Featured
Declining Like the U. S. Dollar, Does the Black Youth Vote Matter in ’08?
May 15, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Jeff Johnson, Guest Commentary - As the country braces for ups and downs in the 2008 ‘Race for the White House,’ my mind can’t help but wonder whether the constituents that were so important in 2004 even matter. Four years ago, you couldn’t talk about the presidential election without having someone toss you a VOTE OR DIE t-shirt or tell you who his or her favorite artist was voting for. Four years later, the political landscape has shifted and there is little media focus on the specific demographic of blacks 18... [Read the full story]
Party Politics
In the South, a Force to Challenge the G.O.P.
May 15, 2008 · Leave a Comment
ADAM NOSSITER and JANNY SCOTT, New York Times - The sharp surge in black turnout that Senator Barack Obama has helped to generate in recent primaries and Congressional races could signal a threat this fall to the longtime Republican dominance of the South, according to politicians and voting experts. Should Mr. Obama become the Democratic nominee, he would still have to struggle for white swing voters in the South and in border states like West Virginia, where he lost decisively to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Tuesday’s... [Read the full story]
Government
Secret Service Supervisors Cracked Racist Jokes
May 12, 2008 · Leave a Comment
BET.com - For years, African-American agents in the Secret Service complained that racism was rampant and that supervisors not only ignored racist incidents but often participated. In recent weeks, when a noose was found in a breakroom used by a Black agent at the Secret Service training facility in Beltsville , Md. , it added new fuel into a longstanding investigation into charges of racial discrimination at the agency. In a federal court filing on Friday, attorneys for 10 African-American Secret Service agents disclosed... [Read the full story]
Media
“Dog the Bounty Hunter” Appears With Black Leader After Racial Profanity
May 14, 2008 · Leave a Comment
KITV-ABC - Duane “Dog” Chapman and his family appeared on Wednesday with a prominent African American leader to say things have been resolved after a racial firestorm ignited after a recorded phone conversation revealed him using a racial profanity. The popular cable TV reality show “Dog The Bounty Hunter” was abruptly canceled last year after a taped phone conversation was made public in which Chapman could be heard using the “N” word, referring to his son’s African-American girlfriend. The... [Read the full story]
International
Brazil pushes quotas for blacks despite criticism
May 13, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Raymond Colitt and Stuart Grudgings, Reuters - Brazil will press ahead with plans to create quotas for blacks in universities and public sector jobs to redress longstanding inequalities despite opposition, a government minister said on Tuesday. On the 120th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Brazil, Minister for Racial Equality Edson Santos said the reforms were essential to tackle huge disadvantages blacks still face in the job market, education and society at large. “The abolition of slavery in Brazil was... [Read the full story]
State/Local
Greenwood Blacks Outraged at White Councilman Referring to Black Senator as ‘Ole Nigger’
May 16, 2008 · Leave a Comment
F. Finley McRae, BlackAmericaWeb.com - Blacks in the small, Mississippi Delta city of Greenwood are seething over a white city councilman’s e-mail that referred to a black political leader, who is highly respected statewide, as an “ole nigger.” For many blacks, the e-mail, containing an illogical message about council president David Jordan, 74, who also holds a state senate seat, is a reminder that the vaunted “New South,” romanticized by pundits nationwide, may well be a distant dream and... [Read the full story]
2008 Elections
What Obama Owes the Clintons
PETER BEINART, Time - Someday soon, when Hillary Clinton exits the Democratic presidential race, Barack Obama will walk onstage and praise her and her husband to the heavens. Publicly,... [Read more]
2008 Elections
Race
Words and underlying racism
PAUL CAMPOS, Capitol Hill Blue - When Hillary Clinton claimed last week that Barack Obama was having trouble getting the votes of “hard working Americans, white Americans,”... [Read more]