NewsTrust - Black - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Michele Bachmann signs anti-gay pact that says times were better for black kids during slavery

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Andrew Malcom - Jul. 08 (Opinion) - "Slavery had a disastrous impact on African American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African American baby born after the election of the USA's first African American president."

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Leonard Pitts Jr.: When it comes to history, African Americans can learn from Jews - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Sacramento Bee - Jan. 05 (Opinion) -

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Dr. Laura, Sarah Palin, and the fight over free speech

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Ken Paulson - Aug. 20 (Opinion) - In the wake of Dr. Laura Schlessinger"s decision to end her radio show after repeatedly using a racial epithet, she"s spent quite a bit of time talking about freedom of speech. "I want to regain my First Amendment rights," Schlessinger said, contending that special-interest groups were limiting her freedom to express herself.Sarah Palin jumped in and tweeted, "Dr.Laura: don?t retreat ... reload!

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Same-sex marriage is about equality, not religion

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By O. C. Allen - Aug. 15 (Opinion) - I am a product of the "The Black Church." It shaped me into who I am today: a Christian pastor aware of God's amazing grace and love. When I announced I was gay, the church limited that grace and love. Although I had no doubt that God loved me, I discovered that God's love and the church's love can be two different things. To be Christian is to be inclusive of people who love one another. This is why I support same-sex marriage.

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Welcome to Confederate History Month

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Frank Rich - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - Obama opposition increasingly comes wrapped in the racial code that Gov. Robert McDonnell revived in endorsing Confederate History Month.

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Reconstruction redux | Elle Gray

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Elle Gray - Apr. 06 (Opinion) - A cartoon depicts Barack Obama as a rapist and the Statue of Liberty as his victim – and the sentiment behind it is not new Some time ago, a fellow scholar, Summer McDonald , asked me if I thought the current political atmosphere in the US reminded me of another period. We talked about it, and agreed that it seems reminiscent of the reconstruction and redemption periods just after the civil war. As I roughly outlined it once (edited for clarity and to add background links): • Black people are perceived as having greater political power (particularly through the figure of President Obama). • Some white people , especially white southerners, begin to clamour for "home rule" and talk of "taking the government and/or ?our? country back." ...

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Should Barack Obama do more for black America?

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Lola Adesioye - Mar. 03 (Opinion) - In reality, there are more than a few valid and pressing reasons for a specific black agenda. The current unemployment rate for African-Americans has leapt to 17.3%. This is in comparison to 9.7% for white Americans. African-American unemployment – which is typically higher than average anyway – has become a chronic problem, going far beyond just being the effects of a recession. Before the recession, the higher than average unemployment rate was written off as just the way things were, even by President Obama. Now, however, it is clear that it cannot be ignored.

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Why is it so hard to be black and green? | Sylvia Arthur

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Sylvia Arthur - Dec. 04 (Opinion) - Minority groups are not so much excluded as forgotten. But activists would do well to leverage their support Sometimes I think I?m just too black to be green. What with my required international travel (to see the relatives) and my hereditary love of meat it seems being black and green are two incompatible states. There are other times when I almost feel too green to be black. Trying to convince friends and family of the urgency of global warming is like trying to persuade the BNP that immigration is a good thing. As Muzammal Hussain, founder of the London Islamic Network for the Environment says, it?s a constant "cultural commute". But over the last few months I?ve realised that, while advocating for the use of alternative energies, environmentalists would do well to consider the renewable benefits that a more diverse green movement would bring to the table. As someone who?s usually the only black face in a green crowd it?s obvious to me that the subtle prejudices of the environmental ...

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Newark Mayor Corey Booker ~ Video

Sun, 31 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bill Moyers Journal - May. 31 (Interview) - Great interview from more than a year ago.

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Environment Justice, Blacks and the Green Movement

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Root - By Kai Wright - Apr. 22 (Opinion) - "Polar bears will not be the biggest victims of global warming," Ellis-Lamkins said. "People will be the biggest victims—ourselves, our children and grandchildren. And as Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, it will be poor people and people of color who are hit hardest."

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These Streets, No Game. Can't Ball, Don't Play...

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Ta-Nehisi Coates - Apr. 02 (Comment) - I think Mos Def was offering up that corner consciousness, in which brothers preach nihilism under the cover of an alleged "Knowledge of Self" or "Thinking for oneself." I think Christopher Hitchens, rightfully, sonned him. As a Mos Def fan, and member of the hip-hop generation (whatever that means) I felt embarrassed. That's probably not my right, but I felt that way. Here's where it gets really weird, I held one person responsible for the whole debacle--Cornel West.

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Lifting Every Voice

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By James A. Forbes - Feb. 28 (Opinion) - This Black History Month, as our nation's first African American President served his first full month in office, has been like no other. Our nation's ear has been attuned, in a new and joyful way, to the "harmonies of liberty" as we move forward, freed from the worst limitations of racism and embracing the bright promise of interracial, interfaith community that transcends the lines that previously divided us.

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Approaching the Whites-Only Bench

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Root - By Ciara Torres-Spelliscy - Feb. 27 (Opinion) - For state court watchers, last month provided a rare and historic moment to savor: A black governor was tasked with replacing the most powerful judge in the state, who happened to be a woman. Another small chance to make history, perhaps?

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`Liberty City' comes alive in one-woman show

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Miami Herald - By Christine Dolen - Feb. 26 (Review) - After a New York Theatre Workshop premiere a year ago, April Yvette Thompson and her solo show Liberty City have come home to share a rollicking, sobering look at life in her old Miami neighborhood in the late '70s. The script, which Thompson crafted with director/coauthor Jessica Blank, blends fact and imagination in its depiction of her extended family and friends, an only-in-Miami blend of African-Americans, folks from the Bahamas and people with Cuban roots.

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Rich, Famous and Black, on CNBC and HBO

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Ginia Bellafante - Feb. 26 (Review) - One of the immediate repercussions of Barack Obama’s journey to the White House has been a frenzied eagerness by the news media to showcase the lives of prominent and well-to-do African-Americans. We have read about the vacation preferences of the Harvard-educated lawyers and bankers and real-estate developers in the president’s friend circle. We have seen the “Real Housewives of Atlanta” in their limos and gated worlds and arena-size kitchens. Next week BET will unveil its new reality series, “Harlem Heights,” which will follow eight, young, good-looking, ambitious African-Americans as they manage their professional and emotional lives in glamour spots north of 110th Street. Poverty rates among blacks remain proportionately higher than among whites, so presumably what it means to live in a postracial society is that everyone gets an equal-opportunity shot at “Hills” treatment.

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The Inner Life

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Roger Cohen - Feb. 26 (Opinion) - “Please, please help me out,” she said. “Please. I’m trying to buy flowers for a funeral arrangement.” She was African-American, middle-aged, wide-eyed. Her words were not addressed to me but to the whole subway car. The slightness of her build belied the strength of her voice. So many things are dying at the moment — an entire free-spending epoch is being laid to rest — that I wondered which particular burial she had in mind. “My cousin was a good kid,” she said. “Please, please. For the funeral arrangement, I need flowers.” I was reading on the crowded subway when a distraught-looking woman stumbled into me. People averted their eyes. Early-evening fatigued, city-churned, they did not want to hear talk of funerals, much less help pay for them. They were headed home to hear a new president diagnose the state of America. Some shook their heads, thinking, “She’s crazy!”

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More Than Beads, Booze and Boobs

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Root - By Chandra R. Thomas - Feb. 25 (Opinion) - There is admittedly a Girls Gone Wild element to Mardi Gras. You know, the intoxicated young women raising their shirts for beads and engaging in salacious sexual activity on the streets. That may be so for many tourists, but for natives like my family, Mardi Gras is a family-bonding time: cooking out and dancing to the bands marching by, all the while screaming for the beads and other trinkets thrown from the vibrantly decorated floats. I have never once seen anyone in my family flash their assets, to claim worthless, plastic jewelry.

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Tyler Perry: Hollywood's new commander in chief?

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Patrick Goldstein - Feb. 25 (Opinion) - Last night, I was asked to speak at an evening program at a local temple. Since the topic was "Jews in Hollywood," I brought along a true Hollywood Jew, Sony Pictures' Amy Pascal, who spoke quite eloquently and insightfully about her faith and how it's sometimes tested by her job. Being my usual contrarian self, at one point I suddenly veered off topic, asking Pascal why -- if America had managed to elect an African American president -- was Hollywood was still light years away from the day when there could be a black studio chief.

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No Southern comfort for Obama backers

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Chicago Sun Times - By Mary MItchell - Feb. 25 (Opinion) - ...Are the voices of the people in the South who put their faith in Obama's ability to rescue the economy to be ignored? When Jim Clyburn, the House majority whip, accused the Republican governors who are snubbing the stimulus funds of insulting African Americans, his remarks were widely misinterpreted. Clyburn didn't call anybody racist. What he did was point out that while Obama lost the white Southern vote, 95 percent of African Americans nationwide voted for him. And the black vote was key in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. With respect to Louisiana, Clyburn pointed out that Jindal has asked for millions for hurricane-ravaged communities...

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Reflections On Race: Essays From The Archives