Category: The African World

August 2013 represents the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington. Publicly associated with Dr. King’s famous “I have a Dream” speech, this march brought more than 250,000 people to Washington, DC to demand freedom and jobs. Initiated by Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters President A. Philip Randolph, this became a joint project with…

The debate over the use of drones took a very odd turn when it became clear that the Obama administration did not wish to state, categorically, that there would be no drone strikes against targets in the USA. Watching Attorney General Eric Holder bob and weave was actually quite fascinating and at the same time…

A friend of mine said that when he heard the news of the death of President Chavez that it felt as if someone had hit him in the stomach. I could not have put it more concisely nor more honestly. While I knew that the likelihood of his recovering was very slight, I suppose that…

The day after former Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. pled guilty to a series of corruption charges I found myself engaged in a discussion with two African American colleagues. The atmosphere was one of sadness and frustration. “What could he have been thinking?” we asked each other. We shook our heads. I have met the former…

“We all wanted to kill ‘niggers’…beats rabbit hunting…” -White US soldier commenting on the Philippine-US War[i] One of the least known conflicts in US history was the Philippine-US War. The length of the war is, itself, a subject of some debate, having ended according to many historians in 1901, but actually lasting closer to 1913.…

The entrance of the French military into the Malian civil war further complicates a descent into hell which that country has been experiencing for the last two years. Mainstream media attention has largely focused on the emergence of right-wing Islamists associated with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and the threat that this poses to…

Obama is definitely a great and compelling speaker, certainly by mainstream political standards. But that is not what I was pondering in listening to the Inaugural Address on January 21st. Rather, what struck me was that this was both a proclamation of the existence of a bloc of forces in this country that made it…

A friend recently told me how a relative of theirs was most concerned about developments in Egypt, given the dominance of the right-wing Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. I have heard similar such concerns raised, as conservative Islamists have come to play major roles in post-uprising governments, e.g., Tunisia, Egypt. In some cases, there is an implication…

I was out of the country when word reached me of the passing of the legendary Marvin Miller, the retired Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association. While I was not completely surprised to hear the news – Miller was 95 at the time of his death – his fierce determination often led…

The obvious intent to eliminate African American and Latino voters energized us to turn out in record numbers Leading up to November 6th, I found myself focused on the matter of voter suppression and electoral shenanigans committed by the Republicans. This concern was not for nothing. Prior to and on Election Day there were myriad…