Category: OPINION

Oscar H. Blayton Twitter “blew up” Friday night with the hashtag #Nerdland after word got around that Melissa Harris-Perry was being “dogged out” by MSNBC, the network that tries to position itself as the antidote to Fox News.  In an email to her staff at the MHP show that afternoon, the talented scholar described the […]

Marian Wright Edelman Many of us have been thrilled by the video of 106-year-old mentor and school volunteer Mrs. Virginia McLaurin visiting the White House during a Black History Month celebration to meet – and dance with – President and Mrs. Obama. Her joy in being there and fulfilling her dream of meeting the first […]

James Clingman The “Silly Season,” as many call it, is well under way, and Black people are up to our necks in it. The usual suspects are jockeying for position with certain presidential candidates. They arevying for the Black spokesperson position, knocking one another down as they rush toward the microphones and cameras. They are […]

Melanie L. Campbell According to published reports, the city is experiencing a population boom for the first time in decades. With this comes a baby boom. Young people are moving to the city and they will want to stay here and raise families.  At the same time, our city is experiencing a growth in the […]

George H. Lambert Jr. Entrepreneurship drives business, whether it’s the corner shop or a Fortune 500 corporation. Because the federal government isn’t always known for its innovation or appetite for risk, people may not realize that in recent years, the nation’s capital has become a major force in the startup world, rivaling Silicon Valley and […]

Marian Wright Edelman The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is in the final stages of construction on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., next to the Washington Monument and near the National Museum of American History. It will be a transformative and long-overdue landmark in the center of the nation’s […]

James Clingman One thing is for sure: Black folks are enjoying this latest political mating dance with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Sanders is discovering Black people in South Carolina and Georgia, and Clinton has reopened the “leading Blacks” vault to rediscover their loyalty and willingness to present her to the Black electorate one mo’ […]

Kimberle’ Crenshaw and Luke Charles Harris (Twitter Photos) In American society, we claim to support freedom of speech as a cornerstone of our democracy. Yet, when it comes to certain kinds of information, the freedom celebrated by many first amendment absolutists mysteriously disappears. If materials threaten the basis for White supremacy, censorship suddenly becomes justifiable. […]

George E. Curry President Obama has announced that despite threats from Republican leaders, he plans to nominate someone to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia.  I hope he ignores the advice of Vice President Joe Biden who wants him to select someone who isn’t staunchly liberal.  Biden said, “… […]

Dr. E. Faye Williams TriceEdney — Like most Americans, I was shocked to learn that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died. His decisions and many of his remarks showed us to be polar opposites in political and social thinking.  The nature and substance of the controversy and debate between Justice Scalia and his detractors […]

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump answers questions from reporters. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate who is maintaining his frontrunner status, has recently been reported as attracting White supremacists to his racially-incendiary campaign. Here is how it has been reported as working: White nationalists groups will carry a newspaper with a Donald […]