But behind each hashtag is a person. This time, his name was Jonathan Price. He was a 31-year-old from Wolfe City, Texas, a small town outside Dallas. He was a “motivational speaker, a mentor to student-athletes in the area, and a frequent participant in community service activities” (Yahoo News). He was beloved by his community. And on October 3rd, he defused a fight he witnessed between a man and a woman at a convenience store. For his intervention, he was killed. To be more precise: on October 3rd, a police officer, a Texas Ranger, murdered an unarmed Jonathan Price as he walked away from the scene (Washington Post).
Historically, interpretations of classical art are based on preconceived notions of anti-blackness when whiteness is seen as the standard.
COINTELPRO targeted Black activists throughout history. How does it impact Black Lives Matter today?
COINTELPRO, a series of covert and illegal initiatives by the FBI, and its impact on Black activism in the 1960s.
But race is a social construct, and social constructs have social histories. Our modern understanding of race was created at a specific historical juncture in colonial Virginia. Prior to that, it did not exist.
Interpreting the Founding Fathers’ wishes is a staple of American political discourse. Constitutional originalism is more of a conservative thing, but really, Founding Father mindreading cuts across the ideological spectrum. The Founding Fathers would have hated partisanship (History) or Trump (Foreign Policy) or gun control (History) or not having gun control (HuffPost). Obama informed us, helpfully, that the Founding Fathers didn’t want presidents to serve three year terms (ABC). The Atlantic told us the Founders would have been especially disgusted by Trump’s pardon of the former owner of the San Francisco 49ers (The Atlantic).
The borders of racial categories are malleable, contested, and change over time. But believing that demographic changes will inevitably cause the racial hierarchy to fade away ignores centuries of evidence to the contrary.
In November 2009, the South African government and U.N. General Assembly declared July 18th Nelson Mandela International Day.
Columbus Day represents the history of colonization and the erasure of Indigenous communities. Learn about the movement to change it.
The prison system tolerates and creates sexual violence against incarcerated people. The pervasive nature of this violence led to legislation like the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
A reflection on the day Ruby Bridges walked to school and role of white protestors to prevent racial integration in education.
