I have a question for white people. I will preface it with an excerpt from a recent email sent by a reader named James. He wrote: “It is the blacks who are by far the most racist of all people as they can’t seem to simply forget their damn color and move on with life, […]
Leonard Pitts Jr.
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
A walk down memory lane … with Stevie, Aretha, Gladys …
Boy, this takes me back. That’s what I kept thinking the other night as I paged through a new coffee table book, “Soul R&B Funk: Photographs 1972-1982” by my friend and former colleague, Bruce W. Talamon. Another friend had sent it for my birthday — thanks, Herschel — and I opened it up, intending to […]
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Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
GOP is running scared of young people
A word for young people, people of color and, in particular, young people of color: The Republicans are scared of you. Maybe you find that hard to believe. Maybe you wonder how the party can be scared of you — or of anybody — given that it controls all three branches of the federal government […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
New report shows planet’s health worse than thought
What if the end of the world came and nobody noticed? It’s not quite an idle question. You see, something remarkable happened just recently. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists working under the aegis of the United Nations, issued a report on our planet’s health. Turns out it’s worse than we […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Progressives need more than size
Here’s what gets me about progressives. They never seem to realize that they are the majority. Yet on issue after issue, the polling consistently shows that they are. Abortion? Sixty-four percent of Americans support Roe v. Wade. Guns? Sixty-seven percent want stricter laws. Taxes? Sixty-one percent say the rich need to pay more. Health care? […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Republican Party has lost its way
The other day, a woman confessed to me that she’s a Republican. Republicans may bristle at the verb, but it’s used advisedly. The lady admitted her party affiliation the way you would some personal failing. “I don’t tell a lot of people,” she said, “but …” In fairness, her reticence might have been in part […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The privilege that comes with being a male
Let’s get something straight: Men are not the victims here. It is a foolish and offensive line of reasoning, so naturally it has caught traction on the political right. Indeed, for some, it is an article of faith as the confirmation of would-be Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh becomes ever more deeply mired in accusations […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Sexual-assault survivors quietly dismissed
Gina Sosa is not impressed by attempted rape. “What boy hasn’t done this in high school?” she asks. “Please, I would like to know.” Since she asked so nicely, I went on Twitter, looking for men who managed to get out of school without committing attempted rape. Turned out to be pretty easy. I found […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Digital lynch mobs can be hazadous for vulnerable
“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.” Jesus preaches that in the book of Luke. But then, Jesus never had Twitter. Or, for that matter, Instagram or Facebook. He never had, in other words, one of the social media platforms on which millions of us routinely judge other people every day. It’s a habit […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Kavanaugh's behavior poses no moral puzzle
Ari Fleischer wants to know if we’re being fair. “How much in society should any of us be held liable today when we’ve lived a good life, an upstanding life by all accounts, and then something that maybe is an arguable issue, took place in high school? Should that deny us chances later in life?” […]