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In April of 1963, Dr.

When President Barack Obama shared a cold one with Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley last month, the world was astonished and amazed by the show of unity, discourse and advancement taking place.  But when former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and I will hit the road this fall, you better believe jaws are likely to fall right open.

As the battle lines for health care reform are being drawn – and redrawn – a silent segment of the population is strategically left out of the conversation.  A group of individuals who have been deemed enemies of society, and cast away behind iron bars to fend for themselves.  In California, health care in the state’s 33 prisons is so inadequate that one unnecessary death takes place per week, as inmates are often stacked in triple bunk beds in hallways and gymnasiums.  With nearly twice the number of prisoners than it was designed to hold, California prisons will have to be cut by about 40,000 in the next two years – and it’s about time.

We often teach our children that if you study, go to school, work hard and remain focused, you will be able to transcend the many racial and social boundaries that permeate in society.  That if you stay away from drugs, violence and criminal activity, the law will serve and protect you.  So what do we tell young people today when they see an Ivy League Professor, a writer and producer for PBS documentaries, a renowned author, an editor of several influential anthologies, a board member of esteemed institutions like the New York Public Library and much much more get arrested in his own home?  How do we even begin to explain the still evident and troubling notions of racism, injustice and institutional bias that exist in a country with an African American President? Professor Henry Louis Gates, Director of the W.E.B

It’s been just over six months since the first African American President assumed the reigns of leader of the free world, and thus became arguably the most powerful man on earth.  Following slavery, centuries of institutional racism, unequal access to education, jobs and the pursuit of prosperity, America voluntarily voted for a Black man to hold the highest office in the land.  And after running on a platform of unity and staying above the fray of racial divisiveness, President Obama finds himself at the center of bigotry, race-baiting and hatred – and this time the right wing fringe is attempting to portray him as the racist. A few weeks back, Fox News anchor Glenn Beck engaged in an all-too familiar rant where he began attacking the President of the United States.  Literally pulling out a wobbling Black doll holding an umbrella that he called ‘Obama’, Beck went on a tirade over how the President’s proposed health care reform would ‘remake America’ and that people should be very, very afraid.  With neurotic-type gestures, Beck espoused that Obama was taking the “beacon of freedom and turning it into an apologetic, hey, what can you do for me, wannabe European, spread the wealth, socialist wonderland”.  As if such vitriol and fear mongering wasn’t incomprehensible enough, the Fox loud mouth went one step further last week in a move that even astonished his bosses when he called Obama a flat out ‘racist’. Following the election in November, the nation was immersed in the progress of finally electing an African American into a house that was literally constructed on the backs of slaves.  Many, in an idealistic manner, hoped that society would now advance into a post-racial environment where skin color, ethnicity, creed and religion wouldn’t play such intense roles, and discrimination would subside.  Unfortunately, what we must remember is that despite having a Black President, inequities in education, housing and work still exist, and that the institutional structure of society hasn’t shifted all that much.  The CEOs of most corporations are still White, the hiring managers are mostly White, the heads of police departments are predominantly White and the executives in media (and that’s TV, print and radio) are more often then not White.  Yes, we have made some advances, but there is a tremendous way to go before anyone can even begin to speak of equality and a fair playing field

Gary Younge Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s arrest most certainly was a "teachable moment" in the racial conversation--but we've learned nothing. read more

New Muslim Cool comes at a time when daily we observe in our national culture old-guard gatekeepers (can you say Dick Cheney?) who work tirelessly to impose on the younger generation a shared American identity that is dated, simple, and in white and black. The magic of Jennifer Maytorena Taylor’s important new film, which recently aired on PBS, is found in its ability to provide a bird’s eye view of a freshly minted generation of Americans. Fighting against being defined by America’s bygone eras, New Muslim Cool points us toward a more complicated future.

Gary Younge New Labour is finished.

With the national euphoria of inauguration, the multi-billion dollar corporate bailouts, and even the historic economic stimulus all recent memories, one untold story of the early days of Barack Obama’s presidency remains-the advent of a concise, bold and fearless new racial politics. “Subverting race,” Jabari Asim, editor of the Crisis magazine, calls it in his important new book What Obama Means . And President Obama’s uncanny knack for it takes on even greater significance post election-not simply avoiding the predicable knee-jerk behavior of traditional politics that for too long has governed race business, but advancing a more enlightened, informed and balanced racial outlook that shifts the debate at the same time.

Walter Kimbrough, the 41 year-old president of Philander Smith College, speaks with Bakari Kitwana about the current state of Historically Black College and Universities. “HBCUs will be irrelevant without a revolution of leadership,” says Kimbrough, who shares success stories from his own experience as president for the last four years