The thoughts of a regular human being.
NEARLY TWO WEEKS AGO, MOST OF LIBERAL AMERICA began a period of mourning after the United States Supreme Court handed down its most striking ruling to date. Having traditionally paid far more attention historically to decisions affecting social issues than matters of business, many of our ideology were blindsided by Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, a decision …
Continue reading "Hobby Lobby Is Not The Dawn of Corporate Theocracy"
WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA STOOD on that stage with young brothers from his hometown of Chicago to announce the My Brother's Keeper initiative, it filled me with an awe I had never known before. Perhaps it was the imagery of seeing a new generation of promising Black men, full of talent and skills to be brought …
I had to laugh weeks ago when discussing Ta-Nehisi Coates' piece, "The Case For Reparations" with friends on Twitter. Having known what to expect from Coates for a while now, it did not shock me that people were waiting with the proverbial bated breath as they watched the trailer--yes, in the manner of a summer …
"I want my country back." When screamed into the public discourse at a town hall five years ago, these words became the call-to-arms for the purest, most virulent fringes of conservatism to unite. For centuries, the United States, for all its initial tropes about freedom and liberty from the British crown, had held to a …
Continue reading "Racism, the Erosion of Trust, and the Lost Art of Objective Analysis"
He was the man who some say singlehandedly brought down the military's policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, placing his entire person in full view of the public. Wearing the Army's dress blues and the stare of a disciplined infantryman on the cover of The Atlantic, Lt. Dan Choi became the face of a revolution that would …
When the name Ta-Nehisi Coates comes up, many people treat him and his work as the immutable gospel of the Black struggle; the spirit of James Baldwin made flesh, so to speak. His words are treated as the final say as to what the true face of racism is, and all those who dare disagree …
Continue reading "Foolish False Equivalence and the Black Progressive “Brand”"
As the tweets and statements parsing President Obama's speech announcing the new initiative My Brother's Keeper started to roll in late yesterday afternoon, I began to remember the antics of one man: Tavis Smiley. Already a household name with a powerful platform on PBS and in Black circles, Smiley was one of those people who …
Continue reading "Do Black Thought Leaders Really Want Change?"
Before Barack Obama ascended to the Executive Branch of our government, my favorite Black historical figure was not the one most would expect, say Frederick Douglass or George Washington Carver. It wasn't even Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, or even Jackie Robinson. And no, it wasn't even Martin Luther King, the one who everyone these …
I've spoken in limited slang since I was little, only beginning to pick some up after being teased by my cousins for "talking white." I never went to any type of public or private school throughout my teenage years. I have yet to read anything from James Baldwin, yet all over social media I see people …
Yes, I do mourn for Jordan Davis. I mourn for the fact that yesterday would have been his 19th birthday. I mourn that Jordan Davis will never again walk this plane of existence, or be anything more than another dead body in a steadily rising count of victims in the wasteland that Florida has become …
Isaiah L. Carter 