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Arnold Rampersad on Receiving the National Humanities Medal
In a quiet moment of recognition at the White House last week, President Barack Obama awarded the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal to 20 honorees. The medals are the highest government honors for outstanding achievements in art, history, literature, education and cultural policy. “In a nation as big as ours, as…
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Rep. Andre Carson: Muslims Are the Wrong Focus of Radicalization Hearings
In today’s political climate, Islam is viewed in increasingly sinister terms. Extremist. Terrorist. Fundamentalist. Alarm over the supposedly growing radicalization of Muslims stateside, fueled by al-Qaeda operatives targeting Muslim American youth, is behind a controversial congressional hearing this week. Supporters of the Muslim-focused hearing, scheduled for Thursday by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), say that it’s necessary…
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The Lingering Questions About Human Medical Experiments
The specter of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study inevitably looms over talk of human subjects in medical research. The well-known case involved the U.S. Public Health Service, which, from 1932 to 1972, studied hundreds of black men in Alabama with syphilis, failing to inform them of their diagnosis or treat their condition. From this striking example…
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Shutdown Averted, For Now
Two days before funding for government services was scheduled to run out, on Tuesday Congress passed a bill to temporarily finance the government for two weeks. The short-term solution also came with $4 billion in cuts to current federal spending. Making it easier for Democrats to get on board, those reductions hit areas that President…
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Looking on the 'Bright Side' of the Budget
As a nod to both the last day of Black History Month and impending federal budget cuts (two areas with more in common, apparently, than one might think), on Monday the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.) hosted a forum dedicated to investing in communities of color. Dr. Elsie Scott, president…
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Unemployed Need Not Apply
Jacqueline Berrien, chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, says that the calls and e-mails started trickling in last summer. Members of Congress passed along complaints they’d received from frustrated constituents. Advocacy groups sent examples of peculiar help-wanted ads and news reports. All had the same concern. Across the country, it seemed, employers and recruitment…
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Inside the White House Tribute to the Motown Sound
See videos of the White House Motown Tribute. “As we come to the end of Black History Month, I can’t think of a better way to do it than by honoring the legendary sound of Motown.” And so President Barack Obama kicked off “The Motown Sound: In Performance at the White House,” a concert on…
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What the DOMA Decision Means for Black LGBT Families
Big news from the Department of Justice, which announced that President Obama ordered the administration to stop fighting for Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act. He’s decided that the federal law, which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, discriminates against gay spouses and, therefore, is unconstitutional. It remains in…
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Unemployment Benefits: Extend Them or End Them?
Every few months, a renewed debate seems to play out in Congress over extending unemployment benefits. Republicans claim that, given the deficit, extending benefits is fiscally irresponsible. (Some also argue that it discourages people from looking for work because apparently they’d rather sit around collecting meager checks.) Democrats counter that, in light of the country’s…
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Black, Red and Proud
In a 1920 edition of the Journal of Negro History, Carter G. Woodson observed, “One of the longest unwritten chapters in the history of the United States is that treating of the relations of the Negroes and the Indians.” “Red/Black: Related Through History,” a new exhibit at Indianapolis’ Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
