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Talking Jobs
Way back in the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton argued that Barack Obama hadn’t the mettle to connect his inspiring rhetoric with actual reform, that soaring speeches are poor weapons for the Beltway battle zone. Her skeptical, tough-lady political persona was anachronistic in those pregnant times. But listening to Obama’s latest Big Speech Tuesday, on jobs,…
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Brother, Can You Spare a Job?
Joel is trying. At 41, he’s never landed a full-time, permanent job. He got started early in the underground economy, selling drugs as a young man in the Bronx and Richmond, Va., which landed him in prison. He served his time and quit dealing a long time ago, but a criminal record sticks to you,…
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WORLD AIDS DAY: Tell Us Your Story
After nearly 15 years of writing about AIDS, I’m forced to acknowledge that nobody needs to hear much else from people like me about this epidemic. For too long the conversation about HIV in black America has been one-way: Wonks talk, sometimes people listen and then it’s over. So on this World AIDS Day, we’re…
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Presenting Fela!
Bill T. Jones’ debut as a Broadway director, with his remarkable new musical, Fela!, is best described by one moment in his staging of Fela Kuti’s smash-hit song “Zombie.” Fela, played by Sahr Ngaujah, stands at one end of the stage—shirtless, sweaty, clad only in tight, pink pants—and hunkers down on a fire-engine-red saxophone trimmed…
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Dems to Obama: Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way
It’s official: Barack Obama has lost control of his party. In recent weeks, both his congressional allies and the once-fawning political press have begun openly bucking the White House’s cautious approach to the change it says it believes in. That discontent rose this week to a fevered pitch. And now, even the Congressional Black Caucus…
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It'll Take More Than a Tantrum to Stop Gay Rights in D.C.
D.C. councilmember Mary Cheh had it about right last week when she told the Washington Post that the Catholic Church had been “somewhat childish” in threatening the city over its pending same-sex marriage bill. The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., is throwing a tantrum—and who gives a crap? Not likely the D.C. City Council. Here’s the…
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Why Black People Took to the Streets in Chicago
The battle lines in the war over America’s financial future have been drawn. You probably missed it in the myopic 24-hour news cycle, but after two years of bailouts and green shoots, we’ve finally turned to the task of reforming Wall Street. And we’re likely to peer into history’s rearview mirror one day and realize…
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Obama One Year Later: Tinkering We Can Believe In
Before there were tea partiers, there were nurses. Angry nurses disrupting Sen. Max Baucus’ health care reform meetings back in the politically halcyon days of spring. Their complaint was simple: Democrats refused to even discuss proposals for single-payer, universal coverage. But unlike the deference that anti-reform zealots won this summer, all the nurses got for…
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Protestors Storm Bankers' Convention
The banking industry’s lobby group, the American Bankers Association, is holding its annual convention in Chicago right now and they’ve been greeted by thousands of protestors who are sick of the industry holding Washington and our economy hostage. According to organizers’ reports, they’ve disrupted the meeting, surrounded the building and demanded accountability from the people…
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Hate Isn't a Crimal Justice Problem
The Senate has finally passed its anti-gay hate crime bill and President Obama will certainly sign it, no doubt to much fanfare. In the words of Human Rights Campaign’s Joe Solmonese, it’ll be “our nation’s first major piece of civil rights legislation” for LGBT Americans. And at this seemingly historic moment, the burning question for…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
