Author Archives: Lee A. Daniels

In office just nine months, Ted Cruz, the junior Republican Senator from Texas, has already established himself as that body’s most divisive force since the witch-hunting, 1950s demagogue, Joe McCarthy. A darling of the most extreme factions of the conservative movement, Cruz exemplifies what was obvious about the GOP’s fortunes since the Tea Party emerged […]

For someone who seems to revel in being silent during the Supreme Court’s traditionally lively oral arguments – when a public display of his professional competence would be appropriate – Clarence Thomas’s out-of-court comments are extraordinarily revealing. They show a man whose exalted position has brought him no inner peace, a man who continues to […]

On March 4 Oberlin College in Ohio, which has always had an outsized role in the history of Black higher education, cancelled classes for a day and instead held a “Day of Solidarity” in response to a month-long series of hate speech being scrawled on various buildings, doors, and posters throughout the campus. The words […]

I’ve always disliked the way Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday is often celebrated. The reasons why became even clearer to me these past few days, as the importance of considering King’s life and work was juxtaposed against three other developments: the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation; the celebration of Barack Obama’s second inaugural as […]