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Grand White Party
The GOP has a problem. Well, two. One of them has just been inaugurated with an approval rating near 70 percent—but the other is going to be just as hard to fight. You see, as former Bush speechwriter David Frum put it on NPR, the Republican Party is the “party of white America.” And in…
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Black President, White Hands?
In the four years since the “skinny kid with a funny name” vaulted to national prominence, President Barack Obama’s face has been subject to countless artistic riffs and interpretations—many of them for sale. Kitschy knickknacks inspired by Obama, from “rednecks for Obama” T-shirts to “the audacity of soap” cleaning products, are a boom industry. None…
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Of Thee, I Sing
In 1939, an American contralto singer named Marian Anderson stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered a rousing hymn to her country—even though she was barred, as a black woman, from performing at the nearby Constitution Hall. On Inauguration Day 2009, Aretha Franklin called the same song—”My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”—back from…
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Still 'On Fire'
On Election Night 2008, a jangling, inter-ethnic mob in Washington, D.C. toasted Barack Obama’s presidential victory, stopping traffic at 14th and U streets—the same crossroads where, 40 years earlier, in April, Bobby Kennedy had signed autographs at a campaign rally, and where Stokely Carmichael and other members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee had crouched,…
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The Inaugural Poet
The selection of Yale professor and poet Elizabeth Alexander to write and deliver a poem at the inauguration of Barack Obama marks not only the return of poetry to a place of prominence in presidential history (she is only the fourth to read at a presidential swearing-in), but represents a true mind-meld between the president-elect…
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Best of 2008: Dayo Olopade's Picks
GOODBYE TO A STANDUP BROTHER : Since his sudden and untimely death on June 13, it’s been said that no newsman would have enjoyed Campaign 2008, and its historic climax, more than Tim Russert. Gwen Ifill’s smart and surprisingly emotional reflection, “Goodbye to a Stand-Up Brother,” on the death of NBC’s Washington bureau chief is…
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The First Family Thanksgiving
Being elected leader of the Free World—now there’s something to give thanks for! Intense national interest in your feelings about cranberry sauce, not so much. You win some, you lose some. As the Obamas enter the holiday season as first family-in-waiting, Americans are eager for insight into their celebrations. After all, how they spend Turkey…
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Mr. Obama's Neighborhood
Chicago, the town where Barack Obama arrived without knowing a soul in 1985, is suddenly the center of the political world and—if past and present trends are any indication—will continue to wield considerable influence after Obama sets up shop in the White House. Obama loves Chicago and doesn’t mind governing from home. He held his…
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What We Did
Now that Barack Obama has claimed the presidency, it’s natural to wonder how and with whom he will govern. To pull America out of the multiple and mounting crises that it now confronts, he needs the House and Senate to be a well-oiled legislative machine. The fresh wave of Democratic candidates that surged into Congress…
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Red State, Black Ties
It’s amazing to think that, in the closing weeks of this election, the once solidly Republican state of Virginia has moved squarely into Barack Obama’s column. Obama has made sure to do little to rock the boat, and his army of backers has been coached to stay on message lest the red-staters who have come…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
