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Black Women’s Equal Pay Day

Valerie Wilson, Janelle Jones, Kayla Blado, and Elise Gould Economic Policy Institute
July 31st is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, the day that marks how long into 2017 an African American woman would have to work in order to be paid the same wages as her white male counterpart was paid last year.

Let Black Kids Just Be Kids

Robin Bernstein The New York Times
As long as white children are constructed as innocent, we must continue to demand that children of color are as well. The idea of childhood innocence carries so much political force, we can’t allow it to be a whites-only club. We argue that black and brown children are as innocent as white children, we assume that childhood innocence is purely positive. The idea of childhood innocence itself is not innocent: It’s part of a 200-year-old history of white supremacy.

Monumental Rubbish: With the Statues Torn Down, What Next for New Orleans?

Adolph Reed Jr. Common Dreams
New Orleans is better for being rid of the monuments that commemorated the mythology and actual history of slavery and segregation. But elites still govern. The politics of representation dovetails with the reigning discourse of diversity and a local political economy based on marketing "cultural authenticity. To the extent that antiracism centers of pursuit of recognition rather than altering patterns of distribution it will remain trapped in neoliberal inequakity.

Stamped from the Beginning: Ibram X. Kendi on the History of Racist Ideas in U.S.

Amy Goodman, Ibram X. Kendi Democracy Now!
With police killings dominating the headlines, our first guest, historian Ibram X. Kendi, discusses his recent book, "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America," which traces the origins of racist ideas in the U.S. The author examines the impact of historically racist policies on existing racial disparities. His book is the recipient of the 2016 National Book Award.

labor

The Conservative Case for Unions

Jonathan Rauch The Atlantic
The decline of the business model of old-style industrial unions may have been economically inevitable, but the lack of any new model to replace it has been socially calamitous. Unions will not be easy to fix, but allowing them to innovate would be a first step, and possibly also a last chance. How a new kind of labor organization could address the grievances underlying populist anger.

A Case for Reparations at the University of Chicago

Ashley Finigan, Caine Jordan, Guy Emerson Mount, Kai Parker Black Perspectives
Reparations promise us a monumental re-birthing of America. Like most births, this one will be painful. But the practice of reparations must continue until the world that slavery built is rolled up and a new order spread out in its place.

books

Bill Clinton: His Career a Disaster for Black Americans

Nathan J. Robinson Jacobin
With all the toxicity coming out of the White House and the GOP-dominated Congress, it's important to remember how insufferable were the politics of the neoliberal Democrats in power under Bill Clinton. The book under review (an article derived from the book is below) should help us remember how malignant were the Clinton years when it came to economic and social justice.
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