social justice
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Kwanzaa: Revisiting Maulana Karenga’s Legacy
Kwanzaa, like black America, was birthed in struggle and chaos, then bathed in blood. It was born in the freedom movement, against the backdrop of the Watts rebellion, the rise of the Black Panther Party, the FBI’s COINTELPRO and the assassination of Malcolm X (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz). Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of Africana studies…
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#DanielShaver: It Is Not Black People’s Job to Create a White Lives Matter Movement
Daniel Shaver, 26, is dead. Mesa, Ariz., Police Officer Philip “Mitch” Brailsford, 27, a cowboy armed with an AR-15—with the words “You’re fucked” etched on the dust cover—executed him in a hotel hallway as he sobbed and begged for his life. The video of the 2016 shooting was not released until after Brailsford was acquitted…
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Baltimore’s Latest Plan to Clamp Down on Crime: Tricking and Trapping Youths
With the number of lethal and nonlethal shootings, robberies and assaults on the rise in Baltimore, police and government officials are clamoring for ways to make sense of what is happening. But even with public finger-pointing and posturing, there still isn’t a consensus about who should be blamed for the current dilemma. Some say judges…
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‘Moral Revival of America’: Modern-Day Poor People’s Campaign Launched
When tens of thousands of people converge on statehouses across the nation and the U.S. Capitol in May 2018, it will be to further the work of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Poor People’s Campaign that Marian Wright Edelman, Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King Jr. and so many other freedom fighters organized 50 years ago.…
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#DerickWiley: Mesquite, Texas, Police Officer Fired, Will Face Grand Jury in Lyndo Jones Shooting
Updated Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017, 11:19 p.m. EST: Mesquite Police Chief Charles Cato released a statement late Wednesday night announcing the termination of police officer Derick Wiley. Read Cato’s statement below: Earlier today, I received the results and recommendations of our internal affairs panel concerning the November 8th officer involved shooting. Based upon the facts and…
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Queen Sugar Decided That This Is Us Was NOT Going to Get All of My Emotions This Season
There are spoilers in this piece. Consider yourself warned. Last year I binge-watched the television show This Is Us because I wanted to be in my feelings. I got tired of looking at my Facebook feed and seeing everybody and their mama having a good cry together and me not having any idea what they…
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No Justice, No Peace, Just Crooked Police
On Thursday they told us once again that what we saw with our very own eyes is not what happened. They switched the narrative, painted another black man as an aggressor who caused his own death, and even with video evidence that directly contradicts their narrative, no cops are being charged. A(nother) black man is…
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Why We Never Talk About Black-on-Black Crime: An Answer to White America’s Most Pressing Question
You’ve heard it before. It is the most frequent response to any accusation of police brutality. It is the repeated sleight of hand used to distract and drown out the voices of Black Lives Matter. It is an oft-used “alt-right” refrain and a sincere query from curious white questioners. It is the weapon of choice…
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A Shared History of Struggle Should Unite India’s Dalits and African Americans in the Fight for Equality
For more than 4,000 years, the Dalits of India were called “the untouchables,” the lowest of the low. The Dalits are at the bottom of the Indian caste hierarchy and are currently the oldest surviving oppressed group in the world. They suffer the worst of human miseries and were once deemed impure and polluted human…
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Police Chief Wears ‘Police Lives Matter’ Pin but Argues That Firefighter’s ‘Black Lives Matter’ Pin Is Political
Updated Sunday, June 11, 2017, 1:05 p.m. EDT: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Humboldt Bay Fire Chief Bill Gillespie as having worn and defended the wearing a “Police Lives Matter” pin. That has been corrected to accurately reflect that it was Eureka Police Chief Andrew Mills who both wore a “Police Lives…
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