Politics

Three days after Hurricane Katrina turned New Orleans into a ghost town, somebody shot Donnell Herrington twice in Algiers Point, ripping a hole in his throat. Herrington, who is African-American, says he was ambushed by a group of armed white men who attacked without warning or provocation. He barely survived the shooting, which shredded his…

President Obama upset his base last week with his announcement that off-shore drilling would be explored. He riled them up even further with his continued support for drone attacks on terror cells overseas. And although the political left will not go so far as to call the president a war criminal—as they did President Bush…

When I was a kid in Washington back in the 1950s, I used to watch my dad’s face change whenever we had to drive across the bridge into Virginia. His jaw would clinch, his eyes would harden, and his body would assume a determined but wary posture, as though he were preparing to enter a…

My adopted hometown of Trenton, N.J., made national and international news last week for all the wrong reasons when it was reported that a 7-year-old girl was gang raped. In response, on Saturday, April 10, Russell Simmons, Al Sharpton and several other celebrities will converge on Trenton to deliver a message of non-violence. With a…

True story No. 1: I have an old friend with a Confederate Battle Flag tattoo—an African-American woman born and raised in South Carolina. She’s a JAG officer and a decorated Iraq war vet. Her sorority pledge nickname just happened to be “Rebel,” but the tat is also a proud symbol of her Southern birthright. Like…

On the day he had officially proclaimed United States Census Day 2010, President Barack Obama ticked off a box marked “Black, African American or Negro.” Though the form provided space for him to write in the story we know so well by now—Kenya, Kansas, Hawaii, Hyde Park—he chose the simpler, less divisive route. David Remnick,…

Southern Discomfort: Virginia Governor Apologizes for Slavery Omission in Confederate History Month Proclamation http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/04/07/2260440.aspx Gee, thanks. That takes the sting out of a month commemorating the oppression of black folks. Like the good ol’ boy that he is, Republican Gov. Robert F. McDonnell apologized for omitting slavery in his Confederate History Month proclamation. An oversight…

Sometimes, black folks underestimate the amount of envy they create among some white people. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s decision to celebrate Confederate History Month for the first time in eight years is likely a response to Black History Month. “They” had a month to highlight their achievements; we’re entitled to a month to celebrate “ours.”…

The growing debate in the United States about the increasingly virulent hate speech by so-called Tea Party activists and their talk radio and Republican Party boosters has resonance these days in South Africa. The ruling African National Congress is engaged in an increasingly bitter court battle over its claimed right to continue singing publicly so-called…