Free Republic

Despite spending more per pupil than all but two large school districts in America, at least half a dozen government schools in Baltimore were unable to produce one single student who was proficient in either English or math last year. The shocking results, uncovered by Project Baltimore, show a monumental tragedy unfolding in the city that represents a microcosm of the damage being inflicted on children across America. The proficiency tests put students in five categories, with four and five considered proficient, and one through three considered not proficient.

On Thursday, Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) officially became the sixth candidate — and second Republican — to announce his candidacy for California’s 2018 Democrat-heavy gubernatorial race. Allen accompanied his surprise announcement with an a video ad titled, “Take Back California“: “I’ve seen our taxes increased to be among the highest in the nation, I’ve seen crime increase in every major metropolitan area, and I’ve seen an expansion of the government bureaucracy at the expense of hard-working Californians and their businesses,” Allen saays in the ad. “I am running for Governor to make California once again the greatest state in...

He’s earned 23 Olympic gold medals for the American swim team over his career, but can this all-American record-breaking athlete outswim a great white shark? We’ll find out when man races beast as soon as “Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs Great White” debuts on the Discovery Channel on July 23 for their annual “Shark Week” programming event. Phelps "has one competition left to win," according to the Discovery Channel. "An event so monumental no one has ever attempted it before. The world’s most decorated athlete takes on the ocean’s most efficient predator: Phelps V Shark – the race...

Allegations that a middle school teacher forced several students to stand and apologize for their “white privilege” have rocked a North Carolina school district. First reported by American Lens, during a meeting of the Rockingham County School Board last month, a woman named Farren Wilkinson made the troubling accusations against a teacher from Western Rockingham Middle School.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, a juror in the Bill Cosby sexual assault case said that after dozens of hours of grueling deliberations in a tiny room, 10 of the 12 jurors agreed he was guilty on two counts. On a third count, only one of the jurors believed he was guilty.

“If you’re white, you’re probably racist,” an editor for the University of Alabama’s student newspaper told her classmates in a recent op-ed. Writing last week for The Crimson White, Opinions Editor Marissa Cornelius begins by listing various “internalized racist beliefs” she considers common to white students, such as “being scared of the Walmart on Skyland Boulevard” or being surprised that a black classmate is “articulate.”

Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old American student imprisoned by North Korea for over a year for attempting to steal a propaganda poster, has died after coming home to Ohio last week. He showed signs of severe brain damage though North Korean officials claimed he had contracted botulism during his imprisonment. His original sentence was 15 years of hard labor but he was released early due to his health. From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

At 69 years old, I doubt my father remembers the conversation we had the afternoon of my high school graduation, but I think about it every Father’s Day.

As the Reverend William Barber appeared as a guest on Saturday's AM Joy on MSNBC to give his religion-based views on current events, host Joy Reid at one point seemed to worry about not being able to talk more about Republican Rep. Steve Scalise's conservative views and his history on "race," as she recalled the discredited story that the congressman spoke to a white nationalist event 15 years ago. The Reverend Barber declared that he hopes that Scalise stops being "homophobic," and that Republicans -- presumably including Scalise -- stop "preying" on "the poor and on minorities and the sick,"...

A noose was reportedly found hanging outside the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Saturday, the third similar incident in recent weeks. U.S. Park Police Sgt. Anna Rose told the Associated Press that her agency is investigating the incident. A noose was found last month in the lobby of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and another one outside the Hirshhorn Museum. The three museums are located on the National Mall. The NCAAP condemned the noose found in the African American history museum and called on President Trump to speak out about the incident. ...

The delicate issue of race has percolated beneath the surface of the Bill Cosby jury selection process, present but unspoken, ever since 100 citizens filed into a grand old downtown courthouse here early Monday morning. It was impossible to miss that nearly half the black potential jurors settled into the same row together at the back of a large courtroom where the pool first met. Once individual questioning began, prosecutors used their first of seven possible strikes to block a black juror from being seated. But on Tuesday, the issue of race was catapulted to the center of the...

The internet demonstrates a physical manifestation of structural racism, according to a New York University professor. In an opinion piece on The Conversation and re-published in the Billings Gazette, Professor Charlton Mcllwain writes about the inherent racism of the Internet, created by in part by search engines and links between sites.

Lawyers representing the traditionally black universities in Maryland are pushing for a multi-million dollar move to transfer academic programs from historically white schools. According to a report by The Baltimore Sun, the coalition of attorneys proposed to transfer about 20 academic programs currently taught at traditionally white universities as part of a legal effort to push back on "shameful history" of segregation.

A University of Iowa professor recently argued that appreciation of “white marble” used in classical artwork contributes to “white supremacist ideas today.” Professor Sarah Bond demonstrates in an article published in Hyperallergic that “many of the statues, reliefs, and sarcophagi created in the ancient Western world were in fact painted,” meaning the “white marble” often seen in such pieces of art were intended to be colored.

Black troops are significantly more likely to face military punishment than white service members, according to a new report released on Wednesday. Previously undisclosed data shows vast racial disparities inside the military justice system, where black service members are up to 2.6 times more likely to face court martial or disciplinary action. Protect Our Defenders, a group that advocates for sexual assault victims in the military, received the demographic data after filing Freedom of Information Act requests to each military service branch last year. “It’s information that’s not new to the military,” Col. Don Christensen, a former chief prosecutor in...

I love sports. Since I was a young boy, they've been one of the greatest passions of my life. For many years, my dream was to be a general manager of a professional sports team. I still think about it actually and sometimes allow my mind to drift to what my life would look like if I still went that route. The stance I am taking today did not come easily. It's heartbreaking, actually. I'm an NFL fan. I watch the draft. I pay extra for the season pass on television so I can watch every single game. I follow...

A dilapidated block of homes in Baltimore has been demolished as part of a $94million project to tear down a chunk of the 17,000 abandoned homes in the neighborhood. More than 800 crumbling homes have already been razed and this section of Herbert Street in West Baltimore is the latest to be reduced to rubble. The homes - many of which are riddled with asbestos and lead paint - have come to symbolize the deep social divide in Baltimore. Roofs have caved in on the abandoned rowhomes, boards are fastened to the doors and window frames and the streets are...

Looking out over a sea of people in Harvard Yard last week, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive and one of Harvard’s most famous dropouts, told this year’s graduating class that it was living in an unstable time, when the defining struggle was “against the forces of authoritarianism, isolationism and nationalism.” Two days earlier, another end-of-year ceremony had taken place, just a short walk away on a field outside the law school library. It was Harvard’s first commencement for black graduate students, and many of the speakers talked about a different, more personal kind of struggle, the struggle to be black...

Missouri’s Republican governor says its flagship university’s new chancellor will have to hustle to fix leadership upheaval, evaporating freshman enrollment and a looming budget crisis. But the provost of the State University of New York is starting his tenure at the University of Missouri by sneaking a surprising priority into a more conventional list.

An online petition is demanding that Louisiana State University change its “Tigers” mascot, calling the moniker “the most prevalent [C]onfederate symbol in the United States.” According to the author of the petition—a user going by the name “LaMallori LSU”—the nickname was chosen by “powerful white males” as an homage to the Confederate “Louisiana Tigers” regiment, whose members “were known for their propensity for violence on and off the battle field [sic].”