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Call It What It Is, Or Be Complicit

Terrance Heath Campaign for America's Future
Reasonable people cannot deny that the Charleston shooting was a racially driven act of terror. To deny the connection between Roof’s actions and extremist rhetoric that tells young people like him that black people are inherently violent and criminal is to be complicit in the actions that such rhetoric inspires.

The Charleston Massacre - A Hate Crime

Greg Grandin; Bill Fletcher, Jr.; Tom McCarthy
The massacre took place at the oldest black church south of Baltimore, and one of the most storied black congregations in the United States, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church's history is deeply intertwined with the history of African American life in Charleston. Among the congregation's founders was Denmark Vesey, a former slave who was executed in 1822 for attempting to organize a massive slave revolt.

Immigrants' Lawsuit Over Post-9/11 Detention Is Revived; Ashcroft and Mueller to be Deposed

Adam Liptak The New York Times
The case, filed in 2002, was the first broad legal challenge to the policies and practices that swept hundreds of mostly Muslim men into detention on immigration violations in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. The defendants include John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, and Robert S. Mueller III, the former F.B.I. director. Orders came from officials at the highest levels of government. Now we have the chance to ensure that they are held accountable.

Tidbits - June 18, 2015 - Bernie Sanders, Tamir Rice, Kalief Browder, Ella Baker, BDS, Low-Income Schools, Paul Robeson, and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: Bernie Sanders; Tamir Rice; Kalief Browder; Ella Baker; BDS; Low-Income Schools; Rachel Dolezal; TPP; Edward Snowden; Greece; Bessie; Okinawa; Puerto Rico; Jazz; Watts Rebellion; Immigration; Announcements: March to Shut Down Rikers; Detroit Tribute to Paul Robeson and His Work for Peace; Solidarity Delegation of 20 US Activists to Visit Venezuela

books

My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past

Charles S. Weinblatt New York Journal of Books
In these days of heightened discussion about "race" and racism, it is useful to keep reminding ourselves about the contingency of racial categories. Jennifer Teege is a German author who is the daughter of a Nigerian father and German mother. In her search for origins, she found that her grandfather was an officer in the SS who ran a World War II concentration camp. Charles S. Weinblatt reviews this harrowing tale of cross-racial family discovery.

Friday Nite Videos -- June 5, 2015

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Flashmob Nuremburg - Beethoven's Ode to Joy. Clinton Slams GOP for War on Voting, Calls for Universal Registration. Key & Peele - Basketball Commentary. Jefferson Davis Day in Alabama. Gay High School Student Delivers Valedictorian Speech He Was Barred from Giving.

Jefferson Davis Day in Alabama

Jefferson Davis was the president of the Confederate States of America. How do you proclaim your love for America and then yearn for the days when you weren't part of it?

Tidbits - June 4, 2015 - Korean War End?; Spanish elections; Puerto Rico; Oscar López Rivera; Emmy Noether; Gaza Peace Concert; Tiananmen Square; Angela Acquitted; more...

Portside
Reader Comments: Can Women End Korean War?; Countess vs. Communist-Battle to Become Madrid's Mayor; How the United States Strangled Puerto Rico; Obama's Human and Moral Challenge: Oscar López Rivera; The Press and Bernie Sanders; The Female Mathematician Who Changed the Course of Physics; Appeal by Dr. Kristin Neuhaus, successor to Dr. George Tiller; Cross Borders Concert at the Gaza Strip border; Today in History - Tiananmen Square Massacre; Angela Davis Acquitted

How the United States Economically and Politically Strangled Puerto Rico

Mark Karlin, Truthout Interview Truthout
Although Puerto Ricans were granted US citizenship in 1917, the United States continued to exploit, oppress and eventually launch a "war" on the people of Puerto Rico to gain land and resources. The book, War Against All Puerto Ricans, is a vivid, detailed account of the brutal treatment of a people "liberated" from Spain only to be subjugated by the US.
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