Columbus Day Is Dying. Indigenous Peoples Day Is the Future.
A statue of Christopher Columbus in Mishawaka, Indiana, defaced during the week of Columbus Day in 2017.Robert Franklin/AP “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”—and in 2019, a growing number of US cities and states are recognizing that the cutesy rhyme we learned in school, and the federal holiday named in the explorer’s honor, belies a dark…
Fort Worth Police Officer Fatally Shoots Black Woman in Her Own Home
RiverNorthPhotography/Getty Images The Fort Worth police department is scrambling to explain how and why an officer shot and killed a woman in her own home over the weekend. Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old black woman, was declared dead early Saturday morning. The police received an “open structure” call around 2:30 a.m. from a neighbor who was concerned…
I’m Racist. You’re Racist. We’re All Racist. Here’s How to Fix It.
Marlena Sloss/Getty Ibram X. Kendi, a black man descended from slaves, raised predominantly in black neighborhoods, and educated at a historically black college, admits he was a racist. It’s not enough to simply be “not racist,” says Kendi, a National Book Award-winning author and professor at American University. To undo the racism that society programs…
The Tea Party Got What It Wanted
A May 29, 2010, rally organized by members of the Arizona Tea Party movement to show support for Arizona law SB1070, which made it a state crime to be in the US illegally and required immigrants to carry papers with them at all times. ZUMA Press/Jack Kurtz A couple weeks ago, the New York Times…
Four Mass Shootings Have Been Thwarted Since the El Paso Massacre, Authorities Say
Mother Jones illustration; Eline van Nes/Zuma; Getty In the two weeks since the gun massacre in El Paso, Texas, federal and local authorities have thwarted four additional threats they said could have resulted in mass attacks. All four of the alleged plotters—in Nevada, Connecticut, Florida, and Ohio—were heavily armed young white men. At least three…
Yes, Trump Tweeted Something Racist This Morning
President Donald Trump on Saturday resumed his promotion of a far right commentator who called for a “final solution” after a terrorist attack in the United Kingdom and blamed Jewish support for immigration for provoking the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue last year. On Saturday morning, Trump twice retweeted British pundit Katie Hopkins, who first gained prominence as…