Shabazz: Dead at 28; Grandson of Malcolm X was Drawn to Trouble
By Maya Rhodan
NNPA Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NNPA)
For Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X, trouble seemed to come easy.
His troubles began in 1997, when at age 12 he plead guilty to setting fire to the apartment of his grandmother, Betty Shabazz, that resulted in her death in New York. As a result, young Malcolm spent four years in juvenile detention centers.
Class of 2013: Courage, Choice and Compassion
By Marc H. Morial
NNPA Columnist
“Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are … for all the land that you see I will give to you.” Genesis 13: 14-15
Black Empowerment ‘At Last’ – or Last?
By Julianne Malveaux
NNPA Columnist
When Beyonce Knowles sang the Etta James song “At Last” at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, the song could have had several meanings. At last we have an African American president? At last, the muscle of the Black vote has been flexed? At last, there is some hope for our country to come together with the mantra “Yes, We Can.”
Cleveland’s Charles Ramsey: Hood or Hero?
By George E. Curry
NNPA Columnist
When some of us saw the first video of Charles Ramsey, the colorful Black dishwasher in Cleveland who is being celebrated as a hero for rescuing three White women captives from horrid conditions in a Cleveland house, we had a flashback to Antoine Dodson, who became a flamboyant Internet sensation after saving his sister from a would-be rapist in their Huntsville, Ala. housing apartment, and Sweet Brown, who barely escaped a fire in her Oklahoma City complex.
Clarence Thomas’ Deep-Seated Jealousy
By Lee A. Daniels
NNPA Columnist
For someone who seems to revel in being silent during the Supreme Court’s traditionally lively oral arguments – when a public display of his professional competence would be appropriate – Clarence Thomas’s out-of-court comments are extraordinarily revealing. They show a man whose exalted position has brought him no inner peace, a man who continues to see himself as being victimized by this or that person or cabal.
Last week, it came to light that during an early-April interview with C-SPAN, Thomas tried to diminish President Obama’s achievements. Asked about Obama’s being the nation’s first Black president, Thomas said, “I always knew that it would have to be a Black president who was approved by the elites and the media because anybody that they didn’t agree with, they would take apart.”
Children Need to Fly, too, to end Sequestration
By Marian Wright Edelman
NNPA Columnist
Anyone despairing that Congress can’t get anything done should note last week’s swift vote to get furloughed air traffic controllers back to work. Congress can move very quickly and efficiently when it wants to and when its own comfort and that of constituents well-off enough to fly was affected.
Blacks Underrepresented in Immigration Debate
By Julianne Malveaux
NNPA Columnist
The Senate’s Gang of Eight have put together an 844-page monstrosity known as the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, legislation that President Obama says he “basically approves” of. The crafters of this essentially unreadable bill was put together by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Michael Bennett (D-Col.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.).
Learning to Teach Students How to Learn
By Julianne Malveaux
NNPA Columnist
African American students achieve at a different level than White students. Test scores are lower, as are high school and college completion rates, and the number of African Americans attending four-year institutions is falling. The rate of African American suspensions and expulsions from K-12 schools is higher than that of other groups. By almost any metric there are gaps between African American students and White or Asian students (Latinos achieve at about the same rate as African Americans).
The Economy’s Invisible People
By Lee A. Daniels
NNPA Columnist
Suppose one of the key committees in Congress scheduled a hearing on one of the country’s most debilitating economic problems – the long-term unemployment that’s ensnared millions – and none of the committee members showed up?
Message to Congress: Show Courage on Gun Safety
By Marc Morial
NNPA Columnist
“Sometimes I close my eyes and all I can remember is that awful day … But other times, I feel Ben’s presence filling me with courage for what I have to do …”Francine Wheeler, mother of 6-year-old Ben Wheeler, one of the 26 victims of the December 14 Sandy Hook tragedy.