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).
Blacks insist that there's absolutely no way you can compare a state barring same-sex marriage to the centuries of slavery and relentless racial violence they've suffered. But this is a terribly lopsided and self-serving read of history.
Posted on Dec 9, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Some claim that Jackson is under fire not because of any hanky panky with underage boys, but because he's black.
Posted on Dec 1, 2003, Source: AlterNet
All it took was the as yet unsubstantiated word of another teen that Mike is a child molester and sex abuser, for former fans and a once fawning public to believe that a bleached black man who for years made his living grabbing his crotch before millions could do terrible things to children. This is hardly a surprise.
Posted on Nov 26, 2003, Source: AlterNet
The release of a confidential FBI memo detailing FBI surveillance of antiwar protesters shows that the FBI is once again in position to quell dissent and disrupt political organizing.
Posted on Nov 25, 2003, Source: Pacific News Service
An astronomically high number of young black males are not just jobless, they are also in mortal danger of becoming job untouchables.
Posted on Nov 17, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Hip-hop fashion kings need to take a hard look at the labor conditions that prevail in the factories where their clothes are made.
Posted on Nov 10, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Al Sharpton's shoot-from the lip quip that Howard Dean is anti-black and his strong implication that Jesse Jackson, Jr. and other black leaders that endorse a white Democrat are Uncle Toms is ridiculous even by his loose standard.
Posted on Nov 10, 2003, Source: AlterNet
There's no pass from blacks for non-blacks that trade in racial stereotypes. The pity is that black leaders won't jerk that pass from other blacks that do the same.
Posted on Nov 3, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Virginia's anti-terror law, under which John Allen Muhammad is being prosecuted, has been criticized as vague, unnecessary and unconstitutional.
Posted on Oct 28, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Despite Kobe Bryant's superstar status, race often lurks just beneath the surface of his case and in other criminal cases involving black defendants and white victims.
Posted on Oct 21, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Bashing or ignoring Governor Arnold will guarantee a repeat of the racial freeze out of the Reagan years.
Posted on Oct 16, 2003, Source: AlterNet
In the short span of a few weeks, the slender hope of a Republican racial epiphany has been blown to bits.
Posted on Oct 9, 2003, Source: AlterNet
When a state tells a couple they can't marry because of their race, or because they are of the same sex, then it's still discrimination. But blacks don't see it that way.
Posted on Oct 6, 2003, Source: AlterNet
In her righteous fear and loathing of Arnie, Huffington has apparently forgotten who and what Davis is and the things he did that riled so many voters.
Posted on Oct 2, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Justices Breyer, Kennedy and Rehnquist have made it publicly clear that mandatory sentencing is wasteful, harmful, and threatens the legal independence of judges. But will they dump the law?
Posted on Sep 29, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Though the white Democratic candidates make occasional references to civil rights, they have virtually ignored racial issues in their debates and stump speeches.
Posted on Sep 23, 2003, Source: AlterNet
The big four gubernatorial opponents ignore or take the black vote for granted because there is absolutely no pressure put on them by black political or advocacy groups.
Posted on Sep 15, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Failure to campaign against Proposition 54 typifies the infuriating refusal of top Democrats to speak out on the issues that directly affect blacks.
Posted on Sep 9, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Arnold Schwarzenegger's flip, off-color jokes, cracks and jibes about gang sex (maybe rape), smoking dope, profanity and boasts about his lewd, even bizarre, conduct won't sink him.
Posted on Sep 2, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Today's civil rights movement must confront the indifference, even outright hostility, of many Americans to affirmative action, the further expansion of social programs, and the threat of further erosion of civil liberties protections.
Posted on Aug 25, 2003, Source: AlterNet
If Schwarzenegger backs affirmative action, civil liberties protections, and greater public spending, he will also pose a grave threat to the Democrats.
Posted on Aug 18, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Whether Gray Davis' policies have done more good than harm is an awfully close call.
Posted on Aug 12, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Without the black and Latino votes, Davis' paper-thin victory over Simon could easily have been a paper-thin defeat. The same will be true in the recall election.
Posted on Aug 5, 2003, Source: AlterNet
That Bush repeatedly snubs civil rights leaders is no surprise.
Posted on Jul 31, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Why do young men with so much to lose commit dumb, reckless acts that reinforce the ancient stereotypes of young black males as drugged, sex-crazed, violence-prone predators?
Posted on Jul 25, 2003, Source: AlterNet
When it comes to prosecuting police officers, videotapes, public outrage, and official condemnation don't automatically mean convictions.
Posted on Jul 22, 2003, Source: AlterNet
The Democrats have done nothing to motivate blacks to vote in 2004, leading many to believe that far fewer will turn out than in the past.
Posted on Jul 14, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Bush had an opportunity to propose real ways to help Africa solve some of its problems. But on issues from foreign aid to debt relief to an African arms race, the president missed his chance.
Posted on Jul 14, 2003, Source: Pacific News Service
During Bush's visit to the old slave fort on Goree Island, he called slavery "one of the greatest crimes in history." But we already knew that.
Posted on Jul 9, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Thirty-seven states slashed their budgets by nearly $15 billion this year; the biggest spending cut in 27 years.
Posted on Jul 2, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Despite justice being served in Tulia, blacks remain the scapegoat for America's drug problem and the target of a racist drug war.
Posted on Jun 20, 2003, Source: AlterNet
The puzzle is why so many upstanding, respectable, middle-class blacks are still embarrassed and humiliated in public places.
Posted on Jun 16, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Democrats talk tough about the way 9/11 detainees have been treated. But are they willing to take Ashcroft to task for the abuses?
Posted on Jun 10, 2003, Source: AlterNet
The notion that terrorism only comes in the form of Al-Quaida attacks presumes that gender and racially motivated violence are isolated acts committed by a handful of quacks and unreconstructed bigots.
Posted on Jun 3, 2003, Source: AlterNet
The only thing these scam artists teach us is that much of the media keeps a hawk like watch for the slightest whiff of celebrity scandal and sensationalist violence.
Posted on May 27, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Under an old anti-lynching statute, South Carolina prosecutors are targeting mainly young African Americans.
Posted on May 21, 2003, Source: Pacific News Service
The White House is Bush's to lose. If the Democrats play up every Bush fumble and bumble they will unseat him.
Posted on May 19, 2003, Source: AlterNet
The right-wing furor over judicial nominations is a bald attempt to weaken the ability of Democrats to prevent a conservative takeover of the Supreme Court.
Posted on May 13, 2003, Source: AlterNet
Reports that 1 million black children live in extreme poverty exist side-by-side with news of unprecedented economic, political and cultural gains by African Americans.
Posted on May 8, 2003, Source: Pacific News Service
Ripping the gut out of the campaign finance reform as the court did will further convince the public that politics is a dirty, big money business, and that politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.
Posted on May 5, 2003, Source: AlterNet
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