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The End of the Southern Strategy?
(The Root) — So much of this election cycle has focused on political maneuvers straight out of the Jim Crow era: voter-ID laws designed to suppress minority votes and race-baiting, ad hominem attacks on the president that have sought to frame him outside the American mainstream — which is sadly still considered white by default,…
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Hurricane Sandy: Winds of Political Change?
(The Root) — The winds of change have come from an unlikely source. Near the end of a bitterly contested presidential election, Hurricane Sandy has offered a rare opportunity for bipartisan agreement and national unity. But it comes at a high cost. The sound and fury brings with it a death toll of more than…
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Election 2012 and the Deep Racial Divide
(The Root) — Last week, four-star retired general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama’s re-election bid. Powell, a lifelong Republican, broke with his party ranks for the second time, having chosen Obama over fellow veteran John McCain in 2008. Powell waited until after the candidates’ foreign policy debate to make…
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W. Kamau Bell: Comedy Beyond Black and White
(The Root) — In the decade following 9/11, growing cynicism about the Bush administration’s military response to the terrorist attack gave rise to a new generation of political satire. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central used humor to speak inconvenient truths for younger Americans — many of whom were disillusioned and convinced that…
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The Great Affirmative Action Lie
(The Root) — Four decades after legalized discrimination was still codified in law, racial disparities persist at nearly every level of American society. From criminal justice to education, employment to housing, minorities in general and African Americans in particular continue to face an uphill battle toward social and economic equity. Affirmative action policies — originally…
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Debate: Obama's Facts Triumphed Over Romney's Fables
Despite claims that the president didn’t go far enough, he at least told the truth, The Root’s contributing editor Edward Wyckoff Williams writes at Ebony. Plus, he argues, the president strategically avoided an “angry black man” characterization. [The] first debate between President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney may have disappointed the Washington chattering classes,…
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The Black Gay-Straight Alliance
(The Root) — President Obama’s evolution on same-sex marriage has inspired a new generation of African-American LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) activists. And the surprise is that many of them are straight and Christian. Last month the National Black Justice Coalition sponsored its third annual Out on the Hill summit, which brought together a…
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Closing the Racial Voting Gap
(The Root) — Recent polls showing President Barack Obama leading Republican challenger Mitt Romney in key swing states like Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina have the potential to lull Democrats — and African Americans in particular — into a false sense of security. Restrictive voter-ID laws passed by Republican legislatures in 23 states in the…
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How White Ideals Color US Race Relations
(The Root) — In her new book, What’s the Matter With White People? Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was, Joan Walsh, editor at large for Salon.com and an MSNBC political analyst, tells the story of the white working class in 20th- and 21st-century America. Using her personal journey growing up in…
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Who Are the 47 Percent?
(The Root) — Mitt Romney — whose candidacy has been characterized by more “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Romney” moments than are easily quantifiable — is finally starting to reveal who he really is. Yesterday, veteran Washington reporter David Corn of Mother Jones magazine released a video that was secretly taped in May at a private…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
