By Heather Heiman Human trafficking survivors often struggle with poor credit and other financial challenges after their trafficking experience, particularly if they were a victim of identity theft or financial coercion. Traffickers often seize victims’ identification, such as driver’s licenses, passports or ID cards, and may misuse them to fraudulently secure credit cards, bank accounts, […]
Category: Opinion
Posted inCommentary
The HBCU conversation on gun violence is long overdue
By Ron Taylor Scuttling homecoming at an historically Black college or university is like canceling a flight on the Concorde or pushing back a U.S. presidential inauguration a week or two. And if such events are postponed to clean up carnage from a petty dispute over drugs, sex or hurt feelings, well, someone has to […]
Posted inCommentary
Commentary: The Black middle class of Baltimore County needs attention too
By Ryan Coleman, randallstownnaacp@gmail.com The median wealth for a U.S. White family was $171,000 in 2021, according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent numbers. That number was $17,600 and $20,700 for Black and Latino or Hispanic families, respectively. This huge gulf in wealth warrants a distinct policy agenda for Black families who, even if they […]
Posted inOPINION
The clean energy transition must be a just transition
By Ben Jealous When General Motors, Chrysler and Ford – the “Big Three” American automakers – were close to extinction 15 years ago, their workers and the American people stepped in to save them. The United Auto Workers (UAW) gave back wages and benefits they had every right to get under a contract they had […]
Posted inCommentary
Consumers deserve to have choices in the grocery store: Lawmakers should reverse course on misguided SNAP restrictions
By John Burnett Amidst Congress’ best efforts to keep the government open, it’s also hard at work to re-authorize affordable food, farmers are able to insure their crops, and ranchers can export their products to foreign markets. It’s not an understatement to say it’s one of the most important bills Congress can send to the […]
Posted inCommentary
Black Americans need better immigration policy
By Andre Barnes Growing up on the rural farms of Halifax, Va., I pulled tobacco just like my great-grandfather Roosevelt, a sharecropper who provided for his family until he died in his late 80s. Just a generation before him, his father was a slave. In the late 1990s, as I edged closer to high school […]
Posted inCommentary
Poverty just jumped— and it was no accident
By Lakeisha McVey I’ve lived and studied poverty most of my life. But you don’t have to be an expert to see why it’s spiking after lawmakers let antipoverty programs expire. After hitting a record low of 7.8 percent in 2021, new data shows the government’s Supplemental Poverty Measure jumped to 12.4 percent last year. […]
Posted inOPINION
Disrespect and deception: we’re looking at you, Tim Scott and Eric Johnson
By Claude Cummings, Jr. As this was being written, I was proudly representing Communications Workers of America’s members during the 52nd Annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Legislative Conference. Since its inception, the CBC has passionately supported the interests of the Black community and worked to ensure that we have an equal voice in public policy. […]
Posted inCommentary
A call to action: how rites of passage can combat attacks on the minds of Black boys
By Dayvon Love One of the central elements of the condition of Black youth in the U.S. is that they are being socialized in a society full of dehumanizing systems. Pop culture, public education, politics and a host of other societal messages bombard Black youth with the idea that they are worthless. If we are […]
Posted inCommentary
Mind full or mindful? Normalizing mental health for Black men
By Maurice Carroll Black male children are born into a culture where their way of life is showered with doubt, untrustworthiness and systems of racism. Worries of White supremacy and high expectations –both self-imposed and externally forced – all take a back seat on the day that a Black boy is born, but what about […]
Posted inCommentary
Commentary: Tell the Maryland Public Service Commission to reject BGE’s proposed rate hike
By Ryan Coleman, Special to the AFRO Marylanders already have a higher cost of living than the United States average. In fact, Maryland is the sixth most expensive state in the country. If you live in the Randallstown, Woodlawn or Towson areas, you already spend nearly 7 percent above the national cost of living average. […]
Posted inOPINION
Opinion: Will Judge Tanya S. Chutkan be fair to Donald Trump? I think so.
By Andrellos Mitchell I have been a lawyer for nearly 29 years and a member of the Washington, D.C. Bar for 22 years. I have also been an active member of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia since 1996. I have practiced law in that court in the Bankruptcy and Civil Divisions. If memory […]
