African Americans

Where Is the Black Political Conversation About Climate Change?

Charles D. Ellison

Even within the context of climate change’s devastating and disproportionate impact on communities of color, black politicos won’t follow the president’s lead on the issue. The Congressional Black Caucus didn’t say if it would, at the very least, take a look at the rules—nor does it list climate change as an issue of focus (leaving it to the multicultural Congressional Progressive Caucus). 

How a Black Police Officer Infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan

Breanna Edwards

Stallworth's Klan investigation ended after about seven months because he was so good at his job that "the local organizer had the idea that they needed someone who was a resident of Colorado Springs to assume the duties," he says. "They took a vote at one of their meetings, and by unanimous vote they had determined that they wanted Ron Stallworth to become the new local organizer because he was a 'loyal and dedicated Klansman.' "

Cliven Bundy, Ronald Sterling, and Affirmative Action

Imara Jones

The spectacle of racist rancher Cliven Bundy and racist NBA owner Donald Sterling underscore why minority political and economic rights cannot rest solely upon majority rule. America is changing but it’s not changing fast enough to do away with key protections, and that’s what the Court seemingly did not get.Before turning to the way in which the race-infused antics of rancher Cliven Bundy and Los Angeles Clippers chief Donald Sterling upended the Supreme Court’s rationale of a race-free America, it’s important to quickly review the action the Court took.

Voter Suppression Tactics in Ohio

Zenitha Prince

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey, almost 13 percent of Hamilton County households –mostly in Cincinnati—do not own a vehicle, creating a potential barrier to early voting given the relatively difficult access to the new site. It is but one of several new laws and policies that rolls back access to the ballot box in Ohio, voting advocates say.

Why Decriminalizing Marijuana Will Help the Failing War on Drugs

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

A frank admission that the laws are biased and unfair, and have not done much to combat the drug plague, would be an admission of failure. It could ignite a real soul-searching over whether all the billions of dollars that have been squandered in the failed and flawed drug war -- the lives ruined by it, and the families torn apart by the rigid and unequal enforcement of the laws -- has really accomplished anything. This might call into question why people use and abuse drugs in the first place. 

What We Want to Hear From Michelle Obama

Keli Goff

In less than three months, President Barack Obama will celebrate the anniversary of being sworn in for his second term as president. Although many conservatives are looking ahead with anticipation to the end of his final term in office, many liberals are looking ahead with the hope that in his final years as commander in chief, the president might begin pushing a more aggressively progressive agenda. Then there are those of us who are hoping that in the president’s final term, we might get to see the Michelle Obama we haven’t seen since the early days of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Will the NAACP Ever Elect a Woman President?

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

In a petition circulated online, Change.org minces no words: “NAACP: Hire the First Woman President in the NAACP’s 104 year History.” Seventy percent of the respondents agreed it is time that NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) elect the first permanent woman president in its history. The petition and the clamor for a woman to lead the organization came almost within moments after current NAACP President Ben Jealous announced he was stepping down at the end of the year. 

Solving the African-American Jobs Crisis

Keli Goff

After five years of nonstop bad news regarding black unemployment, the Obama administration was finally able to celebrate some good news last month, or so it seemed. In July African-American unemployment dipped to 12.6 percent, a small but significant change from June's 13.7 percent unemployment rate -- and substantially lower than the high of 16.5 percent that it reached in January 2010. But any celebration was likely short-lived. 

‘I Have a Dream’: A Mighty Export

Sandip Roy

There is nothing in Dr. King's speech to imply that to be a hyphenated American is to have divided loyalties. When Jindal says American, the non-hyphenated version, he simply means Judaeo-Christian white - a whiteness that might not be visible in the color of the skin, but is definitely there in the content of the character. King's speech needs to be read again and again - not just commemorated or elocuted - to prevent it from being appropriated by the Jindals for their own ends. And not just in America.

50 Years Later, Civil Rights Leaders Face Daunting Challenges

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

A Pew study specifically released to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebrations graphically made the point that the economic and social gaps between whites and African-Americans have widened over the last few decades despite massive spending by federal and state governments, state and federal civil rights laws, and two decades of affirmative action programs. The racial polarization has been endemic between blacks and whites on everything from the George Zimmerman trial to just about every other controversial case that involves black and white perceptions of the workings of the criminal justice system.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - African Americans