Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered the removal of two statues of Christopher Columbus after police and protesters clashed last week. The confrontation at the navigator’s monument in Grant Park resulted in injuries to both officers and demonstrators. According to NBC News, Chicago Police Department officials confirmed that the gathering […]
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Slavery and Trafficking
On Juneteenth: That Time Muslim Tunisia Pleaded with Antebellum US to Abolish Slavery
Ann Arbor| (Informed Comment) | – – Back in 2017, then Trump chief of staff John Kelly created a controversy with an argument from historical relativism, defending the honoring of Confederate figures. I addressed his glib argument, and reprise it here in honor of Juneteenth. Juneteenth.com explains the origins of today’s commemoration of the end […]
Top 5 Reasons We must, despite Trump, change the name of Fort Bragg, since Braxton Bragg was a horrible Human Being
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Responding to the Black Lives Matter protests that have sent people to the streets since the killing of George Floyd, the US military was on the verge of changing the names of the US military bases named for Confederate generals when the odious Trump intervened to stop it. African-Americans make […]
Dear John Kelly: Yes, Slavery was wrong in 1860s & Muslims helped Convince Americans to end It
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – John Kelly’s ignorant remarks about the Civil War and compromise on Laura Ingraham’s show have rightly angered a lot of people. One of the arguments he made was for historical relativism: ““I think we make a mistake, though, and as a society and certainly as, as […]
That Time when Muslim Tunisia advised the Antebellum US to Abolish Slavery
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Revised classroom version Some observers imply that in 1861, most people in the world believed in slavery and so you can’t blame the American South for retaining it. This premise is not true. For one thing, a majority of American states had abolished slavery. Ohio did […]
What to do with Confederate statues?
James Glaser | (The Conversation) | – – Could Russia teach us something about how to deal with difficult aspects of our national history? Many places in the South – from New Orleans to Louisville – are in the process of bringing down statues that glorify the Confederacy. That process raises questions about what to […]
Freeing Fayza: A Journey to War-Torn Iraq to Rescue a Yazidi ISIL Slave Girl
By: Brian Glyn Williams and Christopher Natola | (Informed Comment) | – – It began with an electrifying text message from a Yazidi member of a network dedicated to freeing Yazidis (an ancient people from Northern Iraq who adhere to a faith rooted in old Iranian religion and influenced by Sufi mysticism). The message was […]
Demand-Side Slavery, Libyan Instability and European Crime Networks
Neil Thompson | (Informed Comment) | – – After several years in which refugees and migration have featured heavily in the Western media narrative, a disturbing correlation between human trafficking and conflict zones is well established. But new studies indicate that conflicts do not just cause human trafficking as refugees seek to flee warzones; wars […]
Alabama Passes Bill to Protect Confederate Monuments even at cost of Economy
TeleSur | – – Some Southern cities are rethinking the appropriateness of keeping such emblems on public property. Not Alabama. Alabama lawmakers on Friday approved a bill that prohibits the removal of Confederate monuments and other long-standing historical markers. The bill, passed in both the House and Senate, prohibits “the relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, or […]
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