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Gay Marine Kissed His Partner? Get Over It
Americans should get used to images like those of a gay U.S. Marine kissing his partner upon returning home from a six-month stint in Afghanistan, Leonard Pitts Jr. writes in his Miami Herald column. He calls it a sign of the times despite calls from the right for a return of the demeaning “Don’t ask,…
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'Linsanity': Lessons for Young African Americans
In an open letter to young African Americans, Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. says that the most important takeaway from the Knicks’ phenomenon Jeremy Lin should be that he refused to be defined by others because he knew that he was capable of things they’d never expect. He encourages African American youths to do…
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Black History and the American Art of Denial
Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. uses a lawsuit against a prison for preventing a prisoner from receiving a book about slavery to illustrate America’s complicated relationship with black history. He calls it the art of denial. A story for Black History Month. Bryan Stevenson is director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery, Ala.-based…
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The GOP: The Politics of Racial Resentment
Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. challenges the GOP perception of black people as lazy and living off the dole by telling his own story of growing up and working as a janitor at a church at the age of 12. The rhetoric is nothing more than “a coded appeal to racist sensitivities,” he writes.…
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Don't Be So Quick to Judge Marines in Taliban Video
Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. makes a counterintuitive argument about a group of U.S. Marines captured on video urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters. He say we should not be so quick to judge them because what seems appalling stateside may seem normal on the battlefield. Nearly 30 years ago Greg told me…
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The New Jim Crow Is Alive and Thriving
Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. makes his readers an unusual offer. He says that he will send 50 of them a free, autographed copy of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. The book turns the spotlight on a racial caste system that is “nearly as restrictive, oppressive and omnipresent as Jim Crow itself,”…
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Voter-ID Laws: Life in the Margins
Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. weighs in on new voter-identification laws that are being propelled by GOP lawmakers in states across the nation. He says that while lawmakers claim differently, it is difficult not to feel that their true intent is to suppress the black vote. As similar voter ID laws are passed in…
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America's Obsession With Missing White Women
In his Miami Herald column, Leonard Pitts Jr. critiques media coverage of the disappearance of Michelle Parker. She was last seen the day she appeared on The People’s Court to sue her former fiancé. From watching television news, he says, no one would know that scores of men and people of color go missing each…
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UC Davis Police Went Too Far
In his Miami Herald column, Leonard Pitts Jr. writes that video cameras have helped keep lawlessness among police officers largely in check. He makes the observation after a video surfaced of an officer walking back and forth, pepper-spraying student protesters at UC Davis. … The victims of this assault have described the pain in searing…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
