My wife has been on a “what does it mean to be feminist” kick lately, and so I would like to dedicate this post to her.
The New York Times website has been running a series of “conversations” about current news topics, usually between columnists Gail Collins and David Brooks. This week Stacy Schiff, author [...]

Eight years ago, Barack Obama was an Illinois state legislator. Eight years before he became president, George W. Bush was considered a spoiled, unlucky businessman trying to unseat a well-entrenched governor. Eight years before he became president, Bill Clinton was trying to regain the job of Arkansas governor that he had lost two [...]

I personally believe that there are far too many Americans that are obsessed with their jobs and careers to the detriment of their relationships with friends and family and to the detriment of their own spirituality and enjoyment of life. I also believe that words and definitions have profound power over our thoughts and [...]

Life is about to get really interesting in the Senate. Right now, the chairs of three of the most powerful committees in the Senate are either stepping down, or about to. Joe Biden (Foreign Relations) is becoming Vice President, Robert Byrd (Appropriations) is stepping down from his committee chair for health reasons, and [...]

One of the problems with overcoming bias is the problem of changing common knowledge. The best example I’ve seen is a classic Family Ties episode, in which the neighbors panic because a black family moves onto the block. As soon as the black family moves in, several families leave the neighborhood because of [...]

Another great article on race came out today, this one talking about racial discrimination in sports. The author, LZ Granderson, describes his infuriation at the stereotypes that continue to taint our perception of great athletes. In a nutshell: if you want to say that black guys can be great QBs, then you also [...]

I was flipping through the news channels yesterday, when I came across the following banner: Steinem: Racism Taken More Seriously Than Sexism. Unfortunately, the commentators had already moved on to rehash the already stale arguments about the role of “identity politics” in the Democratic Primary. As a result, I have no idea if [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot about Hillary Clinton lately. Some of this has stemmed from our recent debate about media coverage of the Clinton campaign. Some of it has come from Stanley Fish’s recent columns over on his New York Times blog. In any case, the upshot has been that I’ve been [...]

The House just passed a bill that would outlaw employment discrimination based on sexual identity. It’s a compromise bill in that it exempts groups with religious affiliations and does not protect against transsexual or transgender discrimination. Good for the House, and I hope it passes the Senate and becomes law.
In any case, the [...]

The last few days I’ve been reading Come On People, by Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint.  The book, and the extensive book tour that they’ve been doing to support it over the last week, is a call to action for black community leaders, teachers, and parents, among others.  I’m only about half-way through it, [...]