Politics
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Obama Croons to Harlem Supporters' Delight
Who knew President Obama could sing? He caught a sold-out audience of Democratic supporters off guard last night at the historic Apollo Theater in New York’s Harlem community when he broke out into a bar of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.” Following opening acts by india.arie and Green, President Obama began his remarks by crooning…
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Black Republicans Make Their Choice
With four Republican candidates left in the presidential race, each giving his all in the countdown to the South Carolina primary on Saturday, the GOP electorate is still up for grabs. And despite the persistent “Mitt Romney is inevitable” narrative, for many Republican voters the nominee is anything but a foregone conclusion. The Root spoke…
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Rating Obama: Take Our Poll
Jan. 20 marks the third anniversary of President Barack Obama’s historic inauguration as the nation’s first African-American president. From health care reform to the economy, education and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the president has faced a number of tough decisions since being sworn into office. How’s he doing? How would you grade his…
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Herman Cain, Party Promoter
What is Herman Cain bringing to the Republican Party other than pizza and his brand of pizzazz? Well, the former chairman of Godfather’s Pizza, who pretty much dropped out of the running in the GOP presidential primary because of his womanizing, promises to bring an “unconventional” endorsement when he addresses the Southern Republican Leadership Conference…
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Santorum's Black-Poverty Solution Works
The Republican candidates have offered no end of fodder for those dedicated to stamping out tacky statements on race. We seem to get almost one a week. There was Newt Gingrich hoping that poor brown kids will work after school while white ones in the suburbs lounge around. Absurd, I agree. Similarly dismissible are Ron…
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NAACP Puts Voter ID Laws in Crosshairs
Regardless of the content of their addresses Monday morning at the annual “King Day at the Dome” rally at the State House in Columbia, S.C., the joint appearance of NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder speaks volumes in and of itself. Monday marks the first time Holder will have been…
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Where's the Respect Our First Lady Deserves?
In her Detroit Free Press column, Rochelle Riley writes that people accusing Michelle Obama of being an angry black lady have likely never met one. She describes a litany of battles that would mold an angry woman, and none of them define the first lady. … And the juvenile attacks on the first lady go…
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The Making of a President and First Lady
As her new book depicting clashes between first lady Michelle Obama and some of President Obama’s closest aides became fodder for this week’s talk shows and news headlines, the author of The Obamas told The Root that her tome aims to spotlight the first couple’s partnership in a fashion similar to that of a lauded…
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Common Bond: Mrs. Obama and Mother Sally
First lady Michelle Obama has been in the news of late because of her portrayal as a “frustrated” black woman in Jodi Kantor’s book The Obamas. ABC News recently ran a segment discussing Mrs. Obama’s struggle to fight against the negative stereotype of being an angry black woman, which was assigned to her from the…
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Don't Forget the Climb to the Mountaintop
Jesse Jackson Sr. talked about the “parallel histories” of the American and South African quests for racial justice as he recalled some of the leaders and foot soldiers of each struggle during the ANC’s 100th anniversary celebration recently. As I listened, I found myself wondering how many of the younger generation in either country could…