I’m trying to understand why Michael Brown is lying dead from a police officer’s bullet instead of packing his bags and heading to college. Brown, 18, was killed last Saturday in what could be called the war against young Black men – the escalating confrontations between police and African American males, a fierce war that […]
When will New York City police realize that chokeholds are outlawed and stop using the deadly tactic on unsuspecting black citizens? Days after Eric Garner, a Black father, died when New York cops put him in a tragic chokehold, New York police used the lethal method on a pregnant Black woman in a dispute over […]
Yesterday, our columnist Tonya Pendleton penned her version of the Stephen A. Smith/Ray Rice Controversy. Today, Michael Cottman provides the male point of view. Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith has been roundly criticized for his comments about domestic violence in the case of Ray Rice, the stocky Baltimore Ravens running back who punched his fiancée […]
On a recent segment of Keeping It Real with Rev. Al Sharpton, a nationally-syndicated radio show where I serve as a co-host, a troubling yet complex question was posed to our audience: Are local communities doing enough to quell crime in our neighborhoods? The immediate answer would be absolutely not. Last month in Chicago, for […]
I’m a fanatical football fan. And I’m also a huge fan of Pam Oliver. For nearly two decades, I’ve watched Oliver talk football on Fox television I’ll miss her sideline analysis, real-time insights, and conversational halftime interviews with the NFL’s top players. I watched with pride as Oliver, a skilled African-American journalist, excelled in a […]
Did callous New York paramedics and police leave Eric Garner to die? It’s a disturbing question being asked by civil rights activists, witnesses and Garner’s wife and family. And it’s a question that deserves a swift answer. Garner died last week in Staten Island during an arrest in which a New York police officer placed […]
I’m still questioning the notion of our so-called post-racial society after hearing about a white businessman who confronted a prominent Chicago judge – a 79-year-old Black woman, called her “Rosa Parks,” spit on her, and then slapped her in the face. This is an unconscionable act. It’s racist and disrespectful, yes, but it also speaks […]
President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder are speaking out, pushing back, and mocking Republicans who are threatening to sue Obama and impeach Holder. It’s refreshing and inspiring to watch two of the most powerful black men in the nation working together as a political tag team to openly criticize misguided Republicans who […]
Every time a black man is shot on the streets of Chicago, I think of my friend, Michele Dowdy, who lost her son to gun violence in 2012 and how justice continues to elude her. Malcom Dowdy, 33, was not in a gang; he was not involved in a fight at the time of the […]
Ray Nagin, the former mayor of New Orleans, is heading to federal prison for 10 years. A jury concluded that Nagin took bribes, kickbacks and turned his back on the Black citizens of New Orleans when they needed him most: In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He deserves the punishment. In all, Nagin was found […]
It’s not a stretch to compare Detroit to a third-world country. Not anymore. It’s been seven weeks since water has been turned off to thousands of Detroit residents, many of them unemployed, many of them with families and children, some of them single mothers who are barely making ends meet, in a city where the […]
A coalition of prominent black women is supporting the White House initiative, “My Brother’s Keeper,” President Barack Obama’s ambitious effort to uplift and empower black boys and young men of color. The letter of steadfast support comes as some community activists have criticized the White House for not including Black girls in the initiative designed […]
