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The Obama Paradox

I’ve gotten some grief lately over critical comments I’ve made about President Obama. Folks reference a piece I wrote a while back about why I was a supporter of Obama’s candidacy in the last election, calling on other racial justice advocates who were critical of his first term to join me. Why, folks now ask, would I so strongly support the candidacy of our nation’s first Black president, only to be so critical of his reign?

Here’s my answer. In politics, silence is often as good as consent.

We ought not stand mute in the face of human rights violations … Read more “The Obama Paradox”

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Who Is More Racist, Republicans or Democrats?

Lately, the debate over who is more racist, the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, has heated up, with accusations flying from both sides. The discussion really got going when Chris Hayes, host of MSNBC’s Up with Chris Hayes, said of Republicans, “It is undeniably the case that racist Americans are almost entirely in one political coalition and not the other.”

That got the twitter-verse screaming foul. Hayes himself quickly took back his statement citing economist Alex Tabarrok’s research revealing that where racism is concerned, the parties are pretty much in a tie.  Hayes also cited John Sides‘ … Read more “Who Is More Racist, Republicans or Democrats?”

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On Obama, Drones, Deportation, Austerity, and the Vote

My last post, about why I voted for Obama-Biden in ’08 and will again, inspired some pretty strong criticism. Since most of the commentary has been off-line, and many points of criticism that deserve air time were raised, I’m taking another stab at this to get more of you in the discussion.

First, I have to admit that it was unfair to equate resistance to voting for the Obama ticket with simple disappointment based in unrealistic expectations.

I know there’s more to the protest against Obama from the left than that – much more. A strategy of countering terror with … Read more “On Obama, Drones, Deportation, Austerity, and the Vote”