Politics
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The Obamas Reveal Their Struggles With America’s Racial Prejudices
In case you thought otherwise, the Obamas aren’t immune to the ugliness of American racial prejudices and biases, the first couple confirmed in a sit-down interview with People magazine on Dec. 10. “I think people forget that we’ve lived in the White House for six years,” first lady Michelle Obama explained to the magazine. “Before that,…
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In the Next Congress, Will Obamacare Really Be in Danger?
We’re not even halfway to the next presidential election cycle, and here we go again: Obamacare. Forcing that derisive nickname down our throats, Republicans are pushing President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement as their primary political target in the new Congress, while Democrats are too scared to own it—leaving the American public scratching their heads…
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Obama Gets Coding Lesson From Middle School Student
President Barack Obama took JavaScript coding lessons from an African-American middle school student at the White House Monday. “Slow down, because I’m an old man,” the president joked with his tutor. The event was part of Computer Science Education Week at the White House, where Obama was hoping to shed light on the back-end technology…
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UN: Prosecute Bush Officials Who OK’d Torture at CIA Detention Camps
The U.S. Senate recently released a report detailing how the CIA used enhanced interrogation techniques on al-Qaida suspects after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the United Nations is now calling for the top officials in the George W. Bush administration who sanctioned those techniques to be brought up on charges and prosecuted, the BBC reports. “U.N.…
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Assessing the Impact of Voter-Suppression Laws in the 2014 Midterms
On Nov. 4, 2014, in Eggleston, Va., a 93-year-old cancer patient named Virginia Whittaker arrived at her designated polling place after a doctor’s appointment. She produced her voter-registration card, some form of which she had been using in elections for the past 72 years. This time, however, she was turned away because she lacked valid…
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Body Cameras Are on the Way—but in Eric Garner’s Case, Would It Have Mattered?
“I can’t believe that in the 21st century in the United States of America, we can’t get a simple indictment for a murder of a man that was caught on videotape.” That’s what Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) told The Root in the wake of a Staten Island, N.Y., grand jury’s return of no indictment Wednesday…
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Justice Department Investigating Eric Garner’s Death
On Wednesday, shortly after demonstrators had started to converge on New York City’s Times Square to protest the grand jury decision not to charge a New York police officer in the choke hold death of Eric Garner, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department will open a criminal civil rights investigation. According to…
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NAACP LDF Goes Back to Court to Defend a Win for Fayette County, Ga.’s Black Voters
On Nov. 4, 2014, two things happened when voters took to the polls in Fayette County, Ga. First, voters participated in higher numbers than anywhere else in their state. Second, Georgia voters in the recently implemented majority-black district made history by electing their candidate of choice, the first-ever black woman to serve on the County Commission. African-American voters also elected a…
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Obama Meets With Leaders to Discuss Ferguson and OKs Funding for Police Body Cameras
President Barack Obama announced Monday his plans to tackle the “simmering distrust that exists between too many police departments and too many communities of color.” The intended initiatives take into consideration the recent racial tensions that have been highlighted across the country as numerous boys and men of color have been seemingly inexplicably gunned down by…
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When It Comes to Ferguson, President Obama Could Take a Lesson From Cornel West
The fiery uprising in Ferguson, Mo., in response to the slaying of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown by former police Officer Darren Wilson has arguably signified an end to several things: apathy in the face of grave injustice; “peace” in the face of state-sanctioned killing of black people in America; and, according to Cornel West, “the…