DeVos-ed From Reality: Why I Was Booted From the Pat Williams Show DeVos-ed From Reality: Why I Was Booted From the Pat Williams Show
I was all set to appear on the radio program of Orlando Magic Senior Vice President Pat Wiliams to discuss my new book, Bad Sports. Then I received the news that I was no long...
Aug 3, 2010 / Dave Zirin
What Are Teachers Worth? What Are Teachers Worth?
If we can't find a way to pay living wages for kindergarten teachers, who are we?
Aug 3, 2010 / Laura Flanders
Lost Billions in Iraq Lost Billions in Iraq
If public schools or Medicare providers were held to the same standards as military contractors, they'd never have to beg for cash.
Jul 29, 2010 / Laura Flanders
Funding War, Choosing Sides Funding War, Choosing Sides
The House approved $33 billion for a 30,000-troop escalation in Afghanistan this week and in doing so took money away from other places it was desperately needed.
Jul 28, 2010 / Laura Flanders
Americans with Disabilities Did the Impossible Americans with Disabilities Did the Impossible
"Civil rights laws do not self-enforce, " said Marca Bristo, "They only come to life when enlightened citizens…push the envelope."
Jul 27, 2010 / Laura Flanders
Race, Lies and Videotape: Lessons From the Shirley Sherrod Saga Race, Lies and Videotape: Lessons From the Shirley Sherrod Saga
In the wake of Andrew Breitbart's Shirley Sherrod hoax, all too many liberals are ready to proclaim that racism is over, caving to the Tea Party's politics of resentment.
Jul 26, 2010 / Richard Kim
Soap Opera Politics: It’s the Nineties All Over Again Soap Opera Politics: It’s the Nineties All Over Again
The right-wing noise machine that flourished during Bill Clinton's presidency is back with a vengeance under Barack Obama.
Jul 26, 2010 / Ari Berman
Finding Racial Inspiration in the Shirley Sherrod Story Finding Racial Inspiration in the Shirley Sherrod Story
The Sunday morning pundits have renewed my frustration with our national reaction to the vilification of Shirley Sherrod. It seems we are insisting on focusing exclusively on the p...
Jul 25, 2010 / Melissa Harris-Perry
Discharged Gay Veteran Confronts Reid at Blogger Summit Discharged Gay Veteran Confronts Reid at Blogger Summit
President Obama and Senator Harry Reid address bloggers at Netroots Nation, encountering frustration with progressive pledges delayed or denied.
Jul 25, 2010 / Ari Melber
National Confrontation on Race National Confrontation on Race
At the end of a long painful week, Shirley Sherrod's been offered a new job with the USDA's Office of Civil Rights and Community Outreach. She's still considering, though, and who can blame her? In an interview on Good Morning America Sherrod said Thursday that she wasn't ready to accept Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's job offer. She said she wanted to hear more from the Secretary and his boss. She wants to know that the President is "fully behind" her." "I would hope that he is..." she said. "I would love to talk to him." And that's where we're at. Yesterday in our studio, Harry Belafonte noted that we don't have a national conversation about race, we have a confrontation. People from different races still don't know one another. As he put it, in an interview with ColorLines: "The person from whom you're thinking of taking life, or land, have you heard their story, have you sung their song?" While the race- like the red-baiting by the Right- is the most obvious crime in the Sherrod story, the question of who believes whom and why, comes next. It may even be a bigger problem -- after all, it's only because of misplaced trust -- that the baiting works. Tom Vilsack, in his apology to Sherrod Wednesday, said he didn't think before calling for resignation. But that's not quite true. He did think. And he chose to believe the baiters first. That's the first problem. Why did they, not she, win his first gut-level confidence? Melissa Harris-Lacewell pointed out on MSNBC Wednesday night, had Vilsack known Sherrod's history better -- he'd have known that her father was shot in the back by a white farmer when she was 17; that she had history with the civil rights movement. That her husband worked with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and he'd have known of her involvement with a lawsuit, recently settled, representing black farmers, long dispossessed as part of the post-Reconstruction backlash against emancipated blacks. If he'd understood those things, if they'd resonated -- he'd have known they made her a perfect target. If he'd known that -- and felt it -- there's a chance that even at the gut-level, he'd have heard an echo of past, similar fabrications -- not a fact. Indeed, if the entire USDA heard and felt that history, they'd not have dragged their mostly-white feet so long in getting black farmers justice. Eric Holder was right. We're still a nation of cowards on the issue of race. But here's another opportunity to grapple with it. We don't need a debate over whether we're post-racial -- clearly that's settled. As is the matter of whether the Fox News Channel is a journalistic project. What we need now is what Sherrod's asking for from the president -- time to talk. We need true conversation, that starts with learning one another's histories. Not the whitewashed sort that Texas and Arizona textbooks want to teach, but our real histories - and why they matter. It's not just a question for the President. It's for all of us. Do we as a nation have Sherrod's back?
Jul 23, 2010 / Laura Flanders