On May 14, 2022, an 18-year-old white man killed 10 Black people and wounded three others at a TOPS supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y. He drove more than 200 miles from his home in southern New York…
A brief history of the Hateful Faithful threat to democracy through the Supreme Court
In the November 1980 U.S. presidential election, Ronald Reagan defeated President Jimmy Carter thanks to votes from white conservatives who called themselves evangelical Christians. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Phyliss Schlafly, James Robison and a host of other white…
The bigotry on display in the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is nothing new
In recent days we have witnessed unprecedented evidence of bigotry and violence. Bear with me while I mention some of the more obvious examples. Start with the abuse and disrespect Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson experienced last week from Republican members…
Global ‘thoughts and prayers’ will not stop a sociopathic bully
What should your neighbors do if a bully breaks into your home in broad daylight, begins killing members of your family, and publicly announces that the killing will continue until you surrender or abandon your home? Should the neighbors send…
Reject ‘rule of law’ hypocrisy and demand reparatory justice
On Jan. 8, 2022, the Mail & Guardian (whose masthead asserts that it is “Africa’s Best Read” newspaper) published an opinion column by Lindiwe Sisulu titled “Whose Law Is It Anyway?” that has sparked a deep conversation in South Africa. I learned…
The re-assassination Of Martin Luther King Jr.
A year to the day before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist pastor, publicly defined the war in Vietnam as a civil rights issue on April 4, 1967, in an address titled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence to…
White supremacists are hell-bent on repeating history
Mark Wingfield recently wrote an article reporting on the defeat of a Black pastor who had served for 17 years on a public school board in Houston. The defeat was orchestrated by right-wing white parents opposed to Critical Race Theory and…
What do our actions since Jan. 6 say to the people who pledged their lives to support and defend the Constitution of the United States?
Last week for Veterans Day, I was asked to address the Pulaski County Bar Association in Little Rock, Ark., as it recognized the sacrifice and service given by people who have served in the armed forces of the United States. I…
‘Hateful faithful’ model paves the way for a fascist society
I was born, educated and live in Arkansas. Recently, white legislators in Arkansas responsible for redrawing voting districts in ways that fracture communities of Black and Latinx voters expressed dismay when Black and Latinx leaders denounced the re-drawn districts as…