Politics
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GOP Opens Outpost in Detroit, Hoping to Woo African-American Voters
The doors of the African American Engagement Office in Detroit will be open starting Friday morning, representing the GOP’s push to sway black voters, the Detroit Free Press reports. Tea Party favorite Sen. Rand Paul from Kentucky, who is a potential contender in the 2016 presidential race, is expected to propose a plan that hacks…
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White House Admits Obama Lived With Uncle
As it turns out President Obama spent time with his uncle briefly during the 1980s, while he was still a student at Harvard Law School, the Washington Post reports. “The president did stay with him for a brief period of time until his apartment was ready,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement…
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How Mandela Changed African Politics
It will be easy to remember Nelson Mandela, the iconic, larger-than-life activist and freedom crusader. Reflections on Mandela will, naturally, focus on the human rights-advocate aspect of his life: from years unjustly locked in an apartheid-era prison to his obsession with racial reconciliation in a country that seemed irreversibly distant from it. While Mandela’s personal…
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Haitians Are Dying at Sea Trying to Reach the US
On Nov. 18, in the nearly 500-mile stretch of the Caribbean that sits between Haiti and the United States mainland, boaters commanding small vessels awoke to a dire marine forecast that predicted “hazardous seas,” “dangerous rip currents” and winds capable of producing 12-foot waves. Small vessels, it said, should not leave harbor. But for the…
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Black Republican: ‘What Exactly Has the President Done for the Black Community?’
Newly hired Republican National Committee Communications Director for Black Media Orlando Watson threw punches at the president’s track record in helping the black community on MSNBC on Wednesday. According to Clutch magazine, Watson was on the news channel to discuss the RNC’s now infamous Rosa Parks tweet but didn’t really seem to want to talk…
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Sen. Ted Cruz Compares Obama to Fidel Castro
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has co-signed his father’s comparison of President Obama and Fidel Castro, saying that the president was just as “dictatorial.” Cruz pointed toward the president’s last few State of the Union addresses, in which Obama said, “If Congress doesn’t act, I will,” to prove his point, the Raw Story reports. “One of…
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NY Councilwoman: Racial Tension Between Blacks and Jews Behind ‘Knockout Game’
One Brooklyn, N.Y., councilwoman is pointing to continuing racial tensions between the black and Jewish communities in her neighborhood as the reason behind the “knockout-game” attacks. Laurie Cumbo, who was recently elected to represent the neighborhood of Crown Heights starting in January, released a letter on Tuesday saying that black residents feel threatened by the…
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Obama Calls Economic Inequality the ‘Defining Challenge of Our Time’
President Barack Obama called economic inequality the “defining challenge of our time,” while urging Congress to raise wages in an appeal Wednesday, the Associated Press reports. The president, who made his speech at a nonprofit community center not far from the White House, said that the current economic landscape makes it harder for a child…
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’Tis the Season to Be Food-Insecure
It is a strange and ironic truth that in the world’s richest democracy, many Americans are going to work in the morning, but they and their families are going to bed hungry at night. As Christmas fast approaches, and the warming memories of Thanksgiving dinner give way to yet another work week, it is a…
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What to Expect From NYC’s New First Lady, Chirlane McCray
Fadwa Mutasser is thrilled about New York City’s incoming first lady, Chirlane McCray. “For once,” she told The Root at a postelection party last month, “someone who is the face of New York City” will reside in Gracie Mansion. McCray’s family, she exclaimed, “are what we actually look like!” And, indeed, on Nov. 5, New…