Conservative Supreme Court Justices Keep Showing Us Who They Are
Protesters hold signs during a rally to prevent Massachusetts evictions in October.Matt Stone/ MediaNews Group/Boston Herald. LATE THURSDAY NIGHT IN A 6-3 DECISION, the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) struck down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) moratorium on evictions, ruling the public health agency exceeded its authority. The court’s decision to overturn the federal eviction moratorium, with as many as 6.5 mil households on the verge of eviction, occurred during what is known as the court’s “shadow docket.”
Read full storyDemocrats Keep Dropping the Ball on the Eviction Crisis
Millions of renters are at risk of eviction. And it’s the fault of Democrats. Eviction protesters in Boston during a news conference outside the Statehouse on Friday, July 30, 2021.AP Photo/Michael Dwyer.
Read full storyMeet Your New Feudal Overlords
While billionaires like Bill Gates buy up all the nation’s farmland, Wall Street investors snatch up every home they can get their hands on. Medieval illustration of men harvesting wheat with reaping hooks.Wikimedia Commons.
Read full storyHow My Parents Gamified Racism
When we were kids, our parents invented a game to help me and my brothers cope with racism. “Holiday Inn — Vincennes, Indiana”Jordan Smith | Source: Flickr. Hillenbrand Industries is the holding company for two operating businesses; Hill-Rom operates in the healthcare industry, selling and renting hospital beds, furnishings, and other hospital accessories. If you’ve ever needed to spend a night in a hospital, chances are you’ve slept in one of their beds. Hillenbrand’s other operating business is Batesville Casket Company. Although the name is probably unfamiliar to most people, Batesville is the largest coffin manufacturer in the country, controlling nearly half the US market. Funerals may be uncomfortable to discuss, but it’s a $20 billion industry.
Read full storyIt's Time Employers Showed Workers the Money
There is an unspoken agreement between Williams Sonoma and its store-level employees. In exchange for wages well below the poverty line, workers get discounts on the company’s upscale kitchen supplies. My wife’s employment there a few years ago is a case study on wage inequality.
Read full storyDemocrats Don't Get a Pass on Racism
When it comes to racism and classism, Republicans aren’t the only offenders. Spouting Rock Beach Association (AKA Bailey’s Beach Club)Screenshot the author of Bailey's website.
Read full storyThe Coup That Didn't Fail
The Wilmington Massacre of 1898, America's only successful coup d'état, has eery parallels to the 1/6 attack on the Capital. The remains of the office of the Wilmington Daily Record, Wilmington’s Black-owned newspaper, after insurrectionists burned in the Wilmington coup and massacre, November 10, 1898. Image: Wikipedia Commons.
Read full storyThe Other Hamilton
Jeremiah G. Hamilton may have been America’s first Black millionaire, but the Wall Street broker was no role model. In 1983, there were only three Black financial services professionals in the entire state of Arkansas. I was one of them. A decade later, I started the first Black-owned investment bank in Arkansas. For a little over ten years, I was part of an exclusive club — the world of Black professionals working on Wall Street.
Read full storyThe Tragic Story of the Arkansas Negro Boys’ Industrial School
Growing up, I thought the institution was an urban legend. The truth was worse. Incarcerated teens at the Arkansas Negro Boys’ Industrial School. Photo: KATV News. History is fascinating. It is a work in progress. It evolves. Many times, the history we think we know is but a fable. But every so often, long-hidden history, not to be ignored, reaches out from the depths of obscurity, extending a hand from the distant past to tap us on the shoulder.
Read full storyJoe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema Are the Thorns in Democrats’ Side
But there’s a way for Chuck Schumer and Kamala Harris to neutralize the two Democratic senators. Senator Joe ManchinPhoto: Sarah Silbiger/Pool/Getty Images. I spent my teenage years in Pine Bluff, a sleepy town in south-central Arkansas. Across the street from our house was the Pine Bluff Commercial, the town’s newspaper. Behind the paper’s brick building was a large grassy piece of land that the newspaper owners allowed the neighborhood kids to use for sandlot sporting events.
Read full storyMy Close Encounter with Privilege
My son’s brush with incarcaration was the closest I’ll ever come to knowing how white privilege feels. Binge-watching is one of my family’s guilty pleasures. A few weeks ago, we powered through Your Honor, a limited series on Showtime starring Bryan Cranston. Without spoiling the plot, Cranston plays a judge whose son is involved in a hit-and-run accident resulting in a fatality. Set in New Orleans, the series explores just how far outside the law he will go to keep his kid out of jail. Cranston uses his power and authority as a judge to illegally manipulate the wheels of justice— including the police and even the jury in a different criminal case.
Read full storyMaybe Tyler From ‘Boomerang’ Was Right: Everything Is Racist
Thirty years ago, I rolled my eyes at the trope. Now I don’t. When Eddie Murphy’s rom-com Boomerang premiered in 1992, the critical reception was lukewarm at best, but over time, the film earned its place as an underrated ’90s classic. Arguably one of Murphy’s best films and the launchpad for several now-familiar Black entertainers, from Halle Berry and Tisha Campbell-Martin to John Witherspoon and Chris Rock, the movie portrays a vision of Black culture that was probably over the heads of most movie critics of its day.
Read full storyWhy Joe Manchin Blackballed Neera Tanden
The Senate recently confirmed Shalanda Young as the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Young will serve as acting chief of the OMB while President Joe Biden seeks a replacement for his original nominee, Neera Tanden, who withdrew from consideration last month.
Read full storyThe Russian Roulette of Blackness
Click or Bang. Black people never know how their encounter with the police will end. PHOTO: US Army Lieutenant Caron Nazario. Photo: Winsor Police. I saw a movie once called The Deer Hunter. Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken starred as childhood friends who end up as prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. Russian roulette was one of the forms of torture used by their captors.
Read full storyLarry Kudlow Doesn’t Believe in Systemic Racism. That is Why I Know It’s Real.
The height of white privilege is the ability to pretend my reality doesn’t exist. omeone asked me the other day how I decide what to write. In all honesty, my process is remarkably simple.
Read full storyWhite Privilege and the Absence of Consequences
The January 6th attack on the US Capitol was a stark reminder of America’s two systems of justice. January 6 US Capitol insurrectionists (l), Black Lives Matter protestors (r). Photos: Manuel Balce Ceneta.
Read full storyWhy Bailing Out the Airline Industry Is Problematic
Socialism is always un-American until corporations need a lifeline. Just before Thanksgiving in 2017, The Wall Street Journal held its CEO Council conference, which included the country’s chief executive officers. It featured Gary Cohn, then the chief economic advisor for the Trump administration.
Read full storyMove Over Moderate Democrats, It's Time for Progressives
To move forward, Democrats need to embrace the Party's left-wing. I watched the results of the Nevada Caucus in astonishment as one media pundit after another descended into a complete meltdown as Bernie Sanders’ shellacked the entire Democratic field.
Read full storyDemocrats Need to Play Hardball
Bipartisanship is nice, but Democrats are in charge. They need to act like it. When I was in the 7th grade, my family moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The first person that befriended me was Jimmy, an older kid that lived across the street from my house. We hit it off immediately. Jimmy introduced me to the other kids in the neighborhood. He picked me to be on his team for sandlot baseball games. His charm won my parents over.
Read full storyThe Day the Pandemic Renewed My Faith in Humanity
Since the onset of the global pandemic, there have been many random acts of kindness — but I never expected one to come my way. There is no shortage of headlines describing how poorly the government has handled the COVID-19 pandemic. I recently wrote about how many of us could fall off a cliff waiting on the trillions in rescue dollars. But now and then, I run across a random act of kindness.
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