Politics

Anderson Cooper sits down and discusses color preference with a few youngsters. It’s…heartbreaking.

With the recent deaths of former NAACP executive director Benjamin L. Hooks, 85; civil rights icon Dorothy I. Height, 98; and entertainer Lena Horne, 92, I am reminded that our cultural giants are mere men and women, like the rest of us. They are ordinary people who live and die, as we all will. Of…

Philadelphia police officer admits lie in saying he was shothttp://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/93466604.html?cmpid=15585797 Straight from the Susan Smith files, a Philadelphia police officer who claimed that he was shot by a black man, lied about it.  Sgt. Robert Ralston, a 21-year veteran of the department, shot himself in the shoulder so that his kids would be proud of…

Today nobody wants to be called an Uncle Tom, but 150 years ago, it was a compliment. In Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Uncle Tom is a martyr, not a sell-out. His devotion to his fellow slaves is so unshakable that he sacrifices a chance for freedom and, ultimately, his life…

At a time when a group nostalgically calling itself the Tea Party is wreaking havoc on the political scene and people are walking around wearing tricorn hats and spouting Patrick Henry bromides, Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele has reminded us of the flaws in our original Constitution and in its framers. He has also undermined…

Arizona Bill Targeting Ethnic Studies Signed Into LawThe presence of Latinos has driven Arizona legislators over the edge. On the heels of passing some of the most racist legislation in recent history, the saga continues. Now, lawmakers have targeted the school system, banning ethnic studies. According to Tom Horne, the Tucson school system’s state superintendent…

L.A.’s city council has approved a boycott of Arizona businesses. It is the largest city to do so in response to Arizona’s recent immigration law and ethnic studies ban. The 13-1 vote, which came after emotional discussion in which several council members recounted their immigrant ancestors, was largely symbolic since only a small percentage of…

Understand that the BP oil spill currently tarring the Gulf of Mexico doesn’t just affect Louisiana but the entire country. A third of domestic seafood in the United States comes from Louisiana waters: oysters, crabs, shrimp, redfish, trout, crawfish and catfish are all caught and farmed there. It’s the largest fishing industry in the lower…