Issue: 773
January 24, 2019
Color of Law
University of Glasgow Commits to Pay Reparations for Profiting From African Enslavement, Providing A Model for Others to Follow
Executive Editor
Attempting to repair the damage done to millions of African people and their descendants is no small task. Estimates of the debt the U.S. alone owes to Black people for the legacy of enslavement ranges in the multiple trillions of dollars. Nevertheless, repairing the damage requires a first step of admitting the crimes committed by society and its institutions and making amends for the theft, rape and pillaging.
Even as those who oppose reparations argue it is unfeasible or too costly, one British university is proving that it is both possible and necessary to…
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Cover Story
Scotus Upholds Transgender Military Ban With a No “Blanket Ban”
Editorial Board
Transphobia, like racism and sexism, in our armed forces is militarily dangerous because it thwarts the necessary emotional bonding needed amongst service members in battle, and it underutilizes the needed human resources to make a democratic and robust military.
With a conservative Supreme Court - Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M.…
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Commentary
The Government Shutdown and the Collateral Damage
Editorial Board
People who live paycheck to paycheck won't pay debt back until they get paid. And hundreds of thousands aren't being paid because a deranged adult is having a tantrum about a wall.
As I write this, our federal government has been shut down for 27 days. At first, it seemed like a gamesmanship joke, like who was going…
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Guest Commentary
All Hail the Revolutionary King – Dr. Martin Luther King and the Black Revolutionary Tradition
Guest Commentator
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the great revolutionaries in U.S. and world history. He was a leader of the Civil Rights and Black Liberation Movement, a fierce internationalist, anti-imperialist, and Pan Africanist, a Black militant, pro-communist socialist, and part of The Movement that was far to the left of and in opposition to the Democratic Party.
The annual King Day celebrations provide a great opportunity to defend Dr. King's revolutionary legacy against The System's efforts to white wash and degrade his frontal…
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Commentary
The American Militia and White Supremacy: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment
Editorial Board
It was demanded of all white men to own firearms, to carry firearms, to patrol the “beat.” The “beat,” a night-time job, required men white men to apprehend “any and all Negroes who were not in their proper places.” If “free” or runaway, the person is “taken before a justice of the peace.”
I’m not sure when I first heard about Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s latest work, however, I recognized the author’s name since I read An Indigenous Peoples' History of…
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Commentary
Millions Eke Out a Living, While Some Buy $110,000 Cars – Solidarity America
Columnist
We have seen the devastation of the American government in the past two years. Now is the time for American workers to stand up for themselves and demand a decent living standard. The way to do that is for each to learn union history and join the union. It's called solidarity. When 100 million workers can speak with one voice, the powerful will begin to listen.
After generations of growing income-and-wealth disparity in the U.S., there are those among the rich and corporate types who are expressing concern about that “problem,” while…
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Sharp n’ Blunt
“One America” Is an Unattainable Crack-Pipe Dream Because White America Has No Interest in It
Columnist
Let’s devise ways and methods to re-segregate America, because I for one don’t believe the notion of racial integration is feasible and doable when most white folks have no interest or inclination to do so.
“Who” and “what” are we, the unwanted, unwelcome and unloved black Americans to blame, to hold accountable and responsible for the rise of King Trump? “How”…
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