Politics

Michael Eric Dyson is apparently salty with Barack Obama and has taken the time to express that fact. The Black intellectual, known for his well-rehearsed hip-hop double speak that the academy just eats up because it’s so darn edgy and refreshing (despite the fact that the ideas therein aren’t terribly edgy or refreshing. But whatever)…

First, some scary statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services: * 48% of all African-American adults suffer from a chronic disease, compared to 39% of the general population. *Development of diabetes: 18% of American Indians; 15% of African Americans; 14% of Hispanics; 8% of white Americans * African Americans are 15% more likely…

When a Department of Homeland Security report in April predicted a rise in white supremacist violence by white men who feel increasingly marginalized and powerless, Republican leaders were up in arms. The report, they said, was a slur on the U.S. military because it explored the possibility that white supremacist violence might arise from the…

Over on Jack and Jill Politics, Rinku Sen from the Applied Research Center discusses how the president’s economic policies overlook racial inequities and ultimately is not serving the people who it purports to protect. Sen writes: “As one of the last strongholds of union jobs shrinks, we have to confront a brutal truth about work…

Ex-Republican Christopher Buckley writes in his satirical novel, Supreme Courtship, that “nothing raises the national temperature more than a VACANCY sign hanging from the colonnaded front of the Supreme Court.” This has certainly been true in the days since President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor for the highest legal office in the land. Much of…

Imagine a western country with a population of about 40 million people and an economy the size of Spain or Italy. After years of dysfunctional politics and amid a global recession, it teeters on the verge of bankruptcy—forced to choose between eliminating the most basic services for its citizens and defaulting on its massive debts.…

Caperton v. Massey is one of the 5-4 squeakers that the Supreme Court got right. It is a case that may not make the front page of many newspapers, but in its own way may be as crucial as the upcoming decisions in several Voting Rights Act and affirmative action cases. Caperton put before the…

There is a hadith in which The Prophet said, “…you should not be extremists, but try to be near perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded …” And Ice Cube once called it a good day when “mama cooked the breakfast with no hog.” With his singular ability to communicate across…

Being seen dripping with jewels on a yacht in the south of France is not the new Black. Darryl Cobbin, veteran marketing executive writes today on the HUFFINGTON POST that this new global economy has created a seismic shiftin consumer sensibilities. The former middle class; upwardly-mobile people who previously maxed out credit cards in pursuit…

Last Saturday in Linn Park in downtown Birmingham, a 41-year-old Congressman who went to Harvard and then graduated from Harvard Law School, announced that he was running for governor of Alabama in 2010. There were red, white and blue signs with his name on them and a diverse crowd of about 500 cheered on the…