Politics
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NEWS STAND: Thugnificent's Back, So Are Unemployment Checks
Kwame Kilpatrick: Thugnificent Back in the Mix Take one disgraced former mayor/thug/clown, add a former first lady/thug/clown who beat down a stripper whom she caught/didn’t catch in the Manoogian Mansion, stir in the murder of said stripper in a drive-by, sprinkle with a police cover-up, garnish with a multi-million dollar lawsuit and you’ve got a…
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Can a Powell Oust a Rangel who Ousted a Powell?
The news that a son of the late Adam Clayton Powell Jr. will challenge Harlem Congressman Charlie Rangel in the Democratic primary is the kind of sweet irony that reporters love. If the younger Powell were to oust Rangel, who has been under fire for ethical reasons lately, he would be replacing the man who…
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It's Time to Add Whites to the Race Beat
The Maynard Institute’s Dori Maynard argues on the institute’s web site that the news media need to include whites in their coverage of the race beat. Here’s why:During the debate over health care reform, some white protesters hurled racial epithets at black elected officials and even spit on one.Later that same week, the Atlanta Journal…
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New Light Shed on Post-Katrina Vigilante Shootings
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…
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After Justice Stevens?
It may seem hard to believe now, but when Justice Stevens appeared for the opening day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in 1975, the first issue he felt compelled to address was his health. Stevens had undergone heart bypass surgery the year before his confirmation. But by the first day of the hearing, Stevens reported…
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Obama on the Offensive
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…
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Don't Carry Me Back to Old Virginny
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…
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What Happens After the Rally in Trenton?
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…
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The Confederate South Should Rise Again … in Private
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…
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Everything You Wanted to Know About Barack Obama
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,…