Commentary

$250k a year: Rich or not rich?

Wednesday, 10 April 2013 11:12 Dedrick Muhammad, Sr. Director of NAACP Economic Department

How much should you earn to be considered middle class? To be considered rich? Pinning down clear numbers is more complicated than you might think. During his presidential campaign, Mitt Romney stirred controversy when he grouped households earning $250,000 with the middle class. Rich and poor are relative terms, and our judgment of these categories is often informed by feeling, not fact.

A year later, Trayvon Martin tragedy still stings

Tuesday, 09 April 2013 10:49 Benjamin Todd Jealous

One year later, the Trayvon Martin tragedy still stings - and some people are still throwing salt on the open wound. Last week George Zimmerman's brother, Robert Zimmerman, posted a tweet comparing Trayvon Martin to De'Marquis Elkins, 17-year-old Black teenager charged with fatally shooting a one-year-old baby.

Listen to the children

Thursday, 04 April 2013 12:27 Marian Wright Edelman

"My friends are dead. I saw the bad man. He was next to me
when we ran out."
"I played ball with him. Now he is dead."
"My friend got killed cause she didn't hide good enough."
"Do you think it is my fault?"

The new middle class family

Thursday, 04 April 2013 12:26 Dedrick Muhammad, Sr. Director of the NAACP Economic Department

It's easy to forget that multigenerational households were once the rule, not the exception. The 1950s nuclear family was only possible because a thriving middle class and social safety net fostered newfound economic mobility. But the middle class has shrunk considerably in the last few decades, besieged by years of stagnant wages, rising debts and a growing concentration of wealth at the very top. It's clear that nuclear families no longer make sense for everybody. In fact, thanks to its compelling economic advantages, multigenerational families may become the new norm in today's post-recession economy.

State of Equality and Justice in America: 'The Maternal Wall'

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:37 Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

In our national conversations about equality and justice in America, we have too often avoided the conversation about the realities of women and mothers in the workforce. This is particularly odd given that women comprise half of the entire paid labor force, three-quarters of moms are now in the labor force, and most families now need two breadwinners to make ends meet.

Simeon Booker deserves Medal of Freedom award

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:13 William Reed

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is bestowed by the president of the United States and is – along with the comparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of the U.S. Congress – the highest civilian awards in America. The awards recognize individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of U.S. world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Generational-Incarceration

Tuesday, 26 March 2013 11:02 L.C. DeVine

"One picture," Fred R. Bernard once aptly remarked, "Is worth a thousand words." But, we need only a few words to describe an unsettling truth vividly depicted in the drawing shown here. On first glance this picture evokes visual images of cruelty, dehumanization, exploitation, racism, injustice, corruption, disenfranchisement, arbitrary punishment, and a host of other instruments of oppression people use to harm or exploit others. What do you see? Let's look closer.