Despite electing a black president – Barack Obama – not only once, but twice, racism in America persists. With a slew of smartphone videos showing policemen reaching for their guns during confrontations with African-Americans, who end up dead, it is undeniable that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of equality remains unrealized. Has there been progress? Yes. There’s an African-American man in the Oval Office. There are laws in place. There is Jay Z, Cornel West, Toni Morrison and Oprah, just a few of countless prominent and celebrated black Americans who are thriving economically, who are influential and adored. There is also Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland. There is the chilling Dash-Cam video of Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times by a Chicago cop, a video that was only released by authorities long after the event. In response, the “Black Lives Matter” movement sprung to life, controversial and criticized just as Dr. King was so many years ago.
“VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussion and opinion on these policies.” — VOA Charter
The Other Obama Legacy
Obama is the first black president — and may well be the last, who knows — and that alone has a historical weight and impact on this generation that will play out for generations to come.
Dear White America
If you are white, and you are reading this letter, I ask that you don’t run to seek shelter from your own racism. Don’t hide from your responsibility…. Being neither a “good” white person nor a liberal white person will get you off the proverbial hook.
Tamir Rice Protests Must Be Peaceful
We are not Baltimore. We are not Ferguson. We are Cleveland, and so far, we have shown the world how to protest without injury or harm to property. When those other cities burned, the violence achieved nothing. Innocent people were hurt and the schism widened between the police and the communities they serve.
What Whites Don’t Know About Racism
When more than half of blacks and a third of Hispanics report that they have experienced unfair treatment in public places at some point just in the last month because of their race, for whites to deny the seriousness of racism in America is to say, in effect, that folks of color are hallucinating, irrational […]
Reality of Implicit Race bias Is Well-documented
…Training can help people overcome implicit prejudice and the heightened perception of threat it brings, but there is an important caveat: They have to be motivated and willing and have to leave their defensiveness at the door.
We Need Cops With People Skills
One of the most important weapons in a cop’s arsenal is his authority. But authority presupposes legitimacy and trust. How much of either can a police officer — or a police force or the institution of policing itself — command when they operate under such a blatantly different set of rules?
Three Things Obama Can Do for the Black Community
One thing is sure despite all the challenges from a gridlocked, partisan, and quasi-racist Congress: Obama got things done…. But black and progressive Americans also say that more can be done before Obama leaves office in January 2017.
Cops Die, Too
This has been a difficult year for violent incidents involving police. The news has focused mostly on cops using excessive or deadly force against unarmed men, mostly white cops shooting and killing unarmed black or Hispanic men…
50 Years After Watts Riots, Not Enough Has Changed
A half a century is a long time, and South L.A. has seen a host of new investments, but Watts itself still sticks out — and not just on the map. It needs more jobs, better schools and more support from the rest of Los Angeles.
At Sandra Bland’s Funeral, Celebration and Defiance
Funerals are often predictably somber — a cloistering and culminating of grief and pain. Not Sandra Bland’s funeral…. Bland was the 28-year-old Illinois woman arrested after a traffic stop in Texas who died in a county jail.
Black Churches Burning
In the week following the murderous rampage in which nine black parishioners were shot and killed at a church in Charleston, S.C., a series of mysterious fires at African-American churches across the South has revived the specter of racist violence against a core institution of the black community.
A Year After Freddie Gray’s Death, Two Baltimores
Have massive protests and an ongoing trial caused police in Baltimore to change? It depends on who you ask.