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Is White Privilege a Myth?
Here is what I anticipate: Jim Webb, the senior senator from Virginia, will soon be both vilified and lionized in the ”media” for attacking affirmative action as wrong-headed and divisive. And one result is that the intense conversation we’ve endured in recent days about race in the wake of the sacking of Agriculture Department employee…
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Shirley Sherrod and the Politics of Overreaction
I feel bad for Shirley Sherrod. Not just because she lost her job. Not just because it may be that she did not do what she is accused of doing. Not because her only crime may be the very postmodern transgression of being on video and out of context. (Hear her remarks in context here.)…
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Obama Makes It McChrystal Clear
On occasion, life can be so simple: Trash-talking the boss in public means that you get fired for it. Ill-considered action leads to swift and painful consequences. The fact that you’re a military man who signed up to follow the orders and the lead of the commander in chief makes his decision to fire you…
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Obama and the Oil Spill: The Things You Can't Fix
President Barack Obama, using all the prestige of his office and the office itself, sought to assure Americans last night that he was on top of the oil spill disaster currently devastating parts of the Gulf Coast, destroying lives and livelihoods at an alarming rate. He meant to show not only that he understood the…
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Alvin Greene and the Strange Politics of South Carolina
Alvin Greene, a 32-year-old, unfunded, unemployed veteran who is black and lives with his mother in Manning, S.C., ran away with the Democratic nomination for the Senate in the Palmetto State last night. In the November general election, he will face first-term GOP incumbent Sen. Jim DeMint, who many expect to seek the GOP presidential…
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Obama's Katrina? No. His Iran Hostage Crisis? Maybe.
The now-angry president of the United States is promising to find the right ”ass to kick” in connection with the ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In lieu of an actual solution, which is still some ways off, this is not a bad strategy to pursue. But if the president is not able to…
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The Hotbed That Produced Obama
Barack Obama took the oath of office as a United States senator on January 4, 2005, and promptly began running for president. Very quickly, he began using the peculiar kind of celebrity that comes with being a senator to introduce himself to Washington, to a new generation of political power brokers, and, more broadly, to…
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Specter’s Loss Was All About Specter
Tuesday’s primary election results will only serve to reinforce the anti-incumbency narrative that has overlaid much of the media coverage of this election season thus far. According to the polls and the pundits, voters are angry at Washington and at political incumbents of all stripes, but especially at Democrats, who, we are told, will pay…
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To All the Kids Out There Dying To Be Rich and Famous
To all you little boys and girls out there who want to be famous, today’s lesson is about a great man named Tiger Woods who once had to apologize to the world for his “transgressions.” OK, so no one is perfect, and the best thing to do when admitting misbehavior is to confront it honestly…
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Big Speech Fatigue?
President Obama, like Candidate Obama before him, has relied heavily on the Big Explainer of a political speech to get him out of any number of tough political spots, from Jeremiah Wright to the financial meltdown to the outrage over big bailout bonuses. These speeches have a signature architecture, which may be described as Obama’s…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
