Independent since 2002 Issue No. 1102 Week of November 7, 2026 Get the free email dispatch →

Category: Guest Commentary

Guest Commentary

Will Voters Place the Interests of the Nation Above the Ambitions of an Unhinged, Immoral, and Amoral Man?

By Dr. Elwood Watson, PhD Guest Commentator

prominent Democratic operatives such as Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee have made it clear that they stand behind the president.

The truth is that when it comes to the issue of debates, perception is often just as crucial as reality and substance. Thus, there is no…

Continue reading 5 min

Guest Commentary

Minding the Debate: What’s Happening to Our Brains During Election Season

By Dr. Melinda Burrell, PhD Guest Commentator

at play in election season are blindspots built into our brains – shortcuts that help us process information more quickly.

Some of us convened watch parties and others deliberately did not tune in. Either way, the June 27 presidential debate was the real start of the…

Continue reading 3 min

Guest Commentary

SCOTUS Flag Judge

By Dr. Elwood Watson, PhD Guest Commentator

they are aggressively promoting their searing and blatant rhetoric and fascist ideology while simultaneously taunting their critics without fear or shame.

Right-wing politicians have made no secret of their disdain for the rule of law as well as our current state of democracy. One of the more…

Continue reading 4 min

Guest Commentary

Student Activism and Palestine

By Jonathan Pulphus Student Guest Commentator

They’ve put their fear to the periphery and picked up the mantle of struggle to demand justice.

Across the nation there’s a collective quaking beneath the feet of students protesting for justice in response to their university’s ties to companies that support militarism:…

Continue reading 5 min

Guest Commentary

Why Corporations Choose Lawlessness to Fight Unions

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

Workers at companies like Apple and Starbucks face armies of union-busting lawyers advising employers to repeatedly violate labor laws.

Workers in Towson, Maryland, have earned the distinction of becoming the first Apple retail workers in the nation to vote to strike over failed union negotiations…

Continue reading 6 min

Guest Commentary

Protests of a Different Color: HBCUs and the Student Protest Movements Against the Israeli-Gaza War

By Dr. Al-Tony Gilmore, PhD Guest Commentator

The support and identification of HBCU students and faculty for the Palestinians is not as new as the more recent student protests might imply.

Within days of the October 7, Hamas-led surprise massacre in Israel and the relentless retaliation of airstrikes in Gaza by Israel, students at many universities began…

Continue reading 18 min

Guest Commentary

A Blatant Disregard for the Principles of Peaceful Assembly and Freedom of Expression

By Dr. Elwood Watson, PhD Guest Commentator

Jailyn R. Smith, who is scheduled to graduate later this month, certainly demonstrated herself to be the mature, decent human being in this sordid encounter.

History on the rerun? Ghosts of Mississippi? Mississippi burning? Magnolia State maintains its horrendously racist image? Any of these statements could be used to describe the…

Continue reading 7 min

Guest Commentary

Campus Student Protests

By Dr. Elwood Watson, PhD Guest Commentator

A university’s role is to teach students how to think critically and courageously.

To say that the following academic year has been riveting for higher education is an understatement. When Presidents Claudine Gay of Harvard, Liz Magill of the…

Continue reading 6 min

Guest Commentary

Bittersweet Arab American Heritage Month

By Farrah Hassen, Foreign Policy in Focus Guest Commentator

We need enduring collaboration between Arab Americans and policymakers, educators, and community members to defend our rights, create a more equal America,

I’ve always known my Arab culture is worth celebrating. I heard it in Syrian tenor Sabah Fakhri’s powerful voice reverberating in my mom’s car on the…

Continue reading 4 min

Guest Commentary

Prison Calls Are Increasingly Free, but Prisoners Still Aren’t

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

New reforms have made it easier and cheaper to make calls to and from incarcerated people. But corporate profiteering will continue until we abolish the system.

I recently saw the face of a friend whom I had never met before. In a video call to a California state prison facility, I was…

Continue reading 6 min

$ $ Contribute $ $