Over the past several years there has been a number of American history books that have taken up the task of providing the reading public with a grand narrative of who and what we are as Americans.
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There is a specter haunting the democracies of the 21st century – the specter of a democracy worthy of the name.
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In 1997, I joined the production team of Charlie Rose’s popular interview show. I was the only black journalist on staff. At the time, there was little to no recognition of what it meant to be black and female in a workplace dominated by white men. Twenty years later, in this watershed moment of examination and reckoning as one powerful white man after another is disgraced following allegations of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to assault, we’re still not talking about the ramifications for black women—or the broader connection to structural racism in America.
Read MoreDonald Trump’s unceasing media travesty brings to mind studies of societal collapse from Arnold Toynbee’s A Study of History [he looked at 26 civilizations] through to Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed and Ronald Wright’s book A Short History of Progress, which Quebec filmmaker Mathieu Roy and I adapted into the theatrical documentary Surviving Progress. Each of them identify as a primary cause of collapse – Wright calls them “progress traps” - the disastrous leadership of elites. They are shown to misgovern through ignorance, self–serving belief systems, and their growing insulation from the interests of the larger society.
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“What are you?” a member of the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston asked at the trial of the white man who killed eight of her fellow black parishioners and their pastor. “What kind of subhuman miscreant could commit such evil?... What happened to you, Dylann?”
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As we observe Veterans Day on Friday, November 10th, let's pray for the safety of the almost 200,000 U.S. troops who are currently deployed overseas in 177 countries and for the countless veterans and civilians right here on our soil who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
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Every day in America, approximately 91 people die of an opioid overdose. According to the Centers for Disease Control, from 2000 to 2015, more than half a million Americans died of drug overdoses, and opioids account for most of those deaths. This epidemic is so serious that President Trump declared it a national emergency on August 10, 2017. This epidemic could be impacting your family members or friends.
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All our love goes out from Tribes to the people of Puerto Rico. Our friends at La Lucha Gallery suggest two ways to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria:
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We at Tribes stand, kneel, and lock arms in solidarity with all members of the NFL who are exercising their right to free speech and protesting police brutality, violence against African Americans, and the recent words of Donald Trump.
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Having guided America through the assassination of an American President, Roosevelt was a belligerent presence and a powerful leader on the world stage fighting for the American Way of Life. Not everybody liked the first Roosevelt though. Unusual in appearance, there are still unflattering cartoons of him, like the one on the cover, that remain to this day.
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Here's who we voted for - who did you vote for?
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NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro asks Marlon James about racism and being a black man in Minnesota. James's essay on the subject, "Smaller, and Smaller, and Smaller," has been widely shared.
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PEN America's take on today's most pressing threats to free expression
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The world is in shock over the United States election. Tensions remain high over the election of non-establishment GOP candidate Donald Trump against traditional democrat, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Read MoreSay, U are into modes – in your solitude – the A train – Coltrane – The F train – The D – straight to Queens – traveling undersound of Jazz – Like, Jazz me, Jazz me baby, all night long!
Read MoreThe Trump campaign is a current example of emoting power. The strategy was practiced by many before, the most recent example being Berlusconi.
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Oh, were Mark Lombardi alive today! Two stories broke last week—one by Bloomberg on how a right-wing Colombian hacker who, in league with a Miami-based political “consultant,” worked to throw elections to conservative politicians throughout Latin America.
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