US ‘hostage’ situation won’t end with shutdown

Michael Paul Williams
Columnist
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10 memorable 2024 columns from Michael Paul Williams
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The North won the war but the South won the narrative, to disastrous effect. America’s legacy of slavery and white supremacy has our nation reeling. How can we talk seriously about reconciliation or reparations if we can’t call slavery by its name?
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Monday, the latest MLK holiday, represents new life after the death of Enrichmond. About 70 volunteers showed up on this snowy day of service to clean sidewalks and grave markers and remove broom sedge, wild blackberry bushes and greenbrier overgrowth along the border of the East End and Evergreen cemeteries.
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While Richmond is not exactly like this South Carolina community, Richmond is similar in that it has a wide array of agencies and organizations that can and want to be involved.
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The exploitation of enslaved labor in Virginia cannot be allowed to morph into a commercial interest profiting from a billboard that sits on what should be hallowed ground.
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We live in a city chock-full of adaptive reuses, including of the former Westhampton School building by Bon Secours. Shouldn’t we be as passionate about preserving our our bricks-and-mortar Black history while it’s still above ground?
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It should be self-evident that our criminal justice system needs rebuilding from the ground up. But in a nation where modest police accountability measures get furious pushback, and reform-minded prosecutors are targeted for removal, the fates of folks like Sonya Massey are sealed.
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Journalists have no obligation to disseminate misinformation, Trump’s specialty. NABJ’s stated role is as an advocacy group for Black journalists and media professionals. And Trump’s contempt for Black journalists was on vivid display during his presidency.
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Modern Richmond politics, too often, is defined by two eras: before Black majority rule and after Black majority rule.
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Confronting our changing climate and creating an infrastructure to meet its demands requires the sort of consensus nonexistent in a polarized political environment mired in the culture wars. In a recent survey by Pew Research Center, 6 out of 10 supporters of Democrat Kamala Harris called climate change