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Issue: 751

July 19, 2018

Cover Story

Searching for Lost Children

By Sharon Kyle, JD Editorial Board

In his autobiography, former slave Frederic Douglass writes that the single greatest fear harbored by every slave was being separated from their children or having their children taken from them, destined for the auction block.

I received an email from a cousin I’ve never met—one I didn’t know existed ’til I heard from her. After brief intros, she wanted to know…

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Rob Rogers

Cartoon

Rob Rogers

By Eric Garcia Cartoonist/Artist

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Color of Law

Russian Bots Are Using #WalkAway to Try to Wound Dems in Midterms

By David A. Love, JD Executive Editor

Now, in this 2018-midterm election season, as some predict a blue wave of resistance to Trump, his policies and alarming authoritarianism, Republicans want to split up the Democratic political opposition and divide black and Latino voters. And Russia looks like it wants to help here, too. But this time it won't work.

(CNN)The recent announcement that 12 Russian nationals have been indicted by Robert Mueller for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election is another reminder…

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Commentary

The Audacity Of Ida B. Wells

By Dr. Julianne Malveaux, PhD Editorial Board

She too often gets short shrift in history, mainly because she did not go along to get along with the men of her era, crossing swords with the likes of Dr. WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington. The same fierceness that pushed her to organize against lynching was the fierceness that propelled her to confront injustice within African American organizations and in women's organizations.

The crusading journalist, Ida B. Wells was born on July 16, 1862. Although she made her mark as a journalist, she was also a social worker,…

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Guest Commentary

The Pain, Disillusionment and Despair of Suicide

By Dr. Elwood Watson, PhD Guest Commentator

it is not all that surprising that Black children who are often not seen or treated as children, but rather as adults or misfits by their teachers and the larger society, coupled with the economic disenfranchisement and poverty that is so prevalent in many Black communities, these children often experience disillusion and despair that can result in many of these young kids giving up on life even before they reach adulthood.

The recent suicides of fashion designer Kate Spade https and CNN celebrity chef host Anthony Bourdain and a few other celebrities earlier this year sent shock…

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Commentary

That N-word, Again

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

The fact that African Americans have appropriated the n-word does not negate our long history of internalized self-hatred. Our culture’s neo-revisionist use of the n-word makes it even harder to purge the sting of the word from the American psyche.

Papa Johns is the latest to use the n-word and then apologize. Because John Schnatter known as Papa John blurted out the n-word during a crisis…

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Commentary

Trump’s Strategy of Politicizing Pardons and Commutations, Etc

By Dr. Walter C. Farrell, Jr., PhD, M.S.P.H. Columnist

By issuing a pardon and commutation to two well-known African American figures and forgiving loans of four HBCUs, it is hoped that black voter turnout in the midterm elections will be depressed as there will be less anger toward Trump. In addition, Democrats have yet to put forth a galvanizing message or coherent strategy to increase black enthusiasm to vote.

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate and House, respectively, have refrained from criticizing San Bernardino, California Deputy District Attorney Michael Selyem…

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Guest Commentary

No Excuse for Forgetting Black St. Louis

By Dr. Walter Johnson, PhD Guest Commentator and Jamala Rogers, BC Editorial Board

Not far from the site of the Arch, in the antebellum period, sat the city’s largest slave pen, owned by the notorious trader Bernard Lynch. Thousands of enslaved men, women and children passed through its gates on their way “down the river.”

History happens twice they say: once tragedy, then again as farce. Never more so than under the Arch. In July 1964, Percy Green II climbed the…

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Commentary

Israel’s New Form of Warfare Against Palestinians: Farm Chemicals

By John Funiciello Columnist

The use of dangerous chemicals in the manner that Israel has used them and still uses them and, for the purposes they intend, is nothing less than a human rights violation and a violation of international law, but neither Israel, nor the U.S., its big brother in such operations, pays much attention to such laws and conventions.

Glyphosate is just a popular farm chemical, designed by Monsanto to be used with its seed for genetically modified crops around the world, right? Under the…

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