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Over Before it Began?
Historians may look back at this election and decide that the outcome was never really in doubt. The political fundamentals were so clear and so unchanging long before the real contest began, throughout nearly the entire second-half of the Bush presidency. The war, the economy and the GOP mismanagement of their congressional powers and an…
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Cut From the Same Cloth?
Are you an Obama supporter who feels a certain amount of unease with your candidate’s occasional bouts of schlockiness? This is not to say you don’t appreciate his speaking skills. You cheered at the Philadelphia race speech, but had to dredge up the patience to get through some of his others. At times, Obama can…
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Iyanla's House
Thanks to Iyanla Vanzant, many black women spent the late 1990s talking about houses. Not physical ones, but houses as metaphors. In her book about love and relationships, In the Meantime (1998), Iyanla Vanzant began her trademark sister-girl explanation of romantic relationships like this: “We all start out in the basement of life. This is…
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Ready to Rumble
Does anyone else think Sarah Palin deserves a smackdown? She has lately boasted that the “heels are on and the gloves are off,” but she knows that Barack Obama and Joe Biden would look less than gentleman-like and risk offending women voters, if they took her on using some of the tough talk and loaded…
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Oh, Lord, Kumbaya
At this moment in history when we may need it most, “Kumbaya,” a folk song that started its life as a quiet prayer and became a spiritual rallying cry for millions during some of this nation’s grimmest days, has morphed into something that couldn’t have been imagined during your Boy or Girl Scout days: a…
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Letter From North Carolina
On a recent Saturday morning in the heart of North Carolina, it was threatening rain, and I was standing in line with thousands of others in downtown Greensboro to do something I’d never done before—be part of the cheering crowd at a Barack Obama rally. Until just weeks ago, my engagement with politics had always…
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Poll-arized Mistrust
Recently, at a forum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one participant directed a query at me: “Did you read the article on The Rootthat talks about how the Republicans are planning to steal the election? How do you feel about that?” the young woman asked. My response was that I found…
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Schooling McCain on the Man Code
It’s easy to look at Sen. McCain begging off a handshake from Sen. Barack Obama and just see a white guy dissing a black guy. But I wouldn’t get Al and Jesse on the BlackPhone just yet—I think that whole thing is a sight more complicated than prejudice and politics. I’m (arguably) as much a…
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An Obama-Palin Ticket
Ever since John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate in August, I have been telling friends that my true “dream ticket” for the 2008 campaign would be Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Sarah Palin.Yes, I know this sounds odd. They are from different parties. They hold opposing views on foreign and domestic policy.…
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Love the Player, Hate the GM
Sometime in the late ’90s—memory can’t pinpoint when—I was sitting around with a few pals discussing the state of African Americans in the executive suites of sports teams. Certainly progress was being made since Al Campanis’ racist remarks on Nightline, but it seemed that the sporting world was no different than the real world in…