Politics
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Nikki Haley Makes the Case for Old-School Racism
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley wants to take things back to the “old school.” The establishment’s choice to represent a “sensible” side of Republicanism, Haley’s response to the State of the Union address seemed to target GOP front-runner Donald Trump more than President Barack Obama. “Today we live in a time of threats like few…
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The State of the Union Was Obama’s Exit Interview With the Nation
Many Barack Obama supporters, knowing that Tuesday night was the very last State of the Union by the president, got some funny ideas in their heads. Having vicariously experienced all of the stress, racism and abuse the president has suffered over the last eight years, many were waiting for him to just get brolic onstage—to…
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The End Equals the Beginning: There Is No Black America, Says the President
Tuesday night looked so good, I almost didn’t pay attention to what President Barack Obama was saying. I did notice that he morphed back into his 2004 happy-warrior persona, attempting to tie a yellow ribbon around a country containing a substantial white population that will hate his Muslim, gun-removing, socialism-promoting presidency to his dying breath.…
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GOP Rhetoric Makes 2016 the New 1964
Spend time with “young thugs,” not CNN. That was one of the recommendations Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) had for President Barack Obama in a memo Wednesday on gun violence that he posted to Facebook. Wrote Mica: “Conduct town hall meetings, not on CNN, but rather with young thugs in homicide-prone cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit…
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Hillary Clinton Is Asked for an Example of Her White Privilege
The presidential candidates at Monday’s Iowa Brown & Black Forum, broadcast from Drake University in Des Moines, were well-prepared for the ebb and flow of questions about such topics as immigration and criminal-justice reform and inequality. The event, broadcast by Fusion TV, was the first of its kind this campaign season, focusing primarily on issues…
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Obama’s Final State of the Union: ‘I’m Out’
Seven straight years of frothing-at-the-mouth Republicans. Haters pushing derail buttons on your presidency. The irritating reality that a good quarter of the population still believes you weren’t born here. Now, in the wake of all that, you must give your last official speech before a shark-infested Congress openly hoping for your demise. What would you…
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Watch: 2016 Iowa Brown & Black Democratic Presidential Forum
Issues of importance to African Americans and Latinos were front and center at the 2016 Iowa Brown & Black Democratic Presidential Forum, which took place on the campus of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. The event was broadcast by The Root’s sister network, Fusion TV, with questions from…
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Thanks, Obama.
While perusing Facebook a few days ago, I came across this tweet for President Barack Hussein Obama’s last State of The Union (SOTU) address on Tuesday, January 12. Typically, I couldn’t care less about those speeches; it’s an annual event where every sitting President lays out his “guys, I’d really like to do some things” priorities…
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Will Black Millennials Dance With the ‘Party of Our Parents’?
“Tamir Rice was 12 years old. He was murdered outside for using his imagination.” The day after the announcement that there would be no indictment of the police officer who killed the Cleveland boy, with tweets and think pieces sprouting out of our nation’s racial woodwork, those words from Mississippi-born writer Kiese Laymon arrested me.…
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How a Racist System Has Poisoned the Water in Flint, Mich.
Tainted water is poisoning thousands of children in the predominantly African-American city of Flint, Mich. The high levels of lead in Flint’s water may create a plethora of serious, long-term health problems including brain damage, behavioral troubles, anemia and kidney problems. On Wednesday, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency in Flint and…