For over a year, teachers and school boards have fought the myth of Critical Race Theory (CRT) being a bludgeon to batter white kids’ delicate psyche(s). Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has long been an advocate of school choice and privatization and glommed...
Race
As a black American, I can understand the tumult over First Lady Jill Biden associating Latin culture with “bogades”(sic) and ‘breakfast tacos.” Talking in part before the UnidosUS annual conference, she said “ —as distinct as the bogades [bodegas] of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami, and...
The panic over 9/11 that led to the Patriot Act is almost understandable. We had seen thousands of our fellow Americans incinerated, and our military and financial invincibility symbols were toppled. So, limiting a few freedoms for revenge seemed reasonable amid anger and fear (at the time). I am baffled...
Again, the invasion and war crimes in Ukraine demonstrate how the GOP is habitually wrong. Whether it be something as serious as our southern neighbors trying to escape the same types of violence and death in El Salvador and Honduras—like women and children in Ukraine, or if a green M&M...
The nobility commended to war is romanticized as a brave and patriotic encounter when reviewing history. Familiar to Americans, the American Revolution and World War II come to mind as noble causes. America is far from alone in the foggy-headedness of war. Michigan and Ohio once raised militias over the...
Remember when the Trump administration was telling Americans that an “invasion” of migrants was going to threaten our very existence in mere days. Yes, a caravan of mostly women and children was going to take your freedom in the fall of 2019. A year earlier, Mr. Trump told us to...
When one speaks of the far-right-left, the obvious target for progressives would be Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Although they both are low-hanging fruit, the harvest is bountiful. Voices of the left, like comedic satirist Bill Maher, longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, and...
I wonder what happens this coming February; you know, Black History Month. Will the contingent of book banners and people who fear the delicate little psyches of white children will be permanently marred by black history prevail. Since the first enslaved Africans stepped out of the bowels of slave ships...
Here’s the latest news out of Pennsylvania: The TV ad is no-holds-barred. It bluntly attacks a decision of the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania Supreme Court. And on Saturday, the state Bar Association said the spot went too far. The ad says the Democratic contender, Superior Court Judge Maria McLaughlin, “chose...
Beetle-Juice Three Times. Thank Jeebus that cheesehead is not banned from primary and secondary schools in Wisconsin. Because nothing says “Freedom” and “Liberty” like being the language police. If you talk about “spirit murdering” and “action civics” they might even exist. Better to be “un-woke”, because you might develop an “unconscious-bias”. Darn...
With roughly a third of Americans who identify themselves as Republicans, the party bombards us with the term American People at every utterance. With almost 60% of the country fully vaccinated, Republicans say the American People have doubts. Yesterday, Mitch McConnell, in response to questions about the insurrection, said the...
I share an important date with former basketball coach the late Don Haskins, March 14, our birthday. Haskins led the then Texas Western Basketball team to the 1966 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball championship against the vaunted and famed Kentucky Wildcats, led by legendary coach Adolph Rupp. Coach Rupp...
“[The debt limit suspension] ensures our federal government will not approach any kind of short-term debt crisis in the coming weeks or months. It secures our nation’s full faith and credit and ensures that Congress will not throw this kind of unnecessary wrench into the gears of our job growth...
If you were old enough and curious enough, most of us can remember where we were when tragedy struck. Historically sad events have a way of freezing that point in time like it is suspended in dry ice; only thawed by the heat of another heartbreak. Again, if you are...
Paraphrasing Pvt. Sam Watkins, 1st Tennessee, Co. H. ‘America has no north, no south, no east, no west,’ those words could apply to the pandemic. Watkins was lamenting brother against brother killing each other in the American Civil War. All of America is watching the unvaccinated kill each other and...
Women and people of color had a unique experience that ended yesterday in Tokyo, Japan. The controversial Summer Olympics closed with America at the top of the medal leader board despite some members of the team having barbs and sticks hurled at them from the right-wing. Lots of conservatives and...
Most of us saw or heard the campaign ads for the gubernatorial race for Florida. Ron DeSantis, dressing his infant daughter in MAGA motif pajamas, helping her with border wall building blocks, and reading her a faux bedtime story about the fanciful mind of Donald Trump. Unfortunately, the internal xenophobic...
I took a moment, in the interest of “fair and balanced” reporting, to tune into Fox News’ coverage of the opening of the 1/6 Committee hearing, last week. Of course, the scrolling chyron across the bottom of the screen calling it the Pelosi Committee was an obvious attempt to prejudice...
The latest rabbit punch thrown by the Republican party in the culture bout was to deny Texas children the truth about women’s suffrage and that white supremacy is a bad thing. Besides the obvious moral failure of Texas Republicans, who voted in favor of this measure in the absence of...
Layaway, on-time, and paying-something-down-on-it have been very familiar phrases in black, brown, and poor neighborhoods for generations; credit was for the people who did not need it. Financial freedom because of race, religion, and status was prohibitive for countless numbers of Americans and immigrants. The constant pressure of having to...
I was born in the 1950s when it was not illegal for black people in the south to vote—it was suicide. Pseudo-laws, tests, intimidation, hoods, ropes, and guns were the anti-democracy tactics of the day. Southern state officials could not legitimately ban black people from voting, so the strategy was...
There is a lot of media hand-wringing over a little mind with tiny thoughts who has been elevated into a big political voice by the liberal press. Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson, a distant heir to the Swanson frozen-food fortune, is as slimy and indigestible as a pile of cream...
Democrats: Can you believe General Milley is such a bootlicker for Trump? Republicans: Black Lives Matter? Democrats: Can you believe how General Milley stood up for freedom of speech? Republicans: Black Lives Matter? Democrats: Liz Cheney is hurting America Republicans: Black Lives Matter? Democrats: That Liz Cheney has integrity Republicans:...
Conservatism in America loves to address problems that do not exist and want to purge the truth. Red Hats rail against masks wearing, telling the rest of us they will not live in fear—yet arm themselves to the teeth in fear of peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters. Texas Governor Greg...
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words, terrorism? 9/11? ISIS? The Taliban? While these examples are certainly just, they don’t always represent terrorism in its entirety. Dan Brown said, “History is always written by the winners”. Stereotypes and generalizations often cause the public...
Florida bans its schools from teaching critical race theory On Thursday, Florida’s State Board of Education unanimously voted in favor of an amendment banning the teaching of critical race theory in schools throughout the state. The theory, according to PolitiFact, is a collection of ideas about systemic bias and privilege...
For the past few weeks, I have heard from friends, colleagues, and enemies who say, ‘I never heard of ‘ Black Wall Street.’ Statements like that are why America needs Critical Race Theory in its’ school curriculum. I have spent my life, first as a child of public education and...
Stephen Miller runs a new RWNJ lobbying group for the voter suppression agenda at the state level. It features some of the usual grifting suspects from the Trump administration. Lots of expertise with the customized large-member-toilet patent guy and Trump’s major domo who knows a lot about overthrowing an election. Sadly,...
It is usually a minefield of critical backlash, and what about(s), when you compare the oppression of Jews to the descendants of enslaved Africans in America, but I am going to wade onto the battlefield. What I am not going to do is use the comparison of the holocaust and...
Living with the nagging uncertainty of being racially discriminated against and worst not being believed shatters the psyche. The most devastating effects are that people of color start to accept their treatment as their unchangeable fate. Asking white friends to hail a cab at night, telling one’s kids to keep...
If it were a perfect world, I would like to think that the most recent attacks on young black millionaires are just a coincidence. In a perfect world, the success of blacks would be applauded as a plus for the country. Unfortunately, American history is littered with incidents of racial...
Critical Race Practice. Organizers have canceled plans for an afternoon of speeches and performances commemorating the centennial on Monday of the Tulsa massacre. This reminds us that the early 1920s was a mass othering of America that includes events like the Wall Street bombing of 1920, whose death toll was exceeded in the Tulsa...
Once Senator Mitch McConnell staked out the politically uncompromising GOP opposition to ‘everything’ Democrats proffered, during the Obama administration, the redline was drawn. Slowly but surely, the so-called moderate Republicans like; Susan Collins, Rob Portman, and John Thune have repeatedly torn their knickers on the fence. Collins, for example, agreed...
The addition of the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act was a turning point in terms of minority representation. Redistricting is the process of drawing electoral district lines every ten years intended to bring about racially proportional representation. While its purpose was to give weight to minority votes, it...
These are days fraught with political battles over cultural histories abjuring complexity. Today it’s The Wall Street Journal and the reactionary path to critical race theory, the latest bit of Trumpist ignorance now projected into personnel policies and the larger revisionist history project that would deny the historical relevance of slavery...
Oklahoma’s right-wing politicians would like to erase history because that’s what they do, whether it’s the omission of facts or rewriting them to favor those in power. Historical guilt and its associated media effects cooties can’t be part of public school curricula. H.B. 1775 implies that the past prior to 1776...
Most things in America are solved by either common sense, solemnity, or time. The one exception is race. Historically both the Democratic and Republican party has used race as a means of power and control. Although the Federalist Party is long dead, the current Republicans are fighting, legislating, and restoring...
Here’s the latest news today out of Pennsylvania: Lou Barletta, the Republican Party’s Donald Trump-endorsed nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018, is running for governor of Pennsylvania. Barletta, 65, becomes the most prominent figure to enter a 2022 governor’s race that Republicans have won every time in the past half-century...
Even in Arizona, the Fraudit continues, now interrupted by high school graduations. “We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country” This is as readily falsifiable as 2+2=5. If we don’t call this out… Wow. The Republican who took over Maricopa County...
Here’s some encouraging news today for U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D. AZ) courtesy of OH Predictive Insights newest poll: The 2022 Senate election is inching closer and the race for Arizona’s Senate seat is wide open. Kelly is on the ballot again after capturing the final two years of the...
In testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller and former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, sought to defend their response to the deadly insurrection. This did not address the obvious positioning of them and others by previous guy to overturn election results....
So this happened yesterday: Glenn Youngkin, a wealthy first-time candidate who walked a line between his party’s Trump-centric base and appeals to business interests, won the Republican nomination for governor of Virginia on Monday. He heads into a general election in one of only two states choosing their governors in...