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Home Issue: 137

Issue: 137

May 5, 2005

Cover Story

Bad, Bad Janice Brown is Back

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

The GOP Judicial Theater of the Absurd is on the road, this time with a biblical theme, starring Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla R. Owen, Supreme Court Justices in their home states of California and Texas, respectively. The two were among ten Republican nominees given the hook in George Bush’s first term, through threats of…

The GOP Judicial Theater of the Absurd is on the road, this time with a biblical theme, starring Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla R. Owen, Supreme…

Continue reading 8 min

Commentary

Freedom Rider: Five Year-Old in Handcuffs

By Margaret Kimberley Guest Commentator

The corporate media continues to give the American public a steady diet of seamy, scandalous, frightening, and sensationalized stories. Despite their attention getting nature, most of these tales are simply not important enough to make national headlines. No sooner is a missing child, bride, or pregnant woman found, alive or dead, than our intrepid reporters…

The corporate media continues to give the American public a steady diet of seamy, scandalous, frightening, and sensationalized stories. Despite their attention getting nature, most of…

Continue reading 5 min

Commentary

No Fools Allowed

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

We lead off this edition of No Fools Allowed with an e-Mail message from Marcellus Andrews, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation. “How to Fix the Fractured Black Caucus” by Glen Ford and Peter Gamble (April 29, 5005) has it just right: sectors of the Congressional Black Caucus have drifted away from the…

We lead off this edition of No Fools Allowed with an e-Mail message from Marcellus Andrews, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation. “How to…

Continue reading 8 min

Commentary

Leadership in a World of Change

By Cynthia McKinney U.S. Congressperson (D-GA)

Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) delivered the following speech to the American Business Women’s Association in Atlanta, Georgia, April 30, 2005. Business Ladies and Gentlemen: Congratulations for 33 years of excellence. I am very happy to be here this evening with the Golden Dome Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association. It is true that there…

Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) delivered the following speech to the American Business Women's Association in Atlanta, Georgia, April 30, 2005. Business Ladies and Gentlemen: Congratulations for…

Continue reading 11 min

Commentary

51% Is Not A Mandate – Especially When All the Votes Were Not Counted

By John Conyers, Jr U.S. Congressperson (D-MI)

“History suggests the possibility of major losses next year is not beyond imagination. The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll showed support for Bush’s handling of Social Security at just 31 percent. That is several points lower than support for Clinton’s handling of health care in the summer of 1994 – just before the failure of…

"History suggests the possibility of major losses next year is not beyond imagination. The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll showed support for Bush's handling of Social…

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Commentary

Think Piece: Voting Rights and Photo IDs – The Past As Present

By Ryan Paul Haygood Guest Commentator

William Faulkner, a Mississippi author known for his incisive writings about the American south, once wrote: “The past is never dead. In fact, it’s not even past.” We are reminded of Faulkner’s observation as a number of voter identification bills that will erect new barriers to minority political participation make their way through state legislatures,…

William Faulkner, a Mississippi author known for his incisive writings about the American south, once wrote: “The past is never dead. In fact, it’s not even…

Continue reading 5 min

Commentary

Excuses, Excuses: How the Right Rationalizes Racial Inequality in America

By Tim Wise Guest Commentator

Whenever I write an article about racism, or give a speech concerning the ongoing reality of discrimination in the labor market, I am assailed by those who refuse to believe what virtually any study done in the past two decades confirms: namely, that people of color are not seeing things, nor crazy when they suggest…

Whenever I write an article about racism, or give a speech concerning the ongoing reality of discrimination in the labor market, I am assailed by those…

Continue reading 10 min

Commentary

The Real Taboo? Hollywood, Race, and Romance

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

This article originally appeared in IntelligenceSquad.com. In a recent New York Times, columnist Nicholas Kristof asks when Hollywood will release a major motion picture in which a black man and white woman fall in love. Kristof raises an interesting point, but we feel his complaint misses the real problem, which is that Hollywood has shown…

This article originally appeared in IntelligenceSquad.com. In a recent New York Times, columnist Nicholas Kristof asks when Hollywood will release a major motion picture in which…

Continue reading 4 min

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