African Americans

Why Does the Temp Industry Shut Out Black Workers?

Will Evans

Ceja had stumbled into the noxious muck of systemic discrimination in the rapidly growing temp industry. Around the country, temp agencies have used code words, symbols and gestures to illegally hire workers by sex, race and age. Whether filling orders for only white workers or only Latino ones, the tactics often hit black workers the hardest. As Ceja underwent a crash course in this hidden system, an advocacy group called the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative was devising a counteroffensive.

End of an Era: ‘Ebony’ and ‘Jet’ Magazines Have Been Sold

Frederick H. Lowe

The deal, which was signed in May and disclosed Tuesday, includes the assumption of JPC’s debt. It also continues the dismantling of Johnson Publishing Co., an iconic black-owned business founded in 1942 by brilliant entrepreneur John H. Johnson with the publication of “Negro Digest.” Mr. Johnson died in 2005. Even the name Johnson Publishing Co. may eventually disappear.

New Voting Laws Block Many Elders, Women, Minorities

Paul Kleyman

“Voter ID laws disadvantaging older persons place a burden on the voting rights of those most likely to participate in the electoral process,” said Daniel Kohrman, a senior attorney with the AARP Foundation Litigation office in Washington, D.C. That’s because older citizens vote at greater percentages than younger people. A total of 33 states have laws requesting or requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls this year. (West Virginia's new law goes into effect in 2018). 

Bill Clinton: Rewriting the History of His Crime Bill

Lauren Victoria Burke

So let's tell the truth. The truth is that the Clinton crime bill was a strategic answer from the Democratic Party to the charge that it was "soft on crime," a charge that had dogged the party since Lee Atwater's famous Willie Horton ad that crushed the presidential campaign of Democrat Michael Dukakis in 1988. The crime bill was passed by a Democratic-controlled House run by Speaker Tom Foley (D-Wash.) and a Democratic-controlled Senate run by Majority Leader George Mitchell. The Newt Gingrich Republican takeover didn't start until 1995.  

Can Donald Trump Get the African-American Vote?

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Even more than Romney, Trump’s violence driven, race-baiting crusade that nakedly appeals to largely white lower-income, less educated, rural and strongly male crowds drive the point home that blacks are not even an after-thought in his drive to snare the White House. But there’s more to the picture about Trump and black voters as the punches that the black assailant delivered to the Trump protester showed.

Human Rights Watch Lists Police Mistreatment of African-Americans as Violation

Charlene Muhammad

In “World Report 2016: Events of 2015,” experts criticize U.S. police practices and become yet another international body bringing the plight of Blacks in America onto the international stage. Once again, high-profile police killings of unarmed African Americans gained media attention in 2015, including the deaths of Freddy Gray in Baltimore and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina,” the report said.

 

Hillary Clinton Has African-American Support, But Can She Keep It?

Nigel Roberts

With the recession now in the rearview mirror, black people want to be part of the nation’s economic recovery. Hillary Clinton proposes a menu of solutions to raise incomes for struggling families. They range from tax cuts for child care to encouraging corporations to share their rising profits with workers. In an interview with The Root, Clinton’s senior policy adviser, Maya Harris, underscored the candidate’s plan to “unleash small-business growth.” Harris says black women, who represent the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs, would benefit.

Obama’s SOTU Address: The End Equals the Beginning

Todd Steven Burroughs

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” That’s from Martin Luther King’s 1964 Nobel Prize acceptance speech. This is the King whose bust is in Obama’s Oval Office. This is the King the president paraphrases after bombing seven countries in as many years, which he did after a 2009 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in which he said as head of state, he could not follow King or Mahatma Gandhi alone.

Is It Racism or Bad Behavior? The Double Standard in American Schools

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

For years, civil rights groups have blamed the gaping disparities in school discipline on racism and said that they would challenge school officials nationally to find better ways to discipline black students instead of shoving them out of their school doors. Many education officials counter that factors other than race explain the disparities in suspensions. Though they don't spell out what those factors are, the disturbing implication is that black students are more prone to carry knives and guns, pick more fights, act unruly and engage in illicit conduct than whites at schools. 

Cosby, Not Ebony Magazine, Fanned Stereotypes of the Black Family

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Ebony Magazine stirred a mini-firestorm of rage when it dredged up an old photo shot of the TV Cosby show family, plopped it on its November cover, and then fractured the picture. The obvious point being that embattled comedian Bill Cosby not only disgraced his legacy but disgraced the hitherto near sacrosanct image and legacy of the celebrated Cosby TV show family, the Huxtables. The premise of the show was that there is fully intact, respectable, high-achieving, prim and proper black middle-class families. 

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