“Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” often called the Black National Anthem, was sung again this year during pre-game festivities at the Super Bowl. African American singer Andra Day received a rousing ovation at the stadium. However, many people asked why that song. Many others went berserk. This “tradition (?)” was begun several years ago following … [Read more…]
One of the most powerful acts against democracy is gerrymandering which is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries to create an undue advantage for a party or group within the constituency. One primary form of gerrymandering is racial gerrymandering, which draws maps that favor White communities over Nonwhite communities. Every ten years following the … [Read more…]
A few days ago, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland accused the Minneapolis Police Department of a pattern of bias and excessive force, the product of a wide-ranging federal investigation into the department following the 2020 killing of George Floyd. Garland said the federal investigation revealed that long-standing problems existed in the department before that moment. … [Read more…]
The recent horrible policing killing in Memphis reminds me of a sad part of my youth. As a teenager in Alabama, I studiously avoided police officers, because I had this morbid mindset concerning them. I was resolved with every fiber of my being that if an officer hit me, he had effectively killed two people—him … [Read more…]
James Farmer, a co-founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), claims that he proposed the idea of Affirmative Action to Lyndon Johnson when Johnson was Vice-President. When he reported that fact to the Council on United Civil Rights Leadership, which the media dubbed the “Big Four” or the “Big Six,” Whitney Young, Executive Director … [Read more…]
How can we tell if a person is a racist since we cannot know what is in his heart? Unfortunately, that seems to be the ever-present wrong-headed idea about racism. This orientation is based on the idea that racism is something that bigoted individuals do intentionally. While that is a situation that does occur, it … [Read more…]
Much of the country is in an uproar about Critical Race Theory (CRT). One wonders what would happen if many of those individuals who are hostile to the idea of CRT knew about the theory of The Racial Contract as articulated by Black philosopher Charles Mills, who died in September. Mills was Distinguished Professor of … [Read more…]
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is just the latest boogeyman of white supremacists. CRT holds that racism is systematically structured in American institutions. Thus, it is “baked in” the system. It is systemic. CRT is not new. It is a relatively new term addressing the older concept of Systemic Racism. What CRT brought to the table … [Read more…]
Among the subtle lessons being taught during the great demonstrations over the murder of George Floyd—and others—is the difference between liberal approaches and progressive approaches. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, white and black, see policing as seriously problematic. Liberals tend to think that institutions in America are structured just fine with a need for mending … [Read more…]