Vantage Point February 22, 2021 — On this edition of Vantage Point, host Dr. Ron Daniels aka The Professor talks with the callers. Open Forum Topics Controlling the Pandemic: Should Schools, Restaurants and Bars Re-Open? (Let’s Hear from Parents, Teachers, Business Owners and the Community) After Impeachment: Where Do We Go From Here? (Audience Speak-Out) Audience call-in number (212) 209-2877 Ways to listen Live (Radio) — Mondays 3-4PM on WBAI,…

By Julianne Malveaux — I got my first COVID vaccination last week. No big deal, an achy arm, but otherwise, just like a flu shot. The young lady who administered the shot smiled and said, “after you get your second shot, you can get back to normal.” I wanted to ask her what was normal, but the man in line behind me seemed impatient, so I smiled and made my…

By William H. Lamar IV— The Rev. William H. Lamar IV is the pastor of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington. Do you hear what I hear? I hear the imperial American myth in the throes of its own death rattle. And I hear a people clamoring for a story by which to order their lives. The United States does not like to call itself an empire. But…
Vantage Point December 7, 2020 — On this edition of Vantage Point, host Dr. Ron Daniels aka The Professor talks with special guest Mayor Ras J. Baraka, Newark, NJ. Topics State of Newark Report Controlling the Pandemic Are Vaccines the Answer? Assessing the Biden-Harris Transition Special Guest Mayor Ras J. Baraka, Newark, NJ Plus “The Professor” Dr. Ron Daniels on the Soap Box Ways to listen Live (Radio) —…

“Cash restitution would save lives,” one expert says. By Dr. Divya Chhabra— As COVID-19 exacerbates long standing health inequities affecting the Black population, a growing chorus of experts suggest reparations could help narrow the divide. The concept of government-issued reparations for the descendants of slaves has been discussed for decades, with national figures like Sen. Kamala Harris expressing some level of support. California, Illinois and Washington, D.C., have introduced bills to study how to best implement reparations for historical injustices placed…

By Dr. Julianne Malveaux — Economic recovery will be a long time coming. The Federal Reserve Bank says our corona recession will last into 2021, and perhaps even into 2022. If a vaccine is developed, a distribution plan still needs to be worked out, and there is still so much we don’t know about COVID. We do know that our economy has slowed and is only inching toward normalcy. We…
Vantage Point November 2, 2020 — On this Election Eve Edition of Vantage Point, host Dr. Ron Daniels aka The Professor talks with special guest Mayor Ras J. Baraka, Newark, NJ. Topics State of Newark Updates Combating the COVID-19 Pandemic The Power of the Vote for Social Justice Post-Election National Town Hall Meeting Special Guest Mayor Ras J. Baraka, Newark, NJ Plus “The Professor” Dr. Ron Daniels on the Soap…

This is the third article in a series that highlights the question of slavery reparations in the Caribbean. (The first is here; the second is here.) It is based around issues discussed in the NGC Bocas Lit Fest’s live stream event, “The Case for Reparations,” which featured an in-depth conversation with Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission. COVID-19 has revealed “horrendous legacies” of inequity By Janine Mendes-Franco — Five hundred and twenty-eight…

By Rodney A. Brooks — When it came to getting healthcare during the 1918 influenza epidemic, America’s Black communities, hobbled by poverty, Jim Crow segregation and rampant discrimination, were mostly forced to fend for themselves. Opportunities for hospital care proved scarce, leaving many relying on family care and, where available, the small but burgeoning ranks of Black nurses. When the 1918 influenza epidemic began, African Americans were already beset by a barrage of social, medical…

By Edwidge Danticat, NYREV — My neighbor died recently. I saw the ambulance arrive. The red and blue strobes bounced off every glass surface on both sides of our block. She was eighty years old, and ambulances had come for her before. There was that time she broke her arm in her backyard, and already accustomed to osteoporotic and arthritic pain, she treated herself until her movements led to other…

Nearly all the improvement in the unemployment rate over the past few months has been for white workers. By Emily Peck, HuffPost — At first glance, the unemployment rate seems a lot less terrible than it did a few months ago. In April, at the start of the COVID-19 shutdown, the jobless rate was a record-high 14.7%. This month, the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate had dropped to 8.4%. But…

A new report shows that a $50 trillion redistribution of income to benefit the richest has made America less healthy, resilient, and secure. By Nick Hanauer and David M. Rolf, TIME — Like many of the virus’s hardest hit victims, the United States went into the COVID-19 pandemic wracked by preexisting conditions. A fraying public health infrastructure, inadequate medical supplies, an employer-based health insurance system perversely unsuited to the moment—these and other afflictions are surely contributing…