On Thursday Donald Trump became the Republican presidential nominee on the same day that Roger Ailes rode off into the sunset. These two events are not unrelated. Ailes was forced out as chairman and chief executive of Fox News amid allegations of sexual harassment; however, the damage has been done. Ailes is the ruthless genius … [Read more…]
Donald Trump is a participant as well as a beneficiary of the negative racial climate in the country. He helped to create the hostile racial climate by demeaning the black president. Apparently, he became the Republican nominee for the presidency by casting himself as one who would restore the country to the way it was … [Read more…]
As the Republicans meet in Cleveland this week to anoint their standard bearer, Donald Trump, many are still asking–and with good reason–how did we get to this point of having such a person as a presidential nominee. How can a man be taken seriously when his main policy prescriptions are such outrageous plans as (1) … [Read more…]
In 1920, in conjunction with the anti-lynching campaign, the NAACP began flying a flag from the windows of its headquarters on Fifth Avenue in New York City when a lynching occurred. The words on the flag said simply, “A man was lynched yesterday.” Last week after Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were shot and killed … [Read more…]
The police killings last week of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile demonstrate quite clearly that even though guns and gun rights proliferate in this country beyond all reasonable boundaries, black men with guns are just as endangered now as they were during slavery. See the following URL for an article in The Atlantic magazine which contains quotes … [Read more…]
We know that Francis Scott Key wrote the poem, “The Star Spangled Banner,” which eventually became the national anthem, and many of us know the first verse; however, the song has four verses. Few of us know about these other verses, especially the third verse, which supports slavery and is specifically hostile to slaves. This … [Read more…]