In October 2023, nearly seven years after the deadly Unite the Right white supremacist rally, the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, was melted down. Since then, two more major Confederate monuments have been removed: the...
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Opinion: Kaine and Warner Are Wrong, Democratic Establishment Ganging Up Against Alexsis and Dawn Is Not Fair
Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner should not be leading the Virginia Democratic Party establishment in trying to block Alexsis Rodgers and Delegate Dawn Adams. The two Democratic lawmakers are openly backing Delegate Lamont Bagby in this Sunday’s firehouse primary. This Democratic Party nomination process will chose the party’s nominee in the...
Op-Ed: Virginia’s Contaminated Army Bases Increase Environmental Risks for Surrounding Communities
Over the past hundred years, the US army's improper use and disposal of toxic chemicals have taken a significant environmental toll with long-lasting consequences for unsuspecting service members and civilians. Primarily due to a lack of awareness regarding long-term risks at the time, countless troops, dependents, and neighboring communities...
You Beto Work 2: A Bumble Love Letter to Beto O’Rourke
Fall calls for late nights and warm blankets, lost in the small glare of the light from my phone. Tired of endlessly swiping right on the same balding white guy named Jeff holding a spotted bass he is entirely too proud of. Tinder? Never. I’m far higher brow than that. Every classy broad knows Bumble is the way to go these days. That way I can...
Op-Ed: River Shitty
Year after year, coal train derailments, sewage pipeline leaks, pesticide runoff, and other toxic substances continue to poison the James River. In a summer that's seen multiple toxic train derailments and a two-week ban on swimming due to multiple sewage pipe breaks, climate activist Aaron Linas asks, when will we start treating our river...
Op-Ed: The Tyranny Of On-Premise Parking
Is there something wrong with the fact that parking lots downtown sit empty as residents circle blocks for 20 minutes looking for somewhere to put their cars? Brock Hall thinks so, and he has a theory about how this problem could be solved here in Richmond. My stepdad was visiting Richmond recently and he invited me out to lunch. Not being...
Op-Ed: Community, Not Politics, Should Drive Our Public Schools Dialogue
In the late summer of 2015, Dyett High School in Chicago, Illinois still had its doors closed. Chicago Public Schools closed Dyett after years of low standardized test scores. With Dyett closed, students from this district in Chicago were to be bussed across town to another school, furthering the issue of overcrowding and removing students...
The World Needs A New Recipe: A Foodie’s Take On International Politics
For Highland Support Project's Ben Blevins, the United States' goals for international relations should begin with decolonizing. And he can explain... starting with potatoes. When I was a child growing up in Richmond's West End, I had the luck of living next door to the world's best maker of potato latkes. Being of Irish descent, I shared...
Op-Ed: Jim Crow Afterlife: The ‘Troubled’ Case of New York Times Celebrity Obituaries
David Dominique writes that the language national newspapers use to describe Black celebrities at the time of their death, far from being trivial, is fueled by the same anti-Blackness we see in the all-too-frequent police killings of Black men. Last week, after the untimely death of DMX at age 50, outpourings of grief and memorials from his...
Op-Ed: Virginia Must Be For The People, Not Corporations
Richard Walker, candidate for the 71st District of Virginia's House of Delegates, writes that Virginia "needs more than incremental change influenced by monopoly utilities and corporate interests." Virginia must be a Commonwealth built on the rights of all people to clean air and water, economic stability, transparency in government -- and one...