President Barack Obama should lead a forceful drive to revive the Voting Rights Act, which was effectively disemboweled by the Supreme Court’s recent decision. All celebrate the 1965act as the most consequential civil rights legislation of the past century. Its passage was central to the building of the New South, opening the way to attracting […]
Category: OPINION
Posted inEditorial
A Century of Service Amid a Sea of Red
On a bright, blazing Sunday morning with the lush green hills, thatched roofs and red clay roads snaking through the Royal Ezulwini Valley of region of Swaziland like a picture perfect postcard, a delegation of Delta Sigma Theta sorority members and guests were immediately moved to dig in their red purses to raise enough money […]
Posted inCommentary
On a Path Toward Re-segregation
There are demographic changes occurring in the United States that will change politics and public policy and make this country a more humane and equitable place. In another 20 to 30 years the U.S. will be a majority-minority country and White supremacy will be a discredited idea of the past. But we are not living […]
Posted inEditorial
When Truth Overshadows Polished Testimony
Author James Baldwin said: “It is not the black child’s language that is in question, it is not their language that is despised. It is their experience.” This telling quotation about the racial divide in America is rotating around the cyberspace circuit in reaction to the crass criticism being hurled at Rachel Jeantel, the 19-year-old […]
Posted inCommentary
A Shameful Decision on Voting by the Supreme Court
The Voting Rights Act has been described as the “crown jewel” of civil rights legislation. Its passage was secured with the courage, grit and blood of activists throughout the south, like Fannie Lou Hamer who endured beating simply for trying to register to vote in Mississippi, Medgar Evers who was murdered by a White supremacist, […]
Posted inCommentary
Standing Up for Our Voting Rights
Until its June 25 decision in the Shelby County v. Holder voting rights case, the Supreme Court had respected the express constitutional authority granted to the Congress by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. It had been clear that voting rights legislation would be upheld against facial attacks as long as the congressional legislation was rationally […]
Posted inEditorial
Paula Deen’s Stew
Here’s the dry rub about the whole celebrity cook Paula Deen BBQ: it’s really no great shock that a Low Country Southern woman of a certain age once used the “N-word,” or maybe still does privately on occasion. To keep it real, too many African Americans disparage their own with that painful racial moniker all […]
Posted inCommentary
Higher Education Action Agenda Needed
At 5:00 a.m., careful not to wake her daughter and two sleeping grandsons, Helen gets dressed for the morning shift at a D.C. hotel kitchen. “My supervisor is a kid. I hate it, but this job is all that’s keeping us from moving back to the shelter,” Helen told me, adding that, if they get […]
Posted inCommentary
Stop Spending and Start Producing
“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 […]
Posted inCommentary
Affirmative Action Polls Show Deep Racial Gulf
In the months leading up to this week’s Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, a public opinion poll by ABC News and the Washington Post showed that 76 percent of Americans oppose affirmative action in college admissions. However, a poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute showed that 68 percent of Americans favor the […]
Posted inCommentary
I Will Reflect, Not Celebrate
My political consciousness was forged on an anvil not made of iron or steel, but books and music. My parents supplied me with the good stuff that prevented me from achieving bliss because ignorance was never an option. Let’s talk records. In 1988, during the golden age of hip-hop, I was given a copy of […]
Posted inEditorial
Is Oprah’s $12 Million Gift Being Wisely Used?
Twelve million dollars? Now who could get twisted about media mogul Oprah Winfrey donating $12 million to the Smithsonian Institution’s African American History Museum, being erected prominently on the National Mall? Surprisingly a number of silly souls do, if you troll the web. Ah, the web: A miraculous minefield for all manner of mindless misinformation. […]
