Commentary

My mom tells the story of how more than 40 years ago, when she arrived for college in Topeka, Kansas about the challenge she faced finding someone to “do” her hair. Think things have changed much? Not if you go by a recent story in the news about an Ohio school that decided to ban […]

Commentary

Five white women and one Latina. They comprise the jury that will determine whether Trayvon Martin gets justice. I predict that he won’t. I guarantee you that at least one, possibly all, of those white women has, at some time, given a black man what I call “The Look.” And you brothers know the look […]

While President Barack Obama prepares to visit South Africa this week, I was reminded of meeting Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg on November 14, 1991. We met one year after he was released after serving 27 years in prison for attempting to overthrow a cruel government that practiced widespread apartheid, physical abuse and racial discrimination against […]

Celebrity chef Paula Deen claims she’s not a racist, but the The Food Network made the right decision by quickly dumping Deen for hateful racial remarks about African Americans. Deen is accused of using the N-word as part of a $1.2 million harassment lawsuit brought by a white former employee, Lisa Jackson, who alleges Deen […]

Now that Southern soul food maven Paula Deen has shown her true colors, the only question is how much her multimillion-dollar cooking empire will suffer. A discrimination suit filed by Lisa Jackson, a White former manager at one of Deen’s restaurants made little news until the deposition became public this week. In it, Deen admits […]

Commentary

Will African American women ever tire of discussing the inherent problems of being born with dark skin instead of light skin? Apparently not. In a new documentary called “Dark Girls, which will be featured on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network, the film “goes underneath the surface to explore the prejudices that dark-skinned women face throughout the […]

By now, Orlando Shaw and the 14 women who gave birth to his 22 children probably have Harriet Tubman turning over in her grave. That’s because Shaw and his baby mamas are doing what abolitionists like Tubman tried to help other slaves escape from being forced to do: To become nothing more than breeders – […]

Commentary

Don’t you just love it when people do studies to reach conclusions that should be pretty darned obvious? If you’ve surmised that I’m referring to the recent American Civil Liberties Union study about marijuana, then pat yourselves on the back and go to the head of the class. Yes, our ACLU friends did a study […]

My friend Courtland Milloy, a longtime columnist for The Washington Post, wrote an interesting column last week questioning whether African Americans refuse to criticize President Barack Obama because he’s black. “I hope President Obama appreciates the grand bargain he’s getting from African Americans: unwavering support, stratospheric approval rating, muted exasperation when he disappoints, vociferous defense […]

Commentary

“African American women control over $400 billion in buying power, which is over 60% of the total African American buying power of $649 billion.” – The Selig Center for Economic Growth We are livid that we have to acquiesce to get a paycheck. We are furious that we have had to give up who we […]

Note to would-be hecklers: Don’t mess with First Lady Michelle Obama. Ten minutes into a campaign fundraising speech in Washington, D.C. Tuesday evening, Michelle Obama firmly handled a gay rights heckler, Ellen Sturtz, who openly disrespected Obama by shouting and demanding that President Barack Obama sign an executive order on gay rights. Watch video below. […]

“We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices. Growing up, I made quite a few myself. Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not […]