N-Word goes international
Personal trainer and author David Sylvester’s 2009 article about his encounter with the n-word during a bike trip across Africa captured so much attention, The article also will appear in Sylvester’s upcoming book: “Traveling at the Speed of Life: a Story of 4 Bicycle Treks Across 3 Continents By 1 Smiling Big Man.” Sylvester describes [...]
Is Trayvon Martin this generation’s Emmett Till?
The February 26th shooting death of 17-year-old Martin by George Zimmerman — a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida — has captured national attention and garnered universal outrage. Martin was gunned down near his father’s home, wearing a hoodie and armed with little more than an iced tea and Skittles. The senseless killing of [...]
Living with the legacy of white privilege: How I got here from there
By Kristl Smith Tyler Special to The Austin Times Continued from last week. If you missed last week’s installment, please visit theaustintimes.com Once slavery was made illegal, blacks were no longer representative of a white man’s investment. They were simply expendable. If you were a former white master of great wealth who had seen his [...]
Living with the legacy of white privilege
A funny thing happened at the end of December. We got a check in the mail for $3,600. First, we paid off some bills. Next, we bought a new couch and matching loveseat. Husband got a new game console and a couple of games. We partnered with another family to throw a cool Kwanzaa party. [...]
Nicki Minaj Grammys backlash: Has the rapper put her career at risk?
Nicki Minaj probably envisioned her 2012 Grammy performance was going to be a game changer, and a lot of people went along for the ride. Grammy announcers hyped it up to be an unforgettable performance. Show producers placed it towards the end of the Grammys, the dangling carrot luring viewers to stay tuned. However, Minaj’s [...]
Santorum, other republicans ignore broader view of economy
By Cynthia Tucker Rick Santorum — who gained the media spotlight after coming in a close second to Mitt Romney in Iowa — has long been a hard-right social conservative: opposed to reproductive rights, adamantly homophobic, hostile to contraceptive use. But he hasn’t previously been known as a race-baiter. The scion of a working-class Pennsylvania [...]
Saying farewell to my mother who just passed away
By Linda Chavez Death is never easy to accept, much less embrace, but it taught me that the end of life need not be frightening. She lived 90 years — the last three of them in my home — healthy, independent and happy, despite a life that others might have regarded as difficult, if not [...]
Special MLK message from reader
Even though MLK Jr. died fifteen years before I was even born I still feel a strong connection to his work because he did something that no one was able to do before. He was able to give the African American community their true freedom by helping them to integrate into all corners of society. [...]
Opinion: A.D. 2041 — End of White America?
By Pat Buchanan John Hope Franklin, the famed black historian at Duke University, once told the incoming freshmen, “The new America in the 21st century will be primarily non-white, a place George Washington would not recognize.” In his June 1998 commencement address at Portland State, President Clinton affirmed it: “In a little more than 50 [...]
Jalen Rose gets 20 days in jail for drunk driving
Jalen Rose was sentenced Wednesday to 20 days in jail for a March drunken-driving crash near Detroit, despite a recommendation that the ESPN analyst and former NBA player not serve jail time and the public support of several prominent figures, including Detroit’s mayor. When he pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated in May, Rose told [...]
