Politics

Yasiin Bey (widely known as the rapper Mos Def) teamed up with the human rights group Reprieve to release a four-minute documentary on the controversial force-feeding procedure undergone by Guantanamo Bay detainees during Ramadan. The video premiered on Sunday at The Guardian‘s website, the day before Ramadan begins. Ramadan observers fast throughout the month. Although…

Since the Egyptian military ousted President Mohamed Morsi, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman says one way Egypt could come together is for the United States to support a unity coalition. ANYONE who has followed Middle East politics knows that this is a region where extremists tend to go all the way and moderates…

(The Root) — A lot has changed since 1903, when W.E.B. Du Bois described black Americans as possessing what he called a “double consciousness,” caught between a self-conception as Americans and as people of African descent. As he put it in The Souls of Black Folk: “The Negro ever feels his two-ness-an American, a Negro;…

(The Root) — Who is the most privileged among the least privileged? That’s the question many are asking as Americans discuss how the Supreme Court treated race-centered cases over the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action versus cases over same-sex marriage. Are African Americans and other people of color, who are the most likely to face…

It’s a resource that can easily be taken for granted because of its ubiquity, but the minute the lights go out, the necessity of electricity becomes instantly apparent to all. It’s a realization that Africans know all too well, according to a report in the New York Times, which sheds light on a few local…

The Obama administration is treading carefully since Egypt’s military has overthrown the country’s president, avoiding taking sides in a conflict that pits a democratically elected leader against people fighting for an inclusive government, the Associated Press reports. Denounce the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi outright, and the U.S. could be accused of propping up a…

(The Root) — America has become a nation in which gay black men and women can serve openly in the U.S. military, marry each other and have their bond recognized by the federal government. But ironically, those same gay black people may not be able to vote. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court made two…

In the last leg of his trip to Africa, President Barack Obama visited with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and business leaders in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the New York Times reports. Crowds of Tanzanians, including the military band, greeted the president on his arrival. Obama seemed optimistic about what’s ahead for the growing continent. “We…

(The Root) — When Congress left town on Thursday — marking the start of its Fourth of July holiday — the nation’s elected officials left one piece of unfinished business especially critical to black America’s financial health and well-being: Congress failed to reach a compromise on the best way to structure the interest rates that…