the browntable

Pop, politics and race collide in this month’s issue of EBONY magazine, which features a remarkable photograph of a dozen top-level, African American advisers (most of whom are women!) to President Barack Obama. It was never certain that the first black president would have a particularly black administration (though the campaign’s reservoir of young black…

President Barack Obama has just finished giving a big speech about the economy. You can tell it was a big speech because it has a name: “A New Foundation,” to be precise. In the address, delivered at Georgetown University on the eve of Tax Day (and a number of Republican protests, if the GOP echo…

Let’s be clear: Thugs hijacking relief supplies meant for communities starved by a genocidal despot is an awful, ugly thing. But I’ve watched with some amusement as Western shipping companies and the navies that support them have grown frustrated with Somali pirates in recent years. Pirates! But there’s more to the story than Johnny Depp…

This weekend, the NEW YORK TIMES provided a valuable accounting of the impact that the recession is having on state and city budgets. The short answer: not good. Nothing, it seems, is off the table. In Pima County, Ariz., the County Board of Supervisors increased an assortment of fees, including the cost of AIDS testing.…

Did integration negatively affect discipline for black kids? That’s the question Carol Forsloff asked at Digital Journal. Some folks claim that interaction with white teachers and the adoption of white parenting styles led to the breakdown of discipline. I haven’t stopped thinking about the post since I read it. As a young girl, I lived…

The bow thing is exactly what’s wrong with American politics; we are constantly obsessed with the inconsequential. The economy is in collapse and we’re waging two wars with no end in sight for either. Still, all anyone is talking about is whether the president of the United States bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia.…

The White House announced this week that President Obama will buy about $285 million worth of American automobiles from Detroit—a huge boon to an industry spiraling toward bankruptcy and causing sky-high levels of unemployment in the state of Michigan and across the country. From the mothership: The purchase is slated to include 2,500 hybrid sedans,…

According to Dawn Teo over at HUFFINGTON POST, Arizona State University does not think President Obama, one of its 2009 commencement speakers, is worthy of an honorary degree. The university’s Media Relations Director Sharon Keeler said the selection process for honorary degrees is conducted on an independent basis and that the selection committee was not…

POTUS and SOS hanging on the playground on the South Lawn of the White House Thursday. READ ABOUT the encounter here. —DAYO OLOPADE Covers the White House and Washington for The Root. Follow her on Twitter.

Another busy day at the White House: First Lady Michelle Obama hosted students from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington, who helped her plant and water the brand-new White House garden. She and Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack spoke to the students about the healthy fruits and veggies that would grow there. “It’s all brain food,” Obama…