obama legacy

  • Yes, the South Side Can Have Nice Things: Judge Dismisses Lawsuit That Would Have Thrown Wrench in Obama Presidential Center Plans [Corrected]

    A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a group of environmentalists’ efforts to stop the Obama Presidential Center from being built inside a public park on Chicago’s South Side. In dismissing the lawsuit brought against the city of Chicago by Protect Our Parks, U.S. District Judge Robert Blakely said the Obama Foundation had done what it…

  • An Elegy for Obama

    I am in mourning. As the presidency of Barack Obama draws to a close, I keep thinking about a piece I wrote for The Root eight years ago when he was sworn in for the first time. Back then, I couldn’t stop singing anthems of joy and patriotism, grounded in what now seems like a…

  • Hail to the Hypocrite

    On Tuesday night, along with millions of Americans and millions more abroad, I watched our exiting commander in chief, Barack Hussein Obama, give his farewell presidential address. As is characteristic of the speeches made during his two terms (and prior), the address was a study in charisma, eloquence and elegance; made all the more poignant…

  • Obama Designates 1.35 Million Acres in Utah to Protect Native Lands

    In yet another move meant to cement his legacy as an environmental advocate, President Barack Obama recently designated 1.35 million acres of land in Utah for a new national monument, one meant to protect Native lands and precious environmental resources. The Bears Ears National Monument is 1.35 million acres of public land, “redrock country rich…

  • The Blackwashing of President Obama’s Legacy 

    There is a deeply embedded danger in the collective black American consciousness to defend the cultural and political blackness of President Barack Obama. On the surface, his very presence  in the Oval Office is an act of political revolution, an unprecedented response to this nation’s inherent anti-blackness. But when his destructive neoliberal politics prioritize white…

  • Underestimated on Foreign Policy, Obama Has Left Opponents ‘Sucking Wind’

    Barack Obama’s foreign policy should not be reduced to a simple bumper sticker phrase. Not even one as pithy as the “Don’t do stupid s—t” mantra that is now being bandied about. Proof of this can be found in Susan Rice’s hands-down rejection of that term as the fulcrum of the Obama administration’s foreign policy…