Category: Commentary

“Stop that! I’m not going to tell you again.” I am sure many of you have heard your parents say those words more than once. Why? Because you always repeated what they told you not to do, right? Now that we are adults ourselves, some of us who are consciously aware of the state of […]

In January, the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Regional Office was the slowest processing center in the nation with more than 20,000 pending claims. In January, the average wait for claims to be processed in Baltimore was averaging almost one year. I was outraged and personally offended that our veterans were being treated with disrespect by not […]

We’re Black and African-Americans. We’re Negroes. We are not, and have never been the “n” word. We are not better than any other race, nor is there any race better than us. It was that kind of deluded thinking that gave birth to the “n” word. One race created the belief that they were superior […]

The recently released University System of Maryland report on Coppin State University has generated mixed reaction among Coppin supporters and other observers of Historically Black Colleges across the country. The most generous of individuals reacting to the report give the University System of Maryland and the state of Maryland the benefit of the doubt as […]

When President Obama and the first lady travel to Africa at the end of this month, they will receive a rapturous greeting. The president’s deep roots in Kenya, the land of his father, resonate throughout the continent. His success in the United States evokes pride and joy in Africa. I write this from Nigeria, a […]

“The enduring hope is that race should not matter; the reality is that too often it does.” –        Anthony Kennedy, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Soon, in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the U.S. Supreme Court may issue a ruling that could seriously limit or altogether eliminate the use of affirmative action […]

The Reverend Harold Alfonzo Carter was a divine, Godly prophet, whose life was sparkling and momentous in the pulpit. While the senior pastor at the New Shiloh Baptist Church in Baltimore, he invited acclaimed giants in the ministry such as Gardner Taylor, E.V. Hill, E.K. Bailey, John Bryant, A.C.D.Vaughn and William Jones to share his […]

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached a message that was strikingly applicable to the lives of modern day civil rights leaders and leaders of America’s future. In the pulpit of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta only five days before he was assassinated, Dr. King meticulously outlined the anatomy of what he called the “drum […]

I drank the Kool-Aid, too, back in ’08. I fell in love with the symbolism of a black family in the White House. I believed in his campaign slogan of “Hope and Change” and his story of being a biracial, Harvard-educated community organizer in the ghettos of Chicago. I was the first on my D.C. […]

Despite gridlock in the House of Representatives, there are threats to public health and safety that are so compelling that basic humanity demands bipartisan action. One of those challenges is protecting our supply of essential medicines. According to drug shortage tracking conducted by the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, drug […]

Affirmative action raises difficult questions of access and fairness. Opponents argue that it discriminates against whites while proponents emphasize that it increases opportunities for underrepresented minorities. While concerns about fairness limit the scope and frequency of affirmative action, minority underrepresentation in highly selective colleges and universities continues to validate its use. For almost forty years […]

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was there, at one of the largest rallies for human rights, that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. King and all those gathered in Washington, D.C., […]