After 51 years, fair housing still an unfinished journey
April 12, 2019Fifty-one years this month, the Fair Housing Act (the Act) was enacted to ensure that housing discrimination was illegal. Yet just days before the annual observance of Fair Housing Month began, headline news articles reminded the nation that housing discrimination still exists. For example, on March 19, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency […]
The Martial South and Marcus Smith
April 5, 2019The lens or perspective we view current events is guided by our knowledge of history and moral compass. I hope my words giving just a tad of Southern history plus your moral compass will provide a context and give you a civic lens to view the Greensboro police hogtying and death of an African American, […]
College admissions scandal highlights rampant inequalities
March 22, 2019I have probable cause to believe that the defendants conspired with others known and unknown: (1) to bribe college entrance exam administrators to facilitate cheating on college entrance exams; (2) to bribe varsity coaches and administrators at elite universities to designate certain applicants as recruited athletes or as other favored candidates, thereby facilitating the applicants’ […]
Payday loan regulation supported by lawmakers and more than 50 advocates
March 15, 2019On March 7, the House Financial Services Committee, chaired by Congresswoman Maxine Waters marked the first time that the new Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) appeared for a hearing in this capacity. Entitled, Putting Consumers First? A Semi-Annual Review of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” the session is the first of two […]
The Tax Surprise
March 8, 2019The mainstream news has been covering an interesting story. People who were expecting significant tax refunds are, in very large numbers, either getting a minimal refund, no refund or having to pay the IRS. This, after the man Spike Lee has named “Agent Orange”—Donald Trump—promised a massive tax benefit for middle-income people. When I first […]
Vaping, an epidemic among teens that we must end
February 22, 2019“We must take aggressive steps to protect our children from these highly potent products that risk exposing a new generation of young people to nicotine. The bad news is that e-cigarette use has become an epidemic among our nation’s young people. However, the good news is that we know what works to effectively protect our […]
Blackface is a flaunting of White privilege
February 15, 2019“Blackface isn’t just another costume. It’s a mask of privilege, the kind of unchallenged power that comes through denying the experience of others.” – Justin Ellis As a Black student in overwhelmingly White schools in Louisiana, I faced my share of racial insults and slights. But one of the more memorable incidents was not even […]
Raise the Wage Act is a long-overdue dose of economic reality
February 8, 2019“In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By “business” I mean the […]
Stand with Bennett College
January 30, 2019That Bennett College was founded in 1873 as a coeducational institution and became women’s only in 1926 has been well-publicized lately as the college tries to raise $5 million by Friday, Feb. 1. So has the fact that Bennett and Spelman College in Atlanta are the country’s only two all-women’s HBCUs. But what makes Bennett […]
Trump’s flailing will get more desperate — and more dangerous
January 24, 2019Since the striking victories of Democrats up and down the ballot in 2018, President Donald Trump has been flailing more and more wildly. He’s setting new records for the length of the government shutdown, watched his defense secretary resign after suddenly announcing the withdrawal of troops from Syria, forced his attorney general to resign, found […]
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