-
Are Poor Black Americans Screwed?
(The Root) — Everywhere I go I hear middle-class African Americans voice what I now call “the worry.” One successful woman said to me, “We’re screwed, aren’t we?” A public intellectual commented to me, “I fear that a third of our people are toast!” A concerned black minister remarked, “We cannot settle for leaving so…
-
Does Obama Owe a Debt to Black America?
(The Root) — Does President Barack Obama owe a special debt to black America? Does he have a duty to spell out a specific black policy agenda? Is it time for him to squarely talk about race again, something he hasn’t really done since his 2008 Philadelphia speech? Will he have failed as the first…
-
Rubio Repeats a Failed Message
(The Root) — Time magazine tells me that Marco Rubio is “the Republican Savior.” If his response to Barack Obama’s State of the Union is any indication of his potential on the national stage, then Hillary Clinton should start practicing the oath of office tomorrow. It was not merely a weak response; it was, in…
-
The GOP Is Stuck on 'Stupid'
(The Root) — We recently heard former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and current Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, both Republicans, use the word “stupid” in reference to their own party. Although they had in mind comments about rape and pregnancy like those made by losing GOP senatorial candidate Todd Akin, the problem, to me, goes much…
-
Obama's Velvet-Glove Inaugural Address
(The Root) — Obama deserves very high but perhaps not superlative marks for his second inaugural address. It had more the character of an inside-the-park home run, not a grand slam. A 9 on my Olympic scorecard, not a full 10. Not a standout, A-plus effort, but certainly a quite solid A-minus. The speech will…
-
Will Obama Go for Greatness This Time?
(The Root) — On the day we officially observe Martin Luther King Day, we will also publicly inaugurate Barack Obama as president of the United States for the second time. (He will actually take the oath of office the day before in order to meet constitutional requirements.) Many people, issues and agendas will be clamoring…
-
Slavery on Film: Sanitized No More
(The Root) — Not many films keep me thinking for days on end. Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, about a slave-turned-bounty hunter in the antebellum South, accomplished this and then some. As a result, I have to classify it as a great film. A truly great film should stay with you, and Django certainly does. Some…
-
Are We 'Black No More'? Not Quite
(The Root) — Although 2012 did not produce the Mayan apocalypse, it did produce an unending drumbeat of claims for “postracial America.” So much so, I suspect, that if Harlem Renaissance novelist and essay writer George Schuyler had lived through it, he would be inspired to write a whole new version of his classic novel…
-
10 Moments That Made 2012 Great
(The Root) — It is true that I am by disposition too often a glass-half-empty kind of person. So, with some discipline, I cling to the habit of ending each year by making a list of at least 10 things to be thankful for as a partial antidote to pessimism. From this point of view,…
-
Obama's Win: An Inflection Point
(The Root) — For a year I have been telling people that the 2012 presidential contest is far more important than the 2008 election. Yes, in 2008 America elected its first African-American president in Barack Obama. This was a profoundly historic achievement no matter how you figure it. But that outcome, to borrow some apt…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
