Commentary

Unfair children’s health disparities: More reason for reform

Wednesday, 05 August 2009 16:42 Marian Wright Edelman

In all of the recent debate over who deserves access to health care in our wealthy country, one often forgotten fact is that this is one more area where Black children and other children of color have always been left behind. Of the nine million uninsured children in America, minority children are uninsured and underinsured at far greater rates than white children.

Crystal anniversary

Monday, 03 August 2009 12:17 Joseph Phillips

I suppose after 15 years of marriage I should stop wondering aloud how on earth I ended up with this woman. Least ways I should stop wondering aloud when my lovely wife is within ear shot. Not that after so many years it matters much, but the truth is that I don’t know how we ended up together.

How Henry Louis Gates got ordained as the nation's "Leading Black Intellectual"

Friday, 31 July 2009 16:14 Ishmael Reed

Now that Henry Louis Gates’ Jr. has gotten a tiny taste of what “the underclass” undergo each day, do you think that he will go easier on them? Lighten up on the tough love lectures? Even during his encounter with the police, he was given some slack. If a black man in an inner city neighborhood had hesitated to identify himself, or given the police some lip, the police would have called SWAT. When Oscar Grant, an apprentice butcher, talked back to a BART policeman in Oakland, he was shot!

Inferior Health Care in America: A shameful reality

Friday, 31 July 2009 15:47 A. Barry Rand, NNPA Special Commentary

For all the reasons to fix the health care system, one of the most critical has been overlooked in the national debate: The shameful reality that African-Americans and other minorities often receive less care and inferior care than other Americans - and suffer worse health as a result.

Now disappearing: Black farmers must be protected

Friday, 31 July 2009 15:20 John W. Boyd, Jr., NNPA Guest Columnist

Black farmers in the United States are disappearing. In the 1920s, there were approximately 900,000; today there are only 18,000, accounting for less than 1 percent of America's farmers.

What Black leader?

Wednesday, 29 July 2009 14:26 William Reed

Instead of irate demands to correct disparities of America’s discriminatory past, Blacks who have been designated by the mainstream as our “leaders” are caught up in the drama of whether such disparities even exist.

Increase Africa's AIDS medication funding

Monday, 27 July 2009 13:15 Judge Greg Mathis

The World recently celebrated the 91st birthday of Nelson Mandela , freedom fighter and former President of South Africa. Celebrities came to toast his life and work, starring in concert tributes that paid homage to his legacy. While Mandela is definitely worthy of praise, I’m sure he’d much rather the efforts put into planning the celebrations have been put toward reducing AIDS deaths in sub-Sahara Africa, where his people are suffering greatly.