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Home Issue: 94

Issue: 94

June 10, 2004

Commentary

Freedom Rider: When White People are Treated Badly

By Margaret Kimberley Guest Commentator

“They have made common cause with the left-wing and Islamist antiwar movements in this country and in Europe. They deny and excuse terror. They espouse a potentially self-fulfilling defeatism. They publicize wild conspiracy theories. And some of them explicitly yearn for the victory of their nation’s enemies.” – “Unpatriotic Conservatives,” National Review, April 7, 2003…

“They have made common cause with the left-wing and Islamist antiwar movements in this country and in Europe. They deny and excuse terror. They espouse a…

Continue reading 5 min

Commentary

Past Imperfect: The Cosby Show

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

This article originally appeared in Africana.com. The old maxim warns us to beware of priests who lose their faith but keep their jobs. By that logic, a whole lot of alleged spokespersons for black people should’ve been unemployed a long time ago. In the wake of Bill Cosby’s now-famous Pound Cake Speech at the NAACP…

This article originally appeared in Africana.com. The old maxim warns us to beware of priests who lose their faith but keep their jobs. By that logic,…

Continue reading 6 min

Commentary

Juneteenth: Free At Last?

By Ryan Paul Haygood Guest Commentator

Ralph Ellison immortalized “Juneteenth,” the annual celebration of the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when the enslaved Africans in Texas were actually emancipated, in his posthumous novel of the same name. Ellison’s title refers to the date when Union General Gordon Grander rode horseback into Galveston, Texas and announced to nearly 250,000 slaves that President…

Ralph Ellison immortalized "Juneteenth," the annual celebration of the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when the enslaved Africans in Texas were actually emancipated, in his posthumous…

Continue reading 6 min

Commentary

ABC Challenged on Gang Coverage

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

The following letter to Peter Jennings was originally posted at Davey D’s Hip Hop Daily News. Dear Mr. Peter Jennings: I just finished watching the Prime Time TV special you hosted on ABC last night [June 3]. It was with great anticipation that I tuned in especially after hearing all the provocative commercials on local…

The following letter to Peter Jennings was originally posted at Davey D’s Hip Hop Daily News. Dear Mr. Peter Jennings: I just finished watching the Prime…

Continue reading 7 min

Cover Story

Reagan: The Great White Redeemer

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

Only 12 years elapsed between the glorious military victory over the Confederate Slave States in 1865 and the definitive defeat of Reconstruction in 1877. In many important respects, the Reconstruction period was even briefer than that. By 1870, when the last of the southern states ratified the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, Tennessee had already…

Only 12 years elapsed between the glorious military victory over the Confederate Slave States in 1865 and the definitive defeat of Reconstruction in 1877. In many…

Continue reading 7 min

Commentary

Reagan, Race and Remembrance

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

If one needs any more evidence that whites and people of color live in two totally different places, politically and psychically, one need only look at the visual evidence provided by the death of Ronald Reagan. More to the point, all one needs to know about this man and his Presidency can be gleaned by…

If one needs any more evidence that whites and people of color live in two totally different places, politically and psychically, one need only look at…

Continue reading 11 min

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