Black Lives Matter

Samuel L. Jackson, Jeffrey Wright, and David Oyelowo have all portrayed civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., whose Atlanta sit-ins, Montgomery bus boycotts, and peaceful protests desegregated the nation. When Kelvin Harrison Jr. was first offered the role, he was overwhelmed by the weight of the historical figure and turned it down.  “I still was a little bit scared and unsure if that was something that I needed to be participating in,” Harrison tells Rolling Stone. “I didn’t really see what I could offer…

The month of February is a time to remember and reflect on the history of the Black experience in the United States. However you prefer to honor this legacy, from educational events to festive celebrations, concerts, performances and parties, there’s no shortage of ways to do Black History Month around the Bay. Black History Month at MoAD: Throughout February, Museum of the African Disapora, 685 Mission St., San Francisco. MoAD will honor Black History Month with a full month of programs and events celebrating Black…

In the spring of 2022, Ibram X. Kendi was recognized as one of the most banned authors in America. The National Book Award winner’s passionate reporting on the permeation of racist ideas throughout American history riled up conservative proponents, leading to three of Kendi’s tomes being banned in six school districts across multiple states. Now, his efforts to expose racist ideology is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, Stamped From the Beginning.  Stamped From the Beginning, based on Kendi’s 2016 book of…

New details have emerged regarding the police killing of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán (a.k.a. Tortuguita). The 26-year-old environmental activist was shot to death by law enforcement in Atlanta, Georgia on January 18, amid ongoing protests against the construction of a massive cop training facility. Previously, publicly available specifics on the circumstances of Paez Terán’s death beyond police claims have been scarce. But an official autopsy report from the county now offers more information.Gillian Jacobs Reacting to Her…

Woke Alerts criticize different companies and organizations for adhering to climate pledges and sustainable actions, promoting diversity, or featuring LGBTQ+ stances. Image: Wachiwit (Shutterstock)Nothing gets the conservatives riled up quite like companies promoting progressive values. As a result, a conservative nonprofit named Consumers’ Research is providing “Woke Alerts” to notify you when your favorite company goes too woke.2,807 Lego Pieces Later…We Have The Mighty Bowser™ | io9 BuildsConsumers’ Research currently…

Those of you who who sit up at night fretting about how American financial institutions are getting too damn woke, don’t worry: Your champion has arrived, and he’s gunning for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. On Tuesday, investor Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been called the “The CEO of Anti-Woke, Inc.” by The New Yorker, went on Tucker Carlson Tonight to announce that he will be running for president in 2024.If you haven’t heard of Ramaswamy before now, chances are you haven’t been watching Fox News when they cover…

Hollywood actor John Boyega has been vocal about the issue of systematic racism instilled in showbiz very passionately, so much so that at one point, he feared he would lose his career in Hollywood for backing the Black Lives Matter movement. Out of the turbulent times, the actor is happy that the industry is not shunning away the issue, and working on rectifying the mistakes. Previously, Boyega has shared his experiences of being targeted by racists after he was cast in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). He has even…

Police force protestors from the business district into nearby neighborhoods on August 11, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri following the killing of Michael Brown at the hands of police.Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)Elon Musk tweeted a defense of the police officer who shot 18-year-old Michael Brown—an unarmed Black man in Ferguson, Missouri back in 2014—early Wednesday before deleting the incendiary post. Musk said the police officer was “exonerated” and that the narrative around the shooting was a “fiction.”Musk’s tweet…

Photo: University of Southern California (Getty Images)Training police with virtual reality has become all the rage here in the 2020s, giving cops an “immersive” experience without actually having to fire their weapon. But, believe it or not, police were trying simulated firearms training long before VR was a thing. And it was all happening with old fashioned movie film.On February 10, 1958 a photographer from the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper was invited to shoot photos of L.A. police officers taking aim at a film…

“One morning Anders, a white man, woke up to find he had turned a deep and undeniable brown” — Mohsin Hamid’s novel opens with a Kafkaesque overture, where a white man transforms, not into a giant bug as in Metamorphoses, but to a deep brown. Like Kafka’s giant bug that is the new Gregor Samsa, the first thoughts of Anders (literally man/-ly) include not great panic, but, after a passing murderous rage, he works through the problem of going to work — he calls in sick.As is quite typical of Hamid, this short novel too…