American democracy is in retreat. Or as Senator Mark Warner told me last week, “There is a shock and awe component to this, as soon as you mount an opposition to one area, they take a shot somewhere else.” He’s not wrong. The examples are becoming too numerous,...
Harvey Weinstein, the American film producer and former film director has been called “one of the film industry’s most prominent supporters of progressive causes” by the Spectator. Harvey and his brother, Bob Weinstein, cofounded Miramax, an American film company most famous for distributing classic independent films such as Pulp Fiction and...
Undocumented students facing a threat of deportation by the Trump administration are finding support in Virginia Commonwealth University’s student organization PLUMAS, short for Political Latinx United for Movement and Action in Society. The group sat down with VCU President Michael Rao in September to discuss the ways in which beneficiaries of...
“It's time for America to get right.” - Fannie Lou Hamer The civil rights legend Fannie Lou Hamer would be 100 years old today. While other civil rights leaders of the 20th century - like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.- might have been the face of the movement, Hamer was certainly the heart. She was never afraid to speak her mind in the...
On September 20, the Richmond chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) released a statement endorsing Montigue Magruder’s campaign. Magruder is a Green Party candidate for Delegate in the 69th District of Virginia, which encompasses portions of Chesterfield County and Richmond City. He hopes to replace Betsy Carr, a Democrat who has...
Henry Haggard began volunteering with the ACLU after an online fight. Bored on a long summer day, the middle schooler was browsing YouTube, looking for videos to challenge his political views. Instead, he found a group of online bullies who responded to his detailed points with cruelty and name-calling. “They called me autistic,” he tells us when...
Political communications is half art, half science, and half knowing how to exploit the vulnerabilities of your opponent, while not inadvertently exploiting your own in the process. There is a reason why political communications are seemingly so boring and formulaic. It takes a certain kind of person to run for elected politics (not a compliment)...
*This story has been updated as of 9 PM. Days of tension broke on Saturday as the neo-Confederate rally came to a peaceful end. Police have since reported seven arrests; one for disorderly conduct, two related to possession of weapons, and four for wearing masks in public. One woman was detained by police during a spirited verbal debate, and the...
The Justice Department announced recently that it is going to end the Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that allowed undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to remain in the country if they fulfilled certain requirements. Recipients of DACA, often called DREAMers, are young people who were...
Richmond is on edge due to the imminent arrival of an out-of-state pro-Confederate group rallying in support of the Lee statue on Monument Avenue this Saturday. Local clergy and church groups, along with the Richmond Peace Education Center, describe the effort as white supremacist and are organizing a march for racial equality in support....
