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

Editorial Board

Jamala Rogers

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, Jamala Rogers, founder and Chair Emeritus of the Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis. She is an organizer, trainer and speaker. She is the author of The Best of the Way I See It – A Chronicle of Struggle. Other writings by Ms. Rogers can be found on her blog jamalarogers.com. Contact Ms. Rogers and BC.

272 pieces

View from the Battlefield

How the Word Is Passed

By Jamala Rogers Editorial Board

The history of slavery is a history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it.”

We celebrated Juneteenth. Here comes America's Independence Day. There's no better time to put July 4 in historical perspective. We must connect it with the racist…

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View from the Battlefield

The $2 Trillion Stimulus Package – What Do We Wanna Do With Our Money?

By Jamala Rogers Editorial Board

Funds from the American Rescue Plan are coming to a city or county near you. We need to have something to show for it after this $2 trillion is spent.

There’s something about tax dollars that many working people feel disconnected from. It’s like once it leaves their hands, they feel like they lose total ownership.…

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View from the Battlefield

Dropping da Bombs

By Jamala Rogers Editorial Board

Tulsa, Oklahoma and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are on record as the only domestic bombings in U.S. history. It is no accident that the targets were African-Americans.

To me, the month of May has the feel of a Black August. Malcolm X was born on May 19. African Liberation Day is May 25.…

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View from the Battlefield

No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger

By Jamala Rogers Editorial Board

The same ships brought enslaved Africans and indentured Chinese to this country for the purpose of economic exploitation. The Southern economy was built upon the forced, free labor of Black people while the Chinese were paid pennies to build the transcontinental railroad under brutal working conditions.

For a fleeting moment, it seemed like the conditions of Asian-Americans would get some overdue and deserved attention—even if prompted by a national tragedy. On March…

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View from the Battlefield

The People vs the Police

By Jamala Rogers Editorial Board

The guilty verdict of Chauvin is an opportunity to bust through the walls of silence and racist insensitivity. This calls for a sustained and organized campaign to hold police accountable while defunding them.

It was difficult for Black people and our allies to celebrate Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict. The image of the white, smug-looking cop with a knee on…

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A New Mayor in Town: Black, Bold and Female – Could it be a true break from plantation politics?

By Jamala Rogers Editorial Board

Building a multi-racial, intergenerational movement in St. Louis is about more than one candidate. It’s about intentional progress for a city mired in a white supremacist, patriarchal past.

Last week, St. Louis made the news. This time, it was good news. The city made history with the election of its first Black female mayor.…

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View from the Battlefield

Taking On Systems of Oppression – The Consequences of Stepping Over the Line

By Jamala Rogers Editorial Board

This thing, this is the notion that when Black people enter a particular white institution, they should suffer the slings and arrows silently because they knew the nature of the beast, the beast being systematic racism.

Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Prince Harry and Megan Markle exposed what a bunch of us already suspected. The biracial Megan wasn’t getting the royal treatment. Further,…

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View from the Battlefield

Black Political Power Revisited – The reset to move forward

By Jamala Rogers Editorial Board

The struggle is always between democracy and barbarism, between progress and stagnation, between the haves and the have nots. There’s a part for all democracy defenders to play.

Black folks have been meeting about their liberation since first setting foot on these North American shores. The outcomes or impacts of these gatherings vary but…

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View from the Battlefield

Wrapping Our Heads Around the Pandemic

By Jamala Rogers Editorial Board

COVID-19 has dramatically shown us how interconnected our lives are in this country.

While the nation was burying its dead, while toilet paper got narrower in width, while storage companies tripled their rental fees, while Big Pharma scurried to…

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