the browntable

The “first” first family is proving themselves worthy of the title, indeed. In addition to seeding the first ever White House vegetable and herb garden (I’ll have more on today’s planting festivities, which are set to kick off momentarily) the AP reports that the Obamas are hosting a Seder tonight to celebrate the first night…

Back in March, Jimi Izrael asked over at The Hardline: “Have any of you really benefited from the various apologies for slavery?” A Tennessee General Assembly bill that expressed “profound regret” for slavery inspired the question. He declared himself “adamantly opposed to slavery apologies that don’t come with some kind of recompence.” I’m not holding…

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal for a new trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the ex-Black Panther serving a life sentence for killing a police officer in Philadelphia in 1981. He was convicted by a jury made of ten whites and two Blacks in 1982. Abu-Jamal’s lawyers’ latest appeal was filed on the…

Seems we’ve got yet another sell-out (literally) in the effort to rid the world of predatory lenders who swarm working-class and low-income neighborhoods. Earlier this year we learned that Magic Johnson is shilling for scammers who rip off low-income working people with tax-return anticipation loans. Now, Mike Illis reports for the WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT that the…

Yesterday, key members of the Congressional Black Caucus returned from a four-day trip to Cuba, during which they met with both current President Raul Castro and his brother, longtime American nemesis Fidel Castro. Designed to gather input from Cuban ministers and officials and send a message of Obama-era outreach from the United States, the trip…

The Obama administration has made quiet but significant HIV prevention news. At a White House ceremony, officials announced two new initiatives: one supporting new black leadership on AIDS, and a media blitz aiming to “refocus national attention” on the epidemic. From a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statement: “In the United States, every 9…

I’m really glad Kai Wright wrote about a boarding school experiment for kids in poor public schools. He frets about disconnecting teens from their families—which could have particularly pernicious effects in black households. I dissent: Having attended boarding school hundreds of miles from home from age 14 on, I think the experience is well worth…

Over at the mothership, Krissah Thompson has a story examining the lively debate among black Americans regarding how best to criticize Barack Obama—if they do so at all. Her rather didactic thesis: As the nation’s first black president settles into the office, a division is deepening between two groups of African Americans: those who want…

The mortgage industry has been crowing for a couple of years now about its good faith efforts to fix the failed loans that it shouldn’t have made in the first place. The point, of course, has been to avoid any government mandate on modifications—a goal they’ve thus far accomplished. But the proof is in the…

With the usual caveat emptor on me and education policy, I point you to an interesting article my friend Steve Gray wrote for TIME recently. Steve’s piece introduced me to a new idea: Public boarding schools for students from poor communities. I so often hear that the complexity of educating kids from neglected neighborhoods and…