Free Republic

On the Sunday, December 20, syndicated Chris Matthews Show – during which the panel weighed in on who should be granted various dishonors for the year – Matthews seemed to lump conservatives like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh in with what Matthews saw as "white tribalism" as he also fretted over the "birthers" who promote the fringe conspiracy theory that President Obama was not born in America. Matthews had notably expressed frustration about "white tribalism" being stirred up in America at the end of last week’s show. Matthews seemed to compare Glenn Beck and Limbaugh to swine flu as he...

A few months ago, I wrote here that black people come in at the bottom of just about every index of academic achievement "Education: what blacks owe themselves," Aug. 26). It's sad but true that whether it is a measure of math skills, literacy, college entrance exam scores, level of educational achievement or academic readiness, black people can almost always be counted on to bring up the rear. My theory is that this is because we don't tend to have a lot of generations in our families who were well-educated because of a host of historical factors, starting with the...