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Whisk: The Eatery Where Ex-Offenders Are Starting Over
At Whisk, a great bistro in Boston’s North End, chef Jeremy Kean is helping ex-offenders get their lives back on track through a re-entry program that offers both food and food for the soul. I paid my first visit to Whisk after it was recommended to me by The Root’s editor-in-chief, Henry Louis Gates Jr.,…
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South Africans and African Americans Bound by Struggle
We often hear about the “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain—rooted in history and personified by the close personal friendship between President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair during the 1990s. But there’s another “special relationship,” one less commented upon but equally noteworthy, between the African-American community and black South Africans.…
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Many Rivers to Cross: From Black Power to the Black President
Americans have notoriously short memories when it comes to race and history, especially black history. And it’s in that context that Harvard professor and The Root’s editor-in-chief, Henry Louis Gates Jr., has looked back through time to bring us The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, a six-part documentary film, airing on PBS, that concludes…
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JFK’s 1963 Race Speech Made Him an African-American Icon
President John F. Kennedy’s tragic assassination 50 years ago today had a profound impact on American race relations. A president who, during his last six months in office, acknowledged that “civil rights has become everything” embraced the movement and in the process helped not only to solidify his personal legend but also to transform a…
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Obama’s Loner Habits Cost Him Clout
The first black president of the United States is one of the loneliest people on the planet. And President Barack Obama’s iron-willed self-discipline and interpersonally cool traits—traits that many credited with his improbable rise to the White House—have recently been interpreted in two journalistic accounts as liabilities that depict him as a distant commander in…
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Sharpton’s Celebrity Is Key to His Cause
(The Root)—Al Sharpton’s recent decision to move to Chicago to highlight the city’s violence-plagued communities demonstrates both the creativity and limits of contemporary black leadership. The Rev. Sharpton’s personal trajectory, marked by high-profile political setbacks and victories that have culminated in his improbable rise to national civil rights leadership, offers a unique vantage point to…
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How Slavery Feeds Today's Racism
(The Root) — 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed movie opening nationwide on Nov. 8, is the most powerful cinematic depiction of slavery ever seen on-screen. The critical buzz surrounding the film has rightfully focused on the combination of its astonishing performances, nuanced script and unflinching examination of antebellum slavery’s impact on a…
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Message to Obama: Get to Work
(The Root) — It is high time for President Obama to enjoy the spoils of his recent victory in the ongoing political war with the Republican Party. Now is the time for Obama to boldly assume the mantle of political leadership and offer a compelling vision of forward political progress capable of overcoming the manufactured…
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Sen. Cory Booker's Rich Friends Will Win
(The Root) — Cory Booker’s inevitable election to the U.S. Senate on Wednesday will prove, for large segments of the black community, both historic and bittersweet. Booker’s meteoric rise since being elected mayor of Newark, N.J., in 2006 has been assisted by a well-crafted media persona. Booker first burst onto Newark’s political scene in 2002,…
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Obamacare Isn't Big Enough
(The Root) — It is long past time for Barack Obama to launch a rhetorical and public policy offensive, one that outlines economic priorities to promote job growth and end poverty. In 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt outlined the “four freedoms” that all Americans had the right to enjoy. Freedoms of speech and religion were combined…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
