User:DraconicDark/Black Lives Matter Portal
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Introduction
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people and to promote anti-racism. Its primary concerns are police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people. The movement began in response to the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Rekia Boyd, among others. BLM and its related organizations typically advocate for various policy changes related to black liberation and criminal justice reform. While there are specific organizations that label themselves "Black Lives Matter", such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the overall movement is a decentralized network with no formal hierarchy. , there are about 40 chapters in the United States and Canada. The slogan "Black Lives Matter" itself has not been trademarked by any group.
In 2013, activists and friends Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi originated the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin. Black Lives Matter became nationally recognized for street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two more African Americans, Michael Brown—resulting in protests and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri—and Eric Garner in New York City. Since the Ferguson protests, participants in the movement have demonstrated against the deaths of numerous other African Americans by police actions or while in police custody. In the summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter activists became involved in the 2016 United States presidential election.
The movement gained international attention during global protests in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. An estimated 15 to 26 million people participated in Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, making it one of the largest protest movements in the country's history. Despite being characterized by opponents as violent, the overwhelming majority of BLM demonstrations have been peaceful.
The popularity of Black Lives Matter has shifted over time, largely due to changing perceptions among white Americans. In 2020, 67% of adults in the United States expressed support for the movement, declining to 51% of U.S. adults in 2023. Support among people of color has, however, held strong, with 81% of African Americans, 61% of Hispanics and 63% of Asian Americans expressing support for Black Lives Matter as of 2023. (Full article...)
Selected general articles
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Blair Imani (born Blair Elizabeth Brown, October 31, 1993) is an American author, historian, and activist. She identifies as queer, Black, bisexual and Muslim. She is a member of the Black Lives Matter movement, and is known for protesting the shooting of Alton Sterling and Executive Order 13769. (Full article...) -
Image 2The Hate U Give is a 2017 young adult novel by Angie Thomas. It is Thomas's debut novel, expanded from a short story she wrote in college in reaction to the police shooting of Oscar Grant. The book is narrated by Starr Carter, a 16-year-old African-American girl from a poor neighborhood who attends an elite private school in a predominantly white, affluent part of the city. Starr becomes entangled in a national news story after she witnesses a white police officer shoot and kill her childhood friend, Khalil. She speaks up about the shooting in increasingly public ways, and social tensions culminate in a riot after a grand jury decides not to indict the police officer for the shooting.
The Hate U Give was published on February 28, 2017, by HarperCollins imprint Balzer + Bray, which had won a bidding war for the rights to the novel. The book was a commercial success, debuting at number one on The New York Times young adult best-seller list, where it remained for 50 weeks. It won several awards and received critical praise for Thomas's writing and timely subject matter. In writing the novel, Thomas attempted to expand readers' understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement as well as difficulties faced by black Americans who employ code switching. These themes, as well as the vulgar language, attracted some controversy and caused the book to be one of the most challenged books of 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021 according to the American Library Association. (Full article...) -
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In the United States, "defund the police" is a slogan that supports removing funds from police departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and other community resources. Activists who use the phrase may do so with varying intentions; some seek modest reductions, while others argue for full divestment as a step toward the abolition of contemporary police services. Activists who support the defunding of police departments often argue that investing in community programs could provide a better crime deterrent for communities; funds would go toward addressing social issues, like poverty, homelessness, and mental disorders. Police abolitionists call for replacing existing police forces with other systems of public safety, like housing, employment, community health, education, and other programs.
The "defund the police" slogan became common during the George Floyd protests starting in May 2020. According to Jenna Wortham and Matthew Yglesias, the slogan was popularized by the Black Visions Collective shortly after the murder of George Floyd. (Full article...) -
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Aalayah Eastmond (born March 22, 2001) is an American activist and advocate for gun violence prevention, social justice, and racial equality. After surviving the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Eastmond began her activism during the 2018 United States gun violence protests. She has testified multiple times to the U.S. Congress. Eastmond is an executive council member of Team Enough, a youth-led gun violence prevention organization which is part of the Brady Campaign. Eastmond co-founded Concerned Citizens of DC in the wake of the murder of George Floyd to organize protests supporting social justice issues in Washington, D.C. She supports Black Lives Matter and protests against police brutality. (Full article...) -
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Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black American man, was fatally shot on February 2, 2022, by SWAT officer Mark Hanneman of the Minneapolis Police Department inside an apartment in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where police were executing a no-knock search warrant in a homicide investigation. The officer-involved shooting was reviewed by the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the office of Hennepin County attorney Michael Freeman, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Ellison and Freeman declined to file criminal charges against the officer who shot Locke in a report released on April 6, 2022.
Several protests were held in reaction to the shooting. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey imposed a moratorium on most no-knock warrants on February 4. Multiple reviews of the no-knock warrant policy were announced, including by the Minneapolis City Council Policy and Government Oversight Committee and the Minneapolis Office of Police Conduct Review, as well as racial justice activist DeRay Mckesson and professor of police studies Peter Kraska of Eastern Kentucky University in coordination with the city. On April 8, Minneapolis banned "no knock" warrants in a new policy. (Full article...) -
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The Wall of Moms is a group primarily made up of women who identify as mothers, who have demonstrated in George Floyd protests in Portland, Oregon, as well as other groups in U.S. cities including Chicago, Seattle, and Tampa, Florida. The group's first protest was attended by approximately 40 women; hundreds to thousands have participated since then. (Full article...) -
Image 7We Stand With You is a 2020 mural of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor by artist Christian Grijalva, installed in Portland, Oregon. (Full article...)
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Image 8On March 23, 2020, Daniel Prude, a 41-year-old African-American man, died after being physically restrained by Rochester, New York police officers. Prude had been suffering from a mental health episode after ingesting PCP and was walking naked in the city's streets. The officers put a spit hood over his head after he began spitting. They restrained him face-down on the street for two minutes and fifteen seconds, and he stopped breathing. Prude received CPR on the scene and later died of complications from asphyxia after being taken off life support.
The autopsy report ruled Prude's death a homicide and also included the contributing factors to his death as "excited delirium and acute intoxication by phencyclidine, or PCP". The death first received attention in September 2020 when the police body camera video and written reports were released along with the autopsy report. Following the report's release, protesters demonstrated outside the Rochester police headquarters and many considered the death to be related to Prude's race. The demonstrations were connected to the Black Lives Matter movement and the string of racial justice events of 2020. (Full article...) -
Image 9Sasha Johnson (born c. 1993–1994) is a British woman who has been an activist and member of Taking the Initiative Party (TTIP). A student of Ruskin College, she was involved in the Rhodes Must Fall protest, and with Black Lives Matter and Kill the Bill protests.
On 23 May 2021, Johnson was shot in the head. Two days later, five men were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, one of whom was later charged with conspiracy to murder while the others were released on bail. A second man was charged on 12 June and two further men were charged on 17 June with conspiracy to murder. The four men were scheduled to stand trial in March 2022 but the trial was abandoned in February 2022; the defendants were formally found not guilty when the prosecution offered no evidence. (Full article...) -
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Rekia Boyd was a 22-year-old black American woman who was fatally shot in Chicago, Illinois by Dante Servin, an off-duty Hispanic Chicago police detective, on March 21, 2012. (Full article...) -
Image 11On April 21, 2021, Andrew Brown Jr., a 42-year-old black American, was killed by a gunshot to the back of the head by the Sheriff Department in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, United States. The shooting occurred while deputies were serving drug-related search and arrest warrants at the Brown residence. The arrest warrant, issued on April 20, was for possession with intent to sell "approximately three grams of cocaine." Seven officers were placed on leave as a result of the shooting.
The total amount of footage of the incident is around 2 hours. After being allowed to watch 20 seconds of body camera footage, a Brown family lawyer said that shots were first heard while Brown's car was sitting stationary, in his driveway, and that both of his hands were on the steering wheel. The District Attorney disagreed, saying shots were heard only after Brown put the vehicle in motion, attempted to flee, and caused the car to "make contact" with the arresting officers (none of the deputies sustained injuries). After being allowed to watch around 18 minutes of footage, a second Brown family lawyer said that the videos did not show Brown initiating contact between his car and the deputies. The full body camera videos of the shooting are currently being blocked by a judge's order from being publicly released. (Full article...) -
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Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights and social justice activist, Baptist minister, radio talk show host, and TV personality, who is also the founder of the National Action Network civil rights organization. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election. He hosts a weekday radio talk show, Keepin' It Real, which is nationally syndicated by Urban One, and he is a political analyst and weekend host for MSNBC, hosting PoliticsNation.
Sharpton is known for making various controversial and incendiary comments over his career. He has been accused of making homophobic, antisemitic and racially insensitive remarks as well as inciting incidents of violence. In 1987 he was highly active in publicizing the Tawana Brawley accusation in the media; the allegation was later proved to be false. (Full article...) -
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"No justice, no peace" is a political slogan which originated during protests against acts of ethnic violence against African Americans. Its precise meaning is contested. The slogan was used as early as 1986, following the killing of Michael Griffith by a mob of youths. (Full article...) -
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Gwen Carr (born 1949) is an American activist, public speaker, and author. Carr's son, Eric Garner, was killed by a New York Police Department officer who used a prohibited chokehold to arrest Garner. Since her son's death, Carr has become active in police reform in the United States, including as a member of Mothers of the Movement and a voice in the Black Lives Matter movement. (Full article...) -
Image 15The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGN or BLMGNF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to promoting the Black Lives Matter movement. The organization is often mistaken for other organizations within the Black Lives Matter movement because it often solely employs the phrase "Black Lives Matter" as its name and it also owns the domain name "blacklivesmatter.com" as its official website. While BLMGN often simply calls itself "Black Lives Matter," it is not the sole organization within the broader Black Lives Matter social movement. It is, however, the largest and most well-funded, and it also claims to speak on behalf of the movement. Efforts which were started in late 2020 by its then Executive Director Patrisse Cullors began to centralize its operations.
The organization was founded in 2013 by three female activists. International but largely based in the United States, the organization advocates for the eradication of systematic racism and the prevention of police violence. Among its core beliefs is that the entire US legal system, mainstream media, and society is inherently white supremacist; and that "policing at-large is an irredeemable institution" and should be defunded. (Full article...) -
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A Black Lives Matter mural was painted outside Seattle City Hall, in the U.S. state of Washington, in 2021. (Full article...) -
Image 17Ticket quotas are commonly defined as any establishment of a predetermined or specified number of traffic citations an officer must issue in a specified time. Some police departments may set "productivity goals" but deny specific quotas. In many places, such as California, Texas, and Florida, traffic ticket quotas are specifically prohibited by law or illegal. (Full article...)
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Many artworks related to the Black Lives Matter movement were created in Portland, Oregon, United States, during local protests over the murder of George Floyd and other Black Americans. Oregon Arts Watch contextualized the artistic works, stating that a "whitewashed pre-COVID lens" on American life, which obscured systemic racism, had been "cracked", and describing artists' response to racial violence being brought into the public eye was a "marathon, not a sprint". (Full article...) -
Image 19Fruitvale Station is a 2013 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ryan Coogler. It is Coogler's feature directorial debut, and is based on the events leading to the death of Oscar Grant, a young man killed in 2009 by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale district station in Oakland, California. The film stars Michael B. Jordan as Grant, with Kevin Durand and Chad Michael Murray playing the two BART police officers involved in Grant's death, although their names were changed for the film. Melonie Diaz, Ahna O'Reilly, and Octavia Spencer also star.
The film debuted under its original title, Fruitvale, at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film, and was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the award for Best First Film. It received critical acclaim, and was released in theaters on July 12, 2013, grossing over $17 million against its $900,000 budget. (Full article...) -
Image 20The Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm is an initiative established on 9 June 2020 by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to review public tributes in the British capital, including statues and other landmarks. (Full article...)
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Black Birders Week is a week-long series of online events to highlight black nature enthusiasts and to increase the visibility of black birders, who face unique challenges and dangers when they are engaged in outdoor activities. The event was created as a response to the Central Park birdwatching incident and police brutality against Black Americans. The inaugural event ran from May 31 to June 5, 2020. The week of events was organized by a group of STEM professionals and students known as the BlackAFinSTEM Collective. (Full article...) -
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On the evening of February 2, 2020, Alvin Cole, a 17-year-old black male, was fatally shot by a Wauwatosa, Wisconsin black male police officer Joseph Mensah, outside Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa. The shooting occurred after Cole refused a command from the police to drop the stolen gun he was holding and Cole fired a bullet as he tried to flee. Two shots were fired when Cole was on his hands and knees, and the remaining three shots were fired by Mensah while Cole was face down on the ground. Mensah was the only officer among the five other officers at the scene who fired his weapon.
The demonstrations played out against a backdrop of protests worldwide over the murder of George Floyd. (Full article...) -
Image 23On June 4, 2020, amid the George Floyd protests in New York state, police officers from the Buffalo Police Department pushed 75-year-old Martin Gugino during a confrontation in Buffalo's Niagara Square, causing him to fall to the ground which left him bleeding from the ear. Gugino was seriously injured, sustaining a brain injury, and was still unable to walk nearly two weeks later. He was hospitalized for nearly four weeks.
Two Buffalo police officers were charged with felony assault in connection with the incident; they pleaded not guilty. Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senator Chuck Schumer condemned police conduct in the incident. President Donald Trump spread false and unfounded conspiracy theories about Gugino in his response to the incident on Twitter. On February 11, 2021, Erie County district attorney John Flynn announced that a grand jury had dismissed the charges against the officers. (Full article...) -
Image 24
Civil unrest began in the Uptown district of the U.S. city of Minneapolis on June 3, 2021, as a reaction to news reports that law enforcement officers had killed a wanted suspect during an arrest. The law enforcement killing occurred atop a parking ramp near West Lake Street and Girard Avenue. Police fired several rounds, killing the person at the scene. In an initial statement about the encounter, the U.S. Marshals Service alleged that a person failed to comply with arresting officers and produced a gun. Crowds gathered on West Lake Street near the parking ramp soon afterwards as few details were known about the incident or the deceased person, who was later identified as Winston Boogie Smith, a 32-year-old black American man.
An initial period of civil disorder occurred over four nights along a three-block stretch of West Lake Street. Several business were vandalized during the overnight hours of June 3 and 4, resulting in several arrests. Protests were held over subsequent days with demonstrators periodically occupying a street intersection near where Smith was killed. There was no known video evidence of the police encounter with Smith, and an attorney for the passenger in Smith's car and protesters disputed the law enforcement account of events. The night of June 13, a protester, Deona Marie Knajdek, was killed when a vehicle rammed into a demonstration in the street. Over the next several days, demonstrators attempted to reoccupy a portion of the street and erected makeshift barricades that were removed by Minneapolis police officers. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state's National Guard on standby orders for possible deployment to Minneapolis. (Full article...) -
Image 25Whose Streets? is a 2017 American documentary film about the killing of Michael Brown and the Ferguson uprising. Directed by Sabaah Folayan and co-directed by Damon Davis, Whose Streets? premiered in competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, then was released theatrically in August, 2017, for the anniversary of Brown's death. It was a nominee for Critics' Choice and Gotham Independent Film awards. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that Arkansas legislator Denise Jones Ennett took part in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of the Arkansas State Capitol?
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Selected images
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Image 1Protest march in response to the Jamar Clark killing, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 2An activist holds a "Black Lives Matter" sign outside the Minneapolis Police Fourth Precinct building following the officer-involved killing of Jamar Clark on November 15, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 4Al Sharpton led the Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 5Black Lives Matter protest at Herald Square, Manhattan, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 6Protest march in response to the killing of Philando Castile, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 7, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 7Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality at Metro Green Line, September 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 8Protest in response to the Alton Sterling killing, San Francisco, California, July 8, 2016 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 10"Black Lives Matter" on the facade of the Washington National Cathedral, June 10, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 11Black Lives Matter protest in Aotea Square, Auckland, June 14, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 12Vehicle with a BLM sticker, September 18, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 13Protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 14The empty pedestal of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol. Subject to increasing controversy since the 1990s, when his prior reputation as a philanthropist came under scrutiny due to a growing awareness of his slave trading, in June 2020 the statue was toppled, defaced and pushed into Bristol Harbour. (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 15Black Lives Matter demonstration in Oakland, California, December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 16One-year commemoration of the killing of Michael Brown and the Ferguson unrest at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, August 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 18Black Lives Matter protester at Macy's Herald Square, November 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 20Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter activists in Westlake Park, Seattle, August 8, 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 21Ferguson, Missouri, August 17, 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 22Black Lives Matter protest on September 20, 2015, against police brutality in St. Paul, Minnesota (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 24A demonstrator raising awareness of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, April 2015 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 25Protests in May 2020 after George Floyd's death (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 28Map depicting rates of police killings by state in the United States in 2018 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 29Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., as seen from space on June 8, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 30"What happened to 'All Lives Matter'?" sign at a protest against Donald Trump, January 29, 2017 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 31Demonstration at Christiansborg Slotsplads, Copenhagen, June 7, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 32A Black Lives Matter die-in over rail tracks, protesting alleged police brutality in Saint Paul, Minnesota (September 20, 2015) (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 33A Black Lives Matter protest of police brutality in the rotunda of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, in December 2014 (from Black Lives Matter)
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Image 34George Floyd protests at Lafayette Square, Washington D.C., May 30, 2020 (from Black Lives Matter)
In the news
- 16 May 2024 – Murder of Garrett Foster
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott pardons Daniel Perry, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing a man at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. (The New York Times)
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