Browsing: Opinions

The Better Moral Creed

America represents four percent of the world’s population, yet we detain nearly 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated people. At least 95 percent of people in State prisons today eventually will return to their communities. The new consensus is that we are better served by helping those formerly incarcerated to have the best shot at a second chance, rather than warehousing them and sending them back into our communities without the necessary skills, tools, and sup-port to have a prosperous life.

Contrast to Trump

      In his article, Stacey Abrams Kisses the Ring, Andrew Stiles wrote, “Abrams continues to court the billionaires who have funded her political career.”  Stacey Abrams is a typical hand-picked Black politician.

     Black talent being shut out of the Golden Globes is not just a travesty but also a testament to the power of the work and the narratives being told that challenge the status quo. Why folks assume that awards shows invested in the same media industries that continue to perpetuate and recycle the vilest stereotypes of Black identity and behavior would somehow acknowledge the stories, performances and behind-the-scenes work that challenges dominant ways of thinking about Black people on and off-screen is befuddling. 

The Protest and the Proxy

     It is now 2020, and Black owned media in America is struggling to stay alive, and many in mainstream media believe Black media is not necessary. “Black ownership is dying,” said Armstrong Williams, whose Howard Stirk Holdings owns seven of the Black-owned commercial television stations. “Newspaper ownership, radio ownership – but it’s probably hit TV the hard-est.”

Sowing division, reaping lives

It is an irony of history and a tragedy for the world that before we can finish making resolutions for a new and promising future, let alone begin building one, pathologies and problems of the past continue to pursue us, impose themselves on the present and threaten our very existence. And so, now we are confronted with the real possibility of a war in West Asia (the Middle East) which will no doubt, not only engulf the region, but also extend around the world. To speak of the pathologies and problems of the past is to speak of not only Trump’s thuggish act of war of assassinating Gen. Qassim Suleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Army and perhaps the second highest ranking government member, but also of the continuing legacy and brutal practice of empire, imperialism, raw and unrepentant.

      The suicide of Bryce Gowdy shows us a number of things, none of which are good.