Politics
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The USDA and The Value of Black Land
Alphonso Hooks, a fourth-generation farmer in Shorter, Alab., was ambivalent about recent news that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) signed a $1.25 billion discrimination settlement with thousands of black farmers. The agreement, called Pigford II, was the second redressing of past USDA racial discrimination cases. Hooks says he got nothing in an earlier settlement.…
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Why Voting For Obama Was Like Buying Starbucks Coffee
In my recent book, Everything but the Coffee: Learning About America from Starbucks (University of California Press, 2009), I show how consumerism has oozed into every corner and crevice of American life and how we increasingly treat everything as a purchase. We seem to think that anything of value in life can be bought as…
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What I Saw at the Conservative Devolution
In 2003, Republicans attending the 30th anniversary of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) had much to celebrate: a solid majority in Congress, a conservative stalwart in George W. Bush and a war in Iraq coming down the chute. This year, the out-of-power American right convened once more. Panelists discussed “Going Rogue,” the dangers of…
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Depardieu Covers Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas played by a white actor? That’s the controversial role the ubiquitous French actor Gerard Depardieu has taken on in a new film called The Other Dumas. Dumas, author of such famous novels as “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Three Musketeers,” was the grandson of a freed Haitian slave and a French…
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No Question, Tiger Woods Said What Was Necessary
“I’m deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior … I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did was not acceptable, and I am the only person to blame. Any questions?” No, Tiger Woods didn’t utter that last line and hold a Q&A Friday morning after his 13-minute apology, which drew about…
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Interview: NAACP's New Chair, Roslyn Brock
This afternoon the NAACP elected its youngest board chair in history: health care advocacy professional Roslyn Brock. Though only 44 years old, the native Floridian is already a 25-year veteran of the civil rights organization. Most recently NAACP vice chair, Brock is a protégé of the outgoing chairman, civil rights legend Julian Bond. Bond is…
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What Will Replace Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union?
Last February, I was heading out to Los Angeles to be a part of the annual State of the Black Union event that featured some of the greatest members of our generation of black Americans. From the conversations around dinner tables to the panels to the fundraiser concert by Prince and Sheila E., it was…
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Black History Today: A Profile of Historian Crystal Feimster
Crystal Feimster went to college thinking she was going to be an attorney. The legal profession’s loss was history’s gain. While she was still an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina, Feimster met a string of distinguished African-American historians who made history exciting, including Tera Hunter, Darlene Clark Hine and Clayborne Carson. “It’s one…
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Green Is the New Black
The office of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson lies halfway between Congress and the White House. The placement is appropriate; the 48-year-old New Orleans native—the first African American to run the agency tasked with protecting the air, water and health of Americans—walks a line between action and negotiation every day. She keeps a copy…
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NEWS STAND: Bad Time for Black Politics, Buying African Mobile, Hamburger War
It’s Hard Out Here for a Black Politician First, there was the exposé by the New York Times of the Congressional Black Caucus’ profligate ways, spending more on catering than on the scholarships it gives out to black college students. The story has not provoked the outrage you might expect.Maybe folks are in the don’t-air-our-dirty-linen…