Earl Ofari Hutchinson
OW Contributing Columnist

 Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is, How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge (Middle Passage Press).

 

May 15 2009

Seabrooks expressed condolences to Byoune’s family and promised a full and vigorous investigation into the killing of Byoune by Inglewood police officers

Inglewood Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks did the right and smart thing. She headed off an almost certain demand from outraged family members and community activists for a federal investigation into the killing of 19-year-old Michael Byoune.

May 7 2009

The South’s dream of gutting the Voting Rights Act may come true

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts tipped his hand that he doesn’t like much of the Voting Rights Act long before he pointedly asked a lawyer for the Justice Department who was defending the 1965 Voting Rights Act “Are Southerners more likely to discriminate than Northerners?” The part he wants to dump is the Section 5 provision that requires that certain states, nearly all in the South, get prior authorization from the Justice Department or federal courts before making changes in redistricting, district annexation, registration requirements, holding at large electio

May 1 2009

Pomier and family members vehemently protest his innocence

On September 4, 21 year old Joshua Pomier will have served nearly four years in a detention center near San Bernardino, California. Pomier is charged with multiple counts of car theft and robbery. There are two deeply troubling problems with the amount of time he has spent behind bars. One, he has not been convicted of any of the crimes he’s charged with. He had barely turned 18 years old when he and another juvenile were arrested for the crimes in September 2004.

Apr 24 2009

Special Order 40

A beleaguered LAPD Chief William Bratton after weeks of being pounded and badgered by assorted right-wing talk radio show yakkers, and anti-immigrant rights groups, immigrant rights groups, and the L.A. City Council says that he’ll soon tell what LAPD officers can and can’t do in regards to the much attacked, much defended and much misunderstood Special Order 40. The controversy and the muddle has spawned much mythmaking about what the Order actually says and what it allows officers to do.

Apr 23 2009

Failed drug war now targets Whites

The headline was surreal. In fact, it was something that could have come straight out of Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The headline screamed that the Sentencing Project, a Washington D.C. based criminal justice reform group, found in its annual report on imprisonment that more Whites are going to jail for drugs, and that Blacks are being jailed at a slower rate for drug offenses than in the past quarter century.

Apr 17 2009

Jamiel Shaw Sr. seen in news shots continues to torment many in Los Angeles

The pain and suffering etched on the face of Jamiel Shaw Sr. seen in news shots continues to torment many in Los Angeles. That includes LAPD chief William Bratton, and now the Los Angeles city council. Shaw’s son, 17 year old star football star Jamiel Shaw, II, was gunned down within shouting distance of his house. The suspect 19-year-old Pedro Espinoza is a suspected gang member and an illegal immigrant.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California
San Diego college students and volunteers will carry out their sixth home restoration project on Wednesday, July 10 through Sunday, July 14. as part of the “Healing our Heroes’ Homes” (H3) program created by the nonprofit Embrace. The five-day effort will take place at the home of medically retired Marine Corps Capt. Sarah Bettencourt. Bettencourt served with many different units across the country during the Global War on Terrorism and developed a rare neurological disorder in 2008. With a focus to restore the homes of disabled veteran homeowners, H3 falls in line with Embrace’s mission to mobilize college-student volunteers and community members to serve less fortunate members of civilian and veteran communities. The project for the Bettencourts’ home includes kitchen and bathroom remodeling, building ADA-compliant disability ramps, widening their driveway to ADA standards, widening doorways and landscaping.
 
District of Columbia
The 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will showcase its five-year community research project on African American identity with the program “The Will to Adorn: African American Diversity, Style, and Identity.” This multicity collaboration examines the history and culture of the aesthetics of African Americans. The festival will be held June 26-30 and July 3-7, outdoors on the National Mall between Seventh and 14th streets. “Whether we realize it or not, we are all dress artists. The way we compose our look is a creative expression of our ideas about who we are and who we aspire to be,” said Diana N’Diaye, program curator. “This program explores the diversity of African American traditions of style, but also teaches young people the importance of documenting their own culture and saving that information for themselves and future generations.”