Tag: Race

The Historic Problem of Race in America

White people’s awareness of the evil of slavery has for decades taken the form of developing programs for helping blacks. Ironically, this approach was rejected more than a century ago by no less an authority than Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), who...

They Doth Protest Too Much

With apologies to the Bard of Avon,  I have been sick to death of players, no matter what sport they may play, protesting what they perceive to be social and political ills. Politicians of all stripes encourage them, but in reality what does a...

Ferguson And The Rule Of Law

Any hope for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign promise of a post-racial society abruptly ended on Monday night, November 24, 2014 when riots broke out across the country with the announcement that a grand jury decided not to indict a police officer for...

Justifying the Unjustifiable

In May of 2004, the NAACP held a gathering to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the court decision that struck down Plessy v. Ferguson and declared that the separate but equal doctrine was inherently unequal and...

Lessons From Ferguson

The tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014 illustrate clearly how belief shapes people’s judgments and reactions. The initial report contained little more than the fact that a white police officer had shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18...

Lighting The Fire

When Barack Obama ran for the presidency in 2008, Americans were led to believe that he was a different black politician who was not bogged down by the prejudices of the past and a man who could bring all people together.  During the campaign, Obama...

The Race Conversation

President Obama’s speech following the Zimmerman verdict has received considerable criticism. Many say he should have refrained from commenting on the matter—both in 2012 when he said “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin” and in his...