Dr. Lenore J. Daniels, PhD

Informants. Informants. Informants. In the last few weeks, I have written on three cases, and in each, FBI and local law enforcement informants were key witnesses to the prosecution of innocent people. We have a system of justice depending on an industry of informants in uniforms or baggy pants, employed to spy on co-workers and…

They have been served pork. “We don’t eat pork,” Lata Duka tells me. At another prison in the Midwest, inmates are served food from bloated cans. I remember Rev. Edward Pinkney speaking about “butt-naked fish” served in a Michigan prison. Lata Duka tells me the food is bad where her three sons, Dritan, 30, Shain,…

What does it mean to “normalize” relations with the U.S.? What does “normalize” mean? If Raul Castro is described as being “belligerent” to Barrack Obama, then what does that mean? Who is speaking? The day came and many of us, scattered across the country, waited. On this day, June 26, 2008, Rev. Edward Pinkney would…

–Langston Hughes, “Song after Lynching” President Barack Obama takes his magic show on the road. The Bush cards featuring predominantly Islamic “terrorist” figures are gone. But Obama has a deck of cards; he has a newly crafted magical wand! In Turkey, April 6, 2009, President Obama acknowledges “hard feelings over Iraq.” But it’s a new…

– Martin Luther King Jr. On radio programs that still present an analysis of world politics, the hosts and guests speak openly about “U.S. interests in Mexico” or they discuss “what the U.S. must do to improve conditions in Afghanistan.” The host and guest often talk in an all-knowing, omnipotent tone about “the other.” Most…

We take you back, Fannie Lou, because we are sick and tired of being sick and tired… The banners and posters and signs read: “Occupation is a Crime – Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan,” “We Need Jobs and Schools: Not War,” “End the Occupation: Justice for Palestine.” The banners, posters, and signs were held mainly by white,…

-Malcolm X Last week, National Public Radio featured a discussion on First Lady Michelle Obama. The First Lady received her degree from Princeton and her law degree from Harvard. The host made sure to mention this. But the tease was Michelle Oba ma’s shoulders. She exposed her shoulders at her husband’s first State of the…