Race & Ethnicity

Jobless rates have stabilized somewhat in the United States, and the Obama administration contends the year-old American Reinvestment and Recovery Act stimulus package deserves part of the credit. But recent analyses are revealing that the recovery isn't reaching some of the communities hardest hit by the great recession.

When an all-white sorority wins first place in an otherwise all-black step show, all hell breaks loose. Black people, young and old, are up in arms! Many feel that the black community has lost something -- "given it away" or "sold it" to mainstream America, while others see the infiltration as a wake-up call and a challenge. Most, however, recognize it as the beginning of the end to a black tradition once infused with history and culture.

While we in New Orleans bask in the glow of Super Bowl victory, Hurricane Katrina ghosts still haunt us. On February 24, yesterday, the story finally broke that Michael Lohman, a former New Orleans Police Department officer, had confessed to conspiring with other officers to cover-up the truth of what happened on the Danziger Bridge September 4, 2005 after the city flooded.

Earlier this month fellow BlogHer CE Kim Pearson wrote about the importance of Black History Month. She believes it provides the opportunity to retain and enhance the cultural significance of African-American history that everyone benefits from during the month-long celebration. While in theory I agree with her, the older I get, the more I wonder if it does any good. I don't think people are learning. Here is an example.

As I tried to show in my post last week on Why Black History Month Still Matters, much of our contemporary discourse has important historic roots. The black conservative intellectual tradition is one example that I think bears some examination. That tradition illuminates the complex ways in which African American thought is intertwined with and simultaneously distinct from other American intellectual traditions.