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What Obama Should Say to Congress Tonight
For President Obama, questions before the State of the Union abound about what, exactly, a State of the Union is supposed to be: halftime locker-room speech or the loser’s postgame press conference. What we do know is that the yearly exercise now known more as #SOTU (because it’s easier like that) is a window into…
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Legalized Marijuana: Will White People Get All the Good Weed?
If the president of the United States says legalizing marijuana is all good, then it must be, right? If the first two states to fully legalize pot are sending their NFL teams to the Super Bowl, then the green stuff must not be all that bad, correct? And if 55 percent of Americans are fine…
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The President Should Attack Out-of-Control College Costs
Seeking a reprieve from Republicans, Edward Snowden and the website that couldn’t, President Obama and the first lady held a feel-good event to push the issue of expanding college opportunity. There were lots of smiles, bucket-loads of remarks on heavy policy lifts and the sense that the White House would do its best to guarantee…
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Senate Democrats Can’t Win Without Black Votes
If you are unaware of a congressional midterm election this year, you may very well wake up the morning of Nov. 5 and slam “WTF” into your Twitter feed. Also sad will be the quizzical looks of other black voters upon learning that they were crucial to the nation’s electoral fate. The exit polling will…
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Cory Booker and Rand Paul: Why Are These 2 New BFFs?
In the current political environment, it appears as strange a mismatch of bedfellows as any in recent memory. But something in the water on Capitol Hill is connecting freshman senator and social media maven Cory Booker (D-N.J.) with ranting Tea Party and libertarian idol Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). At first glance, it’s the Odd Couple…
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Immigration Debate Ignores Highly Skilled Black Workers
As a two-year budget conjures up illusions of congressional comity and President Obama is desperate for a legislative recharge, there is much hype about a big immigration deal on the horizon. But, despite the huge political, economic and cultural implications for the country, black folks have little skin in the game. How did that happen?…
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Conservatives Are Awfully Silent About Jahi McMath
A peculiar thing happened on the way to Children’s Hospital Oakland as Jahi McMath lay in a coma and her family openly sparred with doctors over keeping her alive: You didn’t see any conservative or Republican politicians on it. The family’s tragedy is, ultimately, what’s most important here: They reached a delicate agreement with the…
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Jobless-Benefits Cutoff: Happy New Year From Congress!
When you’ve lost your unemployment benefits, like more than a million Americans this past weekend, there’s not much to look forward to in the current political environment. Members of Congress, convinced that they did enough to extinguish a do-nothing narrative, bounced quickly to enjoy their trees full of gifts and dining tables lined with gut-busting…
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Broke at Christmas? Maybe the Digital Divide Isn’t So Bad
For many of us—hapless, shopping-till-we-drop souls duped into endless Black Friday specials, last-minute mall runs and online discounts—the holiday never ends until well after the New Year. That’s when the sticker shock of credit card bills and drained checking accounts sets in like a street mugging. And in a few weeks, many stressed American families—who…
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Black Power Activists Accused Government of Spying, but They Weren’t Called Heroes
Perhaps we’ve got our definitions of “hero” twisted, but I have yet to hear a convincing take on what makes Edward Snowden one. Ultimately, this cat is not the post-modern neo-geek who hacktivists and fake libertarians profess him to be. All I’m picking up is yet another middle-class Caucasian kid road-tripping the globe—putting our international…
