Julianne Malveaux
A CULTURE OF CHEATING
Who is surprised that Lance Armstrong was doping? Who thinks he was the only one? Who is surprised that he used the Oprah Winfrey show as his platform to “come clean”? We are a nation of cheaters and Armstrong is one in a long line of our nation’s cheaters.
Indeed the very foundation of our country is the result of cheating. The Pilgrims cheated the Native Americans that befriended them out of their land. Later the United States Army continued that cheating by slaughtering Native people, kicking them off their land, and consigning them to reservations. As a result of this thievery and chicanery Native American people have the shortest life expectancy of any ethnicity in these United States.
Enslaved people were cheated with the fruit of their labor, not to mention their lives and liberty, by our nation’s “peculiar institution”. After slavery was abolished, the cheating continued. The sharecropper …
Memories and Median Age
One hundred and fifty years ago, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It was a flawed document that freed enslaved people in Confederate areas that he did not control. At the same time, it was a progressive document because it initiated discussion about the “freedom” Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteen Amendments.
One hundred years later, in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King riveted the nation with his “I Have A Dream” speech during the August 28 March on Washington. Many will remember that he said, “I have a dream that one day people will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Somehow people forget that in the same speech he said, “We have come to the nation’s capital to cash a check that has been marked insufficient funds”. If people said “cash the check” as often as they said “I have a …
” F” Bombs for Harry Reid and for New York
Congressman John Boehner was reelected speaker of the House of Representatives with a narrow vote. Needing 218 votes, he narrowly clinched it with 220. His narrow vote reflects the fact that no Democrat would vote for him and many Republicans are disillusioned of him. Perhaps it also reflects the fact that he has so poorly comported himself that he does not deserve reelection.
Most folks who curse do it behind closed doors. In deference to their position, they attempt to parse their public statements to reflect the dignity of the office they hold. Not Mr. Boehner, who dropped the “f” bomb at Senator Harry Reid not once, but twice, in the middle of fiscal cliff negotiations. To his credit Senator Reid did not respond, but behaved as if he perhaps did not hear the out-of-control Boehner. The Speaker of the House of Representatives comported himself as intemperate, ignorant and out …
BLACK AMERICA 2013: HOOK IN AND HOOK UP
How will African American people improve our situation in 2013? Right now, we have higher unemployment than any other population in our nation, less wealth, higher school dropout rates, and more crime in our communities. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that African American communities had twice the number of negatives and half the number of positives in our country. While the numbers may have shifted somewhat, it is still true that we are more likely to experience negative consequences (teen pregnancy, incarceration, crime) and less likely to experience positives (college graduation, high net worth).
Those of us who focus on public policy will look at past discrimination and ways it manifests itself in the present. We will look at the way race-neutral public policy has a racial impact (for example, changing the terms of the Parent Plus loan hits wealth-poor, credit-challenged black families disproportionately). We will suggest ways …
Where is Your Passion
I was in a cab just the other day when the driver chided me for not knowing football. He was a big Redskins (I call them the Deadskins because they need to change their name) fan, and was obsessed with RGIII. I must confess that I did not know who RGII was until he informed me and told me that I was culturally deficient because I lived in Washington, DC and did not follow football.
I observed his passion as I would poke and probe at a sociological phenomenon. The brother was intense, focused, and annoyed at the fact that somebody, anybody, was not caught up in the football drama. At some point I became silent, to see how long the rant would last. And it lasted through the whole twenty minutes of my ride, through stalled traffic and long lights. The man was on a mission.
I understand that …
WHAT ABOUT KASANDRA?
By now, it’s old news that Kasandra Perkins was murdered by Kansas City Chiefs football player Jovan Belcher, her boyfriend and the father of her daughter. By now we’ve read about how great a teammate Belcher was, how dedicated to his girlfriend and daughter. We’ve read his hardscrabble story of moving from the University of Maine, hardly a football powerhouse, to a coveted slot in the NFL Belcher has been humanized, even enshrined as his friends have talked about him not having a violent bone in his body. What about Kasandra? It has been disturbing that the news focused mostly on Jovan (yes, I know, he was the famous one), with a focus on Kasandra only later in the week. Her friends said they did not want her life to be overshadowed by the sympathetic coverage of Jovan.
While Jovan Belcher was clearly a troubled man, the bottom line is …
‘Tis the Season to be Careful
Okay, I’ll admit it. I am truly the Grinch who wanted to steal Christmas. It takes me until about December 23 to get in the spirit, and I only feel obligated to find gifts for children and close family. I like to give, which is why I share with a few charities that are close to me. And I like to connect, which is why I have a greeting card ritual. But all this crazy frenzy after Thanksgiving, before Christmas sale stuff truly repels me. And while I don’t want to put a damper on anybody’s sprit, I want to say that this is the season to be careful.
After all, we live in a consumer society. When we spend, other people get paid. When we spend other people are blessed. But if you spend what you don’t have then you are sliding down your own fiscal cliff, and you …
It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over
In late September the “nonpartisan” website Real Clear Politics (realclearpolitics.com) reported that President Obama leads Republican nominee Mitt Romney is several battleground states. According to the polls, President Obama leads by 5.2 percent in Ohio, 4.5 percent in Virginia, 4.2 percent in Nevada, 4 percent in Iowa, and 3 percent in Florida. Do we believe the polls? I’m not so sure. But I surely don’t believe these polls should alter an aggressive effort to re-elect this Democratic president.
There are lots of ways to do voter suppression. One is to deny people ballots, or to change the rules on voting. Mandatory state-issued ID, new and more distant polling places, and all of the shenanigans documented by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (www.lawyerscommittee.org) are other methods of voter suppression. In some cities or states, police cars have been parked outside polling places, intimidating those who may have minor …
Health Care is a Civil Right
Our Constitution offers us “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, but we can’t pursue anything if we are unhealthy. Yet, health disparities in the United States are a fact of life. African American people have shorter lives than whites for three reasons. One has to do with income and poverty. Poor people (and 27 percent of African Americans are poor, compared to about 10 percent of whites) have less money and less access, often having to make a choice between medical treatment and food to eat, prescription drugs and rent. The second barrier to health equality is proximity and access. In other words, African Americans are more likely to be located a distance from hospitals. There are fewer hospitals and clinics in the hood than in wealthier areas, and some preventative clinics (such as a diabetes clinic in Harlem) have been eliminated because of money. Another barrier to health …
What You Talking ‘Bout Willard?
Halfway through the Presidential debate on Wednesday night, I remembered the show where Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges played Arnold and Willis Jackson. Little Arnold was always asking, “What you talking ’bout Willis?” My question, exactly, only this time directed toward Republican nominee Willard Mitt Romney. What in the world was he talking about when he attempted to debate President Obama on October 16?
The Republican nominee behaved as if he were on some kind of upper. Some may have thought his delivery was firm, but when he raised his voice and asked President Obama the same questions several times (Have you checked your pension? Will you answer my question? Well then how much oil production did you cut?). He came off as more obnoxious (or chemically enhanced) than forceful. Because President Obama is a world leader, he could not give the ‘hood response which might have been “shut your …
- AT LAST
May 13, 2013 - THE FLAWED IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL
May 6, 2013 - ACHIEVEMENT GAP OR OPPORTUNITY GAP?
April 30, 2013 - DIVERSITY FOR CATHOLICS, NOT FOR OTHERS
March 18, 2013 - WHOSE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION HAS IMPROVED?
March 11, 2013 - TURNING THE CLOCK BACK ON VOTING RIGHTS
February 27, 2013 - STATE OF THE UNION HITS HIGH MARKS
February 19, 2013 - FASCISM BY ANOTHER NAME: WHOLE FOODS AND WHOLE FOOLS
February 11, 2013 - BUDGET CUTS WILL SLOW ECONOMY
February 5, 2013 - PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEAKS: ALL OF US, SOME OF US OF US, NONE OF US.
January 28, 2013
Other Julianne Malveaux
Haiti Oasis Institute
The War On Drugs Is A War On Us
HISTORY, BACKGROUND, FACTS ↓
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