The unfortunate election of Donald J. Trump to the Presidency of the United States speaks volumes about the limits of African American involvement in the political system. Don’t get me wrong. I was born and will live and die a political junkie…
I usually don’t pay much attention to the Academy Awards unless African American actors are nominated and win or unless African American themed films have an opportunity. This year, I am paying much attention, what with Fences, Hidden Figures, and Moonlight among the nominees…
I love Black History, and so revel in Black History Month. Not that Black History should be constrained to a month. Indeed, when I wrote my book Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History in 2010, I hoped that some folks would touch the book each day and talk about the many ways African American people have shaped our nation’s economic life, from building this country, to being…
Every day that he holds the Presidency, Donald Trump does something outrageous. He blusters, he just plain lies, and he bullies. He pushes his decisions, his executive orders, down the throats of a Congress that he dominates. Why not let the democratic process work and let them vote to build a wall and pay for it, instead of insisting, by executive order, that the wall will be built. In just…
The economic philosophies of Democrats and Republicans are drastically different. While neither party is interested in dismantling the predatory capitalism that extracts surplus value from workers, Republicans are more interested in reinforcing predatory capitalism and “free markets”, while Democrats are more interested in ameliorating the effects of predatory capitalism and regulating markets in ways that produce somewhat more equitable results than so-called free markets. Democrats are more likely to protect…
When Dr. Martin Luther King envisioned the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968, he envisioned all kinds of people descending on our nation’s capital, bringing demands to federal agencies. He envisioned people pushing for affordable housing, for quality education, for better health care, for minority business development programs, and more. He envisioned them demanding these things, and occupying government offices until these things were produced. Unfortunately, Dr. King’s death and the…
“Ain’t I A Woman”, railed Sojourner Truth, “I have ploughed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman! I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well. And ain’t I a woman? I’ve bourne thirteen children and seen most all sold off and when I…
Matthew “Peanut” Johnson was sixteen when San Francisco Police officer Alvin Johnson killed him. The unarmed teen was said to have been fleeing a stolen car, and Johnson claimed that he feared for his life, so he shot. The September 27, 1966 slaying was too much for African Americans in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco, and folks took it to the streets in protest. Through the lens…
We in these United States love to bask in the glory of our “exceptionalism”. We are great, we are wonderful, we dominate the world. Scholars who study “us” say that our exceptionalism is rooted in the fact that we have offered leadership in international affairs. We have committed more resources than other countries to the United Nations, to NATO, and to other organizations committed to international peace. But we do…
The apprehension that I felt upon Donald Trump’s victory in the Presidential election has only increased as he has announced the appointments of his chief of staff, strategist, and cabinet members. As of this writing, he has mainly announced the selection of older white men, including the racist Alabama Senator, Jeff Sessions, to lead the Justice Department. The senator’s use of highly inflammatory racial rhetoric (including describing the NAACP as…
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