Politics

Brittney Cooper, writing at Salon, describes how Jay Z and President Barack Obama rely too heavily on their ability to inspire black Americans instead of taking a more proactive role in carrying out measurable deeds that will help black culture. Yet when it comes to thinking about the political potential of hip-hop, Jay becomes mucked and…

(The Root) — For African Americans, the Great Recession continues. This is both troubling and ironic because it coincides with the administration of the nation’s first black president. The black community’s understandable pride in President Barack Obama’s existence (and that of Michelle Obama and Sasha and Malia) has inoculated the president against constructive criticism in…

(The Root) — I just finished reading an editorial in Virginia’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, the dominant newspaper in the city I now call home. It reminded me why I’m so skeptical about the idea of a national conversation on race. It was about the death earlier this week of 98-year-old former U.S. Sen. Harry F. “Little…

(The Root) — When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in August 1965, he described the law as a “triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield.” The announcement came with plans to analyze voter-registration rolls, identify communities with the largest numbers…

Members of the Tea Party plan to abandon Republican lawmakers they helped elect four years ago because many have adopted more moderate positions on key issues such as immigration and health care, the Associated Press reports. The move could hurt the re-election chances of former stars, including the governors of Florida and Ohio. Four years…

During a meeting on Monday with civil rights leaders, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Justice Department has an open-door policy regarding reports of voting-rights violations. The meeting was an apparent attempt to assuage any concerns that civil rights groups might have had after last month’s Supreme Court voting-rights ruling in Shelby…

Is there hope that President Obama might break the political gridlock on budget negotiations? According to a new proposal he’s extending to Republicans, he thinks so. The offer that’s been labeled a “grand bargain” would involve cutting corporate tax rates in exchange for job investments, the Huffington Post reports: White House officials say just because…

(The Root) — One might shrug off the sweeping voting restrictions (pdf) approved last week in North Carolina as typical of a Southern state under Republican control. But look again: Unlike many of its neighbors, the Tar Heel State had been well down the path of progressivism for several years before the GOP shut it…

Kanye West is arguably the biggest music star to have ever come out of Chicago, but sometimes people forget about his roots in the Second City. West himself has made it no easier for fans to remember, rapping almost exclusively about trips to Paris and other worldwide travels, but recently he made a grand gesture…

The unproductive standoff between President Barack Obama and the GOP House continues to loom as the Democratic Party appears likely to grow nationally and the Republican Party remains firmly entrenched in Washington, Eugene Robinson writes at the Washington Post. The bad news is that approval ratings for both the president and Congress are sinking, with…