racism

Maskless in the Red Death: The Pathology of Trump’s Racism is turning our Pandemic into Negligent Genocide

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – As Donald Trump sits idly by, the nation is experiencing both a catastrophic public health collapse that has brought international humiliation as well as a convulsive, impassioned protest movement that indicts police brutality and systemic racism. Trump’s negligent response to the pandemic — morally amounting to genocide — has […]

Islam

Islam’s anti-racist message from the 7th century still resonates today

The Conversation

By Asma Afsaruddin | – One day, in Mecca, the Prophet Muhammad dropped a bombshell on his followers: He told them that all people are created equal. “All humans are descended from Adam and Eve,” said Muhammad in his last known public speech. “There is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, or of […]

African-Americans

How racism in US health system hinders care and costs lives of African Americans

The Conversation

By Tamika C.B. Zapolski | – As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the U.S., the virus hit African Americans disproportionately hard. African Americans are still contracting the illness – and dying from it – at rates twice as high as would be expected based on their share of the population. In Michigan, African Americans are […]

African-Americans

The Black Lives Matter movement’s stand with Palestinians has a history

Asa Winstanley

Middle East Monitor – It is common to think of Black Lives Matter as a single group when it isn’t; it is a movement. Indeed, it is a movement for Black liberation which first erupted in response to police brutality in 2014, following the killing of two African Americans: Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and […]

African-Americans

With a 500-Year History in N. America, Muslim-Americans assert Solidarity with Black Lives Matter

The Conversation

By Amir Hussain | – The killing of George Floyd took place at the doorstep of Muslim America. He was killed in front of Cup Foods, a store owned by an Arab American Muslim, whose teenage employee – also a Muslim – had earlier reported to police that Floyd tried to use a counterfeit $20 […]

African-Americans

Can Making Black Lives Matter Rescue a Failing State?

Rebecca Gordon

By Rebecca Gordon | – ( Tomdispatch) – You know that feeling when you trip on the street and instantly sense that you’re about to crash hard and there’s no way to prevent it? As gravity has its way with you, all you can do is watch yourself going down. Yeah, that feeling. I had […]

Christianity

Tear them down? “White Jesus” statues have an Unsavory History in Aryan Racial Theory that also Influenced Nazi Theology

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Emily McFarlan at the Religion News Service explores the controversy over depictions of Jesus as white in American statues. She notes that Brooklyn activist and podcaster Shaun King wrote that “Yes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down. They are a […]

African-Americans

The George Floyd protests aren’t just anti-racist – they are anti-authoritarian

The Conversation

By Lilian Bobea | — The massive protests that erupted across the United States – and beyond – after the police killing of George Floyd are billed as anti-racist mobilizations, and that they are. Demonstrators are denouncing police violence in minority communities and demanding that officers who abuse their power be held accountable. But I […]

Employment

To address Systemic Racism, we Must Focus on the Economy

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Hate crimes are still too prevalent, but there is a widespread consensus behind efforts to root them out. More recently the concept of systemic racism has come to the fore. Though definitions have not been universally accepted, I take it to mean any set of widely held […]