Race — Strong Points

“A man’s rights rests in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.” (Frederick Douglass)

After Charles Cotton, a Houston attorney and National Rifle Association board member, blamed the slain pastor of Charleston, South Carolina’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church for the massacre that occurred at the church on June 17, 2015, a tornado of outrage engulfed his comments before he had time to delete them.

A Plea to Blacks on the Issue of Self-Defense

“Some blacks would rather be shot by their enemies than shoot their enemies.”

Sometimes, the relationship between the old and the new is like a bad marriage. The old inside the marriage want to get out; the new outside the marriage want to get in. Yet, the new may not grasp that the marriage is bad for them too.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Establishment Negro

If you’re not moving forward and you’re not moving backward, you’re still moving backward. If this were not so, then a 2016 Forbes Now article on white privilege and black America would give African-Americans hope, if it had been written a hundred years ago.

New Year’s Racial Justice Resolutions for 2017

Resolutions are the contagion of society. Everybody makes them; nobody keeps them. Or so it seems. Yet, the struggle to keep resolutions plays chess with our feelings, bringing shame to our weaknesses and avalanches of frustrations to our efforts.

Thanksgiving in Black

Everything has an opposite: Every mountain has a valley; every knife spurns a fork; every night turns to day.

Thanksgiving Day has its opposite too—the National Day of Mourning, which honors native ancestors and the struggles of native peoples. The National Day of Mourning began in 1970 when Wamsutta (Frank B.) James, an Aquinnah Wampanoag elder, gave a speech near the Pilgrim’s first meeting house in Massachusetts.

Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Marion Barry and Now Colin Kaepernick?

Oftentimes, a brave person is a despised person and, therefore, must exercise his rights of free expression in the musty gymnasium of opposition alone. NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is such a person.

Columbus Day Terrorism and Indigenous People’s Day

On October 10, 2016, many Americans celebrated Columbus Day, a day bathed in controversy. The holiday is so controversial that Columbus Day has been replaced with Indigenous People’s Day by Albuquerque, New Mexico; Seattle, Washington; and the Portland, Oregon, Public School System.

South Dallas Blacks, Guns and Common Sense

In war, sometimes, to delay means to decease. But the opposite could also be true. If delay gives birth to death, haste may give rise to life. Perhaps that delicate balance sparked the rage of hundreds of black residents in South Dallas . . .

Estonia and Obama’s Neo-Nazi Strategy in the Ukraine

On February 24, 2015, during Estonia’s Independence Day parade, while African-American troops wearing NATO uniforms marched with Estonian soldiers ... neo-Nazis and other racists shouted ... “Go back to your grandparents in Nigeria!”

The Ugliness of Stacey Dash

To brainwash is a game to some, a sin to others. Where you stand on the matter might find its fervor mirrored in where you stand concerning Stacey Dash’s comments on Black History Month.