Politics

(The Root) — Imagine a world in which a white man running for mayor of New York City could say, “I have a son who looks like Trayvon.” Bill de Blasio is such a man. And it is the layered nuances of that simple yet deeply personal and important fact that may well help win…

Add this bit of news to the list of moments to call up when we have to remind ourselves that the president is black.  In a conversation at UCLA Luskin School of Affairs, President Obama’s former “body man,” Reggie Love, was asked to describe all that was going on the night of the raid on…

(The Root) — On Monday a federal judge ruled that the New York City Police Department’s stop-and-frisk program, which disproportionately targets young men of color, violates the constitutional rights of New Yorkers. The ruling requires that an outside monitor be appointed to ensure that going forward, the NYPD’s practices are compliant with constitutional protections. While…

(The Root) — The Justice Department’s plans to reduce federal incarceration rates related to the war on drugs represent a major victory for prisoners’-rights advocates and the African-American community, in which record numbers of young men have been imprisoned as casualties of America’s drug wars. In a historically significant speech before the American Bar Association…

(The Root) — In a pair of rulings announced Monday morning, a federal judge found that the New York City Police Department’s stop-and-frisk tactics violated the constitutional rights of the city’s minorities and must be dramatically overhauled and aggressively monitored.  In the decision, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled that police officers have for years systematically…

(The Root) — Earlier this year, Cheerios generated extensive media attention — and countless racist comments online — for becoming the first major American brand to feature a mixed-race family in a television advertisement. Now an ad for a political campaign is poised to be just as groundbreaking, and potentially controversial. This weekend television advertisements…

(The Root) — Bill Lynch, one of the most prominent African-American political consultants in the nation, died Friday at age 72. Though Lynch was known to be battling diabetes, the cause of death was complications from kidney disease. Lynch was credited with masterminding the election of New York City’s first and, to date, only black…

(The Root) — This week marks the 48th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, arguably the most important single piece of legislation passed during the civil rights era. President Lyndon Johnson signed the legislation in a public ceremony that included Martin Luther King Jr., who received a handshake and an official pen from the president.…

Fifty years after the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Dedrick Muhammad, senior economic director of the NAACP, explores discrepancies in wages and income between African Americans and whites. In a piece for the Huffington Post, he says not much has changed. … There has been far less progress in bridging racial income…

(The Root) — By any measure, Anthony Weiner has had a disastrous few weeks as a candidate. There was the emergence of a new round of allegations regarding his sexting habits, followed by an awkward admission at an awkward press conference with his wife, followed by a seemingly endless media tour by Sidney Leathers, his…