By SenatorCory V. McCray (D-Md.- 45) Partnerships can conquer tough challenges. Part of my job as a public servant is to find solutions to these challenges, especially when they negatively impact the communities I represent. Since taking office, bringing a grocery store to the heart of East Baltimore has been a challenge. A few factors […]
Category: OPINION
Posted inCommentary
Federal Trade Commission hindering Black economic achievement
By Julianne Malveaux The Biden Administration has been pushing hard for credit for its significant economic successes. Coining the phrase ‘Bidenomics,’ the term is meant to direct attention towards the administration’s striking successful economic agenda. Under President Biden, the rate of inflation has been more than cut in half, employers have created more than 13 […]
Posted inCommentary
Housing is a human right — we need to recognize it
By Farrah Hassen In the wealthiest country on the planet, too many people still lack access to housing. The pandemic revealed the full extent of the U.S. housing crisis. Where were the roughly 580,000 people living unhoused in 2020 to go under “stay at home” orders? And what about those facing eviction? At the same […]
Posted inOPINION
Opinion: Stop saying ‘I am not my ancestors’
By Liz Courquet-Lesaulnier, Word in Black The memes, the reenactments, the folding chair earrings! In the aftermath of the ‘Alabama Brawl,’ Black America has had a lighthearted few days. Folks have been playing the Crime Mob classic “Knuck If You Buck,” making fun of Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” finding out that […]
Posted inOpinion
Cultivating the next crop of America’s farmers
By Danielle Browne America’s farmers are aging. To avoid a crisis, we need to lower the economic barriers of entry for young farmers. I consider my days in the sun as a young, organic farmer to be the most rewarding work I’ve done. The days were long, hot, and unforgiving, but I felt free. Farmers […]
Posted inCommentary
DeSantis and the history hoax: our rightful responsibility to remember and resist
By Dr. Maulana Karenga, Los Angeles Sentinel The barbaric and savage enslavement of African people in this country and indeed, around the world tenaciously asserts itself as a unique and defining moment in the history of humanity, regardless of recent attempts to falsify, minimize, marginalize, distort and deny it. No one with a modicum of […]
Posted inCommentary
I still believe Black women
By ReShonda Tate, The Defender Network Well, folks asked for it, so they got it. Authorities in Alabama have filed criminal charges against Carlee Russell, the woman who confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of an interstate highway. Carlee […]
Posted inCommentary
Education in America: we are not colorblind
By Kerry Mitchell Brown, Ph.D This country has never had equitable and inclusive structures, and colorblindness has never been a thing. The national identity built into our structures, laws, practices, and lived experiences is White supremacist. Race and skin color have always had consequences in this country. Affirmative action was introduced because racist systems and […]
Posted inOpinion
Good jobs will come from a cleaner economy
By Ben Jealous, Special to the AFRO Recently, I traveled from Baltimore, the city where my mother grew up, to Portland, Maine, where my dad did. It’s easy for many to see differences between one of the Blackest cities in America and the largest city in one of America’s whitest states. What always hits me […]
Posted inCommentary
Commentary: Will new federal cigarette policy breed the next Eric Garner?
By Lieutenant Diane Goldstein (Ret.), Special to the AFRO The Biden-Harris Administration recently announced it would finalize a rule to criminalize menthol cigarettes by fall. If the agency follows through with this promise, it will have significant ramifications for the future of the policing profession. The last decade has highlighted just how substantial the racial […]
Posted inCommentary
Federal agency’s equity push will backfire on the Black community
By David J. Byrd One of the most iconic photographs in recent sports history is one of basketball legend Michael Jordan celebrating his fourth NBA championship by holding up three fingers in celebration with a cigar in his mouth. Like millions of other Black Americans, Jordan enjoys the occasional simple pleasure of smoking a celebratory […]
Posted inOpinion
Temporary protected status could save Congolese lives
By Nils Kinuani For decades, the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have faced horrific violence and humanitarian crises as a result of one of the deadliest armed conflicts in modern history. The tragedy has taken more than 5.4 million lives. While I am fortunate to have found safety in the United […]