Issue: 61

The Republicans had to do something to make Janice Rogers Brown appear a sympathetic figure. The California state judge “has such an atrocious civil rights record she makes Clarence Thomas look like Thurgood Marshall,” said Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA) at a Congressional Black Caucus press conference, last week. “She’s cut from the same cloth as…

Last week a study was released in the journal Science showing that the damage done by feelings of exclusion and isolation create brain activity akin to that caused by physical pain. The study was conducted by encasing a subject in an MRI measuring brain activity. The person in MRI was told they were playing a…

The anti-war crowds return to Washington, Saturday, just a day shy of a year since the 2002 protest against the planned invasion of Iraq. Back then the New York Times, whose worldview is informed by administration handouts and the received wisdom of elite cocktail parties, attempted to impose its will on events by “reporting” that…

In a recent column, I discussed with a healthy amount of disdain the marketing of a board game called GHETTOPOLY, in which players maneuver through the traps and snares of an inner-city community, replete with every stereotype in the book about such places: filled with criminals, crack addicts, malt liquor junkies, prostitutes and gang bangers.…

The following interview with Rev. Al Sharpton took place at the presidential candidate’s New York City offices. Playboy: Almost every press report says you are not taken seriously as a presidential candidate. Why? Al Sharpton: I think that is the media. Most polls have me in the middle. The guys behind me take me seriously,…

The following article is reprinted from the Sunday, October 19 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer Everybody knew that race would be a significant issue in the campaign for mayor of Philadelphia, with a white Republican taking on a black Democratic incumbent. Now, it has effectively become the only issue. The discovery of an FBI bug…

The following article was posted at Indian Country Today on October 16. Amnesty International hears testimony on racial profiling TULSA, Okla. – Racial profiling by law enforcement still exists according to testimonies by Native Americans September 30 before Amnesty International USA at the Greenwood Cultural Center. The hearings, designed by the Domestic Human Rights Program,…

On his arrival in Manila, October 18, President George Bush compared the American invasion of Iraq to the U.S. seizure of the Philippines from Spain in 1898. During that war, Filipino and U.S. soldiers “liberated the Philippines from colonial rule,” said Bush. He failed to mention that, after the Spanish surrender, the U.S. waged a…