Politics
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The Preseason Is Over: 3 Things to Look for in 2016’s Political Season
The NFL preseason is arguably a waste of time unless you’re a die-hard football fan or a desperate gambler or you’re related to someone who is actually playing in the games. It’s simply practice for players who are hoping to make the team and for television analysts working on their one-liners and hot takes. Because…
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History Repeats Itself With Backlash Against Black Empowerment
What has made the 21st century so interesting is that, perhaps for the first time in American history, the right people are being studied. Examining “race in America,” now in vogue, used to be called grappling with “the Negro problem.” Black leadership and luminaries were ignored when they repeatedly said during the last century’s white…
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‘Whereas’ #BlackLivesMatter Did Not Accept Crumbs From the DNC’s Table
The correct language is all there: white supremacy, “Black lives matter,” “Say her name,” a call to demilitarize police forces across the nation. Still, the Black Lives Matter network quickly distanced itself from a resolution recently released by the Democratic National Committee expressing solidarity with the larger movement for black lives that mobilized under the…
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Don’t Bet on Ben Carson in Iowa
Trivia time: Name anyone who has been elected president of the United States without having served in any political office before running. There aren’t many. In the 200-plus-year history of the U.S., there have only been three presidents who were never on the stump before swearing an oath to protect the United States: George Washington, Ulysses S.…
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New Poll: Birthers and Bigots Fill Trump Supporters’ Ranks
Those noisy, rabid bands of Donald Trump crowds feel pressed to let you know that they aren’t racist. Far from it, they’ll attempt to convince you. Conservative pundits, some embarrassed, point to voters disaffected by big government, the lingering recession and political elites. “White power” chants at the Donald rally? Naw, man, we were just…
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Campaign 2016: The Angry White Man’s Last Stand
Donald Trump’s meteoric rise has become as baffling to the whiny, political chattering class as it has to occasionally tuned-in observers who appear stupefied in his wake. But what’s missing is a deeper nip-tuck look into the rabid whiteness driving his ambitions. The answer to the mystery of his popularity has stared us in the…
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Dump Trump, Draft Oprah and Other Outsider Political Fantasies
When Donald Trump announced his plan to run for president in June, few Republican strategists and cable-news media personalities gave him a serious chance to secure the party’s nomination. Many people believed that early missteps, especially controversial statements he made about Mexicans and Sen. John McCain, would sink his campaign before it could really get…
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#BlackLivesMatter Asks, so #BlackLivesMatter Receives
This week, video of Black Lives Matter activists meeting with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became a shocking “must-see” event, but not for the reasons some might think. Not shocking because activists talked to Clinton. Not shocking because of the tactics Black Lives Matter activists have used to confront candidates on the presidential trial.…
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Is Donald Trump Vying to Become the Next George Wallace?
Replace Donald Trump’s New York accent with a Southern drawl, then replace his use of “illegals” with the n-word, and there you have it: a 2015 version of George Wallace, Alabama’s segregationist governor who stoked fear and prejudice to find his place in politics. And like Wallace—who, after losing his first race for governor in…
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The GOP Attempt to Deny Birthright Citizenship to People of Color
Donald Trump offered a bold, new idea to curb the arrival of undocumented immigrants to the United States: Strike down part of the 14th Amendment. The only problem is that the idea is not new, and it is only bold in how racially insensitive it is. This is just the latest attempt in an ongoing…