Free Republic

Illinois Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush blasted the Chicago police union over the weekend as “the sworn enemy of black people,” pushing back at the controversy surrounding prosecutor Kim Foxx and her office's handling of the Jussie Smollett case. During a press conference on Saturday, Rush, D-Ill., tore into Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police after members of the union participated in protests demanding Cook County State's Attorney Foxx resign from her post. “The FOP is the sworn enemy of black people, the sworn enemy of black people,” Rush said Saturday. “The FOP has always taken the position that black people can...

The absurd call of reparations for slavery is being revived by desperados who hope to get the Democrat nomination for president. If a Democrat doesn’t agree with the call for reparations, they know they will not get the nomination. Therefore, every candidate has to play along, flaunting their racial sensitivity in an attempt to get the black vote. No one can secure the Democrat nomination without the black vote, and thus this subject is resurrected every four years. This reparations scam is a cruel joke perpetrated on a community of people by suggesting free money might be coming. None of...

It's amazing how similar middle-class and well-positioned African Americans are to white elites in their perspectives on US politics. They continue to play in the sandbox of respectability politics and civility, as if only since the election of Donald Trump as president has racial and socioeconomic progress been in jeopardy. Take Washington Post columnist Colbert I King's reaction to US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement last month. The "honor - or from, my point of view, blame" for strengthening the right-wing hold on the Supreme Court

White members of the press were barred from entering the Bolton Street Baptist Church for a community event highlighting black mayoral candidates in Savannah, Georgia. The sign on the church door was anything but subtle: “No media (T.V. Radio, etc.) Black Press Only!” All white reporters were prevented from entering the premises, while black reporters from two television stations, as well as the publisher of the Savannah Tribune newspaper, were permitted. The Trigon consultant group was in charge of promoting the event, described as being “about supporting ONE candidate from the African American Community for Mayor 2019!” Both potential candidates...

Crime in Newark may be declining but the city’s youth remain disproportionately exposed to violence. It’s claimed the lives of far too many young black men. In a five year span, there were 122 young male homicide victims between the ages of 15 to 24, according to sobering findings from the Advocates for Children of New Jersey. The Newark Kids Count report, released Thursday, shows homicide is the leading cause of injury-related deaths for the city’s young men, accounting for about 75 percent of those fatalities

When is a genocide not a genocide? When it is a "rolling genocide." When it is an ongoing but never finished extermination of a people targeted for destruction. When it rolls on, generation after generation. When it is too profitable to bring to an end. In ancient times, most cultures offered sacrifices to appease or honor their gods. Throughout the Old Testament, the term "burnt offering" referred to the Jewish ritual burning of crops ("firstfruits") and the sacrifice of animals ("firstborn") as an offering to God. In older translations of Scripture, the word for burnt offering was "holocaust." Contrary to...

Robert “King David” Ross of Charleston wears his Egyptian headress while reading the 23andMe letter informing him of his familial link to Pharoah Ramsesses III Robert Ross retired as a management analyst with the U.S. General Accounting Office in Chicago, moved back to Charleston and currently works as a sexton at Morris Street Baptist Church. But most people probably recognize him for the distinctive black-and-gold Pharaoh headdress he often wears around town to express his passion for ancient Egypt. In other words, he’s been wearing it long before a 23andMe letter arrived in January analyzing his DNA — a letter...

Members access the space, located in Central Brooklyn, by having their fingers scanned and giving a passcode. Upon entering, they find a lounge, complete with couches, a barber chair and books on finance. The spiral staircase leads to an area with workstations. Inside on a recent day, a man who works as a consultant helped five others get businesses certified. Another launched a campaign to run for City Council, engaging members to assist in outreach. An author presented research in a forum. The Gentlemen’s Factory brought them all together. As one of the very few spaces in New York City...

Gun rights are human rights, and it doesn’t matter the melanin content of your skin. These rights belong to every one of us by virtue of us being human. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that people didn’t always think that way. I know good and well how true that is. I’m from the South, after all. Our history on the topic is inescapable down here. I’m OK with that, though, because it’s a status that never should have been. But today we know better. We know that rights either apply to everyone or they apply to no one....

It’s a warm summer evening and Devan Clapp is standing outside his two-story brick row house in northeast Baltimore’s Ramblewood neighborhood. The streets are quiet, with postage-stamp lawns; a transition area between the city and the suburbs of Baltimore County just a couple miles north. This neighborhood, like every other Baltimore neighborhood Clapp’s family has lived in the last hundred years, was predominantly white, before it wasn’t. He talks of how, in the 1980s, the skin color of his mother and father, godmother and brother, drove their white neighbors up and over to the “more-welcoming” side of the county line....

A Florida student is facing misdemeanor charges after a confrontation with a teacher that began with his refusal to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and escalated into what officials described as disruptive behavior.

With Virginia’s top three elected officials engulfed in scandal, fellow Democrats were rendered practically speechless, uncertain of how to thread their way through the racial and sexual allegations and the tangled political implications. […] Everyone in Richmond, it seemed, was waiting Thursday for Virginia’s Legislative Black Caucus to respond. The caucus has been calling for Northam’s resignation over the past week but was silent about the latest developments. “We’ve got a lot to digest,” the group’s chairman, Del. Lamont Bagby, said Wednesday. …

The day after the end of the NFL season, when teams fire allegedly underperforming head coaches, is known as Black Monday. This year that nickname was a tad too on the nose. Of the seven NFL head coaches fired, five are black.

Who, exactly, are the black supremacists who ignited the recent D.C. confrontation? Members of a black supremacist group known as The House of Israel set off the confrontation in Washington, D.C. last week that created a national media firestorm. Many in the media, however, were all too anxious to blame the clash on white Catholic high school students from Kentucky who were in the nation’s capital to participate peacefully in the annual March for Life. The media vultures pounced on an out-of-context video clip that appeared to show the students disrespecting a Native American elder very nearby who had approached...

Ilhan Omar, one of the country’s first Muslim congresswomen, is among the CBC’s new members. headshot On Thursday, the day of the official swearing-in of the 116th Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus swore in its own group of members, a total of 55 ― its largest number in history. Download This year’s CBC surpasses its previous record of 49 House and Senate members in the 115th Congress. “With the largest caucus in history... the CBC is poised to play a leading role in standing up to the Trump Administration and pressing forward on key issues like protecting voting rights and...

Concerned citizens submitted 12 petitions to change the name of the Dixie School District in Marin County. The district Board of Trustees now has 40 days to vote “yes” or “no” on the proposals. California state law requires a governing school board to consider any proposal for a name change put forth by fifteen voters in a school district. (California Education Code 35001.) On Wednesday night, the Board of Trustees will discuss the process of considering the petitions and will hear a presentation on the potential costs to change the district’s name on signs and other materials. The Superintendent estimates...

There’s an arrest recorded for him on my local PD’s website. The charge was “assault on a child under 12.”

When I was younger, I wanted to be like Khadijah James when I grew up. She had a really “black”-sounding name like mine, ran her own magazine business, was not too girlie, remained down for the people, achieved what she wanted, was loyal to her friends and had a fine man. She was also fictional. But that just made it better: The actress who played her on “Living Single,” Dana Owens, better known as Queen Latifah, was from New Jersey — just like me. Today I laugh at my early-90s notion of making it. Yet, at its core, it never...

... Four black coaches were fired Sunday or Monday, including the Jets’ Todd Bowles, who was let go shortly after his team’s final loss Sunday. The Jets had a 14-34 record in the last three seasons under Bowles. Marvin Lewis, who had been at the helm of the Cincinnati Bengals since 2003, was fired Monday. Though he had resurrected the moribund Bengals and took them to the playoffs multiple times, he never won a playoff game and this season was Cincinnati’s third consecutive one with a losing record. Also fired Monday was Denver Broncos Coach Vance Joseph, who had presided...

... In cities like Boston, New York and Chicago, high-quality retailers often avoid majority-black neighborhoods. In segregated cities like Detroit, some residents say that trying to find something as basic as a Gap can feel impossible. Without mainstream stores, many customers in urban black neighborhoods are left to shop at low-quality and exploitative outlets that fleece their patrons during the holidays. I saw this for myself when I walked into a holiday sale at Rent-A-Center in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Oversize flat-screen TVs lined the walls and overstuffed couches filled the floors. The large “No Credit Needed” sign on the window made...