Black Politics on the Web

How Ruthless Banks Gutted the Black Middle Class and Got Away With It

The Admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:06:12 +0000

AlterNet - The American middle class has been hammered over the last several decades. The black middle class has suffered to an even greater degree. But the single most crippling blow has been the real estate and foreclosure crisis. It has stripped black families of more wealth than any single event in U.S. history. Due entirely [...]

Racially charged dispute stirs Ga. Congress race

The Admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:02:55 +0000

A racially charged dispute between a farmer and the staff of Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop has become an issue in his race against a Republican challenger. One of Bishop’s aides said the farmer uttered a racial slur toward the black congressman in March, and the aide later left an angry voicemail for the farmer. The farmer [...]

Educators: System Sets Up Black Boys to Fail

The Admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:52:43 +0000

New America Media - A coalition of African-Americans educators say the nation’s public school system is giving up on black male students and setting them up to fail. This alarming quandary is being described as a national education crisis – and that’s not overstating the problem. According to “Yes We Can: The 2010 Schott 50 State Report on [...]

Death row inmate Abu-Jamal describes ‘invisible’ US prisoners

The Admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:50:04 +0000

Mumia Abu-Jamal, one of the most well-known inmates on US death row, has described America’s vast population of “invisible” prisoners in an interview with Reporters without Borders published Friday. The 55-year-old African American was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of a white policeman, a crime he has always denied committing, and has become a [...]

Civil Rights 2010: The Struggle for Quality Education

The Admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:47:35 +0000

L.A. Watts Times - The Civil Rights Movement is alive and well in 2010. There is no such thing as the “post-Civil Rights era,” unless you are one of those rare individuals who assume that African-Americans and others have already “overcome” racial discrimination and economic exploitation. There is no such thing as a “post-racial” America, unless [...]

Obama says he’s committed to helping middle class

The Admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:34:17 +0000

A healthy economy needs bustling Main Streets and a thriving middle class even more than a healthy stock market, President Barack Obama said as he reaffirmed his commitment to work hard for America’s hardworking men and women. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama on Saturday outlined what he’s done to help the middle class, [...]

Baptist leader urges churches to take on more community outreach

The Admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:27:33 +0000

Kansas City Star - When the president of the National Baptist Convention USA oversees the 130th annual meeting in Kansas City next week, he can list challenges and successes. The country’s largest African-American denomination is expected to attract about 30,000 delegates and visitors to the downtown Convention Center Monday through Friday. The Rev. Julius R. Scruggs said the [...]

Sean Bell’s Fiancee to Run for City Council

The Admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:25:43 +0000

NBC New York - Nicole Paultre Bell, the fiancée of Sean Bell–the unarmed man who was killed by NYPD the day before his wedding — is considering running for a vacant City Council seat representing Queens, according to published reports. Paultre Bell, who lives in the Rockaways, controls Sean Bell’s estate. Both Politico and The New [...]

Election 2010 surprise: rise of black Republicans

The Admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:22:15 +0000

Christian Science Monitor - In June, a Charleston businessman named Tim Scott won the Republican nomination for South Carolina’s First Congressional District, defeating Paul Thurmond, the son of state political legend Strom Thurmond, with nearly 70 percent of the primary vote. And Tim Scott is black. Even more surprising, Mr. Scott’s platform is a repudiation of Barack Obama’s [...]

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson says mistakes used to distort her image

The Admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:01:21 +0000

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, the Texas Democrat who broke scholarship eligibility rules set by a black lawmakers group by awarding about $31,000 to her relatives and an aide’s children, said Wednesday she didn’t shortchange others to benefit her own family. Since 2005, Johnson, who represents a Dallas-area district, awarded about a third of scholarships she had [...]