Politics

Erik Nielson, writing at the Huffington Post, says that President Obama deceived many who supported him during his first presidential campaign, including hip-hop artists. He says that Obama’s policies haven’t helped the minorities who elected him to office. There was something remarkable about seeing rappers pledge their support to a mainstream presidential candidate, especially given…

(The Root) — Forty-six years ago, on June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled that a Virginia law prohibiting Mildred Jeter Loving, who was black, and Richard Loving, who was white, from marrying because of their race was unconstitutional. Their family name, “Loving,” was so perfect for a case about love that it probably would…

(The Root) — At long last, the second-degree-murder trial of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year, began on Monday with jury selection.  Legal experts had predicted that attorneys for the prosecution and defense would probe potential jurors for their attitudes about African Americans (Trayvon), Hispanics (Zimmerman) and guns, as well as…

(The Root) — Wednesday will mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, and the timing couldn’t be more significant: Any day now, the Supreme Court could strike down a pair of landmark remedies owed in part to Evers’ activism. Uncertainty hovers over observances that began at Evers’ grave site…

(The Root) — Ever since the Guardian’s revelation Wednesday that the National Security Agency is gathering millions of Americans’ phone records, and Thursday’s Washington Post report that the NSA tapped into the servers of nine Internet service providers to pry into Americans’ emails and instant messaging traffic, we’ve seen outrage across the political spectrum —…

Writer Esther J. Cepeda is a bit peeved — to say the least — about recent comments former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made about the way the Republican Party should go about courting Hispanic voters. In a Washington Post op-ed she writes the following: Romney told the [Wall Street] Journal that in addition to…

In this essay, adapted from his book The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies, author Jonathan Alter breaks down the relationship between President Barack Obama and prominent African Americans, including Cornel West, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Michael Eric Dyson, from the 2012 midterm elections to his second inauguration. In July 2010 the president spotted…

(The Root) — In a close (5-4) decision, the Supreme Court narrowly ruled on Monday that police may legally collect DNA from those arrested for but not convicted of a serious crime. According to the New York Times, the federal government already authorizes the practice, as do 28 states, but nevertheless, the ruling has sent…

(The Root) — Hypocrisy abounds when it comes to differing views of Attorney General Eric Holder. Liberals didn’t seem to mind when Holder declined to prosecute New Black Panther Party members on charges that they’d menaced voters at a Philadelphia polling place in 2008 — even though they’d surely have complained if the Justice Department…