In the high form of praise known as imitation (of the genius at nakedcapitalism.com, i offer three links:

#1: that 20% of the annual energy demand for a mid-Atlantic energy company is consumed in less than 100 hours of the entire year.
#2: 1/3 of all small businesses are led by women. but that seems to be an undercount. (or hard to count in Census vernacular)
#3: the grim reality that more African-Americans are imprisoned today than were enslaved in 1850.

That last figure is just one of four appalling tidbits from the Nation article by Michelle Alexander. The others include:
... that up to 80% of Chicago's black males "have been labelled felons for life."
... that "A black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during slavery."

No wonder i'm reading Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination by Robin DG Kelley, We Who Are Dark: The Philosophical Underpinnings of Black Solidarity by Tommie Shelby, Post-Traumatic Slave Disorder by Joy DeGruy Leary, and Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas Blackmon.
FWIW, Blackmon won the 2009 Pulitzer.

Fortunately, we have hope from the upper South. The mighty people of Kentucky are waging a tremendous fight to enfranchise 187,000 (thousand!) residents. That equates to 1 in 4 Blacks in KY, and 1 in 17 of all Kentuckians.

And they are close to getting it passed by the legislature in time to become a ballot initiative in the Fall elections. Check the link for updates.

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