A year before his assassination, Dr. King said that he “was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such,” because he witnessed the evaporation of President Johnson’s priority on the war on poverty for the war in Vietnam. The 21st century has seen a repeat of history. A few years ago, the war on COVID resulted in a program aimed at meeting the needs of all Americans, particularly children from poor, underserved, and oppressed...

In March, the Trump administration issued an executive order that prohibited the “expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race.” The order targeted numerous museums of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia.The result of this targeting is the planned or executed removal of artifacts. In other words, the erasure of history.

Who is the Black leader? This is not a question Black people ask among themselves. Rather, it’s a national question that the white power structure wrestles to answer when seeking votes in elections or seeking to quell periods of resistance to racial injustice. It’s also a local question that the white power structure asks when attempting to steal Black-owned property for a financial venture, or to connive their way into taking governance of schools, law enforcement, or any municipal functions...

On the night before he died, April 3, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had traveled to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers, called the labor negotiations a matter of justice.“The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers,” he said. “Now the other thing we’ll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal … As Jesse Jackson has said...

June 10 marked the Democratic primary in New Jersey. One key race on primary day was the race for Camden City mayor. In a city with a majority Democratic population, the primary serves as the de facto election, as whoever wins in June is likely to win in November. The winner was the current incumbent, Victor Carstarphen, over challenger Theo Spencer.

As America prepares to celebrate Juneteenth this month, — this nation’s truest Independence Day — recent protests in Los Angeles against mass deportations have triggered the use of the National Guard to defend ICE agents as they pursue foreign-born residents. These aren’t members of MS-13 or drug cartel members. These law-abiding families simply wish to make a better life for themselves. The Trump administration’s actions are a reminder that law enforcement is an arm of the state, they have no d...

Beware of any politician, particularly a liberal politician, who articulates our social and economic problems as a product of class warfare, absent a proper analysis of race and how race is intertwined with class. In other words, beware of Sen. Bernie Sanders. He appeared on Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant podcast, where he discussed the necessity of prioritizing class-based issues over identity politics, code for race, which is to blame (in Sanders’ opinion) for the recent failures of the Democratic Party.

Is there a Black leader? Or such a thing as a Black leader? Target seems to think so, and they believe that it is Rev. Al Sharpton. They reached out to have a meeting to discuss their decision to end DEI initiatives. I suspect that, even more than that, they wanted to discuss the Black faith community’s current boycott of their stores. Since the start of that boycott, Target has been impacted. Foot traffic in Target stores has declined for 10 consecutive weeks, translating into declining sales. Target’s market value has plummeted by $12.4 billion. So, you call Al Sharpton? Al Sharpton didn’t even call for the boycott of Target initially. Rev. Jamal Bryant of New Birth Baptist Church called for the 40-day Target fast. But White folks don’t know who Jamal Bryant is. They know who Al Sharpton is.

The Trump Administration has declared war on Black history. By way of executive orders, the administration has taken aim at not only DEI initiatives, but Black history taught in classrooms across the country and at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. These executive orders, along with the threat of withholding federal funding, garner compliance from the education community, which is a disservice to Americans of all ethnic groups. Thankfully, our society has teachers of a different kind—those whose unique talent bring Black history to life on film, teachers like Ryan Coogler.

Last week, Donald Trump signed a new executive order: Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, which says: “Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” The order names the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s exhibit, “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture.” It represents that race is a social construct and that the United States used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.

It has become a frequent occurrence in the weeks since President Donald Trump’s inauguration — voters in majority Republican districts voicing their displeasure with the administration’s policy decisions at sometimes tense town hall meetings around the country.The gatherings — at which some lawmakers have been widely jeered and angry attendees removed — have become so charged that GOP officials have discouraged members of Congress from hosting them.While Democrats, too, have felt the wrath of th...

Cell phones are a hot topic in education circles. Should they or shouldn’t they be banned in school? I can say that last school year, my students were distracted by them. My colleagues and I noticed that not banning cell phones enabled students to get distracted during classroom lessons. This was not due to misinformation or cyberbullying happening on social media. Rather they were constantly receiving notifications: texts from friends and family and some received phone calls during the school...

Teachers are under attack. Not teachers who choose to be apolitical, but teachers who actively choose to teach the truth to children. The truth is that the U.S. has a history of sins that include genocide and enslavement, both of which have played a role in the country’s successes. The truth is that families in the U.S. are often defined by societal constructs designed to foster control, compliance, and complicity. In President Donald Trump’s America, educators are at great risk if they teach...

Lloyd Austin, the former defense secretary and a four-star general with 40 years of military experience, was nonetheless labeled a DEI hire of the Biden administration. Pete Hegseth, the current secretary of defense, lacks adequate expertise and experience, on top of the fact that he’s had allegations of sexual assault and is known as an excessive drinker. A former National Security Council member and a Senate member deemed Hegseth unqualified for the position. However, according to Donald Trump, Hegseth had a tremendous track record that qualified him for the position.

In Dr. Jarvis Givens’ book Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching, he details stories of Black teachers circumventing, what he called white surveillance. Black school teachers were often subordinate to white administrators who had a “curriculum” for Black children. Black or African history (told accurately) was not a part of the equation. However, Black teachers understood that Black children needed to know their history and see the truth within an anti-Black soc...

Dear Democrats, I read the other day an opinion piece where James Carville, a relic of a Democratic party of times past, suggested that you do the following: “With no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it’s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead.” His thought is to let Republicans fall under the weight of their scorched-earth tactics so that the American people will run back to you, seeing they have no other alternative. If that were true, Kamala Harris would have become president because Trump, Musk, and their congressional enablers’ scorched-earth approach was easier to forecast than a snowstorm in the middle of a snowstorm, but I digress.

For Black parents, there’s a cultural cost associated with placing their child or children in schools where their peers don’t look like them, their teachers don’t look like them, their administrators don’t look like them, and the parents that are involved with the school and district don’t look like them. These schools are often well funded. Certainly, there are benefits to exposure and where resources are non-issue. African-American students can benefit from exposure to different people, cul...

As a result of Donald Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders, corporate retailers are under increased pressure to dismantle their DEI policies. This was already happening before Trump’s election. Since his election, retailers including Target, Walmart, and Amazon have all abandoned DEI initiatives concerning their sales goals. DEI stands for Diversity (meaning, acknowledging the ways people differ i.e. race, gender, age, socioeconomic status, religion, etc.), Equity (meaning, correcting societal imbalances by creating more opportunities for those who’ve historically had less access), and Inclusion (meaning, actively welcoming, supporting, respecting and valuing all individuals and groups in organizations).

As we near the seventh anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida, I am reflecting on my role as a parent and educator and how I cannot ignore the possibility that a school shooting could happen where I work or where my children attend school. It is a tragedy that so many children, parents, and educators live with the daily fear of gun violence in American schools. While it’s easy to blame policymakers for our current state, we, th...

Federal agencies under the Trump administration have started banning Black History Month, and now it’s more essential than ever to take the opportunity to recognize the accomplishments and struggles of African Americans throughout history. As an educator, I find it particularly important to acknowledge and honor the father of Black history: Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, who founded Black History Month’s precursor, Negro History Week, at the behest of Black students. Now is also the time to examine...