Category: Guest Commentary

Chang’s business, as it were, is producing patently offensive board games, which deliberately traffic in racist and classist stereotypes. His first creation is “GHETTOPOLY,” wherein players try and “buy stolen properties, pimp hoes, build crack houses and projects,” and avoid getting carjacked. With more than a few references to Malt Liquor addiction, loansharking, and other…

Dr. Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika, Zambian Ambassador to the United States, spoke of her own experiences in America as young student. When she first arrived in the U.S., the ambassador recalled, her hosts were surprised that she didn’t resemble the half-naked Africans portrayed in the Tarzan movies. “The image we have of Africa is the bad, ugly…

Have you ever seen a race where the lead runner, called the “rabbit,” started off running and shocked people when it kept on running and won the race? Well, some are afraid that the current race for president is a little like that right now. Many people think that U.S. Sen. John (D-Mass.) Kerry is…

A recent editorial chastised African Americans for being “stuck” and “isolated”, “not part of the global village.” The writer was reviewing the recent events in Liberia, and the lukewarm attention of the African American community. Liberia is not the only thing about which we are lukewarm. We are lukewarm about political parties, though perhaps for…

Black Immigrants are Deported in Higher Numbers than Asian and Middle Eastern Immigrants: Reconsidering Immigrant Rights’ Challenge to ‘Racial Justice’ Work In the aftermath of 9-11, an agenda calling for immigrant rights organizing and racial justice work to come together has become popular in social justice circles. Calls for coalition between the two camps were…

On June 28, 2003 Dr. Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser, began talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials to promote the “roadmap to peace,” the latest in a long line of efforts at Middle East peace brokering by the United States. As I watched her on the news I felt an inexplicable discomfort. I realized that…

The ink was barely dry on the Supreme Court affirmative action decisions when, from sea to shining sea, there was a collective sigh of relief by civil rights activists and organizations. For months, many have been on the edge of their seats, fingernails gnawed to the nub, waiting for what they were certain would be…

It would also seem fruitless to condemn dinosaurs, whatever the reason, simply because they are extinct. Besides, the condemning of disappeared phenomena will not likely aid in mending their ways. Unless, of course, such condemnation was issued with the express purpose of accruing benefits for posterity. But it requires a special turn of mind to…

More than 10 years ago, I brought to the attention of editors at The New York Times my expose of cases of journalistic concoctions by reporters and editors during the newspaper’s African news coverage. I was virtually ignored. So you can imagine how I felt when Jayson Blair’s plagiarism and fakery came back to haunt…

An article with the above title in “BusinessWeek Online” (June 10th issue) caught my attention because the title seemed to characterize the way the present administration is conducting US foreign policy. As it turned out, the article was concerned principally with US economic and trade policy and not with foreign policy as such. Nevertheless, the…