Last week, June 8-11, more than 450 attendees, including 132 HBCU students, came together in Orlando, Fla., for the National Urban League’s 42nd annual Black Executive Exchange Program (BEEP) Leadership Conference. BEEP, the National Urban League’s longest running direct service program, is a partnership involving the business community, government and non-profit institutions which places African-American […]
Category: OPINION
Posted inCommentary
Bringing Broadband to Every County: Wiring Maryland for the Innovation Economy
No one should be left out or left behind in this new innovation economy. A digital divide separates those who have access to technology from those who don’t – and that’s why I’m fighting to bridge that divide by bringing broadband to every county in Maryland. Whether you’re building a boat on the Eastern Shore […]
Posted inCommentary
Notes on Getting out of the Partisan Trap
A pitched debate in Black political and academic circles about President Barack Obama’s commitment to fighting for a Black Agenda has broken into the mainstream media with a bang. The Washington Post, MSNBC, 60 Minutes, and The Amsterdam News have each noted aspects of the story over the last two weeks. Leading the criticism is Dr. […]
Posted inCommentary
A Letter from Michelle Obama: Meet Alex
As families around the country get together to celebrate fathers today, I’m thinking about dads like Alex. Alex is the father of two boys and two girls, ages six to 13. During the week, he works the 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift as a front-desk supervisor at a Seattle hotel. After work and on […]
Posted inCommentary
‘Virginity Tests’ Will Spark Egypt’s Next Revolution
There’s a thin line between sex and politics, and it is nonsense to keep repeating the mantra that Egypt’s revolution “wasn’t about gender.” What revolution worth its salt can be fuelled by demands of freedom and dignity and not have gender nestled in its beating heart – especially in a country replete with misogyny, religious […]
Posted inCommentary
The Argument Against Double Standards in Education
New York City has become the latest battleground in the national fight for education equality. In some schools, hallways serve as a stark dividing line. Classrooms with peeling paint and insufficient resources sit on one side, while new computers, smartboards and up-to-date textbooks line the other. One group of students is taught in hallways and […]
Posted inEditorial
The Battle for the Future of Maryland’s HBCU’s
In 2006, a group (the “Coalition”) consisting of friends and supporters, alumni and students of some of the area’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) organized to initiate action they individually and collectively believed needed to be taken to address inequities which the State has for too long failed to correct. At issue was a […]
Posted inCommentary
Honest Criticism is not Betrayal; It’s Democratic
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – A very troubling pattern is developing within certain segments of the African-American community. There’s a concerted effort by some within the community to silence those who are offering honest, valid, and well thought through analysis and criticism of the Obama administration. Radio host Tom Joyner recently told his audience that those who criticize […]
Posted inCommentary
Irish and African Americans changed US history
“As diverse cultures, we struggled as migrants. That struggle led us both to the White House,” writes MARTIN O’MALLEY AS BARACK Obama visits Ireland for the first time as president, I am reminded of a simple gesture of kindness that altered the course of American history. In October 1960, Dr Martin Luther King Jr was […]
Posted inCommentary
Venezuela’s African Roots
In Black in Latin America, a four-part series that recently aired on PBS, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. uncovered a side of the region that has long been known but for just as long hidden – the African heritage of many of its people. Gates traveled to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, […]
Posted inCommentary
Is America Still a Serious Nation?
When our evolving democratic system became so skewed that financial capital multiplied under control of miniscule elements in America that were sufficiently powerful to corrupt our political system, wars could and have been waged in support of those interests. Recall the departing words of the Republican President Eisenhower who knew so well the horrors of […]
Posted inCommentary
Un-“Common” Thoughts
Recently, Michelle Obama hosted an “Evening of Poetry” at the White House. She invited an eclectic group of poets to recite their poetry. But, Fox News and right wing radio has singled out one performer—the Grammy award winning rapper Common—to be on the receiving end of their ire. I don’t listen to his music, but […]