Category: Practical Politics

In an apparent, though perhaps unintended, attempt to drive the U.S.A.’s reputation downwards, the Donald Trump administration is doing spectacularly well. A few weeks ago, this column identified the rapid decline of this country’s international reputation viz-a-viz the recent Pew International Survey. This week, another reliable international study, continued reporting on that trend.

As is very well known by now, the African Union, the preeminent continental African organization dedicated to African unification into a Union of African States, is very deeply involved in its drive to succeed.

In a new, quiet move that may indicate that all congressional Republicans have not become dope fiends to the Trump kool-aid, Rep. Barbara J. Lee’s long-introduced amendment to nullify the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) passed by Congress in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy, was passed by the House Appropriations Committee a few days ago. The move surprised many, many people, including the redoubtable Rep. Lee.

Barack Obama brought cool, intellectual flair and ‘steady-hand” integrity to the office of POTUS. Donald Trump, in his quixotic quest to undo much of Mr. Obama’s successful legacy, has brought a reputation as a relentless liar who is incompetent to be the POTUS. (The New York Times just published a collected list of every public lie President Trump told during his first 40 days in office—averaging three lies per day.) One wonders about the model he is presenting to the impressionable young people of this country as they seek to emulate the president.

The business of being Black in America, and in this world, has always been difficult. Too much of it has continued to be based, quite simply, on the fact that merely being born Black made one dangerous, an outsider, the “other,” or a problem.
To protect their own ‘bizness,’ whatever that was, White folks and others have spent an inordinate amount of time consistently passing anti-Black legislation, routinely directing police departments to cull and kill, and maintaining education systems that promoted the belief that White folks’ ‘bizness’ and Black folks’ ‘bizness,’ while they might sometimes intertwine, were, fundamentally different.

Try as we might, it is increasingly harder to look at the daily shenanigans of President Trump and his team of strange bedfellows as merely “White folks’ troubles.” After all, as the saying goes, when White folks sneeze, Black folks get pneumonia.
But really, how is all this craziness really affecting our lives? Does it help or hurt us in the job market? Is it negatively affecting us in high school graduation rates and university education? Is it really affecting the quality of Black lives one way or the other? The best answer to those questions is probably in the short run, no. The longer the craziness lasts, however, the more in danger Black folks will be. And that’s a fact.

Amid the teasing camaraderies about who has the best bar-be-que sauce, and other family discussions around May’s last holiday a few days ago, and the solemnity of celebrations for this country’s war dead, it would have been nice for once to hear ANY commentators mention the fact that Memorial Day (not to be confused with Veterans’ Day), is an invention of the African American population.

As part of the recent commemoration of the assassination of Dr. Martin L. King Jr., Dr. Ben Chavis, the long-time civil rights activist and current president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, penned an opinion piece focused on re-affirming the continuing struggle for fairness, justice and equal treatment for all. In that article, he stressed the need to hold accountable a number of groups which were allowing the surreptitious funding of hate groups, including anti-immigrant activists. Though his article was broader than the issue of supporting expanded immigration rights in the U.S., he was taken to task, respectfully, by Mr. Tom Broadwater, the head of the Americans4Work group.

Last month, as we commemorated the 1992 Rodney King riots (insurrection), it was easy to overlook the continued annual celebration of Jackie Robinson’s major league baseball career, and all the players in the league wearing number 42 on April 15th in his memory.