Politics

It’s an odd sort of memorial we arrive at today: Looking back on a 10-year-old police execution of an unarmed black man. It feels terribly incongruent with the political high we’re now on, more like a bad memory than a resonant reminder of the challenges we face as a nation. But here we are. It…

Two black boys died in the span of a week in 2007 because their mothers didn’t have health insurance.  Deamonte Driver, 12, died of a toothache because his mother couldn’t afford to pay $80 to have a tooth extracted; the tooth abscessed and bacteria spread to his brain. After two surgeries and six weeks in…

Today, 12 p.m.: Join the washingtonpost.com Live Online discussion on MICHAEL STEELE AND THE GOP’s FUTURE  with The Root’s deputy editor Terence Samuel. ***** I’ve been a Republican for a long time, more than two decades, and I have always been concerned about the poor relationship between the GOP and black voters. But I must…

I can hear it now. Better still, I have heard it already. “Michael Steele is nothing but a token pick by the Republican Party.” “Republicans only did this to have a black leader to match Obama.” Well, true and false. Michael Steele is the new chairman of the Republican Party in some part (if not…

There’s already a dangerously thin line between parody and minstrelsy; just ask Dave Chappelle. But Young Jean Lee isn’t afraid to walk it. The brilliant, young director and playwright has taken great pleasure in obscuring the line further—and she’s winning critical acclaim for doing so.   Lee just closed a wildly successful New York City run…

Today, 12 p.m.: Join the washingtonpost.com Live Online discussion on MICHAEL STEELE AND THE GOP’s FUTURE  with The Root’s deputy editor Terence Samuel. ***** They are black Republicans… A rapidly disappearing political subculture that seeks legitimacy by asserting that they are something different, something special—the other dark meat. They define themselves—with a quizzical ethos of…

Larry Wilmore is the “Senior Black Correspondent” for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” The joke is that he was the only black correspondent. If you think that’s funny, you’ll enjoy his new collection of essays, “I’d Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts” (Hyperion).  Wilmore is the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning creator and…

Two years ago, I sat with college sophomores at Princeton University to discuss their professional futures. My pitch was for public service, federal government service to be exact. I was leading the university’s Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative, and I faced a youthful, academically accomplished group with hearts that embraced the ideals of service…

Read the washingtonpost.com Live Online discussion on MICHAEL STEELE AND THE GOP’s FUTURE  with The Root’s deputy editor Terence Samuel. ***** Oh, what a difference a black president can make. If there was any doubt that President Barack Obama’s victory last November had completely transformed American politics, affirmation came Friday when Republicans—for the first time—elected…

We are now two weeks into the presidency of Barack Obama, and for many of us, the new reality is still what one blogger described as a “fragmentation bomb,”  which keeps exploding in unexpected moments. It’s Obama’s smiling face being printed everywhere like currency. Malia’s twists. Visions of Grandma Robinson getting pampered by White House…