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Why Blacks Should Consider McCain
The old saying holds that in politics you don’t have to win, you just have to not lose. But what the saying doesn’t tell you is that sometimes what looks like victory is actually a step backward. And that will be the case for black folk should Hillary Clinton win the Democratic Party nomination and…
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With Friends Like These …
Dear Mr. White: After reading your hypertensive response to my article, I could not help but wonder if the straw man would press assault charges. Having read your work on previous occasions, I will admit to being a bit surprised by that you took the tone of a feuding rapper at my suggestion that there…
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Frayed Bootstraps in the Black Mecca
Early last year I was called for jury duty. I headed to the court building in downtown Atlanta, semi-grateful for the reprieve from admin meetings and hoping to get some grading done — until I wandered into the wrong courtroom and was stunned by what I saw. The room was completely filled with black males,…
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How I Became an Obama Delegate
My last foray into politics was in 5th grade when I lost what I’m sure was a rigged election for class president. I’ve been writing about black political issues since I was a college freshman. But aside from voting or organizing the occasional protest, I’ve never been involved in electoral politics. That was until March,…
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Obama and the Suicidal Left
During the Democratic National Convention in Denver, I sat on a panel about hip-hop and politics with a number of well-read and highly regarded thinkers in the black community. At one point a fellow panelist commented that it was impossible to criticize Barack without being considered a sellout. That statement inspired a thread of commentary…
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New Deal to Big Deal
Among the many plot twists in the 2008 campaign has been the return of Franklin Roosevelt as a political icon. After suffering years of disparagement as the architect of big government, the deepening economic crisis has given many Americans a new appreciation for the 32nd president. Advisers to President-elect Barack Obama are reportedly reading up…
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Confessions of a Reluctant Flag-Waver
There are cynical luxuries that come with being black in this country, like the ability to shrug off the dime-store rites of patriotism. We’ve seen America through a perpetually raised eyebrow, the yeah, whatever perspective that comes with the terrain on our side of American history. And here lies Presidents Day. Like July 4th, Thomas…
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Rodney King as a Cultural Marker
Rodney King became much more than a man; he was a cultural marker who alerted America to the police state that existed. His beating and treatment at the hands of the police sparked the Los Angeles riots, writes Jelani Cobb in the New Yorker. King later recalled that, during the beating, he thought of slaves…
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Barack X: Race and the Obama Presidency
In a piece for the New Yorker, Jelani Cobb explains how the Obama presidency has “validated both our hopes and our fears and given dueling legitimacy to optimism and cynicism simultaneously.” … There is an obvious downside to this familiarity with the obstacles implicit within a black Presidency. Obama at times tends toward insouciance regarding…
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Malcolm Shabazz: A Life Cut Short
Jelani Cobb writes in the New Yorker that Malcolm Shabazz, who died last week in Mexico, was a young man still defining his place amid a looming legacy. The passage of time made the troubles of Malcolm X’s own youth appear as stations on some racial cross: the impoverished youth who became the heartless hustler,…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
