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David A. Love

Professor, Journalist and Commentator

ContrabandCamp •

We’re Not Going Back to the Way Things Were. Black America Needs a Vision for the Future

Speaking at Howard University’s Opening Convocation on Sept. 19, Sherrilyn Ifill, the Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard Law School, implored new students to remake democracy and give birth to a new America. “We can choose to focus on the passing away of the world we have known, or we can get to work on the new world that will come quickly in its wake,” said Ifill, also the founding director of the 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy. “Our faith and our b...
ContrabandCamp •

Capitulating to Trump Will Not Save You. History Has Taught Us How to Fight Back

Despite all the evidence around us, people haven’t learned that bowing down to the American dictator named Trump will not protect them. In the latest example, the tech giant Google is paying Trump $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit Trump filed after the digital platform suspended him following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. It is reported that $22 million will go towards the construction of a new White House ballroom. No one plans that much home renovation unless they plan on sticking ar...
ContrabandCamp •

Black Migrants Brace for Intensified ICE Raids and Mass Deportations Under Trump

When the Trump administration announced it was terminating the temporary protective status of the more than 500,000 Haitian migrants as early as Sept. 2, it was a reminder that ICE raids have everything to do with Black people, both migrants and citizens. While a federal judge blocked Trump’s order—which would have prematurel…

When the Trump administration announced it was terminating the temporary protective status of the more than 500,000 Haitian migrants as early as Sept. 2, it was a reminde...
ContrabandCamp •

How the Growth of AI is Endangering the Health of Black People

A battle is brewing across the country involving AI technology, the environment and the health and well-being of Black people. As demand for AI technology grows, tech companies are building large data centers to power and operate their AI products. And these data centers — powered primarily by fossil fuels that pollute the environment with toxic chemicals — are being built disproportionately in Black neighborhoods with long histories of health problems stemming from environmental racism.
ContrabandCamp •

5 Years After George Floyd: Will We Ever Get True Police Reform?

Trump is making good on his promise to sic the police on Black America and allow the paddy rollers to run roughshod over us. Trump’s recent executive order on law enforcement brings clarity to policing’s role in a white supremacist fascist regime. Long story short: Trump will allow police to brutalize us with no accountability, provide legal pro bono representation to cops who brutalize, prosecute state and local officials who pursue DEI policies in law enforcement, and unleash the military in t...
ContrabandCamp •

How Trump’s War on the Federal Government Will Stifle Black Progress

As Trump’s MAGA administration proceeds with the mass firing of thousands of government workers — a federal appeals court recently paved the way for Trump to fire roughly 25,000 probationary employees — what is missing from the discussion is that this war on the government is a war on Black progress. After all, government jobs built the Black middle class.The federal government is the nation’s largest employer, with around three million workers. Black people are nearly 14% of the U.S. population...
ContrabandCamp •

Trump Is Already Trying to Undermine the 2026 Elections

Trump is signing these executive orders as fast as the Christofascists at Project 2025 can draft them in White Jesus’ name. And this latest executive order on elections is some Jim Crow shit on steroids, all designed to keep the dictator and his party in power in 2026 and beyond. We would expect nothing less from those who are heavily and messily engaged in the Devil’s work.The order, which Trump signed on March 25, claims to “protect the integrity of American elections.” When MAGA Republicans p...
ContrabandCamp •

The ICE Arrest of Mahmoud Khalil Is the First Step in Dismantling Free Speech in America

Mahmoud Khalil was snatched up by the feds. And we should all be concerned about this because we are next.A Palestinian man who was one of the leaders of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University last year, Khalil was illegally abducted by ICE agents and sent to an immigration facility in Louisiana. A recent graduate of Columbia University with a master’s degree from the School of International and Public Affairs, Khalil is a permanent U.S. resident whose pregnant wife is a U.S. citize...
ContrabandCamp •

Sankofa: How the History of Black Liberation Movements Prepares Us for This Moment

Sankofa is a term packed with a lot of meaning, and it means a great deal for Black people today as these MAGA folks are working in earnest to erase us — from history, society, politics, civic life, the economy and all aspects of America. But we have been here before. A Twi word from the Akan people of Ghana, Sankofa means “go back and get it,” or as my Gullah-Geechee folks would say, “Go bak and fetch it.” Aterall, like the proverb says, if oonuh ent kno weh oonuh dah gwine, oonuh should kno we...
TheGrio •

10 years after the killing of Mike Brown, the police still need defunding

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Ten years after Ferguson, and the police are still here. Little has changed, and policing still isn’t working out very well for us.It is hard to believe that a full decade has passed since the police killed Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the uprisings and protests that grew out of that. On Aug. 9, 2014, police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed the unarmed 18-y...
TheGrio •

An election guide to misogynoir and negative media stereotypes about Black women

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
The Republicans simply cannot help themselves. With Vice President Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Trump and the GOP are tapping into their reservoir of hatred for Black people and relying on misogynoir and negative media stereotypes of Black women as an election strategy. This is all they have left.


With Biden leaving the race only...
TheGrio •

A study says Black people believe ‘racial conspiracy theories.’ Given this country’s history, can you blame us?

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
It is both possible that Black people believe in conspiracy theories, and that Black people have centuries of firsthand experience with real-life conspiracies waged against them. But in the end, can we really call them conspiracy theories when the receipts for actual conspiracies are plentiful and readily available?
A study from the Pew Research Center found that majorit...
TheGrio •

Black faces in high places have a responsibility

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Black people, when you make it to the top, do you kick down the ladder or help other people climb up? Are we trying to help everyone or just help me, myself and I? Are we in service to people or an empire that is harming Black folks, Indigenous people and the marginalized? Are we water carriers dousing water on a Big House engulfed in flames? And when we witness injustic...
TheGrio •

Members of the Squad, who face primary challenges because of their stance on Israel, scored their first victory. Here are the other races to watch.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

The members of the Squad — progressive, Democratic Congress members of color — are facing primary challenges because of their position against Israel. Pro-Israel groups such as AIPAC and Republican billionaire donors are pouring tons of money to unseat Black social justice lawmakers who oppose U.S. support for Israeli apartheid and the genocide of Palestinians.

What we
TheGrio •

The latest crisis in Haiti: How did we get here?

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

The Caribbean nation of Haiti is in utter turmoil as the country’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry has announced his resignation this week in the midst of international pressure. This, as most of the capital city of Port-au-Prince is controlled by armed street gangs — actually paramilitary groups — who freed thousands of people from prison and united to consolidate power. Pl
TheGrio •

Let them eat ‘cereal for dinner’ is just another example of America’s hatred of poor people

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

They’ll tell poor, low-income and working people to eat cereal for dinner, and Black people are paying the heaviest price.

In a perfect example of failing to read the room — or even worse, lacking empathy — Gary Pilnick, the CEO of the cereal company Kellogg’s, gave some advice to cash-strapped families struggling to make it and put food on the table: Put down the chic
TheGrio •

Beyoncé is reclaiming country music for Black America

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

Those who believe Black people should not perform or listen to country music need to realize that Black America invented country music in the first place. And Beyoncé is reclaiming the genre and bringing country music back to its Black roots.

The ignorant and racist idea that country music is white property and a white cultural space took center stage this week when an
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