Commentary

ABOVE PHOTO:  U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, right, talks with civil rights leaders in his White House office in Washington, D.C., Jan. 18, 1964. The black leaders, from left, are, Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); James Farmer, national director of the Committee on Racial Equality;…

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By Wendell P. Simpson In a year in which the Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic, Selma garnered several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Song, it didn’t secure a single nomination in any of the acting categories nor did it get a Best Director nomination for Ava DuVernay, who was expected by many in…

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By Lynne Fox, Manager and Executive Vice President Philadelphia Joint Board, Workers United Last July, when 30 long-term African-American food service workers at Cheyney University found out that their employer had lost the contract with the University to another company, they had every reason to believe that their jobs would remain secure. After all, Cheyney…

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By Andres Tapia New America Media FERGUSON, Mo. – The protesting crowds have thinned. The 24-7 news army has packed up its equipment and moved on to the next hot spot. But Ferguson is still simmering. It’s breathtaking enough walking through the business district along Florissant Ave. to see one storefront after another still boarded…

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ABOVE PHOTO:  Stuart Scott  (s_bukley / Shutterstock.com) You changed the game forever By Denise Clay There were times when a trip to the ESPN website’s comment section made me want to (a) take a shower and (b) call the Southern Poverty Law Center to file a hate crime complaint whenever legendary anchor Stuart Scott was…

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By Angela Bronner Helm New Pittsburgh Courier Apparently racial discrimination is like dust — it’s everywhere and it’s difficult to get rid of. A recently written article in the New York Times, “Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions” shows just how pernicious and widespread anti-black sentiment is, and how difficult it will be…

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 By Ezrah Aharone As a result of the North Korean-related hacking of Sony’s computer system, certain “racist” emails of Sony executive Amy Pascal were made public. This may appear as an isolated incident of racism amongst individuals. But it offers opportunity to uniquely examine certain aspects of the “sociology of racism” that not only fester…

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ABOVE PHOTO: Tom Wolf By G. Terry Madonna & Michael L.Young It’s not often that someone’s greatest wish and worst nightmare occur at the same time, but for Governor-elect Tom Wolf both are fated to occur the same day, hour and minute. January 20th, 2015 will witness the swearing in of the state’s new governor….

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ABOVE PHOTO: Ezell Ford (insert) By Earl Ofari Hutchinson The slaying of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Ezell Ford have one other thing in common other than they were unarmed black males slain by police officers and their killings ignited a national furor. Their autopsies have been the subject of intense scrutiny, debate, controversy…

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ABOVE PHOTO: Bill Cosby (Randy Miramontez / Shutterstock.com) By Karen E. Quinones Miller This whole Bill Cosby situation has me remembering when witnessed a one-car accident in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia back in 1993.  I was the first one on the scene and helped a well-dressed African American woman out of the car–she…

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