president barack obama

Congresswoman Karen Bass  |   OW Guest Contributor
Feb 21 2013

Addressing poverty

For Americans living in poverty, this year’s State of the Union address was a watershed moment in recent history. President Barack Obama’s declaration that in the wealthiest nation on earth, no one working full-time should live in poverty was a message many Americans who aspire to enter into the middle class have been hoping to hear.

Julianne Malveaux  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Feb 21 2013

Counting the Cost

I was among the 33.5 million people who sat riveted to their televisions, parsing every second of the State of the Union address. I was stunned to learn, through a Washington Post article by Lisa De Moraes, that viewership was less substantial for this address than last year’s 38 million, and even lower than the 48 million that watched in 2010. Are people less interested in what our president has to say? Or is there something else going on?

In any case, from my perspective this was an important and significant State of the Union address.

Feb 14 2013

Sen. Mario Rubio signals little GOP acceptance of president’s proposals

 Both sides agree that a thriving middle class is key to American prosperity, and that tax reform is part of the solution to chronic federal deficits. They both call for finally addressing the issue of undocumented immigrants.

Otherwise, President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address of his second term and the Republican response by rising GOP star Sen. Marco Rubio showed how deeply entrenched each side remains in long-held positions. It all portends continued political dysfunction in Washington.

David L. Horne, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Feb 7 2013

Practical Politics

The modern reparations movement, which has been alive and lively in the USA since at least 1988, and even earlier in international circles, still breathes. It no longer invokes the fire and brimstone of the 1980s and ‘’90s, especially since Congressman John Conyers’ H.R. 40 bill, which has regularly been re-introduced in Congress as proposed legislation since 1989, is virtually dead now, and the Greenwood, Okla., court case—-sometimes called the Brown v. Board case of the reparations movement—was excoriated by the Supreme Court in 2007.

Feb 5 2013

Housing market collapse

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Reportedly seeking $1 billion in penalties, the Obama administration has selected Los Angeles as the venue for an ambitious legal effort to ascribe blame for the housing market collapse and the financial calamity that it triggered.

The Justice Department sued Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services in Los Angeles federal court late Monday, alleging the New York firm ignored its own standards when it rated mortgage bonds that subsequently imploded, costing investors billions.

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.”