Guest editorial by Rev. Irene Monroe 2013 is making it difficult to avoid one of America??s greatest sins??slavery. We??ve just marked the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and a plethora of films, documentaries and TV specials are scheduled to address slavery. One blockbuster hit that’s playing in cinemas now, and is likely to walk read full article


Editor: Valerie Linson   The Cleveland Uppercut, Lil Reese and camera phone savagery Akiba Solomon, Colorlines.com, October 29, 2012 In my neck of the online woods, two violent camera phone videos have been making the rounds and sparking disturbing reactions about if and when it??s OK for a man to strike a black woman. The read full article


Editor: Valerie Linson Associate Professor Jeffrey Taliaferro joined WGBH News Morning Edition host Bob Seay for a conversation on the major takeaways from the presidential debate on foreign policy.  Professor Taliaferro is in the Department of Political Science at Tufts University (Medford, MA). Professor Taliaferro was a guest on Basic Black last year in a read full article


Editor: Valerie Linson Peniel Joseph, professor of history at Tufts University and current fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, spoke with WGBH News radio anchor Bob Seay the morning after the second presidential debate: Professor Joseph is a regular panelist on Basic Black, Friday’s at 7:30 on Channel 2 (PBS) in read full article


Guest editorial by Kevin C. Peterson Honorable City Council President Stephen Murphy: In the Boston City Council redistricting process currently underway, the city stands at a crossroads of electoral crisis, marked with ugly reminders of race-based gerrymandering and the suppression of black voting rights. While it has pleased many in the voting rights community that read full article


Editor: Valerie Linson Barack X: Race and the Obama Presidency Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker, October 8, 2012 There are no A-list rappers crafting themes in Obama??s honor, no catchy call-and-response phrases on par with ??fired up and ready to go.?? Yet here on Lenox Avenue is an Obama testimony in clashing motifs that underscores read full article


Editor: Valerie Linson The Real Economics of Big Bird Matthew Yglesias, Slate (Moneybox), October 4, 2012 Mitt Romney’s decision to use Sesame Street’s Big Bird character as a synecdoche for cutting funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which, in turn, served as the only example of a program whose spending he’d cut to balance read full article


Editor: Valerie Linson What Mitt Romney Can Learn From A Black Republican Like Me Crystal Wright, The Root DC Live, The Washington Post, October 3, 2012 Ever since I started my blog Conservative Black Chick, I??ve received hundreds of emails, tweets and Facebook message from people wondering (often incredulously) why I??m a Republican. Talking with read full article


Headlines and ruminations from around the internet… Editor: Valerie Linson   The 10 Most Memorable Moments in Presidential Debates Sean Sullivan, The Washington Post (The Fix by Chris Cilliza), October 2, 2012 Who doesn??t like a good debate? (Here at The Fix, we certainly do.) Debates hold the potential to etch lasting impressions in voters?? read full article


Picking up headlines from around the web… Editor: Valerie Linson   Obama, Romney face similar debate test: Staying cool under fire By Amie Parnes and Justin Sink, TheHill.com – 10/02/12 President Obama and Mitt Romney face a similar test heading into Wednesday night??s presidential debate: staying cool while under your opponent??s fire. At their first read full article