More praise for Dunikoski’s subversive strategy in Brunswick, this time as a model for American politics. But there were two more women who also put race front and center in a Southern courtroom and won last week — their case no less high profile. nytimes.com/2021/11/30/bri…
Robbie Kaplan and Karen Dunn’s $25 million civil victory in Charlottesville came exactly because — not in spite of — an approach that showed jurors the blatant racism that led to tragedy in 2017 and then asked them to reject it. That also worked, but somehow got less attention.
Perhaps there’s another lesson here. As someone who has covered race and politics for decades, I’ll offer a different takeaway that is also worth discussion:
In order to confront and defeat racism, it takes White people with skin in the game to lead the charge.
Privilege is the luxury of being able to choose to “ignore race” to make to people who share your lived experience more comfortable or open to your argument. That strategy worked in Brunswick; it’s less clear that it would work for a Black lawyer, let alone a Black activist.
A reminder: Black people in America do not and have not ever had the option to be colorblind — only the hope that occasionally, enough of their fellow citizens are, so that we may all treated equally under the law, whether it’s by police, our employer, a bank, our landlord, etc.
Who is fighting is often as important as how. That is the other lesson of last week as our country continues to grapple with issues including how to confront inequality, voter suppression, the history we teach our children.

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More from @emarvelous

4 Jul
Last summer as I watched protesters in the streets of Philadelphia, I was reminded that the American Revolution is an ongoing enterprise, that we are still doing the work of expanding our democracy, and that who gets to do that work expands with every generation.
I wanted to respond to our national reckoning in a way that felt meaningful to me as a Black woman, an American and a recent Philadelphian — identities in which I take a lot of pride and that also each come with responsibility.
Living here, I walk on the same cobblestones as Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and see the inequality that existed before the pandemic in the poorest big city in America. Philadelphia is a city that holds both truths, that our democracy and our disparities happened by design.
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4 May
I came to @19thnews because I wanted stories about race and gender in our politics to be THE story, not A story. Here, half the population and the electorate will never be covered as a special interest group. Our work tells a more accurate and inclusive story of America.
This journalism does not happen without your support. I could not be more grateful for every tweet, shoutout, Facebook share, and newsletter signup from people across the country affirming our newsroom's mission and vision. We are on a journey together to tell our stories.
For everyone who has already donated to @19thnews, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.
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7 Mar
On the 56th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, President Joe Biden is expected to announce a new executive order with several measures aimed at expanding the American electorate.
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17 Feb
Now I'm keeping an eye on the House subcommittee hearing on HR40, the proposed legislation that would create a commission to study reparations for Black Americans. You can watch along with me here:
The bill was first proposed decades ago, but the issue gained momentum during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Then, the crowded field was split on what and whether Black Americans living today and impacted by the legacy of slavery are owed from the federal government.
A hearing was held in the summer of 2019 as the country marked the 400th anniversary of enslaved people being forcibly brought to America. Then Maj Ldr McConnell said he didn't support the bill; Min Ldr Chuck Schumer said he did. Their roles in the Senate have since reversed.
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18 Aug 20
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the #19thAmendment, for which our newsroom is proudly named — but with an asterisk. This is intentional, because the omission and erasure of black women from the suffrage movement was intentional.
In honoring this landmark legislation with our name, we above all honor those who it denied. This tiny but powerful symbol is a daily reminder for us as a newsroom that the work remains unfinished, and that it is our mission to make this democracy more inclusive. Image
We are centering the marginalized. This includes not only the majority of the electorate, but folks regardless of gender or geography. @19thnews is a place where you will be seen, and where we are committed to making journalism that reaches you, no matter where you are.
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16 Aug 20
We at @19thnews look forward to marking the centennial of the ratification of the #19thAmendment, for which our newsroom is named -- but with an asterisk in recognition that white women were the main beneficiaries of this milestone, at the expense of women of color.
It is important to us @19thnews to tell the truth about the suffrage movement, and to acknowledge the Black women who had to fight twice as hard for their access to the ballot, which they would not win until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, nearly four decades later.
Among my heroes are American patriots like Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, Anna Julia Cooper, Frances E.W. Harper and so many Black women history has attempted to erase for their contributions as suffragettes. No more ... Let us all honor them now.
Read 7 tweets

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