I wanna share my thoughts about believing women who claim they've been sexually assaulted. I normally tend to listen in on these convos and never comment publicly, but I feel my thoughts will be helpful to folks. Namely, black men, especially, need to do better on this subject. I'll start off by saying that I have learned so much by listening to women share their stories of assault and had no idea how abusive men are. That ignorance shows how being a man can inoculate us from the harm women face everyday. That, in itself, is troubling.

I just finished a weight workout and am headed to my heated yoga class (second night in a row!). Gave myself an hour of rest and will walk to class. Taking care of my body. Let’s go, baby!

My verdict on the Cynthia Nixon vs Andrew Cuomo #NYGovDebate: Nixon kicked Cuomo’s ass. It wasn’t even close. If this was a 12-round fight, I’d struggle to give Cuomo a round. Cuomo came across as condescending and dismissive, something that doesn’t make him look well on TV at all. You can tell his last debate was in 2006.

I’m at Hofstra University covering the #NYGovdebate debate and see nothing but Andrew Cuomo supporters from various local unions at the entrance and his signs everywhere. No sight of Cynthia Nixon’s campaign literature anywhere. Hopefully, Nixon’s performance will fill the void. I can’t speak for the rest of the state, but it’s hard to find any Cynthia Nixon campaign literature here in New York City. And Cuomo isn’t really campaigning hard because he thinks he has the nomination in the bag. (He’s leading by 30 points)

John McCain literally picked Sarah Palin, a woman who said "It's time to take our country back." It was clearly designed to attack Obama's blackness and perceived "unAmericaness." And McCain knew it. He was willing to use racism to win the White House. npr.org/2016/01/23/464… John McCain opened the floodgates for Americans to be open about their racism. He didn't directly lead the charge. Instead, Sarah Palin was his White Supremacy proxy. If John McCain loved America, he would not tolerated Palin's xenophobia. But he did. Because he wanted to win.

I'll add to this by saying saying that John McCain was a politician, not a deity. Bringing up his harmful policies is not the same as spitting on his grave. McCain may not have been a Trump Republican but he was still a Republican.

https://twitter.com/ReignOfApril/status/1033583022648504320

We are asked not to have partisan takes of John McCain but he was, in fact, a partisan politician. Why can't we accept that he was not really the Maverick we want to remember him as? He voted with his party the vast majority of the time. fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-jo…

I totally support why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez closed off her town hall to reporters. Media have not done a great job of covering minorities and a group of mostly white men with the power of the pen doesn't evoke comfort. Totally makes sense. Could Ocasio-Cortez's campaign handled WHY they did it better? Sure. Was her rationale on point? Yes, of course it was. If you do not see how the media has been harmful to POCs then you really have little understand of the racism in media world.

Omarosa has this White House on edge. They, including Trump, are really shook! Just spoke with my boss and she made a great point: like her or not (y'all know my thoughts on that), Omarosa is playing Trump's game better than him so far. She has tapes, likely lots of them. There are so many of us who've had less than positive experiences with Omarosa, but she is very media-savvy, smart. She is political animal in her own right. We have NO IDEA what else she has recorded. Or Who. And neither does Trump or his associates. That scares them. A lot.

I'll never understand how folks can vigorously critique the failures and brutality of capitalism, yet speak glowingly of Stalin and Lenin, the former of which is one of human history's biggest mass murderers. I have no issue criticizing the evils of capitalism. But what is very curious is this affection many folks have for Stalin and Lenin. I studied the USSR intensely as an MA grad student in the Russian studies department and I found little to celebrate about these men.

Let me be super clear for folks who seem to think I am being irrational about my pushing back against the idea that Russia is powerful enough to start race riots. My fear is that blaming Russia for everything absolves America for owning up to its racism. That is number one. The Kremlin did not create Donald Trump. White Supremacy did. And if Russia has THAT much power to convince white people to march in Charlottesville, our democracy is weak and unstable as fuck. That says more about the US than Russia.

I'll give you my take on Omarosa: she is a con artist and a fraud.

No one should ever completely trust what she says. Plus, I have my own personal story about dealing with her as a journalist that I have never shared before. First, Omarosa has proven herself to be a someone who has made a career of creating controversy over being dramatic and extra. She really have no real professional accomplishments beyond being controversial. Yet, she gets media attention. Why? I have a theory.

I would be especially interested in research that shows how Black and Latino people respond to economic inequality compared to whites. I'd suspect you'd find we do not elect racists to the White House.

https://twitter.com/justinhendrix/status/1028242230119735296

Color me extremely skeptical but I do not believe economic prosperity will rid America of racism and Trumpism. Black people have always been poor but, unless can show me otherwise, we've never elected extremists to office as a result. As for white folks, you see what they do.

I rarely speak about Kanye West outside of his musical production (I mean, why?), but his interview with Jimmy Kimmel was truly revealing of how simple-minded and limited he truly is. For one, he loves to saw that black folks do not appreciate diversity of thought. Who, exactly, is he talking about? America is full of different types of black people who have varied points of view. His issue is that he can't accept a critique of his baseless views.

Here's a thought on the Kremlin's disinformation campaign in 2016: If the campaign helped sway the election for Trump, how come most black folks and people of color didn't fall for it? I've written about this often, but I really want MSM to take this on. People often ask me why I am not on MSM expressing my views, given my experience in the region and the reason is simple: No one wants to move away from the "Russians under every rock" formula that works so well for them. And, frankly, that formula bores me to death.

This is not accurate. 1. Ukraine is one of the least likely countries in Europe to elect far right extremists. They never do well in elections.

2. This pic of a young Andriy Parouby is misleading.

I’ll get you links. #thread

https://twitter.com/j_bigboote/status/1024381422726000645

Far right parties got their asses kicked in 2014 and never poll well. thenation.com/article/ukrain…

This is a good question and thank you for asking. I will take on your question line by line. First, the Ukrainian government is not fascist, nor, as a rule, tolerates neo-Nazis. Now, here is a caveat:

https://twitter.com/Alt_Trotskyist/status/1024365351444860928

The biggest thing folks point to to saw Ukraine's government is full of fascists is the interior ministry and its in-direct and direct support of far right militias. Folks have written about this to prove your point. reuters.com/article/us-coh…

This is a very good question and thank you for asking. I am often asked why I go to Ukraine so often and stay, given how hard it can be for black people. I will thread my answer because it is not a one-tweet response.

https://twitter.com/50nsexy2014/status/1024348726675025920

First, let me say that it is off-putting when someone asks me why I don't spend time in a black country where my skills are needed as opposed to a white one. I don't take the question as an insult. I think the premise of why it was asked puts black folks in a box and limits us.

I've been back from Ukraine a week now and I feel it is time to have what, for some, will be a very uncomfortable conversation: racism in Ukraine and the challenges of being black there. Here we go.... I also want to talk about how hard it is to be a black person who loves Ukraine but is often confronted by Ukrainians who I feel like my activism for Ukraine but do not want to hear about the challenges I face there as a black person.

This is an email I just got. Another one.

Jill Stein did not create Donald Trump. Blaming her for the mess we’re in is intellectually dishonest. Stein, regardless of what you think of her, had every right to run and her supporters had every right to cast ballots for her. Trump is not her creation. In the worst of times, it’s quite common for human beings to seek scapegoats they feel are complicit in the chaos surrounding them. Often, such actions are an excuse to deflect from the real source of the problem. In this case, it’s not Stein; it’s white supremacy.

What you see in the case of most white journalists and white folks who appear on television to provide commentary is that they seek to understand the humanity of racists more than they try to understand why we as minorities cannot bear to be in the presence of hateful people. That white reporters can consistently ask minorities to find common ground with our oppressors debunks the myth of journalistic objectivity in its tracks. That white reporters cannot see their privilege in this convo is an indication that they choose not to see it at all.