Politics

It’s hard to overstate the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling. In a world where space is limited and human population isn’t shrinking, cutting down on the amount of trash we produce—from the Styrofoam you litter to that cell phone you junk—is key. Much of our waste is destined for landfills, but could just as…

Philadelphia’s a fine city. I only know its hotels, and frankly that’s the kind of intimacy I prefer: plastic and superficial. I don’t need to know your Liberty Bells or your World’s Largest Cheesesteak. Lately, cities are one-night stands: hard and fast. In and out. Hours later, I’m looking down at your landmarks from 15,000…

Any day now I expect George Stephanopoulos, Sean Hannity, Hillary Clinton and John McCain to pressure Barrack Obama to renounce my endorsement. Mind you, Obama woudn’t know me from the man in the moon since I ‘ve never actually met him. But that’s splitting hairs. I’ve watched him on TV: I want him to win,…

The last Democratic Presidential debate was both uplifting and depressing. The uplifting part of it came in the moments of real substance from Sens. Clinton and Obama. For my part, Obama was the steadier, clearer, and the more inspiring voice over the full arc of the evening. The depressing parts were many of the questions…

According to a report I read here on TheRoot, Bob Johnson, “the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television says Barack Obama would not be a leading presidential candidate if he were white.” Since Johnson is a Hillary Clinton supporter, I started to wonder if his candidate would be a leading presidential contender if she were…

I was raised Baptist and spent more time in church than I thought any normal adolescent should. As soon as I left Atlanta and landed in Washington, D.C., I was determined to take full advantage of my new-found freedom. One of the first choices I made as a freshman at Howard University was choosing not…

Princeton historian Sean Wilentz has leveled an odd charge against Barack Obama. He accuses the Illinois senator’s campaign of trying to hijack the Democratic presidential nomination by arguing it has a stronger claim on the nomination because Obama has more pledged delegates than Sen. Hillary Clinton and larger percentage of the popular vote. Wilentz argues…

BARBARA BUSH: Leading ‘awful garbage strikes.’ This was a very interesting time to be living in Washington. The Vietnam War was debated at all the dinner parties, and the whole country worried about racial and student unrest. Here is part of my diary entry from April 5, 1968, to show a little of what it…

It seems like a lifetime ago when some black people were asking if Barack Obama was “black enough” and some white people were insisting that he was “not really black.” Those silly debates seem quaint in retrospect. Back then, people were merely having trouble wrapping their minds around Sen. Obama’s biracial heritage and itinerant upbringing,…

David Swerdlick is an associate editor at The Root. Follow him on Twitter.