Politics
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Tyler Perry Wins Big at NAACP Image Awards
In the black community, there may be some strong objections to Tyler Perry’s work (because of its perceived “reiteration of stereotypes that black filmmakers like Spike Lee and black actors like Denzel Washington have worked so hard to suppress“), but evidently, they aren’t shared by the NAACP. At the NAACP Image Awards on Friday, Perry…
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Note to Republicans: Cuts Don't Cut It
Written by Eugene Robinson After slamming Democrats for not focusing on “jobs, jobs, jobs,” Republicans have decided to ignore their own winning message in favor of “cuts, cuts, cuts.” This is bad economics — and bad politics. If you don’t believe me, read a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, published Thursday, that has what should…
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Double Talk? White House Promotes Muslim Help Against Terrorism
The Associated Press is reporting that the White House is pushing a message of religious tolerance ahead of this week’s congressional hearing on Islamic radicalism, which has sparked protests on grounds that it unfairly singles out Muslims. President Barack Obama sent his deputy national security adviser, Denis McDonough, on Sunday to a Washington-area mosque known…
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Former Godfather's Pizza CEO Considering Presidential Run
Former Godfather’s Pizza chain CEO Herman Cain may toss his hat in the ring for the 2012 presidential election. It seems that conservatives, particularly Tea Party members, are less concerned with a candidate’s political experience and more concerned with his conservative values. Mike Glover of the Associated Press reports that even though many Americans haven’t…
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The Supreme Court Is Wrong on Soldiers' Funerals
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Westboro Baptist Church’s First Amendment right of free speech outweighs a grieving family’s right to privacy when they bury a loved one. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the 8-1 majority (pdf) in Snyder v. Phelps, said last week that the First Amendment protects “even hurtful speech on…
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Religious African Americans React to Obama's DOMA Shift
The Washington Post reports that President Obama’s recent shift on the Defense of Marriage Act (he’s instructed the Justice Department not to defend it) doesn’t seem to have had a huge impact on his support from the socially conservative African-American religious community: When same-sex marriage was upended in California by popular vote in 2008, gay…
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Black Voters Are Pragmatic About Gay Marriage
Tuesday’s Washington Post article examining the response by African-American voters to President Barack Obama’s new Defense of Marriage Act policy reveals what many in the black community already know: When it comes to the ballot box, marriage equality is mostly a nonissue. In interviews with black pastors, pollsters, churchgoers and professors, African-American voters explain that…
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The Lingering Questions About Human Medical Experiments
The specter of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study inevitably looms over talk of human subjects in medical research. The well-known case involved the U.S. Public Health Service, which, from 1932 to 1972, studied hundreds of black men in Alabama with syphilis, failing to inform them of their diagnosis or treat their condition. From this striking example…
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The Root Recommends: CNN's 'Race & Rage'
Race & Rage is a new documentary commemorating the 20th anniversary of the vicious beating Rodney King took from Los Angeles police in 1991. The beating and events that followed ultimately sparked a weeklong spree of riots and looting and forced the city to re-examine its racial divides. The documentary, hosted by CNN anchor Don…