Its Constitution fixed the value of African Americans at three-fifths that of other humans. Its bloodiest war was over whether they should be enslaved. It has no institution — not one — that is free of racial discrimination. Yet, we are supposed to t

We don’t know what the Biden years will ultimately look like, but one thing is pretty obvious, at least to me: It won’t be a new New Deal, nor will this be the beginning of a new Progressive Era. First, a bit of history. The New Deal, particularly in

If Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s recent call for a new police foot-pursuit policy made you feel a twinge of what Yogi Berra is said to have called “deja vu all over again,” maybe you have good memory. We’ve been here before. Five years ago a groundb

The contrast between President Biden’s first address to Congress last Wednesday night and the Republican response delivered by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) reminded me of another occasion between one long-winded and another profound speaker. It was 1863 and

Thirty years ago, when I was still a music critic, I received a letter from a lady who informed me in no uncertain terms that I didn’t know what I was talking about. This was after I‘d written about the origins of gospel music, a subject on which I c

Joe Biden didn’t just campaign as a moderate. He signaled again and again that he would be an affable placeholder president who’d clean up the messes created by his opponent, mend some fences with allies and get the pandemic under control. “Look, I v

Some questions can best be answered with another question. Consider, for example, the question that popped up with prominence as President Joe Biden finished his first 100 days last week: Are we a racist country? Before I answer that question, I want

Basically, Derek Chauvin was convicted of enforcing the status quo. Because his behavior was caught on video — his knee on George Floyd’s neck, oh my God, choking him to death — and looked so disturbing to most of the public, official American “justi

The state of Virginia, which used to be reliably red and mostly conservative, is providing more evidence of an increasingly blue and liberal hue. Virginia is “considering” renovating its math courses. As the publication Virginia Mercury noted, “In w

Last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 51, a bill that would make Washington, D. C., the 51st state of the union. It would finally end the denial of voting representation to its more than 700,000 residents, the majority of whom are black

Joe Biden’s first 100 days as president will be in the books Friday, and one thing is clear: Boring is a superpower. But first, let’s start by noting that the whole “first 100 days” thing is a pseudo-event that’s only a big deal because politicians a

An open letter to the children. We owe you an apology. Meaning all of us in the generations above you. We had one job where you were concerned, and that was to keep you safe. “Save the children,” pleaded a man named Marvin Gaye a long time ago. But w

“Power to the People” was a chant used by anti-war and civil rights protesters in the ’60s. John Lennon wrote a song with that title in 1971. The idea flowed from the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution which begins, “We the people.” The concept behin

When “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah opened his nightly monologue with “Let’s talk about slavery” a couple of years ago, he immediately followed with alarm, “No, white people, come ba-a-a-ack.” Right. That’s the voice I hear whenever I consider wri

Sorry, but this is not an open-and -shut case. This is not Tamir Rice, Philando Castile or Walter Scott, unarmed and clearly executed on camera by police. No, the bodycam video of Tuesday’s killing of a 16-year-old black girl named Ma’Khia Bryant tel

America is pushing toward policing reform, with or without Republicans. Not swiftly, not without debate, and not without public protests. But it will happen. There is simply too much momentum for either political party to revert to the status quo bef

It’s easy to be optimistic if you keep your expectations low. That’s why, after Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer with a long history of use-of-force complaints, was convicted for the murder of George Floyd, I felt less of a sense

Nothing is more vital to serious thinking than the ability to make distinctions between superficially similar things. The gas pedal and the brake pedal look awfully similar, but if you can’t distinguish between them, good luck getting out of the driv

It’s been a rough 16 months. Battered by the perfect storm of a pandemic, economic slump, invasion of the U.S. Capitol, repeated cases of police violence, and multiple mass shootings, it’s been a long time since we Americans had any good news. But we

Look, I get it, OK? A lot of this, you plain do not understand. Much of it leaves you confused. Well, me too. I have no idea what it must be like to grow up feeling as if you were assigned the wrong body, a girl with boy genitalia or vice versa. I co

The guilty verdict against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on all counts was correct, based on the evidence, but the theatrics leading up to that trial and after the jurors had made their decision was outrageous. Demonstrations, riots

Let’s use up the planet and bless the future with its corpse. If politics involved speaking the truth, those words could well be the core slogan of mainstream politicians and their media cohorts, with the purpose of the election process (you know, de

I sat there trying to remember how to breathe. I suspect I had that in common with people — particularly African-American people — all over the country. Didn’t we all hold our breath as we awaited the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin? Then that

As a form of identity politics, the coronavirus pandemic works in unusual yet painfully familiar ways. For example, the widely reported divide between Blacks and whites in willingness to be vaccinated appears to pale next to differences between polit

The first question most people ask after mass shootings like the one last week at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis in which a 19-year-old male murdered eight people before taking his own life is “how did he get the gun?” He was known to authorities.

Marjorie Taylor Greene was readying her assault, like that legendary Anglo-Saxon warrior Canute the Great at Assandun. The QAnon-friendly first-term Georgia congresswoman, who was banned from any committee assignments shortly after she was sworn in,

“The anguish we are suffering cannot translate into violence.” So said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey last week in the wake of yet another police killing of yet another unarmed African-American man. The sentiment was altogether fitting and proper, espe

President Biden has decided to end the war in Afghanistan. He feels it’s time, and so do a lot of Americans. I feel it too. I’m just not sure feelings should win the day. In his televised address announcing the decision, Biden reiterated that America

Heartbreaking. That description is undeniable in the otherwise controversial shooting death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by Chicago police. The most obvious headline for the story of the video’s release Thursday was simple: Police video shows 13-year-o

President Biden’s announced intention to complete the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by September 11, exactly 20 years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, will complete a goal former President Trump