Bill Cosby’s take on the problems in Cleveland, other cities
September 10, 2007
Stan Donaldson, Cleveland Plain Dealer
Bill Cosby has been imparting laughs and life lessons for decades, most notably as the voice of Fat Albert and as loving husband and father Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show.” In recent years, the 70-year-old comedian has been making headlines for his controversial stances on parenting and poverty, particularly as they affect African Americans.
Plain Dealer reporter Stan Donaldson spoke with Cosby in July while reporting for the newspaper’s “Inequality of Life” series.
Winfrey draws rich, famous to Obama bash
September 9, 2007
John McCormick and Christi Parsons, Chicago Tribune
Helicopters carrying camera crews buzzed overhead, and tinted glass covered the windows of almost every vehicle entering as Oprah Winfrey welcomed 1,500 guests Saturday evening to her sprawling estate in what was the biggest fundraiser of Sen. Barack Obama’s political career.
Obama bumped elbows with comedians Chris Rock and Whoopi Goldberg. Singer Stevie Wonder, an Obama favorite, performed.
But it was the joint appearance by Obama and Winfrey, who never before has involved herself in politics in such a large way, that generated the greatest star power of the evening.
A Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Young Obama
September 9, 2007
Janny Scott, New York Times
The rise of Barack Obama includes one glaring episode of political miscalculation. Even friends told Mr. Obama it was a bad idea when he decided in 1999 to challenge an incumbent congressman and former Black Panther, Bobby L. Rush, whose stronghold on the South Side of Chicago was overwhelmingly black, Democratic and working class.
Mr. Obama was a 38-year-old state senator and University of Chicago lecturer, unknown in much of Mr. Rush’s Congressional district. He lived in its most rarefied neighborhood, Hyde Park. He was taking on a local legend, a former alderman and four-term incumbent who had given voters no obvious reason to displace him.
Building black wealth
September 5, 2007
Dennis Kimbro, Atlanta Journal Constitution
W.E.B. DuBois was asked by an inquisitive student for the quickest and surest way to prosperity. “What I am about to share,” Dr. DuBois replied, “you would do well to write on your heart and place in your purse. Many a ruined man dates his downfall from the moment he began buying what he did not need. If you are in debt, part of you belongs to your creditor. To whom you give your money, you give your power.”
More than a half-century later, DuBois’ words still resonate.
Destruction in black America is self-inflicted
September 5, 2007
Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe Columnist
Debating capital punishment at an Ivy League university a few years ago, I was confronted with the claim that since death sentences are more often meted out in cases where the victim is white, the death penalty must be racially biased. It’s a spurious argument, I replied. Whites commit fewer than half of all murders in the United States, yet more whites than blacks are sentenced to death and more whites than blacks are executed each year. If there is racial bias in the system, it clearly isn’t in favor of whites.
But if you choose to focus on the race of victims, I added, remember that nearly all black homicide is intraracial - more than nine out of 10 black murder victims in the United States are killed by black murderers. So applying the death penalty in more cases where the victim is black would mean sending more black men to death row.
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