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Home Issue: 740

Issue: 740

May 03, 2018

Guest Commentary

The Crime Did Not Fit, But The Jury Would Not Acquit: The Irony of Donald Trump and the Petition to Pardon Jack Johnson

By Al-Tony Gilmore, PhD Guest Commentator

What Trump definitely will not do, is what he should do. Admit that Johnson did not commit a crime, and apologize for the corrupt actions of the Justice Department that prosecuted, convicted, and incarcerated an innocent man, destroying his career and altering much of his life in the aftermath.

Jack Johnson was boxing's heavyweight champion from December 26, 1908 until April 5, 1915; an era of Social Darwinism, white supremacy, legal segregation, eugenics and routine…

Continue reading 19 min

Commentary

Jack Johnson, the Clintons, and Democrats’ Midterm Messaging

By Dr. Walter C. Farrell, Jr., PhD, M.S.P.H. Columnist

The Clintons, like aging sports superstars, cannot give up the limelight, and are thus becoming those unwanted and uninvited dinner guests who keep showing up. In this era of the #MeToo movement, the Clintons, with all of their sexual and misogynistic baggage, picked the absolute worse time to reenter the political fray.

Kanye West has stated that “slavery was a choice” since blacks were in it for 400 years, and he has also released a song in which…

Continue reading 5 min

View from the Battlefield

Cosby, Meet Karma – Really Putting Women at the Center of the Anti-Violence Movement

By Jamala Rogers Editorial Board

Despite the preponderance of evidence, there are too many who believe in Cosby’s innocence. There is a deep divide in the African American community on the rape charges. That divide didn’t close with the recent guilty verdict. We often give these predators a pass because of who they are and because we love them as the characters they play in the entertainment-sports world.

Karma is one vindictive sistah of justice. I thought about her unforgiving wrath with the recent guilty verdict of Bill Cosby. Cosby, once dubbed the “American…

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Commentary

How Do You Mend a Broken Heart – The Cosby I Know and the Man Who Was Convicted

By Dr. Julianne Malveaux, PhD Editorial Board

Will all eight seasons of the Cosby show be kicked to the curb because its creator is an extraordinarily flawed man? Will a moment in history, a moment when the ensemble depiction of a dynamic Black middle-class family entertained a nation, be obliterated by the judgment of one man?

I used to love me some Bill Cosby. Not only because he was America’s Big Daddy, but also because he was fun and funny. Most of…

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Guest Commentary

Bill Cosby: The Sad Decline of an Entertainment Icon

By Dr. Elwood Watson, PhD Guest Commentator

Economic and structural racism are undeniable factors in the lives of many poor people of color. Bill Cosby should know this. Instead of acknowledging such brutal facts, he resorted to espousing and promoting a dangerously misguided form of respectability politics that too often places the responsibility for change on those who are being disrespected. It was apparent that decades of considerable wealth removed him from any semblance of reality.

Last week, varied emotions emanated from a variety of quarters on April 26th, when renowned entertainer, actor and megastar comedian Bill Cosby was convicted by a…

Continue reading 6 min

Color of Law

Betsy DeVos Is Scrapping Civil Rights Enforcement, Allowing Schools to Target Black Children for Punishment

By David A. Love, JD Executive Editor

DeVos has provided financial support to organizations opposed to affirmative action and voting rights, such as the Center for Individual Rights and the Southeastern Legal Foundation, and other groups who work against women’s reproductive freedom and LGBTQ rights, according to the ACLU.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is shutting down civil rights investigations and dismissing hundreds of complaints in the name of efficiency, reflecting a greater effort…

Continue reading 6 min

Commentary

On Trump’s Balcony

By Dr. Lenore Daniels, PhD Editorial Board

Imagine the nightmare: On a balcony in Washington, DC, sits the Leader of the “free world”, flanked by his brothers, Kanye West and Ben Carson. All is well for these guys, drinking coffee “in the normal way.”

Greed and fear exposed themselves without shame and suppressed all tender feeling. We all had to recognize during those weeks that the scales we had used…

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Commentary

Notorious Massachusettes Homophobe Running For Governor

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

Scott Lively is accused of persecuting LGBTQI people abroad, resulting in the introduction of an Anti-Homosexuality Bill he helped engineer in Uganda, which is a crime against humanity under international law.

When Setti Warren, a Democrat from Newton, announced he was dropping out of the gubernatorial race no one could have fathomed the world-renowned ultra-conservative Republican homophobe…

Continue reading 5 min

Guest Commentary

Poor People’s Campaign Gears Up for Mother’s Day Launch

By Sarah Anderson, Inequality.org Guest Commentator

A major new report makes the case for a 'fusion movement' against systemic racism, poverty and inequality, militarism and the war economy, and ecological devastation.

“I am not speaking about the poor. I am not speaking for the poor. I am the poor.” Claudia De la Cruz was speaking at an…

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