A young Wayne Dawkins, left, with his mother, Tompkins Park, Brooklyn, circa 1956. (Courtesy photo) By Wayne Dawkins Special to the AFRO Here is a centennial story. She never learned to drive a car and didn’t try. Yet she traveled far and near, all over tri-state metropolitan New York, to Panama and to Canada, by […]
Author Archives: Wayne Dawkins
Posted inOPINION
Calif. coup averted; stop Jim Crow in Fla. and Texas
By Wayne Dawkins Special to the AFRO Here is some chilling arithmetic: Three states control 28% of the U.S. population, 90.4 million of 331-plus million people, according to the latest U.S. Census count. These numbers are a big deal because Republican governors from the two southern power states are committed to driving their people back […]
Posted inNEWS
On 20th anniversary of 9/11, remember storytellers
By Wayne Dawkins Special to the AFRO Sonya Ross, Associated Press White House correspondent, was traveling with President George W. Bush on Sept. 11 when all hell broke loose. The 43rd president was at a Sarasota, Fla. elementary school to witness a class of mostly Black first graders who could read exceptionally well, reported CNN […]
Posted inNEWS
Multiple barriers hinder vaccine response, HBCU grads preside over major news networks
Kim Godwin, left, is a Florida A&M University alumna and is now the president of ABC News and Rashida Jones, right, is a Hampton University alumna and is now the president of MSNBC News. By Wayne Dawkins Special to the AFRO In Maryland, the fifth Blackest U.S. state, 31% of Whites, but only 15% of […]
Posted inOPINION
Multiracial U.S. sure to make left, right combatants uncomfortable
(l – r) Chrissy Teigen, Naomi Osaka, and Jason Namakaeha Momoa By Wayne Dawkins Special to the AFRO Item: “First drop in U.S. White population” , Aug. 13 Washington Post front page. Here are bottom lines: During the past 20 years, the Latinx and Asian populations doubled to 18% and 6% of Americans respectively. The […]
Posted inOPINION
Can Fudge sweeten Black home ownership?
Congresswoman Marcia Fudge By Wayne Dawkins Special to the AFRO In American former ghettos, housing is hot because of gentrification. A few weeks ago, my mind was blown. While in New York, some friends asked me to roll by a block party inside our old elementary school playground in Bedford-Stuyvesant. When I exited the Bedford-Nostrand […]
Posted in!Front Page
Critical race theory, aliens and domestic pranksters
Derrick Bell (Courtesy photo) By Wayne Dawkins Special to the AFRO Thirty years ago, there was an HBO movie titled “Comic Slop” that included a wicked segment, “Space Traders.” Aliens entered earth’s atmosphere and broadcast this message to America: We will clean up your pollution and balance your budgets if you give us something valuable […]
Posted in!Front Page
Get vaccinated, live in peace and prosper
Vaccination rates among Americans have slowed downs. (Courtesy photo) By Wayne Dawkins Special to the AFRO Ninety-nine percent of Americans who have been hospitalized with coronavirus are persons who did not get vaccinated, reported webMD.com, citing a May report. Meanwhile, Yale University this week reported that because of this year’s vaccination campaign, 279,000 covid deaths […]
Posted inNEWS
No, thank you: Nikole Hannah-Jones: Carolina’s loss is Howard U’s gain
Nikole Hannah-Jones is interviewed at her home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Tuesday, July 6, 2021. Hannah-Jones says she will not teach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill following an extended fight over tenure. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) By Wayne Dawkins Thanks, but no thanks. That is what Nikole Hannah-Jones said […]
Posted inOPINION
4th of July fun is back, yet fortify freedom
By Wayne Dawkins Special to the AFRO I love July 4: the heat, hot dogs, watermelon slices, flags and fireworks. A ritual of mine is to listen to NPR’s dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence. A professional highlight was covering a 1980s celebration at Philadelphia Independence Hall. That was during the pre-internet days. Not […]
Posted inOPINION
Commentary: Whitewashing American history will backfire
(Courtesy of Austin Library of Congress) By Wayne Dawkins Special to the AFRO Actually, on June 17, I was skeptical when President Biden sat down and signed the paper that made Juneteenth a national holiday. As one colleague said, the act gave her whiplash. Where did this change come from? We’ve been consumed with George […]
Posted inOPINION
They’re right here, yet Santorum’s clueless about Indians
Rick Santorum, a CNN conservative talking head, was canceled by that network for saying Indians aka Native Americans “contributed nothing” to America. (Courtesy photo) By Wayne Dawkins Special to the AFRO Rick Santorum, a CNN conservative talking head, was canceled by that network for saying Indians aka Native Americans “contributed nothing” to America. “We birthed […]