(The Root) — Racial antagonisms tend to increase when powerful and influential spokespeople advance mean-spirited arguments or messages that deflect attention from the actual source of their problems. They do this by highlighting real or perceived privileges that minorities and immigrants receive. These messages tend to resonate more during hard economic times. Average citizens do…

(The Root) — Despite all the rhetoric about reclaiming the American dream for middle-class Americans in this past presidential election, Barack Obama has done more for lower-income Americans than any president since Lyndon Baines Johnson. Quite frankly, I think that Obama’s programs prevented poverty — including concentrated poverty — from rapidly rising over the past…