Anthony Smith

Bio

Anthony Smith is Senior Staff Writer for Mic covering... whatever this world is becoming. He was previously Director of Social Media and Analytics and Digital Strategist for Newsweek and the International Business Times. He attended Wesleyan University and lives in Brooklyn.
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Brittany Packnett on NFL: If you can’t handle peaceful protest, then what can you handle?
By Anthony Smith
Activist and educator Brittany Packnett has a simple question for the NFL: If peaceful protest doesn’t work, then what does? “If you can’t handle peaceful protest or silent protest, then what kind of protest can you handle?” Packnett asked. The NFL…
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Brittany Packnett: Black women show up for you. It’s about time you started showing up for them.
By Anthony Smith
Brittany Packnett wants you to know that she doesn’t mind if you call her an angry black woman. “I am absolutely an angry black woman,” Packnett, an activist and writer, said. “You can call me that all day long. I am an angry black woman because…
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We asked you to share your stories of living #WhileBlack. Here are your responses.
By Anthony Smith
In America, people will call the police on you if you wait at a Starbucks, if you ask for silverware at a Waffle House or if you play some golf at a golf course — but only if you’re black. Stories like these, where black Americans are perceived as…
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Naomi Wadler: In a just world, kids could go to school without the fear of a bullet
By Anthony Smith
Don’t let her age fool you: Even though Naomi Wadler is only 11 years old, she’s starting national movements at a high school level. As the youngest speaker at the March for Our Lives, a massive youth-led rally demanding legislative solutions for…
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Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner: Stop overspending on prisons and put the money in schools instead.
By Anthony Smith
For the last three decades, Larry Krasner has seen America’s criminal justice system take its toll on prisoners — all at exorbitant cost to taxpayers. “[I had] been in court for 30 years before I got silly and decided to run for DA,” Krasner, the…
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Sen. Cory Booker: We need to protect Robert Mueller from getting fired. My bill does the job.
By Anthony Smith
There’s a growing bipartisan movement in Congress to protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s job — and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is helping to lead the charge. “What we have right now in America is a strange system where a president can order the…
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Ady Barkan: If you were dying like I am, how would you live differently?
By Anthony Smith
In 2016, political activist Ady Barkan and his family were enjoying the perfect summer in paradise. Barkan’s wife, Rachael, had just taken a job teaching English at the University of California. Their son, Carl, was born. Their evenings were filled…
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Adam Grant has 3 lessons for any young person who wants to be successful
By Anthony Smith
Unfortunately, this isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. If your goal is to truly be successful, Adam Grant wants you to put in the work. “I’ve come to think that work-life balance is mostly a myth,” Grant, a Wharton professor and organizational…
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Sen. Bernie Sanders wants harsh penalties for drug executives who mislead public on opioids
By Anthony Smith
For Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the question is simple: What did pharmaceutical executives know, and when did they know it? “Look, it is one thing if somebody comes up with a product that deals with pain and they don’t know that it’s addictive,”…
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Ben Rhodes and Jake Sullivan: If Trump fires Mueller, it will be an emergency. Take action.
By Anthony Smith
Ben Rhodes and Jake Sullivan want you to know that President Donald Trump could get away with firing special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. It all depends on whether or not you take immediate action. “The day…
asha bandele: Prince could still be alive today if America didn’t shame people for using drugs
By Anthony Smith
On the second anniversary of Prince’s tragic death, asha bandele wants us to celebrate his life. “Prince meant freedom for me as a young woman coming of age in the late 1980s and 1990s,” bandele, senior director at the Drug Policy Alliance, said in…
Cory Booker: This 4/20, let’s talk about the racial double standard associated with smoking weed
By Anthony Smith
There’s an undeniable racial double standard for white people who smoke weed and black people who smoke weed — and on this 4/20, Sen. Cory Booker wants us to start talking about it. “We already have marijuana legalization for privileged people in…
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Jeremy Heimans: To truly defeat the NRA, we have to learn from them
By Anthony Smith
Jeremy Heimans believes he’s figured out the secret to the National Rifle Association’s power — and it isn’t necessarily what you think. “The NRA has systematically sought to project this image of its own might, even though it’s actually one of the…
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NY attorney general: Trump’s change to the census will hurt millions of Americans
By Anthony Smith
You might not be alarmed by the Trump administration’s recent decision to ask you about your citizenship status on the 2020 United States Census. Because you’re a citizen or a permanent resident of the United States, you may think this question…
EPA official resigned in protest of Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt
By Anthony Smith
By the end of President Donald Trump’s first year in office, more than 700 workers had fled from the Environmental Protection Agency. Mustafa Ali was one of them. And when it comes to criticizing the “fossil fuel agenda” espoused by Trump and Scott…
Twitter will now allow you to report hate speech against people with disabilities
By Anthony Smith
Following intense pressure from disability rights activists, Twitter announced on Monday that it would now allow users to report tweets directing hate towards people with disabilities. “It’s against our rules to directly attack or threaten someone…
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Igor Volsky: This is how the NRA uses fear to manipulate America
By Anthony Smith
Igor Volsky is here to warn you that there’s a method to the National Rifle Association’s madness. “The NRA’s core message to its base is fear,” Volsky, the director of Guns Down, told Mic. “Be afraid of the press. The resistance. Immigrants.…
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Mayor Mitch Landrieu has a powerful message about race in America that everyone should hear
By Anthony Smith
Mitch Landrieu, the Democratic Mayor of New Orleans, grew up among America’s lingering confederate monuments. He’s seen for himself the long, dark shadow those statues cast over our nation to this day. He says he knows that in order to ensure these…
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Dakota Jablon wants to start a national conversation about gun suicides. For her, it’s personal.
By Anthony Smith
If you were going to paint a picture of the perfect childhood, it would probably look a lot like Dakota Jablon’s. Her parents were loving and supportive. She had a thriving social life and plenty of friends. “I was someone that you could say had it…
Rick Santorum says kids should learn CPR instead of protesting for gun control
By Anthony Smith
In the midst of a national youth movement for commonsense gun control, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum stopped by CNN’s State of the Union Sunday to give students protesters his two cents about their cause. According to Santorum, students…