| Jan 11, 2017 | Rights / DemocracyNot long ago, I saw a comment on an online article about the rise in protests for black civil rights. “We gave you a president,” wrote the commenter. “We gave you your damn Oscar. What more do you want?” Never mind the White House. What many...
| Dec 21, 2016 | Economy / BusinessA little over 80 years ago, NAACP founder W.E.B. Du Bois wrote “Black Reconstruction in America,” a groundbreaking essay that looked at the racial politics of the post-Civil War years. The major failure of those years, Du Bois insisted, was that poor...
| Nov 23, 2016 | Rights / DemocracyIn every state in the country, the right to self-defense is considered a mitigating factor in criminal prosecutions. If you use violence to defend yourself in an extreme situation, most Americans believe, the law should treat you gently. But not everyone gets to enjoy...
| | Rights / DemocracyBy now you’ve probably heard that Vice President-elect Mike Pence was booed by fellow theater-goers at a performance of the musical Hamilton, an unlikely hip-hop sensation that tells the story of Alexander Hamilton and other founding fathers. Then, at the end of...
| Nov 16, 2016 | Economy / BusinessImagine you’re standing in line for the American Dream. You work hard, sometimes in dangerous jobs. You lead a moral life. But the line is stalling, even moving backwards. Yet you see newcomers up front — some of them immigrants and people of color. Maybe...
