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Your Take: Avoiding the Black-Brown Conflict on Immigration
The zero-sum argument that pits black Americans against undocumented workers is a false premise. At the heart of this specious challenge to fairness for all U.S. workers is the idea that blacks resent undocumented Latino immigrants for taking away jobs that would rightfully belong to them. Restrictionist opponents to immigration reform seize on this line…
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More Money, More Problems
What does it take to convince federal watchdogs that mortgage bankers can’t be trusted to make housing loans without discriminating by race and ethnicity? If they need proof beyond all the obvious observational and circumstantial evidence available to the rest of us, then they should pay attention to a study being released today that was…
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A Dull Shade of 'Black'
Maybe it was just dumb luck, but CNN’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect. But, of course, the deep thinkers at CNN didn’t predict the future by airing its “Black in America 2” documentary just when the nation’s attention is focused on big national news involving black story lines: No. 1—President Obama, the first U.S.…
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Unemployment, the New Bonding Experience
When Amanda Fulwood accepts her well-deserved sheepskin Sunday at the University of Virginia, I’ll be the proudest father on campus. Since the day my daughter was born, I’ve dreamed of this moment, when I could look through teary eyes at her toothy smile and send her off to find a career and make her way…
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Post-Inaugural Meltdown
My head aches. My legs throb. I want to sleep but can’t. I’m not hungry and don’t want to drink. But, boy, am I happy. I’m no doctor, but I believe I’m suffering from one doozy of an emotional breakdown. Even now, exactly seven days after the Obama family spent their first night in the…
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American Mandela
It’s become something of a parlor game for the chattering class to compare President-elect Barack Obama to the pantheon of presidents. Is Obama the second coming of Abraham Lincoln? A recent Newsweek magazine cover cast Honest Abe’s long shadow behind the incoming president’s silhouette. Inside, writers Evan Thomas and Richard Wolffe found the parallels between the…
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More Mumia?
A new Sundance channel documentary, In Prison My Whole Life, unrevealingly retreads the case against Philadelphia-based Black Panther-cum-revolutionary radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal was arrested (and later convicted and sentenced to death) on Dec. 9, 1981 for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. That date coincides with British-born filmmaker William Francome’s birthday. The…
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The White, White House Press Corps
Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign boosted—no, it actually created—the careers of a whole cadre of black political reporters. Barack Obama’s historic capture of Oval Office? Well, not so much. The reasons behind the white-out of the Obama campaign are varied and complex, ranging from the reduction of general political coverage by mainstream media to fewer…
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Sleepless in Obamaland
The end of this presidential campaign is giving me fits. During the day, I believe Barack Obama might just win this thing. At night, I’m scared sleepless that he might not. See, I’m a passive-aggressive pessimist when it comes to the fulfillment of the American dream. I can put up a good front, but deep-down…
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The Five Ohios
Kendra Reddick lives in Ohio and can’t decide which presidential candidate deserves her vote. Like thousands of voters across the Buckeye State, Reddick is a values voter. She typically only backs politicians who share her conservative, fundamental Christian beliefs. So four and eight years ago, Reddick, a black 42-year-old, middle-school history teacher in Cleveland Heights,…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
