Commentary

Saying no to stimulus money makes no sense

Thursday, 05 March 2009 17:27 Marc H. Morial, NNPA Columnist

When President Obama signed into law the $787 billion stimulus package designed to bring needed relief to struggling economies and families, citizens in almost every state breathed a sigh of relief.
But, due to the misguided stubbornness of a handful of Republican governors who are threatening to refuse stimulus funds for their states, some citizens are still waiting to exhale.

The growing problem of over-policing our schools

Thursday, 05 March 2009 17:23 Marian Wright Edelman

Imagine being four-years-old and put into handcuffs because you and your friend wouldn’t take a nap in your pre-K class. Or being five-years-old, handcuffed, and taken away from your school by ambulance to a hospital psychiatric ward after throwing a tantrum in the kindergarten room. These scenarios might sound far-fetched, but both are true stories that captured the local media’s attention after they happened to children at their New York City public schools.

How do we reverse the brain drain?

Tuesday, 03 March 2009 16:44 Philip Emeagwali, emeagwali.com

For 10 million African-born emigrants, the word "home" is synonymous with the United States, Britain or other country outside of Africa.

Ideas, not money, alleviate poverty

Tuesday, 03 March 2009 16:41 Philip Emeagwali, emeagwali.com

I once believed that capital was another word for money, the accumulated wealth of a country or its people. Surely, I thought, wealth is determined by the money or property in one’s possession. Then I saw a Deutsche Bank advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that proclaimed: “Ideas are capital. The rest is just money.”

A solution to the Roland Burris mess

Monday, 02 March 2009 18:00 George E Curry, NNPA Columnist

Roland Burris should borrow a page from Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, President Obama’s short-lived pick to become Commerce Secretary, and agree to resign his Senate seat immediately on the condition that he be replaced by another African-American.

Majesty and misery: The richness of lift every voice

Monday, 02 March 2009 17:56 Julianne Malveaux, NNPA Columnist

When I learned that Senator Dianne Feinstein would be charged with the inaugural arrangements I prayed. I prayed that our San Francisco sister would be as sensitive, as I was, to the moment and the meaning of the Negro National Anthem and to the possibility that the San Francisco Boys and Girls Choir might sing that song.

‘Racist’ cartoon: New York Post endangers president and community

Friday, 27 February 2009 15:28 Cyril ''Josh'' Barker, Special to the NNPA from the Amsterdam News

NEW YORK (NNPA) - A political cartoon published by the New York Post on Wednesday, Feb. 18, has many alleging the newspaper promotes blatant racism. The cartoon that ran in the newspaper’s “Page Six” section features two white police officers who have gunned down a chimpanzee in a pool of blood.