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Black voters to the rescue
When senior campaign advisor Symone Sanders threw herself at a vegan protester who disrupted Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday victory speech, it was a fitting metaphor for the 2020 presidential campaign. Once again, an African-American saved a Democratic presidential nominee in peril. It was particularly fitting that it was an African-American woman, part of a group […]
Black History Month revisited
During one of his frequent visits to Milwaukee, the late African-comedian Dick Gregory cracked a joke during a Black History Month ceremony: “Y’all know they just had to give us the one month with all them messed up days, don’t you?” The joke, in front of a predominantly African-American audience, received the expected laughs and […]
What would MLK make of our current politics?
What would Dr. Martin King Jr. have thought about the 2020 Democratic presidential field? My guess is King would look at the current roster of Democratic candidates and wonder aloud: “Where are the candidates of color?” He would likely be excited at a woman being a top contender and encouraged that there have been Asian, […]
It’s all about Black Milwaukee
Apparently, the 2020 presidential election is all about Black Milwaukee. The national consensus, after the 2016 election that delivered Donald Trump to the White House against most predictions of a Hillary Clinton landslide, is that the relatively low turnout in several Midwest states — including Wisconsin — caused the stunning results that turned America on […]
The N word
It has just two syllables but the word itself has a power fraught with history and pain. As an African-American journalist, I have observed over the decades as the word has been used to both to galvanize and to inflame. It is a word that has spawned multiple essays, opinion pieces, books and even university […]
New sheriff in town
Earnell Lucas has been Milwaukee County sheriff for less than a year but he celebrated an anniversary recently. Lucas recognized his 44th year in a professional law enforcement career that began when he was a Milwaukee Police Department officer, later a police captain and then a professional security manager for Major League Baseball that led […]
Tom Barrett’s black voter problem
Could 2020 be the year Milwaukee finally elects a black mayor? Mayor Tom Barrett will run for his fifth term as mayor next year. As the incumbent, he is and is the commonly accepted favorite, but changing demographics and political realities in the city could make a difference. State Sen. Lena Taylor is the first […]
Mandela Barnes’ rocky start
When Mandela Barnes was elected lieutenant governor of Wisconsin on a ticket with Gov. Tony Evers, it was an historic occasion in Wisconsin politics. Barnes wasn’t the first African-American ever to hold the title of lieutenant governor nationally —there have been numerous lieutenant governors in other states who have been minorities—but for Wisconsin, it was […]