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Philadelphia, Where Blackness Transcends
If we needed a Capital of Blackness, weâd make it Philadelphia. Philly is the soundtrack to blackness, every facet of black life rolled into a hoagie of diasporic oneness. Every elastic, painful, ebullient chord, like Gerald Priceâs mystically floating fingers across piano keys at Zanzibar Blue, or young brothers freestyle battling elder cats on trumpet…
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5 Ways the Republican Tax-Reform Plan Hits Black Folks the Hardest
Right now, at this very moment, the single biggest threat to the group of people already in a compromised position because of their race is the congressional Republicansâ tax-reform plan. Not the sound of the police. Not lead in your water and not a jail cell. The tax-reform plan that both Congress and the White…
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4 State Elections That Could Prove How Much Everybody Hates Black Voters
This election season could prove that âthe resistanceâ is really all bullshit. On Tuesday, in states like Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and on Dec. 12 in Alabama, there are big chances to begin striking backâand in a language that can scare people like White House chief of staff John Kelly, his boss, Bannonites, congressional…
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Making Sure Your Houston Relief Money Is Going to the Black Folks Who Need It Most Isnât Easy
Houston state Rep. Shawn Thierryâs majority-black district houses nearly 200,000 residents, the Houston Texans football stadium, and a massive population of folks who were already low-income and living from paycheck-to-paycheck. They were all in the eye of the storm when Hurricane Harvey hit. âItâs really that bad,â Thierry, a single mom of a 4-year old,…
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Race and Class Are the Biggest Issues Around Hurricane Harvey and We Need to Start Talking About Them
Our national conversation on Hurricane Harvey should be much like those about Charlottesville, Va., or Flint, Mich. But as the Houston area braces for much more flooding, that wonât happen until receding floodwaters reveal the dangerously gaping holes of disparity between white haves and black have-nots. Right now the nation just sees flooding and burly,…
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Itâs No Surprise That the Trump Administrationâs Africa Policy Is Nonexistent. But We Should Care
With the president returning from one of the most embarrassing public displays of American diplomacy abroad, at least we can say one thing: We know where President Donald Trump stands with respect to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and in Europe. For bad or for worse. We even get a firm sense of…
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The GOP Keeps Quietly Purging Black Votersâand Democrats Arenât Doing Anything About It
When both Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Marcel Groen and the North Carolina Democratic Partyâs deputy executive director, Douglass Wilson, were asked about a little-known, but nasty, national voter-purge effort called âInterstate Crosscheckâ in their respective states during a broadcast of Reality Check, this authorâs daily public-affairs radio program on Philadelphiaâs WURD, neither could say what…
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Stop Playing: Impeachment Is Not a Black Political Strategy
Since the election of President Donald Trump, black political leaders have seemingly led the charge as public Democratic Party surrogates calling for impeachment. When everyone else couldnât quite fathom Trump as a real-life Manchurian candidate, the black political and pundit class (to its credit) was already gnawing strong at the Trump-Putin link while vigorously questioning…
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Urban Planning Canât Happen Without Black People in the RoomâYet It Does
Sit at the tables where people are deciding where the new school will go, whether to expand the bus stop or if a new business can drop itself into a neighborhood, and the first question that comes to mind is, âWhere are all the people of color?â In 2017 it isâstillâa fact that most folks…
