Free Republic

It's undeniable much was taken from enslaved black Americans, but forcing those uninvolved in slavery to pay reparations risks worsening racial tensions.After being first proposed more than 30 years ago by Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, the 116th Congress of the United States voted last week to advance H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-American Act. Aided by the Democratic Party’s control of the executive and legislative branches of government, the current sentiment in the country regarding racial justice and equity may provide the bill’s proponents the opening they seek. To start, it’s worth noting reparations...

Ordinarily, it is not a good idea to base how you vote on just one issue. But if black lives really matter, as they should matter like all other lives, then it is hard to see any racial issue that matters as much as education. The government could double the amount of money it spends on food stamps or triple the amount it spends on housing subsidies, and it will mean very little if the next generation of young blacks goes out into the world as adults without a decent education. Many things that are supposed to help blacks actually...

Who would have thought that Donald Trump, of all people, would be addressing the fact that the black community suffers the most from a breakdown of law and order? But sanity on racial issues is sufficiently rare that it must be welcomed, from whatever source it comes.When establishment Republicans have addressed the problems of blacks at all, it has too often been in terms of what earmarked benefits can be offered in exchange for their votes. And there was very little that Republicans could offer to compete with the Democrats' whole universe of welfare state earmarks.Law and order, however, is...

Letter upsets city's Black History Month Black History Month in Baltimore is a busy, busy time. Every aspect of black life in this city is remembered and celebrated: Black schools. Black music. Black movies. Black churches. Black literature. Black clothing. Black politicians. Even black trains. Then Tracey Halvorsen had to go and spoil it all: She wrote an article about crime in Baltimore. How she and her mostly white neighbors live in fear. And no one seems to care. Or worse, lots of people think it is normal. “Baltimore City,You Are Breaking My Heart,” is going viral for an on-line...

Whatever the ultimate outcome of the case against George Zimmerman for his shooting of Trayvon Martin, what has happened already is enough to turn the stomach of anyone who believes in either truth or justice. An amazing proportion of the media has given us a painful demonstration of the thinking — and lack of thinking — that prevailed back in the days of the old Jim Crow South, where complexion counted more than facts in determining how people were treated. One of the first things presented in the media was a transcript of a conversation between George Zimmerman and...

Attorney General Eric Holder described the United States Wednesday as a nation of cowards on matters of race, saying most Americans avoid discussing awkward racial issues. In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives. “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,” said Holder, nation’s first black attorney general. Race issues...

Count Craig Crawford as a dissenting voice in the media storm decrying the racialization of the Dem primary race. The Congressional Quartely columnist and MSNBC political analyst offered his unconventional wisdom on a special Saturday edition of Morning Joe today. CRAIG CRAWFORD: I never understood exactly what Bill Clinton said that was supposed to interject race, actually. I know he was arguing at arm's length with Obama about the war and some other issues. It wasn't clear to me -- I mean the most direct reference to race I saw in this campaign was interjected by the media after New...

Many black Americans have been fed the nonsense that the war on terror and Islamic fundamentalists is not beneficial to blacks. As we can see, this black Muslim sniper showed his hatred for all Americans, including blacks, by targeting black schoolchildren and a prominent black economic activist. Maybe this will be a wake up call to the vast majority of black Americans that people like Farrakhan and other anti-American extremists like McKinney and Jackson don't have the interests of black America at heart.

Black students speak out at UCSB More than 100 rally to spotlight racial issues, such as need for larger black faculty 10/2/03 By LEAH ETLING NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER Raising their fists in a "black power" salute, more than 100 students at UCSB gathered to speak out Wednesday on issues ranging from what they consider a cultural bias by members of the student body to the need for more black faculty. Dressed in red T-shirts that read "Danger: Educated Black Student" on the front and "I am not a n***r, I am not a thug, I am not a slave," on...

The pressure on Tiger Woods is mounting, and it has nothing to do with golf: It’s the pressure to blacken up — to be a social activist, a racial spokesman. Throughout his young career, Woods has resisted this, standing on individualism, and universalism. But it would be hard for even the strongest person not to crack. Right from the start, Woods was a breath of fresh air, in every respect. When he appeared at the Masters as an amateur, Jim Nantz of CBS asked him whether he had a special obligation to be a role model for “minority kids.” The...