Politics
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What a Trump Presidency Means to Civil Rights
Last night, America’s “silent majority” defied political scientists, expert pollsters and what many would regard as common decency in electing Donald Trump president. When faced with a choice between arguably the most qualified presidential candidate we’ve seen in the modern era of electoral politics and … well, a bigot, America felt safer with the latter.…
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Whiteness in America Is a Virus Whose Sole Purpose Is Preserving Itself
The only photograph I have with James Alan McPherson is from the beginning of the Obama era; it turned out to be far more symbolic than I could have imagined. In the picture, Jim’s students flank him, a fairly mixed group of mostly smiling faces: three white women, two black men, a black woman, a…
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So, Um … Will Black People Pull Out Their Old 'Black America' IDs Again?
When I was certain that Hillary Clinton was going to win, I was going to write about how black America now has its own version of red states vs. blue states. My idea was that Michelle and Barack Obama were going to become—really, are—new heroes in black America, forever creating a new divide: black America’s…
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Welcome to the New Nadir
The impossible happened. Against all odds, against all prognostications, America elected a racist, xenophobic and misogynist man in Donald Trump as president of the United States. It’s not as if America hasn’t done this before, of course; we’ve elected plenty of racist, xenophobic and misogynistic white men. But this hurt more because we were all…
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Donald Trump Is Our Next President, Thanks to White Voters
The human embodiment of white privilege is the next president of the United States. Just after 2:40 a.m. Wednesday, news reports rang out that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had conceded the election to Donald J. Trump as several states remained too close to call but were unlikely to turn in her favor. Now…
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I Don’t Understand Richmond, Va., Mayoral Candidate and Alleged Pervert Joe Morrissey
I don’t understand how Joe Morrissey is still here. I don’t understand how, in 2013, a then-56-year-old Morrissey was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates when he hired a 17-year-old black girl to work in his law office. The old white man raped the teen and then lied about the nature of their…
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The Unfiltered, No-Holds-Barred Election Live Blog and Prayer Circle
We’ve finally made it: Election Day 2016 is here. Unlike the previous two national elections, when we anxiously awaited the sure election of the black president, today feels different. It feels like the bus ride home after your teacher called your parents when you acted up in school, or the good night kiss after a first…
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Although It’s Still Hard for Some to Accept, African LGBTQ Rights Are African Human Rights
While the citizens of the United States decide their nation’s direction Tuesday, the 193 members of the United Nations also have an important vote: The U.N. is dealing with a serious human rights concern involving the human rights of LGBTQIA people versus the sovereignty rights of Africans to handle their own internal affairs on their…
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It’s Election Day; You Know What to Do
Today is the election, and like millions of other African Americans, I’m headed to the polls to cast my vote. I can’t really say who I’m voting for, but let’s just say that I’m voting for a woman, and her party symbol is a jackass donkey. But wait; you say you’re not gonna vote? Why?…
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7 Ways to Stay Safe and Sane This Election Day
This Election Day kind of feels like the day you’re scheduled to get your wisdom teeth pulled: You’ve gotta do it, and it’s gonna hurt, but you’re not sure how much it will hurt. For better or worse, we’re gonna have a new commander-in-chief-elect by the end of the day. Here are seven ways to…