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[EDITOR’S NOTE: The photo used for this article includes an image of Ku Klux Klan hoods made from Kente cloths. These were a part of a collection by Paul Rucker, a multimedia artist, showing the legacy of slavery. More about the collection here.] What a failure. Pelosi’s smug little pandering photo-op of taking a knee wound up on the wrong side of the racism issue. It was bad enough that the Democrats taking a dramatic orchestrated kneeling-in-support-of-George-Flynn opportunity to kneel had it blow up in their face a few different ways. Pelosi looked like the Medic Alert ‘I’ve fallen and...

What was meant as a gesture of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter claim to represent the interests of African-Americans turned into an ironic joke. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif), Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and twenty other Democrats wore scarves made of Kente cloth as they knelt for eight minutes and 46 seconds in the Capitol as a tribute to George Floyd. Kente scarves were traditionally worn by the wealthy leaders of the Ashanti tribes of what is now known as Ghana. The ugly truth is that these leaders were major players in the slave trade. Nevertheless, Pelosi...

Democrats love photo ops. That can be said about all politicians, but Democrats in particular are keen to get involved in symbolism and fanfare whenever possible. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a master of producing photogenic moments for the press to fawn over, but her latest attempt to virtue signal in response to George Floyd’s murder appears to include a major misstep that would be comical if it weren’t so sad. The Kente cloth stoles she and her fellow Democrats wore during their eight-minute kneeling ceremony (socially distanced, of course) have an ironic history as it pertains to...

A former national surrogate for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., ripped into white congressional Democrats on Monday after they wore African-patterned garb and knelt in a demonstration against racism and police brutality. "I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that they draped these white people in kente cloth to 'honor' him. This has to be hell," author Frederick Joseph tweeted, also arguing that black Americans are "being pandered to, and ultimately, disrespected." In a tweet thread, he argued that Democrats were failing in their attempts to be helpful amid ongoing strife surrounding George Floyd's death. He specifically took aim...

Congressional Democrats' attempts to look woke appeared to backfire on them Monday when a series of black Twitter users accused them of cultural appropriation. Author Obianuju Ekeocha posted a video telling Democrats to stop "virtue signalling" by wearing African cloth in the Capitol. "Excuse me, dear Democrats," she said. "In your tokenism, you didn't wait to find out that this thing that you're hanging around your neck is not just some African uniform -- it's actually the kente material. The kente belongs to the Ghanaian people, mainly the Ashanti tribe.

Black members of Congress made sure they would be heard last night, even if President Donald Trump was doing all the talking. Members of the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) wore brightly colored yellow, green, black and red kente cloth accents to President Trump’s first State of the Union address, as a sign of defiance against his “sh*thole* comments about African and Caribbean countries. “The whole idea was to show support for Africa, particularly after the President called Africa and Haiti s-holes,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) in an exclusive interview with theGrio. “We thought it would be important for us...