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Aug 3, 2024 | 
msn.com | RAS BARAKA
Continue reading More for You Continue reading More for You
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Jun 19, 2024 | 
njspotlightnews.org | RAS BARAKA
People often look away from the homeless because they remind a secret majority of us that we ourselves live in a house of cards. With a reported two-thirds of us struggling paycheck to paycheck without a safety net, the homeless are living proof of our vulnerability on life’s slippery slope. They represent an all-too-possible cascade of misfortune that could ultimately leave us groundless and traumatized. But here in Newark, we don’t look away. We understand.
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Jun 19, 2024 | 
mosaic.nj.com | RAS BARAKA
A ruling out of a federal appeals court in Atlanta a few weeks ago is proof that systematic racism and forced inequity is not only alive in this country but thriving since the Supreme Court knocked down affirmative action in university admissions last year. In Atlanta, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a privately financed program called The Fearless Fund that awarded seed money for small businesses run by women of color was discriminatory.
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Apr 24, 2024 | 
mosaic.nj.com | RAS BARAKA
Since I learned about the passing of Congressman Donald Payne Jr. I have been thinking heavily about the passing of my father and his father, Congressman Donald Payne Sr., and the vulnerability of our lives. The deaths of family members, friends and other contemporaries always cause us to reflect on our own mortality; how little time we have, and how the circles of people we love are so precious, no matter how small.
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Apr 3, 2024 | 
mosaic.nj.com | RAS BARAKA
I’ve read recently that some people think New Jersey is already too densely populated, congested and overbuilt, and therefore has no room to build much-needed affordable housing. Affordable housing should no longer carry the stigma of being for only poor and low-income families.
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Feb 26, 2024 | 
harpers.org | RAS BARAKA |Rosa Brooks |Barry Friedman |Christy Lopez
In May 2020, the Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd sparked the largest wave of civil unrest in U.S. history. An estimated twenty-three million people took to the streets, calling for the reformation, defunding, disarming, or even abolition of police departments.
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Jan 15, 2024 | 
mosaic.nj.com | RAS BARAKA
An overlooked part of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy was launched in Newark when he unveiled plans for his Poor People’s Campaign during a news conference at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Clinton Hill on March 27, 1968.
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Jan 9, 2024 | 
mosaic.nj.com | RAS BARAKA
“Newark Forward.”Those two words sum up my administration’s vision as we march into the future. In 2024, we plan to accelerate Newark’s transformation and fulfill its promise, potential and history as a great American city leading the way in addressing today’s most pressing issues that cities face. Simply put, we have big plans with big goals, all built on the foundation of our “Newark Forward” guiding principles.
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Dec 17, 2023 | 
mosaic.nj.com | RAS BARAKA
Across from Newark Penn Station, in the heart of our city, a mixed-use, mixed-income residential tower is under construction thanks to investors like NBA legend, entrepreneur and Newark native Shaquille O’Neal. The building will provide 370 affordable apartments to the community, making it the largest mixed-income project in New Jersey. A few miles away, an innovative village of dwellings made out of shipping containers is home to individuals who previously experienced homelessness.
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Nov 20, 2023 | 
mosaic.nj.com | RAS BARAKA
Twenty years ago, my sister, Shani Baraka, was murdered, and we are still dealing with this, even as I write these words. Shani was my younger sister. She was a fighter, courageous, and an athlete. A better one than I was for sure. When I was a kid playing Little League, I’d go out to a game and my mother would say, “Take Shani with you.”My oldest brother taught her to play basketball and she excelled at that, too. She was a community person, a consummate Newark girl. That’s the way we were raised.
