Category: Commentary

Remember the March on Washington? August 28, 1963. Tens of thousands of activists on the National Mall. A preacher’s son from Atlanta talking about his dream for the country. We don’t need a history lesson. Even if we weren’t at the March itself – even for those like me, who were not yet born – […]

I typically don’t write about professional athletes doing stupid things because I have absolutely no interest and it serves no purpose. But Riley Cooper’s actions from last month can be very instructive and deserves my attention. Riley Cooper is about to begin his fourth season as a wide receiver with Philadelphia Eagles of the N.F.L. […]

Next month, the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the U.S., will hold its convention in Los Angeles. Breaking with tradition, the AFL-CIO will be opening its doors to community-based organizations, limiting the number of plenary speakers, and seeking to focus its resolutions on “action items” such as proposals that aim to produce […]

I have seen examples of corruption throughout my life. Some has been petty and some had potentially serious implications and outcomes. I have avoided or turned down 96 percent of the attempts made on me but I am sure there are many who haven’t. How do you avoid it? It is easy, according to then-Mozambique […]

As President Obama and America move forward with full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, this nation continues to be embroiled in the fundamental struggle for human dignity that Dr. King addressed at the Lincoln Memorial 50 years ago. Although the President did not stress this historic perspective during his seminal remarks on economic renewal […]

Several of us were sharing our views on radio Sunday night with Gary Byrd when my friend and colleague Cash Michaels urged us to remember that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated while organizing poor people. This is a good time to remember that as President Obama seeks ways to strengthen the middle class […]

The U.S. Senate finally stepped up to ensure that student loan rates would not double. There have been weeks of back and forth, but now senators says they will tie student loan rates to the federal funds rate, which means that in the short-run the lowest student loan rates will be 3.86 percent, up slightly […]

The making of the Black man into Public Enemy Number 1 began long before a rainy, dark night in a gated Florida community where a White person with a gun would be seen as a gun enthusiast — a Second Amendment scholar — but a Black man with a gun could only be a thug. […]

As we embark upon another debate about whether Baltimore should sell bonds and offer tax incentives to aid in the development of a billion-dollar harbor development project, some old points of view are being resurrected. Many will argue the efficacy of the city investing millions of dollars in a development project, but what is missing […]

For more than four years, I have said that I liked candidate Barack Obama better than I like President Obama. Candidate Obama addressed the question of race head-on when pressured to distance himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the Chicago pastor who led him to Christianity. But President Obama has been a different story. According to […]

PHILADELPHIA–The stench of injustice has spilled over with the nauseating smell of institutional murder once again. Left unchanged, this injustice will linger until the next injustice, and the next case…until we finally get it: public policy, in the form of reparations, is the solution to all of our social ills and the injustices that frame […]

I’ve been talking with my friends about what they are telling their children about what happened to Trayvon Martin. What Black men and women are saying to their sons. What Black men and women are saying to their daughters. What everyone else, from all other backgrounds, are saying to their children, their loved ones, their […]