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revolutionary educational documentaries https://thered.stream/
We are devastated at the news that Benjamin Zephaniah has passed away. Zephaniah was a revolutionary poet, actor, musician, writer and activist who touched the lives of millions. His work, especially his poems, reflected his lifelong struggle against racism and imperialism.
He was born in Birmingham in 1956 to a Barbadian father and a Jamaican mother, both Christians, and struggled with dyslexia as a child leaving school at the age of 13 unable to read or write. Zephaniah would become an iconic testament to the fact that formal education is not the only route towards creative and intellectual achievement, largely self-taught, he developed an early love of literature.
Zephaniah embraced Rastafarianism in his late teens and moved to London in the late 1970s. During the riots of the early 1980s, Zephaniah faced brutal racism from the far-right and the police. After being involved in a worker's co-op in East London, he established himself as a poet attacking the British legal system, reflecting on his travels in occupied Palestine and celebrating cultural diversity in Britain. Zephaniah also released musical tributes to Bob Marley and Nelson Mandela as well as appearing in various British TV programs including the worldwide hit Peaky Blinders which was set in his home city.
Benjamin Zephaniah was a fixture in the Palestine solidarity movement and a patron of Britain's Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which much of his activism was dedicated to. He was also a committed vegan and supported animal rights, an anarchist he endorsed socialist Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and campaigned for a British republic. In 2003 he declined The Order of the British Empire (OBE) in protest against British imperialism and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
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Clashes erupted across Greece as thousands of people took to the streets to commemorate the killing of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos. Protesters threw Molotov cocktails at police as heavily armed contingents of riot police were deployed in an attempt to crack down on the annual protests.
Fifteen years ago, police shot the young student Grigoropoulos in cold blood, igniting a series of protests against police brutality across Greece. Every year on the anniversary of the December 6, 2008 killing, protests are held calling for justice for Grigoropoulos. However, the Greek government continues to downplay the murder and respond with excessive violence.
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One of the West’s closest allies in Africa, which was poised to lead a military intervention in neighbouring Niger just massacred at least 120 civilians “by mistake.” With a drone recently acquired from Turkey, the Nigerian army carried out a drone strike on a religious celebration in the village of Tudun Biri in Kaduna state, northern Nigeria.
The locals had gathered in the area to celebrate the Eid-ul-Maulud Islamic festival celebrating the birthday of the prophet Muhammed. Kaduna governor Uba Sani claimed that the civilians were “mistakenly killed and many others were wounded” by a drone as the government fights armed Islamist groups in the country’s north.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has ordered an investigation into the drone strike, though the attack is just the latest of a series of errant strikes made by the Nigerian military on civilians supposedly due to errors. Back in February 2014, 20 civilians were killed in a bombing in Nigeria’s northern Borno state while last year 14 similar attacks took place.
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Police murdered fifteen-year-old student Alexis Grigoropoulos in cold blood in the center of Athens, Greece, on this day in 2008. The murder of Grigoropoulos led to widespread outrage sparking an unprecedented wave of protests that rocked the country for weeks as students organized riots and occupied schools and universities across Greece, from cities to remote villages. Fifteen years later, justice has still not been served.
The police initially attempted to give a false account of the murder. Despite attempts to downplay the murder, social media filled the gap left by the mainstream media’s silence, providing detailed information and evidence about the killing. Nonetheless, Grigoropoulos’s murderer, police officer Epaminondas Korkoneas, walked free after his initial life sentence had been reduced despite being found guilty. He only spent 11 years in prison.
Meanwhile, one of Grigoropoulos’ best friends, the young anarchist Nikos Romanos, who was with Grigoropoulos on the night of his murder, was arrested under false pretexts five years later. Having suffered abuse at the hands of the police, Romanos led a hunger strike in 2014. The jailed anarchist was freed in 2019.
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Today, we commemorate Frantz Fanon, the Afro-Caribbean anti-colonial revolutionary who passed away in 1961. When he died at the young age of 36, his words had already inspired liberation movements worldwide.
Fanon was born 98 years ago in the former French colony of Martinique, part of the West Indies. Later, as a psychiatrist, Fanon analyzed the sociopathological structure of the colonial system and worked closely with the Algerian National Liberation Front, which fought against French colonial rule.
His flagship work, "The Wretched of the Earth," became a classic of anti-colonial literature, with a print run in the millions. In chapter one, Fanon wrote, "Colonialism is not a thinking machine, nor a body endowed with reasoning faculties. It is violence in its natural state and will only yield when confronted with greater violence."
The revolutionary Fanon died of leukemia in December 1961. More than half a century after Fanon's death, his writings are still vivid today.
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NATO to occupy Gaza? This is what Israel's former PM Ehud Olmert says will "stabilize" the strip once Israel is done with its killing spree. Let's see how stabilizing NATO has been for Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.
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The first Black president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, died on this day in 2013. Why did anti-Apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela think that the struggle in Palestine mirrored the South African liberation struggle in many ways? Watch him explain the similarities between the South African and the Palestinian struggles for liberation and the importance of supporting the Palestinians against Israeli colonialism.
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Today, we remember the late Fred Hampton, a legendary figure in the Black Panther Party and a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist, who was assassinated by the FBI on this day in 1969. Born in Chicago in 1948, Hampton served as the Black Panther Party's deputy chairman and the Illinois chapter's chair. His contributions as a prominent anti-racist figure and his commitment to multicultural organizing left a lasting impact.
Fred Hampton was instrumental in fostering alliances between various racial and ethnic groups. He was crucial in establishing the Young Patriots to organize poor whites and the Young Lords to organize Hispanics. Additionally, Hampton worked towards uniting Chicago street gangs to end internal conflicts and promote collaboration for social change.
Recognizing fascism as a significant threat to humanity, Hampton emphasized the critical importance of preventing its rise, believing that its impact would extend to everyone. Identified as a threat by the FBI, Hampton faced attempts to undermine his influence through the placement of spies within the Black Panthers. Tragically, in December 1969, he was murdered in cold blood by police who were assisting the FBI during a pre-dawn raid as 100 gunshots were fired into his apartment.
Watch Fred Hampton articulate how those in power exploit racism in capitalist societies to maintain control by dividing the working class and oppressed people. His insightful message remains relevant, particularly during increasing inequality and the resurgence of far-right movements.
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While the global elite is debating climate change at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates, African countries face the devastating impact of the El Niño weather phenomena. Flash floods in East Africa have displaced more than a million people in Somalia, leaving hundreds dead. Last month, Kenya was hit by deadly flooding, which killed dozens of people, destroying farmland and forcing at least 4,000 families to leave their homes.
Once again, we’re seeing how the Global North fails to take responsibility for climate change as the Global South suffers its consequences. Single-handedly, the Global North is responsible for 92% of excess global carbon emissions, a study done by Lancet Planetary Health revealed.
El Niño is a naturally occurring weather pattern originating in the Pacific Ocean, leading to increasingly warm conditions worldwide, heavy rain in some areas, and droughts in others. According to scientists, the impact of EL Niño is exacerbated by climate change.
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WATCH red. media's special feature from the ground in Gaza looking at the evidence and impact of Israel's illegal phosphorus use in Gaza, war crimes enabled by the US. FULL REPORT HERE.
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Israel and its supporters abroad continue to claim that Hamas is just like ****. As Israel frames its war as one against H@mas and not the whole of Gaza, the narrative is extended to the other Palestinian factions in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Is there any truth to this? The short answer is no. The long answer: Scroll to find out what their charters say! For additional info, watch our short video.
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Israel's comparisons of H@mas with IS!$ have fallen flat with the footage of the Palestinian fighters sharing hugs and high fives with Israeli captives before they free them. Watch this video on what we know so far about the conditions they have been held in.
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Today we remember the victims of the Bhopal gas leak in India, the world's worst industrial disaster, which killed thousands and exposed over half a million people to toxic gas on this day in 1984.
The disaster resulted from negligence, design flaws, understaffing, absence of maintenance, and lack of training. Basic safety measures that should've been taken weren't, just to increase profits at the expense of people's safety. The first official and conservative death toll was 2,259, but other estimates have put the number as high as 20,000.
Tens of thousands who were exposed to the gas but survived were severely disabled and many continue to die prematurely today.
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68 years ago today Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in the southern US state of Alabama. Although she is well known for her role in launching the Civil Rights movement in the US her radical political beliefs have been largely ignored by the history books.
Rosa Parks grew up in a family that supported Black nationalist and Pan-African leader Marcus Garvey and became an activist at a young age. She joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1943.
She was also a supporter of the key principles behind the Black Power movement including self-defense, economic justice, internationalism, and independent Black political power, and was a strong supporter of the Black Panthers and Martin Luther King.
Parks considered Malcolm X her hero and they met on a couple of occasions with their longest conversation taking place taking place in February 1965 just a week before he was assassinated.
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Gaza is under non-stop Israeli bombardment, with the first strikes hitting just minutes after the one-week ceasefire fell apart today. The red. Media team was on the ground in Khan Younis as survivors pulled victims from the rubble with their bare hands, many of them children.
Over 109 Palestinians have been killed and dozens more injured by Israeli shelling in northern, central, and southern Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed. The Rafah crossing with Egypt has been shut down, blocking life-saving humanitarian aid trucks from reaching those in need.
UNICEF reported that Israeli bombs targeted the largest functioning hospital in all of Gaza, Al-Nasr, operating at a staggering 200% capacity. The Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza's largest, faced yet another round of Israeli strikes.
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This is the consequence of the world turning a blind eye to Israel's "human animals" rhetoric, fascism in practice.
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This is what the situation in Rafah, Southern Gaza, looks like. Tens of thousands of people have arrived in Rafah, forced out of their homes by Israel’s relentless war.
As shelters in Rafah city have already exceeded their capacity, most new arrivals have settled in the streets and empty spaces across the city. The Israeli military has ordered evacuations in the Khan Younis area, with the evacuation area encompassing around 22 % of the entire Gaza Strip.
Nearly 1.9 million people in Gaza, or almost 85 percent of the population, have been internally displaced. Almost 1.2 million of these IDPs are in 156 UNRWA facilities across Gaza. Some are sheltering in public schools and hospitals, while others have found families willing to offer them shelter or have been forced to live outside, exposed to the cold and rain.
With the overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions at shelters in the south, there have been significant increases in some infectious diseases and conditions such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, skin infections, and hygiene-related conditions such as lice. There have also been reports of disease outbreaks, including potentially Hepatitis A.
According to the WHO, the intensification of hostilities in and around Khan Younis “is likely to cut thousands off from health care – especially from accessing Nasser Medical Complex and European Gaza Hospital, the two main hospitals in southern Gaza – as the number of wounded and sick increases.”
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🟡 Latest War on Gaza news roundup:
🟡 The death toll from Israel’s relentless war on Gaza has reached more than 16,248, with over 42,000 injured and at least 7,600 still missing under the rubble.
🟡 “Every day in captivity was extremely challenging. We were in tunnels, terrified that it would not be Hamas, but Israel, that would kill us,” a former Israeli captive in Gaza told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting.
🟡 The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has warned that the situation in Gaza is “getting worse each minute,” adding that “Another wave of displacement is underway in Gaza,” calling the entire Strip “one of the most dangerous places in the world.”
🟡 Since the end of the temporary ceasefire on December 1, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,240 Palestinians in Gaza, 70% of whom were children and women.
🟡 Referencing Israeli military attacks on the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Hamas announced yesterday that its fighters had targeted 25 Israeli army vehicles and dozens of Israeli soldiers in the town.
🟡 Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said that “Netanyahu and his war staff are sinking deeper and deeper into the swamp of Gaza” and that the group is “well prepared” to fight no matter how long the war lasts.
🟡 Israeli forces arrested at least 60 Palestinians from the West Bank overnight. 3,640 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank since October 7.
🟡 For the first time since October 7, Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded three others. The attack occurred although the Lebanese army hasn’t engaged in any form of armed conflict with Israel since the Israeli forces started targeting H3zbo!lah in southern Lebanon in October.
🟡 Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada traveled to the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to express solidarity with the Palestinians, condemning Israel’s “brutal aggression.”
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Yemen's Ansarallah movement has transformed the seized "Israeli-owned Galaxy Leader" ship into a tourist attraction. Footage shows scores of Yemenis waiting on the coast to board the ship.
In a breathtaking military operation captured on camera, involving helicopters, soldiers, and speedboats, the Ansarallah movement took control of the ship on November 20. The naval blockade imposed due to Israel's war on Gaza is forcing the war cabinet to maneuver vessels from Asia and East Africa around the entire African continent.
Yahya Saree, the spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces, officially announced a unilateral naval blockade against all Israeli ships in the Red Sea. He emphasized that these ships will remain targets until Israel puts an end to its war against Gaza.
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"Banana Massacre," "Banana Republic," "Banana Empire" – Chiquita's flashy sticker with the smiling banana plantation woman hides a bloodstained history.
Today is the anniversary of the 1928 banana massacre, when Chiquita, formerly known as United Fruit Company, ordered the Colombian government to massacre striking banana workers who were demanding better wages and working conditions. Read on.
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🟡 Latest War on Gaza news roundup:
🟡 Israel has threatened to flood the vast network of tunnels under the Gaza Strip with seawater to drive the Gaza ruling group’s fighters out of their underground refuge.
🟡 “A more hellish scenario is about to unfold,” the UN has warned, with Gaza seeing its heaviest bombing to date as telecommunications services have been cut off for the fourth time since October 7 as Israel’s massive invasion of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza begins.
🟡 Gaza’s Ministry of Health is warning of yet another hospital massacre at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, where Israeli tanks and snipers have surrounded the facility.
🟡 The death toll from Israel’s relentless war on Gaza has reached at least 15,899.
🟡 Diseases such as cholera and gastroenteritis are rapidly spreading among displaced Gazans as Israel’s invasion of southern Gaza has forced 1.8 million Palestinians to relocate to an area “as big as London’s Heathrow airport.”
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Twelve years ago today, revolutionary Brazilian footballer Brasileiro Sampaio de Oliveira Sócrates, known as "Doctor Sócrates" or simply Sócrates, died in São Paulo. Sócrates used his fame and influence to fight for the rights of oppressed people. He was also a Brazilian Workers' Party member and saw Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and John Lennon as his idols. While playing for the São Paulo club Corinthians, he co-founded the Corinthians Democracy movement, which challenged the capitalist model of running football clubs and the brutal military dictatorship in Brazil. Sócrates also supported the Diretas Já (Free elections now) movement in 1984, calling for direct presidential elections shortly before his move to Fiorentina in Italy.
The Corinthians Democracy movement, founded in 1982, was an attempt to challenge the traditionally hierarchical structure of football clubs. It aimed to create a democratic, self-managed model where fans and players had a say in running their club. Under this model, the vote of a team's manager had the same weight as an ordinary fan about every single decision made at the club.
The Diretas Já movement, along with massive protests by students, workers, and artists, played a crucial role in ending the US-backed dictatorship that had ruled Brazil since 1964. It brutally repressed the left, committing heinous crimes such as detention without trial, torture, and hundreds of killings.
Sócrates was a creative midfielder who could play in an attacking role or central midfield, who captained a skilful Brazil team at the 1982 World Cup Final in Spain. As well as being a Marxist, Sócrates was passionate about philosophy, art, and medicine, earning a medical degree at 24.
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🟡 The death toll from Israel’s relentless war on Gaza has reached at least 15,500. Israel’s war on the enclave has disrupted communications to the extent that it is impossible to provide accurate and up-to-date numbers in relation to the death toll.
🟡 The Israeli occupation forces extended their bloody ground invasion into the southern part of the Gaza Strip. IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said that the attack “Will be no less powerful than [the invasion in northern Gaza].”
🟡 Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 800 Palestinians since Saturday. Southern Gaza experienced its worst bombardment since October 7, according to UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.
🟡 The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has warned that Israel’s attacks on the southern Gaza Strip could force 1 million Palestinian refugees towards the Egyptian border.
🟡 Around 70% of Israeli forces have already withdrawn from northern Gaza due to the failure of their operations and resistance attacks, the Gaza ruling group said.
🟡 In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces arrested at least 60 Palestinians after targeting several towns in overnight raids. Since October 7, Israeli forces have detained at least 3,540 Palestinians.
🟡 Yemen’s Ansarallah targeted two Israeli ships in the Red Sea after they ignored warnings from the group’s navy, potentially marking a significant escalation following a series of maritime attacks since October 7.
🟡 US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner revealed that Washington is helping Israeli intelligence agencies to track down leaders of Gaza’s ruling group but is being “selective” about the information it shares with Israel due to Israeli intelligence failures.
🟡 For up-to-date coverage of developments from Palestine, follow us @theredstream
Yemen's Ansarallah further reinforced its blockade of Israeli ships in the Red Sea by targeting two ships yesterday. The naval blockade imposed due to Israel's war on Gaza is forcing the war cabinet to maneuver vessels from Asia and East Africa around the entire African continent.
Yemeni forces attacked with ballistic missiles and drones, while a US warship was also targeted, according to a US spokesman. Yemeni armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced a unilateral naval blockade against all Israeli ships in the Red Sea, emphasizing that ships will be attacked until Israel ends its war against Gaza.
🟡 For up-to-date coverage of developments from Palestine, follow us @theredstream
On this day the CIA allegedly tried to kill Bob Marley. The shooting at his home in Kingston happened against a backdrop of CIA sponsored destabilization of Jamaica following the election of the social democratic Michael Manley, who talked tough against the IMF and was close to Fidel Castro's Cuba. Read on to find out more about the shooting of the legendary singer who once sang "Rasta don't work for no CIA".
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Happy #Caturday! We asked the red. Media community to send in their revolutionary cat pictures – here are some of our favorites!
We're taking submissions for our next Caturday again. If your revolutionary cat wants a shot at the spotlight, send us their photo.
🟡 For up-to-date coverage of developments from Palestine, follow us @theredstream
NOW: Massive protests erupt in Jakarta, Indonesia, in solidarity with the Palestinian people following the cease-fire collapse and Israel's relaunched relentless bombardment across Gaza. Jakarta's Central Square also saw one of the largest pro-Palestine protests worldwide earlier last month, when millions took to the streets against Israel's war on Gaza.
🟡 For up-to-date coverage of developments from Palestine, follow us @theredstream
This day in 2001 marked the dramatic climax of the economic crisis in Argentina and the moment when the illusion of neoliberal growth came crashing down. The right-wing government under Fernando de la Rúa nearly stopped bank payments, triggering mass panic and riots. The crisis caused a mass uprising, eventually ushering in the leftist Kirchner governments who restored economic growth during the 'Pink tide' era across Latín America.
Today, the 'libertarian' President-elect Javier Milei proposes many policies that led to the 2001 crisis. Namely, 'shock therapy' austerity, this time as a precursor for the dollarization of the economy.
Whether he can pull this plan off or be forced to leave power like in 2001, will depend on the strength of Argentina's social movements, which have been weakened after four years of being allied to a social democratic government that disappointed its supporters by presiding over falling living standards and growing IMF debt.
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🟡 Latest War on Gaza news roundup:
🟡 Israel resumed its bombing of Gaza mere minutes after the week-long ceasefire crumbled. The Israeli army says it has hit more than 200 targets so far today. The strikes have killed at least 109 people and wounded hundreds.
🟡 An investigation by +972 Magazine unveiled new AI technology employed by the Israeli military since the onset of the war on Gaza on October 7. The AI calculates targets based on Israeli databases, predicting civilian casualties. Former officials disclosed that Israeli military commanders authorized each bomb, fully aware that it would lead to the deaths of hundreds of civilians for each military target.
🟡 The death toll of Israeli-killed children in the occupied West Bank has surpassed 100 this year, with 63 of them since October 7, averaging more than one child lost each day.
🟡 The displaced population in the occupied Gaza Strip has surged to 1.8 million people, constituting approximately 80 percent of the enclave's residents.
🟡 The Yemeni Ansarallah movement has declared its commitment to blocking Israeli ships from the Red Sea, vowing to expand operations against Israel until the Gaza attack concludes
🟡 According to an Israeli poll conducted about a month into the conflict, 57.5% of Israelis support an escalation of the bombing in Gaza, while 36.6% consider the firepower used by the IDF as "appropriate."
🟡 Lebanese resistance forces launched strikes against Israeli military targets for the first time since the collapse of the ceasefire, breaking the comparative calm along the Israel-Lebanon border during the almost week-long truce.
🟡 Cracks within the Israeli war cabinet continue widening, with far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich advocating for the severing of "all ties and negotiation" with Gaza's ruling group. He vehemently opposes further ceasefires, deeming them a "terrible mistake" that projects weakness.
🟡 For up-to-date coverage of developments from Palestine, follow us @theredstream
The late James Baldwin, the influential Black American revolutionary writer and activist died on this day in 1987. Baldwin was a groundbreaking author who explored themes of masculinity, sexuality, race, and class, connecting these issues to the key political developments of his era, including the civil rights and LGBTQ rights movements.
Disillusioned by the racism in US society, Baldwin moved to Paris in 1948, where he lived until 1957 before returning to New York. However, in 1970, he returned to France. More than three decades after his death Baldwin's work and activism still influence discussions about systemic racism and social justice.
Watch Baldwin discussing the racism he experienced in the US that influenced his decision to leave his homeland.
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