Politics

Yes, I saw the cartoon published by the New York Post. Yes, it was insensitive, and yes, it was racist. Everyone knows that the imagery of a monkey serves as a powerful slur against African Americans, especially black men. The New York Post should be ashamed. But, if we are going to organize a protest…

Has it really only been a month since Barack Obama was sworn in as president? So much has happened in that short time. He has not only signed into law a humongous economic stimulus package that is the biggest spending bill in American history, but also ordered a 50 percent increase, to 51,000, in American troops in Afghanistan. He…

Eric Holder’s confrontational speech to members of the Justice Department on Wednesday spoke plainly and bluntly about the level of racial discourse in America. “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot,” he said, “in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially…

Does anyone remember the moaning and gnashing of teeth when Barack Obama was elected president? Not from defeated Republicans but from professional comedians, saddened when George W. Bush—and the comedic gold mine that was his presidency—took that last helicopter ride out of D.C. They worried that it would be difficult to make fun of the…

A couplet…  Detroit is the blackest city in America. And after witnessing New Orleans, another venerable majority-black city, go down for the count in 2005, by way of government indifference in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it behooves President Barack Obama to do everything he can to help save Motown and its auto industry.  This…

I would classify myself as an intensely proud black man. And I feel completely comfortable saying that Robert Downey Jr. deserves his Oscar nod. Denying Tropic Thunder’s smart satire simply because the artists involved are white is simplistic and short-sighted. Frankly, I find Tyler Perry’s use of trite black American archetypes equally as problematic as blackface.…

There is an old saying, or there should be, that God looks after fools and Democrats. Look at Roland Burris, the political has-been and perennial loser who got one of the all-time greatest second chances in American politics and blew it by lying under oath to a state impeachment panel. Still, Burris is a U.S.…

President Barack Obama’s first prime-time news conference played on a small television monitor above my son’s hospital bed, as the 24-pound toddler fought for his life. As a Washington journalist, normally, I’d be itching to be there at the White House. But on that day, Obama’s words faded into the background as I looked at…

There are cynical luxuries that come with being black in this country, like the ability to shrug off the dime-store rites of patriotism. We’ve seen America through a perpetually raised eyebrow, the yeah, whatever perspective that comes with the terrain on our side of American history. And here lies Presidents Day. Like July 4th, Thomas…

Living in America – eye to eye, station to station Living in America – hand to hand, across the nation Living in America – got to have a celebration… You might not be looking for the promised land, but you might find it anyway. —James Brown, “Living in America” Black patriotism has always been a…