World War II was a period of enormous mobilization in U.S. society that brought together tens of millions of “war workers” — soldiers and laborers in war-essential industries, spanning the globe. While mainstream mythologies persist of the World War II years as a period of “consensus,” Black Americans fought in a Jim Crow military while Japanese Americans were interned by the U.S. government.
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More than 70 years after the kidnapping, torture and lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi, a major new photography exhibit and companion book ask how the world would be different “If Emmett Till Lived.” The Black teenager’s brutal murder, as well as his open-casket funeral that displayed his mutilated body, shocked the United States in 1955 and became a galvanizing moment in the…
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In recent months, President Donald Trump’s blockade against Cuba has generated blackouts and hunger, stretching society to its breaking point. Exploiting the crisis, Cuban American reactionaries across Florida are pressing for regime change. Decked in MAGA swag, they frequently gather along the palm tree-lined streets of Miami to excoriate socialism, promote escalation, and sport signs declaring…
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The United States turned 250 this year, and the document officiating its birth, the Declaration of Independence, is famous for its opening lines proclaiming the nation’s freedom from England and the rights of men. But Rebecca Nagle, a journalist and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, frames the document differently, describing it as a list of grievances growing in ascending order, where Native people…
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When the America 250 Civics Education Coalition launched last fall, it brought the U.S. Department of Education into partnership with several right-wing organizations with the aim of “renewing patriotism, strengthening knowledge and advancing a shared understanding of America’s founding principles in schools across the nation.” Primary sponsors of the coalition include the America First Policy…
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It seemed on brand for our meme-obsessed President that the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury with an epic video mashup. While Trump never bothered to articulate a real justification for waging war on Iran, he gestured toward a righteous mission with a montage of dramatic violent scenes, featuring heroic and antiheroic characters from Braveheart to Walter White of “Breaking Bad…
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