- Trump Blasts President Obama in ‘Today’ Sho Interview | The Root – Nsenga Burton
- President Obama came out of the womb of a woman from Kansas who was an American citizen. It does not matter where in the world he was born because being born to her makes him a citizen. Duh.
Did we mention that [Trump] was running down "foreigners"? We guess his wives don't count.
…Shame on NBC for allowing their network to be used by a blowhard to promote his presidential musings.
- We Can’t Afford Not to Fix Our Justice System | The Root – Benjamin Todd Jealous and Lateefah Simon
- Our criminal-justice system today undoubtedly functions much like a racial caste system, as Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, so aptly points out. Being labeled a felon effectively strips away crucial rights from an individual, locking him or her into second-class status indefinitely, unable to vote, secure a good job or find safe and affordable housing.
The current system provides for little or no reintegration; it functions as a revolving door, through which those who have served time in jail or prison all too often quickly find themselves back in, unable to overcome the many obstacles they face when attempting to re-enter their communities.
It is time to recognize that our scorched-earth approach to public safety has sent us down the wrong path. …
In 2010 the NAACP commissioned new rolling advertisements in various California cities to draw attention to the disturbing trend of spending more on jails than on higher education.
- Your Take: How the Racial Wealth Gap Hurts Children of Color | The Root – Meizhu Lui
- …it is clear that public policies, which have played a role in creating the racial wealth gap, must play a role in ending it.
Household wealth…is important to children because it allows their parents to afford high-quality early education, save for their college tuition, help them with a down payment or leave them an inheritance. According to the latest data, black households with children hold only 4 percent of the wealth of white households. …
…More than half of white families had incomes that were more than 185 percent of poverty levels and owned multiple assets, such as savings accounts, homes and investment portfolios, but only 14 percent of African-American families were similarly situated.
…it was found that the gap increased as the children grew older.
…our nation's demographics are shifting under our feet. By 2042, when the children born in 2001 will be reaching middle age, the majority will no longer be white.
- Your Take: Race-Baiting Is Different From Racism | The Root – Jamies Rucker and Dani McClain
- Breitbart is the latest in a long line of political operatives who take advantage of Americans' racial fears and anxieties for political, economic or personal gain.
…By pointing out these clear examples of pandering to some of the worst and most antiquated instincts in the American psyche, are we calling Beck, Ailes, Kelly or Breitbart racists? No. In fact, we're happy to assume that they aren't — because it's not who they are that creates a problem; it's what they do.
…The real problem is that major media figures and institutions took the bait, thereby helping muddy the conversation to the point that a meaningful dialogue became impossible. For some reason, Huffington Post Executive Editor Roy Sekoff took seriously the line of questioning put to him by the Daily Caller, practically tripping over himself to assure the Daily Caller's readers that he knows Breitbart is a good person on the inside.
[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
The Of interest (Fri, Apr 8th, 7am) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.