One of the main reasons I became a journalist was to push back against the disinformation I saw coming from Bernie Sanders supporters when he first entered the race for President in 2015. Whenever I would post even the mildest critique of him online, an army of white, ...read more
On this, the first MLK Day of the 21st Century with a full blown white nationalist in the Oval Office, let's take a moment to reflect on why we are where we are. Yes, Corporate America has spent billions dumbing down the conservative movement. Yes, the Republican Party is filled ...read more
Today we honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Through the power of his words and his actions, MLK inspired people to put their lives on the line in the fight for equality between the races, a struggle that continues to this day. When we remember him, we should remember both ...read more
Perhaps you've heard of Nina Turner, one of the few notable women of color to endorse Bernie Sanders, and one of the only women in politics the alt-left doesn't have a problem with. Find something in Kamala Harris's record that they don't like and they'll gleefully try to tear ...read more
Part of Michael Eric Dyson's searing critique of former friend Cornel West was that his old mentor no longer had the intellectual chops to be taken seriously. Dyson wrote: It is not only that West’s preoccupations with Obama’s perceived failures distracted him, though that is ...read more
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech on the National Mall in August 1963 quickly made him one of the most famous people in American history. It also made him a lot of enemies. Two days after the speech, FBI domestic intelligence chief William Sullivan concluded ...read more
by Marcus Dowling On April 5, 1968, it was James Brown who famously performed in an effort to keep the city of Boston, Massachusetts from further dissolving into a mess of violent crime in outrage over the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Brown’s concert at the ...read more
The violation was known as "vagrancy." If you were a black man in the South following Reconstruction, and you were unable to show proof of employment on-demand to the police, you could be arrested and delivered into what Douglas Blackmon, author of Slavery by Another Name, ...read more
On Saturday, I went to activist hangout spot and coffee shop, Busboys and Poets in DC to watch one of my favorite columnists talk about Martin Luther King. The Guardian's Gary Younge had written a book on the story behind Dr King's speech, and as a big fan of his writing, I ...read more
The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From U.S. News & World Report: Monday's inaugural may be President Barack Obama's big day, but Martin Luther King Jr. will loom large over the festivities. A quirk in the calendar pushed Obama's public swearing-in onto the national holiday ...read more
Zadie Smith on the success of multiculturalism in New York and London: It took generations; it passed through periods of unspeakable horror; sometimes people forgot, sometimes they forgave, and they did both these things imperfectly. Practical matters helped. General economic ...read more
