Politics
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Why Mitt Romney Is Like Barack Obama
When President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney square off at the debate podium in the fall of 2012, it might be harder than you think to tell the two of them apart. They’re both Harvard lawyers. They’re both millionaires and devoted family men. As a college student, Romney completed a requisite Mormon…
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The (Poor) State of Black Families
Marriage Nearly half of black Americans have never married—the highest percentage for all racial groups. Only 30 percent of blacks are now married. Married couples make up nearly three-quarters of all U.S. families. Among black families that number falls to 44 percent. The Children Black kids in the United States are in deep trouble. Nearly…
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What Do the Taliban and Our Youth Have in Common?
For those checking in on the conflict in Afghanistan, the latest buzzword on the war isn’t “surge” any longer, it’s “population-centric.” Despite the recent civilian fatalities of Operation Moshtarak, U.S. officials continue to emphasize a strategy of reduced combat and increased reconciliation with the Afghan community. This includes supporting President Hamid Karzai’s overarching plan to…
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Hometown Crowd Sticks By Desiree Rogers
by Lynette Holloway When Desiree Rogers quietly stepped down as White House social secretary last week, it came as no surprise to Chicago’s political movers and shakers, such as U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill., a longtime African-American leader. “I never expected Desiree Rogers to make a career out of being a social secretary,’’ Davis…
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Bybee, Yoo and America’s Tortured Soul
Did the authors of the infamous “torture memos” get off scot-free? Recent news stories seem to suggest that attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee were exonerated when the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility decided not to issue a finding of professional misconduct against them. But a close examination of the 69-page memo makes it…
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Court Saves Voting Rights Act and Itself
It would be difficult to overstate the significance and revelatory import of the Supreme Court’s long-awaited decision in North Austin Municipal Utility District(NAMUD) v. Holder – the case that challenged the constitutionality of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. We learn that the conservative plurality on the Court (minus Justice Thomas) has a pretty…
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Obama Shouldn’t Trumpet a Black Agenda
Let me see if I have this straight: talk show host Tavis Smiley blasted Rev. Al Sharpton and other black leaders because they’re not pressing President Obama to promote a black agenda? Yeah, that would be a brilliant move for Obama. It’s not enough that he’s under constant assault from birthers, Tea Partiers, neocons, Fox…
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Book Excerpt: Before Brown v. Board of Education
Root and Branch: Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall and the Struggle to End Segregation, Rawn James Jr., 2010 In 1935, Thurgood Marshall and Charles Hamilton Houston’s fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, had been working on plans to file a lawsuit to integrate the University of Maryland. Led by its assistant general counsel Belford V. Lawson Jr.,…
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New York Governor Paterson Drops His Bid to Get Re-elected
The dream is over for New York Governor David Paterson. The Empire State’s first black governor announcedannounce this afternoon that he will withdraw from the race for a new term after news reports that he and New York State Police officials had intervened in a domestic violence incident involving a close aide. At a news…
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Tavis Smiley Was Right
Tavis Smiley’s recent criticisms of the Obama administration’s failure to directly address the concerns of the black community has caused an uproar among black leaders. The Tavis haters are out in full force. It is so ironic because it seems that every time Tavis attempts to criticize and dialogue “out of love,” much of black…