John J. DeGioia, is expected to discuss…