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Clint Smith
@ClintSmithIII
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
2019 marks the 400th year since enslaved Africans were brought here, before this was even a country. Black people have only had any semblance of full citizenship for about 50 yrs. I don't think the public always grasps the enormity of state-sanctioned oppression on that timeline.
If you kick someone for 350 years, and then stop kicking them (but really just kick them in a different way) for a *seventh* of the amount of time you spent kicking them, it would be completely disingenuous to look at the person and be like, "What's wrong with you? Just get up."
I just think it's worth reflecting on the incessant, intergenerational violence that black folks in this country have experienced, and the sheer amount of time they've experienced it for. All things considered, it's remarkable what our community has done in spite of this history.
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Clint Smith
@ClintSmithIII
I’ve spent the past year interviewing black ppl who were sentenced to life w/o parole when they were children, as young as 13, many for crimes they didn’t commit.

I don’t want to belabor the Covington thing, but it’s distressing to see who public empathy is & is not extended to.
What’s come up in every conversation is that they felt like ppl in the system didn’t care & didn’t even see them as children. There’s extensive research on the adultification of black youth, but it’s been quite another thing to see it result in a child sentenced to life in a cage
Anyway, this is for my dissertation, which I should be writing instead of tweeting. Time to get back at it.
Read 3 tweets
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Clint Smith
@ClintSmithIII
As part of the deal that's been reached, each school in LA will now have a nurse, which is great. It's also a shame that it took this strike to achieve such a basic need. As teachers have pointed out, it reflects what some people think black & brown children do & don't deserve.
I have a difficult time imagining that in an affluent white school, having a single nurse available would ever be something that was up for debate. And yet when it comes to certain children, some think that the most basic services are things to be haggled over.
Grateful to the teachers in LA for fighting so relentlessly for their students.
Read 3 tweets
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Clint Smith
@ClintSmithIII
If you’re doing an MLK day service project, consider bringing a King-level analysis to it. For example, don’t just serve lunch at a soup kitchen, interogate why we allow millions of ppl to live in poverty in the first place.

King’s legacy isn’t about charity, it’s about justice.
I always found the idea of doing a “service project” to honor MLK a bit strange. Service is a good thing, but if you’re going to do it, especially today, push yourself to ask *why* the landscape of inequality exists as it does today. Question the systems & structures & history.
So many grow up thinking Dr. King’s birthday is about painting classrooms & cleaning up trash from the park. But MLK wouldn’t just paint a classroom, he’d ask why schools are underfunded. He wouldn’t just pick up trash, he’d ask why certain communities suffer from more pollution.
Read 3 tweets

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Angus Johnston
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The Obama birther claim was a lie about Obama. The Harris birther claim is a lie about the constitution.
This is a big part of the reason why Chris Cuomo's tweets on the Kamala Harris claims were so wrongheaded—it makes no sense to ask for "proof" of a claim when that claim is grounded in a xenophobic lie about the text of the US Constitution.
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molly 🐶
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charlottesville city council tonight is an all-you-can-comment event! unlimited public comment -- just in time for them to do absolutely nothing about anything anyone says!
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I am so excited about my WHOLE DAY! Y'all have no idea. I will do my best to detail all the goodness, realness, and emotion here.
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Hassan Ahmad ਹਸਨ ਅਹਮਦ
@HMAesq
Here are some real ideas to fix the #immigration system.

1. Get rid of the 3 and 10 year bars and replace with a fine.
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Liz4Trump2020♒️
@Liz4Trump2020
1. I’ve been reading tweets and watching news talk about these 800,000 illegals like they are all saints, paying their own way etc. while the other side says that their is a percentage that might be. Why does immigration have to be all or nothing?
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