racism

KKK without the Robes: DeSantis has gutted Florida Education, Cancelled Black History and Criminalized LGBTQ+ People

Informed Comment is introducing guest Feature posts occasionally, as Editor-in-Chief Juan Cole steps back from his unprecedented and grueling routine of writing a blog essay every day for nearly 21 years. Never fear, he will still write features several times a week. But some submissions from IC stalwarts deserve to be featured, and Dan Dinello’s […]

African-Americans

Is the new AP African American Studies course Dangerous? Students don’t think so

Oregon Capital Chronicle

Naseem Rakha Maurice Cowley is teaching college-level African American Studies at McDaniel High School. ( Oregon Capital Chronicle ) – Three days after the nation honored Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership in the Civil Rights Movement, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education announced that no Florida public high school would be […]

African-Americans

Faustian Bargain: On pretext of Israel, Republicans oust Ilhan Omar from Committee to please White Nationalist Base

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – Congressional Republicans are more interested in grandstanding than governance, and political persecution rather than functional democracy. The banishment of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from her assignment on the Foreign Affairs Committee by Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) illustrates how Republican candidates and office holders try to outdo each other with […]

African-Americans

McCarthy’s Vendetta against Rep. Ilhan Omar Recalls Congress’s Refusal to seat first African-American Elected to House in 1869

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is making an attempt to keep Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from taking her seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Omar is the only African Muslim woman in the House, and it is hard not to conclude that she is being targeted on racial and […]

Donald Trump

Is Israel’s Netanyahu even worse than Trump?

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – The parallel trajectories of far-far right politicians accruing more power in the US and Israel is striking. Elements include similar motivations, policy actors, agenda and attempts to subvert democracy. But the dynamics differ with the roles of the two nations’ judicial systems. Far-far right wingers in Israel feel […]

African-Americans

On MLK Day, Let’s Learn the Right Lessons from History

OtherWords

By Svante Myrick | – ( Otherwords.org) Every year, the arrival of the Martin Luther King holiday calls us to pause and reflect on Dr. King’s legacy. And every year, I’m struck by the same thing: as sincere as we are in our reverence for Dr. King, we keep learning the wrong lessons not just […]

African-Americans

J. Edgar Hoover was the QAnon of his Era, and Martin Luther King Jr. was the Victim of his Dirty Tricks

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ours is an age beset by conspiracy theories, with the fascist QAnon cult at the center of much public lunacy. These completely implausible ideas, apparently taken seriously by millions of people, have been enabled by the internet, by social media, and by the rise of a new, militant billionaire class […]

racism

How the Right-Wing Distortion of Martin Luther King Jr.‘s words enables more, not less, racial Division within American society

The Conversation

Hajar Yazdiha, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences | – U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is just the latest conservative lawmaker to misuse the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to judge a person on character and not race. In the protracted battle to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker […]

African-Americans

America’s Racial Wealth Divide

Inequality.org

( Inequality.org ) – By the middle of the 21st century, the United States will be a “majority minority” nation. If we hope to ensure a strong middle class, historically the backbone of the national economy, then improving the financial health of households of color will become even more urgent than it is today. Closing the […]