Stories by Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).
Opponents of "three strikes" laws celebrated this week after a federal appeals court in California overturned a three strikes conviction. But their battle isn't over yet.
Posted on Feb 14, 2002, Source: AlterNet
The corporate racial glass ceiling has barely been scratched. Black employees at many corporations say they are given the worst assignments, paid less, and have fewer chances for promotions than their white counterparts.
Posted on Feb 6, 2002, Source: AlterNet
Many of those who now shout loudest for Mike Tyson's blood will be clamoring for tickets to see him in his next megabucks fight. Are they to blame for his thug behavior?
Posted on Jan 31, 2002, Source: AlterNet
The new trial of four Symbionese Liberation Army members will be another sorry testament to a history of violence, delusions and terrorism.
Posted on Jan 21, 2002, Source: AlterNet
Randall Kennedy, in his short, provocative but misguided new book, contends that "nigger" is hardly an offensive word anymore. Here's why he's wrong.
Posted on Jan 15, 2002, Source: AlterNet
Since there is no statute of limitation on murder, state and federal prosecutions should prosecute many cases of racial murder that are still on the books.
Posted on Jan 11, 2002, Source: AlterNet
The government's star treatment of Muhammad Ali today is in stark contrast to its treatment of him during much of his professional career.
Posted on Dec 31, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Despite Black leaders' support in the wake of 9/11, Bush has spurned their latest request for a meeting. It was their fourth request since September.
Posted on Dec 19, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Attorney General John Ashcroft has made a public pitch to dump the guidelines put in place in the 1970s that ban FBI spying on domestic organizations.
Posted on Dec 14, 2001, Source: AlterNet
The seed for the government ethnic targeting of Arab-Americans was planted in the 1960s. The ghetto riots that rocked hundreds of American cities triggered the first major escalation in police power.
Posted on Dec 5, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Since many hate groups have turned Sept. 11 into a rallying cry for racism and xenophobia, our police must prosecute hate crimes more forcefully than ever.
Posted on Nov 30, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Thirteen deaths too late, St. Louis police are finally allowing FBI agents to assist in tracking down a serial killer.
Posted on Nov 26, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Crying wolf once too often smacks of political opportunism, and risks jading the public to future warnings, even one that might be real. That's the ultimate danger in overplaying the terror card.
Posted on Nov 9, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Bioterror attacks may be more likely to come from the makeshift labs of domestic extremists than from terror camps and bioterror chemical labs in Afghanistan, Libya, or Iraq.
Posted on Nov 5, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Congresswoman Barbara Lee showed courage and conscience in taking her lone stand against the war. But she may suffer steep political fallout for her move.
Posted on Oct 30, 2001, Source: AlterNet
A recent Gallup and Zogby International poll found that more blacks than whites think Arabs should be profiled and required to carry a national identification card.
Posted on Oct 24, 2001, Source: AlterNet
For the first time in nearly three decades, the number of people imprisoned has slowed down due to a gradual shift in drug policy. But one man could slam shut that window of policy enlightenment.
Posted on Oct 18, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Bush's anti-terrorism war will cause collateral damage of another sort, a dangerous explosion of illegal drugs in American inner cities.
Posted on Oct 15, 2001, Source: AlterNet
If the flag can be refashioned to stand for racial and ethnic tolerance, civil liberties and the right to dissent and peacefully protest, then it deserves to be waved.
Posted on Oct 8, 2001, Source: AlterNet
On Wednesday, Cincinnati cop Stephen Roach was found innocent of all criminal charges after slaying an unarmed black teenager. Apparently, racial profiling is still alive and well.
Posted on Sep 28, 2001, Source: AlterNet
California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a black Democrat, cast the lone vote against giving President Bush carte blanche to unleash war against terrorists.
Posted on Sep 19, 2001, Source: AlterNet
President Bush and the media's finger pointing at the Islamic world has stirred fresh tremors that a new wave of Arab-American bashing could be in the making.
Posted on Sep 11, 2001, Source: AlterNet
The soaring black incarceration rate got no relief from a recent Justice Department report showing the first slowdown in nearly 30 years of the number of people being imprisoned.
Posted on Aug 21, 2001, Source: AlterNet
The latest stay of execution for Napoleon Beazley, convicted of a murder he committed at the age of 17, shines a bright light on America's outrageous treatment of juveniles convicted of capital crimes.
Posted on Aug 20, 2001, Source: AlterNet
While Bush should not boycott the upcoming World Racism Conference, organizers also must not permit the controversial issues of reparations and Zionism to sink the conference.
Posted on Aug 6, 2001, Source: Pacific News Service
As absurd as it sounds, a case can be made for cracking down on young whites traveling on our highways, and streets, based on a standard drug user profile.
Posted on Jul 31, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Most laughed when New York subway shooter Bernhard Goetz announced that he would run for mayor. But Goetz remains a symbol of racial tension in New York, and some don't think its very funny at all.
Posted on Jul 17, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Contrary to conventional wisdom, blacks have repeatedly denounced the racially-warped policy of toxic waste or power plants being put it in blacks' backyard -- "PIBBY."
Posted on Jun 27, 2001, Source: AlterNet
There's nothing wrong with Robert Downey, Jr.'s fans urging the courts to spare him a long prison sentence and give him the help that he desperately needs. But there are thousands of mostly poor, black and Latino drug offenders that need the same compassion and help as Downey.
Posted on May 1, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Despite the wave of highly questionable police shootings of mostly young blacks and Latinos the past few years, the Justice Department has done almost nothing to nail the murderous cops. Cincinnati cops will be no exception.
Posted on Apr 17, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Reparations for slavery -- the idea conservative pundit David Horowitz tried to place newspaper ads against -- merit a serious look. Here are ten compelling reasons why.
Posted on Apr 3, 2001, Source: AlterNet
African Americans now make up more than half of the prison population. The reason, goes the habitual explanation, is that blacks are "poor, crime-prone and lack family values." The more compelling reason, however, can be summed up in four words: racially biased drug laws.
Posted on Apr 1, 2001, Source: Pacific News Service
In an attempt to solve a problem that doesn't exist, many states have gone to extremes in their punishment of juvenile offenders. So it should not shock us to learn that 14 year-old Lionel Tate was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Posted on Mar 13, 2001, Source: Pacific News Service
14-year-old receives a life sentence? Can it get more extreme than that? With and adult reactions thickening the air, many teens are walking around this week with a heavy load of anger and frustration on their backs. Read an editorial, by an African American activist that explores the statistcs and the implications behind this next stage in the "youth as superpredator" trend. Also, check out a link to a related story and
hear from a young man currently incarcerated. Finally -- tell us what you think about the Lionel Tate case. Sound off about your thoughts on this outrageous court decision -- or about other school youth issues on our message boards.
Posted on Mar 13, 2001, Source: Pacific News Service
Corporate executives give a litany of excuses when asked why they don't give their workers a day off on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday or, at the very least, acknowledge the day with a ceremony, or commemoration.
Posted on Jan 8, 2001, Source: AlterNet
Only one in 10 African Americans voted for the new president. Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice notwithstanding, this administration could be a disaster for blacks.
Posted on Dec 19, 2000, Source: MotherJones.com
15 year old African-American, Keith Stockdale, was sentenced to 46 years-to-life for the rape of three teen-aged white girls in June. Time was when he would have been lynched. Are prison bars mere rope and tree substitutes?
Posted on Jul 31, 2000, Source: Pacific News Service
Black leaders who turn leadership into a lucrative business are deadening social and political activism in black communities.
Posted on Jun 13, 2000, Source: The Black World Today
Though Americans deeply regret slavery, whenever the idea of reparations for decendents of slaves is mentioned, a host of objections appear.
Posted on May 31, 2000, Source: Pacific News Service
The arrest of Jamil al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, on charges of killing one deputy sheriff and wounding another, calls to mind the rhetoric of violence that marked Amin's career as a Black Panther some 30 years ago. PNS commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson reflects on the way violence obliterates good work in the public mind.
Posted on Apr 1, 2000, Source: Pacific News Service
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