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Issue: 99

July 15, 2004

Cover Story

The People’s Dreams vs Wal-Mart’s Schemes

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

Co-Publisher Glen Ford delivered the following remarks to the Labor Plenary at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition 33rd Annual Conference, in Chicago, Illinois, June 29. During the last couple years we’ve been hearing a lot about a “global clash of civilizations.” We have our own clash of civilizations going on, right here in the United States. Essentially,…

Co-Publisher Glen Ford delivered the following remarks to the Labor Plenary at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition 33rd Annual Conference, in Chicago, Illinois, June 29. During the last…

Continue reading 4 min

Commentary

The New American Apartheid – Race and the Drug War – Part 2 of 4

By Randall Shelden and William Brown

There is now little doubt that there is a close correlation between the “war on drugs” (and on “gangs”) and the growth of the prison industrial complex. This “war” was officially launched by President Reagan in the mid-1980s when he promised that the police would attack the drug problem “with more ferocity than ever before.”…

There is now little doubt that there is a close correlation between the "war on drugs" (and on "gangs") and the growth of the prison industrial…

Continue reading 11 min

Commentary

Freedom Rider: The Nets, Jets and Corporate Welfare

By Margaret Kimberley Guest Commentator

Recipients of public assistance are among the most demonized groups of people in American society. Even working people look down on them, claiming that their benefits are too generous or even foolishly suggesting that both the rich and the poor have an easy life. Anecdotes abound of friends or relatives on the dole who could…

Recipients of public assistance are among the most demonized groups of people in American society. Even working people look down on them, claiming that their benefits…

Continue reading 5 min

Commentary

Dismantling The Bling – Another Look at Hip-Hop

By Reynard N. Blake, Jr Guest Commentator

Hip-hop has provided a forum for African-American and Latino youth to express their respective cultures and speak on a number of issues. Today, hip-hop is a global phenomenon that appeals to almost all ethnicities and is synthesizing a new culture that goes beyond race, education, and income. Despite the growing acceptance of hip-hop within white…

Hip-hop has provided a forum for African-American and Latino youth to express their respective cultures and speak on a number of issues. Today, hip-hop is a…

Continue reading 32 min

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