Politics

Why, with the election less than three months away, is Barack Obama still embroiled in negotiations with his supposedly defeated rival for the nomination over how much of the limelight she and her husband will hog at the Democratic National Convention? Sure, John Edwards unwittingly stole the spotlight this weekend, with his forced admission of…

“Well, how could they be jamming us if they don’t know…if we’re coming?” – Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) If you watch TV or go to the movies, you’re already pretty familiar with the black sidekick. From Rochester to Robin Quivers, there is frequently at least one African American in the crew to provide a…

As much as I hate that the poster children for Valtrex and Child Protective Services (Paris Hilton and Britney Spears) have been injected into our political debate, a practical part of me recognizes that any campaign staffer paying attention to the election coverage would be forced to craft voter appeals aimed at the lowest common…

“So drink some prune juice and let the shit go.” —Ludacris If you’re in NYC this weekend, keep an eye out for Al Sharpton on the dance floor at 40/40. He’ll be the one gripping a bottle of Moët, sandwiched in-between two supermodels with his tie loosened, sweating out his conk and hollering along with…

This weekend I finally opened the quarterly statements for my retirement accounts. After a few minutes of weeping and a few more spent calculating how many additional years I would now be forced to labor in the vineyard, I had a thought that cheered me. Sure, the economy is staggering. Sure, we are five years…

It’s not a good week for Alpha Kappa Alpha. For starters, the group’s national president, Barbara McKinzie, may be forced out following allegations that, among other “financial misdeeds,” she “used the organization’s money to commission a $900,000 ‘living legacy wax figure’ of herself,” as reported in the Washington Business Journal. And then there was the…

“Yo, I start to flinch as I try not to say it;But my lips is like the ooh-wop as I start to spray it…” – Q-Tip If a white woman can have a crush on Obama, then I hope a biracial man can have a crush on The View’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck, because she’s doing a…

While on a seven-country tour this week, dignified and presidential images of Barack Obama have replaced last week’s cartoon image of him as a fist-bumping, flag-burning terrorist. This isn’t the first time that questions of Obama’s patriotism and loyalty have been raised, then quieted, by an inspiring speech or image. Throughout this presidential election, Obama…

In Black in America, CNN’s four-hour-long series premiering this week, we learn some facts that may be news to viewers, including:— The prolific, loquacious Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson has a younger brother who is serving a life sentence for murder.— A fresh-faced, 18-year-old black single mother in the Bronx does not have the virus…