Feature – Today’s Voter Suppression Tactics Have A 150 Year History. Rebels in the post-Civil War South perfected the art of excluding voters, but it was yankees in the North who developed the script.On March 13, 1902, as the Alabama River began to rise, a black middle-aged postal clerk named Jackson Giles tried to convince three white registrars in Montgomery, Alabama to add his name to the rolls. Giles had been voting for years, but under the new constitution passed to “establish white supremacy in this State,” he had to register anew. To exclude voters, the constitutional convention turned to literacy tests, poll taxes, felony exclusions, grandfather clauses, and lengthy residency requirements, but perhaps no single measure did more ruthless work than the requirement to register anew. Gregory Downs / Talkingpointsmemo Read more 

Debunking the most common myths white people tell about race. Robin DiAngelo, author of “White Fragility,” unpacks common excuses white people make about race–and how to address them. NBC News. Watch here

This Creative Mash-Up Clip Of ‘Pulp Fiction’ And The Kavanaugh Hearing Once Again Proves The Internet Is Undefeated. Ashleigh Atwell / Blavity Watch here 

Memo to Kavanaugh’s defenders: Passage of time doesn’t erase youthful mistakes in the criminal justice system, especially for people of color.  When a juvenile, a person under 18 years of age, is arrested and charged with a crime, prosecutors can decide to transfer the youth to an adult court or keep their case in juvenile court. Minority youth are more likely to be transferred to adult courts and are given significantly longer sentences than their white counterparts. Eileen M. Ahlin / The Conversation Read more 
Candidate who could be 1st Native woman in Congress will ‘speak up for the folks who have struggled.’ If you haven’t heard of Deb Haaland, you might just be living under a rock, and we welcome you back to the sunshine. She, alongside Sharice Davids of Kansas, could very well become the first Native American women ever elected to Congress in November. Jessica Sutherland / Daily Kos Read more 

Why It’s Time to Rename the Russell Office Building. Richard Brevard Russell Jr., for whom the Senate’s imposing, Beaux Arts office building was christened in 1972, was an unapologetic segregationist and the chief legislative architect of the South’s bitter opposition to civil rights. Joshua Zeitz / Politico Read more 

The Year The Networks Finally Embraced Diversity. It’s not just one show, it’s not just one network: For the first time in network TV history, shows with actors of color in lead roles outnumber shows with predominantly white casts. Kate Aurthur / BuzzFeed Read more 

Why We Can’t Stop Rooting for Tiger Woods. He’s the most talented golfer ever to play the game. But more than ever he’s showing he’s also a human being. At age 42, Woods is writing a new chapter with himself as the central character in the greatest comeback in the history of sports. But this comeback is bigger than golf. Woods has emerged, in our deeply divided country, as a symbol of unity and admiration. Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian / NYT Read more

The polite way to call someone a racist. I first became aware of this racial doublespeak when I heard someone describe another person not as a racist but as a “racialist.” I’d never heard the word before. I looked it up and it is an actual word in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. It’s a person who believes that “race determines human traits and capacities.” That was my first of many forays into the world of racial doublespeak. John Blake / CNN Read more 

Vermont’s Only Black Female Lawmaker Resigns Amid Racial Harassment. On Aug. 30, Morris spoke to Vermont Public Radio about her decision to not run for re-election. “Beginning at the last election cycle I just started having this uptick of being a really intentional target of a number of different folks that are affiliated with white supremacist groups,” she said. Camila Domonoske / NPR Read more 

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