the browntable
-
Sotomayor: A High-Tech Cinching
The U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the next member of the U.S. Supreme Court, and it’s first Latina Justice by a vote of 68-31. Nine Republicans broke ranks and voted with 59 Democrats to confirm. The other 31 Republicans, whether intentionally or not, wound up ratifying the ugly, disingenuous attacks against Sotomayor that…
-
Beer Goggles: The Lessons of Skip Gates' Arrest
In honor of the reconciliatory beer being shared tonight at the White House, between president Barack Obama, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and Cambridge police Sergeant Joseph Crowley, it’s worth revisiting, however briefly, discussion of the larger issues raised by the arrest. I appeared on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show to discuss racial profiling and race…
-
Valerie Jarrett: Third Obama or Third Wheel?
What does Valerie Jarrett do? Robert Draper (of the scathing Donald Rumsfeld expose) spills 8,000 words of ink on Jarrett for this weekend’s NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, in search of that very idea. He tells a lot of great stories about Jarrett’s influence with president Barack Obama, stretching back to the glory days in Chicago’s…
-
Obama's Money Machine: Now Running Foreign Policy?
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is considering the nominations of two men to represent the United States in East Asia: Republican Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah, and Democrat John V. Roos of California. But it’s the Democratic appointment who is selling out Obama’s promise. The nomination of Huntsman as ambassador to China was sheer political…
-
If Words Could Heal, Obamacare Would Be Done
It’s a truism that health care reform is so hard in large part because so few people actually understand the stuff. Well, President Obama is working mightily to frame this year’s debate simply: It’s a tug-of-war between those who want to fix a self-evident problem and a few flat-Earthers who thrive off its dysfunction. So…
-
Obama Says Officer 'Acted Stupidly' in Arrest of Skip Gates
Given President Barack Obama’s reluctance to dwell on the issue of race in America, it was a surprise to hear the president’s forceful comments on last week’s controversial arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., The Root’s editor-in-chief. At the close of his prime-time press conference on health care Wednesday, the president addressed the touchy issue…
-
Is Race-based Health Care a Prescription for Discrimination?
Last week, the often controversial and always conservative William Saletan published a piece about the link between race and cancer outcomes. In what’s sure to give black folks flashbacks of the Tuskegee Experiment and “The Bell Curve,” Saletan concludes that genetic differences between races largely explain a study that found a significantly lower survival rate…
-
Losing Your Cool in America
Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. had a very bad day. After a long trip home from China, where he was filming his new PBS documentary, “Faces of America,” the Harvard professor was probably looking forward to a little rest. Instead, he was arrested outside of his own Cambridge, Massachusetts home. The official reason for his…
-
When Color Strikes–What Next?
John McWhorter and I sat and talked in the aftermath of president Barack Obama’s speech to the NAACP. I argue that there’s a difference in Obama’s talk on race before he was president and after. We also talk Sonia Sotomayor, political organizing, the Philadelphia pool incident and the “Joshua Generation.” Here’s the cut: —DAYO OLOPADE…
-
Calling a Stall a Stall in Health Reform
It was a busy weekend in the intensifying political brawl over health care reform. Most notably, Obama’s budget guru (and health care secret weapon) Peter Orszag caused a stir by pointing out just how naked some “centrist” Senators are in their effort to kill reform. The administration is cajoling lawmakers to vote on a bill…