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By Marie Cocco — The falsely accused Duke lacrosse players deserve their indignation, but so does Jerry Miller, who spent 24 years in jail for a rape he did not commit. It turns out there are many innocent men—too many of them African-American—who have done time they shouldn’t have, and there are probably many, many more.
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By James Harris — Truthdig’s resident analyst of racial politics argues that the firing of Don Imus will not alleviate the more pressing problems plaguing the black community.
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 msnbc.com
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MSNBC announced it will no longer air “Imus in the Morning,” as the uproar over the radio host’s racist comment continues and several prominent sponsors withdrew advertising. CBS, which controls the radio version of Imus’ show, has not said whether it too will cancel the program or merely stick with a suspension.
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By Paul Cummins — After 400 years of abuse, African-Americans continue to struggle with an inequitable America. If we’re serious about leaving no child behind, we should start by offering black families a fair shot in life.
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 James Harris
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By James Harris — In 2006 alone, 148 people were murdered in the streets of Oakland, most of them African-American. Today the epidemic of violence continues unabated and largely ignored. Truthdig contributor James Harris reports on the forgotten crisis that threatens to tear his city apart.
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The State Department recently released its regular report of human rights abuses around the world and, as expected, listed China as one of the worst offenders. But Beijing fired back with its own report and a long list U.S. violations, including everything from disregard for civilian casualties to treating racial minorities as an underclass.
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 answers.com
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The New York City Council has symbolically banned the use of the word nigger. The resolution, though unenforceable, is meant to defy the word’s popularity among young people, though, as the BBC points out, an “edict from elected officials” is unlikely to have much of an impact.
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 AP Photo / Gary Kazanjian
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By Theodore Hamm — Rudy Giuliani is often presented as a political moderate whose thriving presidential campaign need only negotiate the hurdle of a conservative primary, but his pre-9/11 record as New York’s mayor—particularly his policies toward working-class and minority residents—should greatly alarm progressives.
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 virginia.edu
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Stopping short of a full-blown apology, Virginia’s House of Delegates voted unanimously on Friday to issue a statement of “profound regret” over the state’s role in the slave trade, “the historic wrongs visited upon native peoples” and “all other forms of discrimination and injustice….”
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Former All-America linebacker and author Dave Meggysey joins James Harris, Robert Scheer and Joshua Scheer for a discussion on the NFL’s racist history, the black coach milestone and more in this special Super Bowl edition of the Truthdig podcast. Above, Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith (at left) and Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy.
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Former All-America linebacker and author Dave Meggysey joins James Harris, Robert Scheer and Joshua Scheer for a discussion on the NFL’s racist history, the black coach milestone and more in this special Super Bowl edition of the Truthdig podcast.
Posted on Feb 3, 2007
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Basketball superstar Baron Davis and the Chicago Bears’ Brendon Ayanbadejo have started an organization to raise awareness of the dwindling enrollment of minority students at their alma mater, UCLA. California’s anti-affirmative action Prop. 209 has had a devastating effect: This year’s freshman class of 5,000 contains fewer than 100 African American students, 20 of them on athletic scholarship.
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 post-gazette.com
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Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., announced his presidential candidacy Wednesday, but he got more attention for a racially charged comment about competitor Barack Obama, calling him “the first mainstream African American [presidential candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
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 original: booster.co.il / alteration by Peter Scheer
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A new study of thousands of immigrants found that those with lighter skin earned more money than immigrants of similar background whose skin was darker. “On average, being one shade lighter has about the same effect as having an additional year of education,” the study’s author said.
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 africawithin.com
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During the Vietnam War, Dr. King referred to our nation’s government as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” Now that we find ourselves mired in another senseless conflict, our soldiers in harm’s way and more and more among us suffering from the tyranny of poverty, we turn once again to the wisdom of Martin Luther King Jr.
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Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer and contributor James Harris discuss Robert Gates, the virtues of “losing” at war, race in America and more.
Posted on Dec 23, 2006
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Robert Scheer joins Truthdig contributor James Harris for a lively discussion on the devolution of Robert Gates, exiting Iraq, the politics of race and more in this special audio edition of the Truthdig podcast. (Now includes transcript)
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Clinton strategist turned Fox News provocateur Dick Morris brought his peculiar insight to bear on the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama showdown, claiming: “Obama is in fact a better first than she is. First black is better than first woman in our politics in terms of valuing it.” What reasoning Morris used to make that determination remains a mystery, as he quickly moved on to the multitude of reasons why he feels Obama can’t win, and how he’ll leave the country if either one does.
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By Jabari Asim — Despite their courage and achievements in the Revolutionary War, blacks usually went unnoticed. Now, finally, one such man receives some recognition.
Posted on Dec 18, 2006
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By Molly Ivins — Between an unabashedly clueless Kinky Friedman and Rick “The Coiffure” Perry, the Texas governor’s race is screaming for a dark-horse candidate.
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Stephen Colbert offered this riff on racial tribalism in America, after learning that whites tend to live amongst other whites. Heres a taste: ғIm colorblind. I donҒt see race, folks, and I always thought my gated community was incredibly diverse. But, uh, today I asked around and it turns out that everyone at last weeks ґsmooth jazz and mayonnaise block party was in fact white.Ҕ
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 From the BBC
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Katherine Harris, villain of the 2004 Florida recount saga and a congresswoman running for U.S. Senate, recently dismissed to an interviewer the idea that religion should stay out of politics, saying, “God is the one who chooses our rulers.”
So was it God or was it Katherine Harris who fraudulently threw all those eligible black citizens off the voting rolls in 2004? Hey, if she wants to run with the “omnipotent God” logic, she can’t have it both ways….
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Riding a fierce antiwar message, Ned Lamont came out of nowhere to defeat a three-term senator, capturing 52% of the vote to Lieberman’s 48%.
(much more after the jump and more video links here)
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 From Newsweek.com
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By Ellen Goodman — Although it’s sexier and more startling to talk about boys falling behind girls in schools, the real dividing line is race and class.
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 From Newsweek
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Newsweek says that pro-war Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) “stands a good chance of losing his August primary thanks to heavy blogger backing of his opponent, Ned Lamont.”
Support Ned!
Check out the Lamont-Truthdig interview
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The N.Y. Times columnist writes that the Connecticut senator is in trouble, as evidenced by neophyte challenger Ned Lamont’s strong showing at the state Democratic Party’s nomination convention. Lieberman’s problem: He consistently parrots GOP talking points and has fallen out of touch with Connecticut voters.
Check out Ned Lamont’s Truthdig interview
Posted on May 22, 2006
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Throw conventional wisdom out the window, says the New York Times: Many seats in the House of Representatives that were once thought safe for Republicans have now become competitive races.
Posted on May 21, 2006
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 From politicsnj.com
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The 37-year-old former Rhodes scholar, who is black, won in a landslide. (His last mayoral campaign was the focus of the Oscar-nominated “Street Fight.”)
Posted on May 9, 2006
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 Powell
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By Robert Scheer — “This is a moment of truth for America. It is time to acknowledge that we need the immigrant workers as much as they need us, and to begin to treat them with the respect they deserve.”
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The religious right demands that we focus on Jesus this holiday season. Okay, but what do we really know about him? We turn to a religious scholar to find out. The Rev. Madison Shockley is a minister of the United Church of Christ in Carlsbad, Calif. and a regular commentator on religion, race, politics and popular culture.
Posted on Jan 23, 2006
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