Politics
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50 Years After the March: Has Blacks' Income Inequality Improved?
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…
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Blacks Backing Weiner and Spitzer?
(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…
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Profiling the President
(The Root) — Anti-Obama demonstrators in Arizona taunted the president of the United States with racial slurs in Arizona this past Tuesday, the 50th anniversary of the historic Voting Rights Act. The sight of hundreds of protesters proudly raising hate-filled signs echoed anti-civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s, but with an ironic twist. Obama traveled…
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At-Risk Youths: What Can Obama Really Do?
(The Root) — The teen years. It’s that time we spend becoming the adults we are today. Days are supposed to be filled with school, dating, friends, SATs and growing up. But that idyllic scenario doesn’t ring true for all. Not for one group between the ages of 15 and 19, who may not make…
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Is the Obama Administration Snooping Through Our Data?
MSNBC‘s Adam Serwer analyzes President Obama’s recent “assurances” on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno that the government isn’t spying on Americans, in light of information revealed by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden about the agency’s worldwide data-gathering networks. President Obama said the U.S. government is not spying on American citizens during an appearance…
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Obama Will Speak at Lincoln Memorial for MLK Tribute
On Aug. 28, President Barack Obama will deliver a speech at the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s infamous “I Have a Dream” speech, according to the Huffington Post. And though no other specifics about Obama’s speech were released, HuffPost, in a separate story, detailed additional plans being made…
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Did the Tea Party Really Boycott Ebony Magazine?
After Ebony released its powerful September covers to pay homage to Trayvon Martin, whispers of a boycott by members of the Tea Party began surfacing on Twitter. As The Root reported yesterday, the Ebony staff took to their own Twitter account to address the reports with a rather witty response, and “Black twitter” joined in…
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'Racist': Does the GOP Know the Meaning?
In a piece at the Daily Beast, Jamelle Bouie weighs in on a Republican lawmaker’s unwittingly absurd comment that the president’s tax on tanning beds is, um, “racist” because black people do not use them. The only way to describe the tax as “racist,” Bouie writes, “is to turn the word into a mindless insult.”…
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Michelle Obama Uses Hip-Hop to Fight Obesity
Partnership for a Healthy America, a nonprofit affiliated with Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, is launching a hip-hop album, Songs for a Healthier America, complete with music videos, to help fight obesity at schools across the country, according to U.S. News & World Report. The first lady — along with rapper Doug E. Fresh, singer-songwriter…
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Black Girls Need Empowering, Too
There has been much talk about empowering black boys in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death. Bernardine Watson at the Washington Post encourages a similar effort for young black girls, particularly given how many of them end up in the juvenile-justice system. Certainly a national focus on young African American males is overdue, particularly given…