Race Inquiry Digest (September 21) – Important Current Stories On Race In America

Featured – How America can respond to the ‘whitelash.’ It’s time to reckon with our shared racial history, and plot a path forward. Deeply disturbed by the violent racial unrest in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, Tom Perriello, a former congressman and State Department diplomat, recently called for a statewide Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This is an idea whose time has come, not just for Virginia but the entire nation. Read more 

He allegedly murdered 2 black men. Police found an Adolf Hitler speech in his home. “It appears to be cold, calculated, planned [against] people who were unarmed and defenseless,” Moore told the AP. Read more 

Here’s Why St. Louis Is Exploding. It doesn’t start or end with the acquittal of Jason Stockley. Stockley’s acquittal may have been the match that lit the fuse in St. Louis, but the protests were the result of anger at a history of indignities suffered by black communities over generations. Read more 

The Making and the Breaking of the Legend of Robert E. Lee. Born in 1807, Lee was a product of the Virginia gentry. But, of course, what interests people who debate Lee today is his connection with slavery and his views about race. Read more 

Myanmar Follows Global Pattern in How Ethnic Cleansing Begins. During times of political upheaval, when national identity comes under pressure and different groups compete for claims to self-determination, asserting self determination or “sovereignty” can provide an impetus for mass violence and even genocide against those deemed to be outsiders. Read more 

The Lingering Damage of Ferguson’s Racism. Ferguson agreed to a consent decree requiring it to root out the racist and unconstitutional practices that Justice officials documented in a hair-raising report two years ago. Read more 

We still have time to repent for American racism. This is the season during which Jews make tshuvah. Tshuvah isn’t just about saying sorry; it’s really about healing wrongs, to whatever extent that might be possible. We have never done the work of tshuvah as a country, and so we continue to find opportunities to commit the same sins, again and again and again. Read more 

Watch: Undercover With the Alt-Right. Last September, Patrik Hermansson, a 25-year-old graduate student from Sweden, went undercover in the world of the extreme right. Read more 

White people are really confident that things are getting better for black people. Most delusional are wealthy whites, the only group that was overly optimistic about racial economic equality even before the civil rights movement, according to the study. Read more 

The first white president’ is a ‘bad dude.’ After years of an expansive view of America and what it means to be American, the president of the US is determined to carry the water for those who believe this nation is a white nation for white people. What Coates has done is shine a light on all of it. Read more 

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