Independent since 2002 Issue No. 1102 Week of November 7, 2026 Get the free email dispatch →

Columnist

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

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Dr. Walter C. Farrell, Jr., PhD, MSPH, is a Fellow of theNational Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado-Boulder and has written widely on vouchers, charter schools,and public school privatization. He has served as Professor of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and asProfessor of Educational Policy and Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Contact Dr. Farrell and BC.

254 pieces

Commentary

Democratic Party Failing Its Base After 2020 Victories

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

While pressing issues continue to burden and assail Democratic base voters, especially its rising New American Majority of ethnic minorities, Democrats are doing little to address them.

Perhaps unintentionally, the Democratic Party is failing its base constituents after they handed it thrilling victories in the 2020 elections to gain control of the Oval…

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Commentary

GOP Fears, New American Majority, and Democratic Infighting

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

To justify oppression and repression, the White power structure created a series of origin stories—Big Lies—to explain their inequitable treatment of their brothers and sisters of darker racial hues.

The eminent Harvard legal scholar and historian, Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed, in her well-received book, On Juneteenth (2021), traced the origin stories of America’s development which were…

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Commentary

Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Becky Pringle, and Dignity

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

While their Democratic politicians and colleagues appear flummoxed as to how to respond in this era of escalating acts of oppression against its minority citizens, they have confronted it head-on.

Amid ongoing GOP assaults on the voting rights of Blacks and other people of color, three African Americans stood up for Black dignity. Nikole Hannah-Jones accepted…

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Commentary

Connecting the Dots

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

As White flight intensifies and White birth rates decline, students of color have ascended to majority status in K-12 public schools and now make up the bulk of students in the 50 states.

Students of color are facing their third generation K-12 public education crisis. The 1954 Brown Decision ushered in a period of furious opposition to the desegregation…

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Commentary

Critical Race Theory and the Politics of the 2022 Midterms

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

Depending on whom you believe, CRT is either an examination of the role of race in the shaping of America’s public policy or an attack on White people by pitting ethnic minorities against them.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a touchstone of Republican efforts to disenfranchise the New American Majority - ethnic minority citizens (Asians, Latinx, Indigenous, and Black…

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Commentary

Will Good White People Stand Up Again in 2022?

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

without significant White votes in the key states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, a Democrat would not be in the Oval Office.

President Biden's agenda is being canceled by the Republicans. Sen. Mitch McConnell has built a solid wall of Senate opposition to current Biden initiatives—voting rights, infrastructure,…

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Commentary

Republicans Going Full Apartheid!

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

After Trump prevailed, he led the Republican Party on a sojourn to the dark side of politics as he openly courted and championed the most extreme elements of White supremacy.

In the wake of the 100-year-old anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race pogrom, it is apparent that Whites—this time Republicans--are fixated on removing Democrats and citizens…

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Commentary

Republican Insurrections in Education, Culture, and Politics

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

the Republican attacks on teaching critical race theory and systemic racism in public schools. They reject teaching the truth about the intersection of race and oppression in the origins and development of our nation.

Republicans are quickly upgrading a series of insurrections as a response to the growing influence of ethnic minorities across multiple spheres in American life—education, culture, and…

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Commentary

Democrats and Blacks Should Learn From Political History

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

If White Democrats continue to control the decision-making and financial allocation process, with their racial blinders and just expect voters of color to show up at the ballot box, they will have a limited chance of retaining their majorities in 2022.

George Santayana, the eminent Harvard philosopher and scholar of the late 19th and early 20th century, is widely known for his quote, “Those who do not…

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