Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad, PhD

Not since in any year that I can remember, even more than 1995 at the O.J. Simpson Trial, after Mark Fuhrman’s “N-word” denial – even more than the commercial release of Richard Pryor’s 1974 comedy album, That Nigger’s Crazy, has so much “Nigger” talk been part of the public conversation (behind closed doors is another…

Paying our debts to society for running afoul of the law, has always been part of the American nomenclature. America has always been seen as the land of “new beginnings,” where anyone can get a “fresh start.” As an immigrant nation from the very start, people left their countries and came to America for that…

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” This was the opening sentence of Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, advocating for the colonies to declare themselves independent of Britain. What made Common Sense such a prophetic document was that it recounted the growth, the hardships and the blessings the colonies had endured in the…

The election results didn’t shock anybody but the Democrats. They had gotten so used to the Republicans sticking it to them at the last minute that they were afraid to predict that the political tide had turned. After all, how much damage can one party do to a distressed and depressed nation? Distressed over the…

Comedian/Actor/Philanthropist/Activist and of late, social commentator, Dr. Bill Cosby spoke to almost a thousand people on a Saturday a couple weeks ago, on how to fix public education. That’s a highly salient issue here in Los Angeles, as it is in almost every major city in America. So when two of the area’s black school…

Archivist and historian par excellent, Mamye Clayton, passed away last week and left the world a treasure beyond measure. A former librarian for both USC and UCLA, Dr. Clayton established and developed African American historical archives at a time when others thought black history wasn’t important. Let me rephrase that; when other people thought that…

Just when you thought things couldn’t get more interesting in the melodrama called Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan to takeover the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)…it did. After the Mayor’s takeover legislation became a partial takeover legislation, after he lost a power play by the statewide and local unions (CTA and UTLA), then…

The Republican Party saw its “family values” boat head up the proverbial creek without a paddle last week. There is nothing else the Party can say after its “holier than thou” agenda took the ultimate hit. The resignation of Florida House Representative, Mark Foley, after revelations that he repeatedly sent sexually suggestive e-mails to a…

In his recent address to the United Nations two weeks ago, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called President George W. Bush “the devil,” in reference to the U.S. President’s address the day before. Chavez said he could still smell “the sulfur.” Almost a week later, ultra conservative religious right evangelist, Jerry Farwell, stated that a Hilary…