Free Republic

The Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Amendment Bill eliminates all white people including the disabled. “The definition of black people is now clear and aligned with the Constitution,” Tlhoaele said.... Read more on South Africa Today

This week, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton met with 15 members of the N.J. Black Mayors’ Alliance for Social Justice to discuss issues important to their communities. After the event, the Mayors’ Alliance endorsed Clinton for president. The mayors discussed issues important to them, including the economy. As the nation comes back from the worst downturn since the recession, the elected officials said the poor and disadvantaged have not benefited. In many New Jersey cities, more than a third of minority adults are unemployed, even when the nation is doing well financially. Data from a 2015 U.S. Census study show...

I vividly recall the original iteration of the TV miniseries Roots. It was January 1977, and I was 17. Like most young people that age, my life was rapidly growing independent of my parents, who were increasingly consumed by the vagaries of their workplaces. Yet, when the series debuted, it was must-see TV in the Johnson household. We stopped what we were doing and watched it together and enthusiastically each night. We even cheered during the show, notable since we were often too darned middle class to cheer while watching football games on TV. The miniseries cleaned up during awards...

If you had a decent history teacher in high school, you were taught that European democracies are slightly different from those in the Americas, both north and south. Democracies in this Western Hemisphere tend to be ethnic stews governed, with varying degrees of faithfulness, by constitutions and compacts. European democracies are built around nationalities — tribes of same-language peoples. A President Donald Trump and his “great again” appeals would push us closer toward the European model than we already are, his critics contend. If they’re right, a heightened season of racial tension could be in our Southern future. Some of...

The Declaration of Independence came under attack from an unlikely quarter—a state legislator. Louisiana lawmaker Barbara Norton (D-Shreveport), argued that America’s founding document was racist during debate on a bill requiring public school students in the state to recite the Declaration of Independence daily, Fox & Friends reported Saturday. “For the Declaration of Independence only Caucasians (were) free,” Norton, who is black, said Wednesday during the debate on the floor of the Louisiana House of Representatives. “And for you to bring a bill to require that our children will recite the Declaration of Independence I think it’s a little bit...

Former Attorney General Eric Holder added his voice to the call for slavery reparations during a program at Jesuit-run Georgetown University. Such reparations can take a variety of forms and may not necessarily mean cash payments to descendants of slaves, Holder said in a response to a question from a student during an April 29 program on race and justice. Reparations, he said, "can mean a whole bunch of different things. You can come up with policies that take into account what slavery meant then, what it means now. Affirmative action can be thought of as reparations, you know? And...

Chicago — In St. Louis, the Organization for Black Struggle is building a black worker center to support low wage earners. In Chicago, activists led hunger strikes against the closing of a predominantly black high school and rallied for the creation of a Trauma Center on the South Side. Nationwide, BYP100 and the Movement for Black Lives are individually creating economic platforms that call for the revitalization of black communities, reparations, and the protection of the rights of women and transgender people....

The Nationwide Crime Wave Is Building As the homicide rate keeps rising in many cities, even some who dismissed the ‘Ferguson effect’ admit the phenomenon is real. By Heather Mac Donald May 23, 2016 Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has again drawn the wrath of the White House for calling attention to the rising violence in urban areas. Homicides increased 9% in the largest 63 cities in the first quarter of 2016; nonfatal shootings were up 21%, according to a Major Cities Chiefs Association survey. Those increases come on top of last year’s 17% rise in homicides in...

Last Sunday, Krystal Lake, a 22-year-old Home Depot employee on Staten Island, was photographed wearing a hat that says, “America Was Never Great.” It's in the same font and style of Trump's campaign slogan of "Make America Great Again." Of course, death threats and hate mail targeting her have come pouring in — which, if you think about it, lends itself to her feeling like she was right to wear the hat in the first place. About two months ago, I wrote a column about the word "again" in Trump's slogan. I think it's a racist dog whistle and it...

Selling the gun that killed Trayvon Martin adds to the travesty over his unpunished homicide Marketing the gun is more than bad taste — it’s a national shame The murder has been ‘commodified,’ turned into a trophy for display It was not enough just to kill Sam Hose. No, they had to make souvenirs out of him. Hose was an African-American man lynched by a mob of some 2,000 white women and men in 1899 near the town of Newnan, Ga. They did all the usual things. They stabbed him, castrated him, skinned his face, mutilated him, burned him alive....

The 16 black West Point cadets who caused a stir after posing for a photograph with raised fists won’t be disciplined over the image, the U.S. Military Academy said Tuesday. An internal investigation launched after the snapshot surfaced online has ended with authorities deciding not to discipline the cadets, but to offer them additional counseling ahead of their graduation on May 21, West Point’s superintendent, Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen Jr., said in a letter to the academy’s student body this week. “While the inquiry did not find that these cadets violated a policy or regulation, it did determine that they...

The Black Lies Matter movement has brought the challenges facing black America to the fore, and introduced racially conscious quality-of-life questions into the national debate. How are black residents in America's cities faring? And how are those cities doing in meeting the aspirations of their black residents, judged especially by the ultimate barometer: whether blacks choose to move to these cities, or stay in them? Though results vary to some extent, the broad trend is clear: West Coast progressive enclaves are either seeing an exodus of blacks or are failing to attract them. Midwestern and Northeastern urban areas are attracting...

Black Trump supporter Mason Weaver went on with Trish Regan on FOX Business Network to discuss the proposed $20 bill with Harriett Tubman and Barack Obama’s failed economic policies... Mason Weaver: ...I don’t have, live on a plantation. What Donald Trump will do for taxpayers will help white taxpayers and black taxplayers. He will help black workers and white workers. I want Trump because what he’s going to do for America...

Update (April 23, 6 p.m.): SHERWOOD, Ark. - Xavier Porter, 17; Travone Miller, 14; and Quincy Parker, 15 all face charges as adults in the death of 17-year-old Bryan Thompson. Sixth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley confirmed the identities of the teenagers Saturday (4/23). The trio all face charges of Capital Murder and Aggravated Robbery. Update (April 23, 10 a.m.): SHERWOOD, Ark. - Sherwood Police arrested three unnamed juveniles (ages 14, 14 and 17) on Friday in connection with the death of Bryan Thompson, who was found dead on Thursday. All three face charges of Capital Murder and Aggravated...

As her campaign chugs merrily along, Hillary Clinton and her people continue to walk the line between paying lip service to civil rights and standing by Clinton-era policies that were disastrous for the African-American community. Clinton has even gone so far as to admit that the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 had “unintended” negative effects in the same breath that she deflected the blame for it onto Bill. (I guess we’re supposed to forget that she stumped for it hard at the time and criticized Barack Obama for being too easy on crime as recently as...

In a triumph of common sense, historical awareness, and crazed enthusiasm for a Broadway rap musical, the Treasury Department has announced that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, which will void a previous decision to take Alexander "Hamilton" Hamilton off the $10. (Update, 4:45 p.m.: Treasury says there will still be some sort of image of Jackson on the back of the bill.) This is great news, and it brings up another important question: Which historical figure should our current president, Barack Hussein Obama, replace when we honor his legacy by putting him on an item...

Melissa Harris-Perry has joined Elle.com, where she will serve as editor-at-large. Elle.com editorial director Leah Chernikoff says Harris-Perry “will focus on the intersection of race, gender, politics, and yes, even fashion, telling the often-overlooked stories of women and girls of color.” Harris-Perry left MSNBC after an internal memo became public in February. In the memo, Harris-Perry accused NBC News chairman Andy Lack and MSNBC president Phil Griffin of taking away her weekend morning discussion program. “I will not be used as a tool for their purposes,” she wrote. “I am not a token, mammy, or little brown bobble head.” “Joining...

During an interview with "The Breakfast Club" Monday morning, Angela Yee asked the Democratic candidate what she always has in her purse. "Hot sauce," Clinton answered. "Yeah." "Now listen, I want you to know that people are going to see this and say, 'She's pandering to black people,'" Charlamagne Tha God told Clinton.

A 2016 Fusion Issues Poll surveyed 1,045 adults from ages 18 to 35. The survey revealed how young people feel about a number of social justice issues related to race, especially reparations. For example, 62 percent of young people say they are opposed to the government providing reparations to African-Americans for slavery, while 32 percent support the measure. However, the breakdown is much different along racial lines. For example, 62 percent of Blacks and 40 percent of Hispanics say they support reparations, while a paltry 21 percent of whites are in favor. Moreover, even when it comes to a mere...

Although he began the presidential election season as a source of entertainment and the fodder for political humor, Donald Trump has emerged as the front-runner in the Republican race for the White House. While much attention has been focused on which of the two Democratic presidential candidates is better for Black America, only now are some beginning to focus attention on the implications and consequences of a Trump victory. Actress Susan Sarandon drew criticism when she suggested that a Trump victory would bring about a revolution in the U.S. “Some people feel that Donald Trump will bring the revolution immediately...