Category: OPINION

We are isolating persons infected and affected by the Ebola crisis, but not along the lines the medical and public health sectors are promoting as a strategic response to the outbreak. Rather, America’s response to the recent Ebola outbreak throughout much of its deadly march across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone has been largely one […]

The Leadership Conference of Civil Rights (LCCR), a coalition of more than 200 human rights groups, has issued a new congressional report card that reaches the same conclusion that similar analyses by the NAACP has reached in recent years: When it comes to issues important to the civil rights community, every Republican in the House […]

Marc H. Morial In recent weeks, the latest major steps towards realizing the Brown v. Board of Education guarantee that education “is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms” have been taken. First, on September 22, the National Urban League launched the second phase of our Put Our Children 1st […]

Gwen McKinney, president of Washington, DC-based McKinney & Associates. Primetime entertainment is all the buzz as the fall lineup goes into full-throttle. What does Anthony Anderson’s Black-ish and Eddie Huang’s Fresh Off the Boat have in common with Shonda Rhimes’ How to Get Away with Murder? And what makes those new shows different from Homeland, […]

Debbie Hines As we start Domestic Violence Month, now might be a good time for the Baltimore Ravens to step up their game against domestic violence. There is no need to wait for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and his self-imposed deadline of the Super Bowl to take action against domestic violence. Just this week, Seattle […]

Rep. Elijah Cummings Experienced law enforcement officers understand that maintaining the public’s trust is essential to fulfilling their oath to “protect and defend” our communities.  They also realize, however, that this critically important foundation of their legitimacy has been severely damaged by recent events. For the public and our police officers alike, we must work […]

Lauren Victoria Burke It’s been two months since Daniel Pantaleo strangled Eric Garner, 48, to death on a sidewalk in Staten Island, N.Y. Darren Wilson shot 18-year-old Michael Brown to death on August 9. Since then, there has been nothing but silence from Officers Pantaleo and Wilson. The police killings have also been met with […]

Julianne Malveaux The Supreme Court recently blocked an appeals court ruling that would have restored seven days of voting in Ohio. In just three sentences, the court reduced voting access for tens of thousands of Ohioans, in yet another effort to suppress the vote. In North Carolina, the appeals court granted an injunction to restore […]

Dr. Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank. The World Bank’s rumor mill has been abuzz with “the Asians are taking over the World Bank” whispers since Dr. Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-born American, became the first non-Caucasian president in the World Bank. Of the 12 top management brass, including the President and those […]

Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand, it never did and never will.” I often wonder what Black people do not understand about that statement. We love to quote it, but when it comes to putting it into practice; we fall far short of the spirit of Douglass’ words. Maybe Douglass should have […]

George E. Curry After being confirmed as the nation’s first African-American U.S. attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr. wasted little time putting everyone on notice that he would not tip-toe around the volatile subject of race. “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always […]

Phillip Jackson Recently in Chicago, a city where only 9 percent of 8th-grade Black boys reads proficiently and where thousands of Black boys have been killed and maimed over the past few years, the MacArthur Foundation passed out “Genius Awards” to people who were musicians, authors, scientists and poets.  In their way, the MacArthur Awards […]