Project 21: New Visions

Like many Americans, I've heard the pundits prognosticate over what the new leadership in Congress will do. How will they change things, will they succeed, and will they keep their majority beyond 2008? Some of these predictions specifically have addressed issues and policies that target the country's burgeoning minority population. For example, the Washington Times quoted an anonymous senior Democratic congressional aide who said that new congressional leaders believe the key to maintaining their majority status means keeping minorities happy. The aide said: "The question people - African-Americas, Latinos, Asians - will be asking after two years will be what ...
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There are many black Americans today who yearn for a more complete connection with their African ancestry. Many believe this link is necessary to complete their cultural identity. For some, this effort goes no further than wearing African attire. For others, it means performing a great deal of serious research in a quest to find the origins of their lineage. Fortunately for those people, technology is making such research easier. The Washington Post recently reported that a DNA sample can now be used to trace blacks to the African tribes from which they descended. Oprah Winfrey used it to find ...
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While traveling through a part of my community dominated by "Section 8" government-subsidized housing, I came across a group of seemingly out-of-place college students. Approaching them, I discovered they were performing community service by picking up trash in front of the once well-maintained row houses that were converted into low-income apartments. While these kids from outside of the area were hard at work, I observed many Section 8 tenants lounging on their porches and steps, often holding a cigarette and beverage of choice. They simply watched the students work. They didn't try to help. I asked a few of the ...
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Government often discriminates by basing hiring practices, the awarding of contracts and college admissions on racial criteria. Given an opportunity to put a stop to it, Michigan voters overwhelmingly passed the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) ballot referendum. The MCRI, also known as Proposal 2, "amend[s] the state constitution to ban affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes." On Election Day, almost 58 percent of Michigan voters voted for it. While racial preference policies are intended to rectify past ...
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It's no secret that the relationship between black Americans and the Republican Party is rocky. Despite the Party's history of helping end slavery and passing civil rights legislation, the GOP's standing among blacks has fallen dramatically over the past 40 years. At the same time, the Democratic Party - thanks in large part to today's black leadership - maintains a virtual lock on the black vote. Since Lyndon Johnson's defeat of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election, Democrats have consistently won between 80 and 95 percent of the black vote. At the National Urban League's 2004 convention, President George ...
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Why are black Americans so successful at creating, developing and operating religious institutions? In part, it is because we have a long history in the church business. Churches also have roles and functions that permit almost everyone to find a niche. But the most important reason why blacks have successful churches may be that, given our inherent spirituality, we trust in God and in our relatives, neighbors, friends and colleagues when it is in a religious setting. From time to time, we hear an unfortunate story about how a pastor disappears with his secretary and the building fund, but we ...
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I read with interest your September 12, 2006, article "Goodwill, Unity, Money Have Been Squandered Since Sept. 11," which appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times. While I don't object to your poisonous screed directed at President Bush as such, I do object to your hypocrisy and irreverence. You purport to be a minister, reverend and so-called man of God. But a minister is a servant, and a reverend is a member of the clergy, obedient to the God he serves. If there is a god of chaos, deceit, lies, infidelity, dysfunction, greed and resentment, then you serve him well. Apart from ...
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By embracing liberalism, black America became a broken shell of its former greatness. Miseducation, black-on-black crime, economic injustice, abortion, and the curse of corrupt and self-serving community leaders - the unhealthy relationship between blacks and liberalism has caused these problems to fester and remain largely unaddressed. Founders of racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan would surely marvel at how many in the black community now welcome inequity and virtual segregation, perhaps realizing that their violent intimidation tactics weren't necessary after all. By contrast, our ancestors, who were brought here by force and toiled in bondage, undoubtedly would be beside ...
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As someone who loathes government-mandated race preferences, I look forward to years of laugh-riot fun as preference-loving blacks and Hispanics duel it out, fighting each other over government goodies. I recently learned about a case involving a black cop named Kenneth A. Boyd in Wilmington, Delaware who claims he was passed over for promotion because he's black. Boyd alleges that police chief Michael J. Szczerba promoted an undeserving Hispanic instead. Oh, why does this sound familiar? According to The News Journal, Szczerba "fostered a diverse police force," which is code for skin-color preferences. Only in this case, the Negro wasn't ...
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For fans of "The Sopranos" who'll miss the fictional mob family's nefarious exploits when the HBO series ends next year, there is an antidote of sorts. Seemingly almost mimicking mob boss Tony Soprano's extortion racket, Jesse Jackson and union activists employ similar intimidation tactics to target corporations and execute self-serving agendas. Publicly-traded corporations have become soft targets for liberal activists' political and financial ambitions. Jesse Jackson seems to rationalize his corporate shakedowns as necessary to achieve social justice. Coincidentally, it also provides him a lavish income. Since the 1960s, Jackson has fought the alleged pervasive racism in our society. As ...
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There is No "Plan B" For A Good Conscience by Djana Milton Ipecac, the vomit-inducing syrup administered after someone swallows poison, is the only medication pharmacists in the State of Washington are required to carry. A pharmaceutical commonly known as "Plan B," which in some cases stops implantation and may potentially terminate the life of an unborn baby, could soon be added to the list. Earlier this year, the Washington State Pharmacy Board ruled that pharmacists in the state did not have to dispense the controversial drug if they had religious, moral or ethical objections to it. But the Board ...
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She's No Rosa Parks by Mychal Massie What would happen if a mobster such as Al Capone or John Gotti holed up in a church to escape justice? How about a deadbeat dad? Would they be compared to Rosa Parks for their determination to stand up to authority? Of course not. Our nation does not acknowledge the ancient practice of churches serving as sanctuary or asylum from the law because it encourages criminal behavior. But that is exactly what has happened in Chicago, where the government has demeaned itself by negotiating with Elvira Arellano, a woman living illegally in the ...
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Corrupt Black Leadership and Culture of Failure Impede Black Progress by La Shawn Barber On May 17, 2004, during the NAACP's 50th anniversary celebration of Brown v. Board of Education - the 1954 Supreme Court case that ended government-mandated racial segregation in public schools - featured speaker Bill Cosby surprised the audience of limousine liberals. Instead of a canned speech about the benefits of Brown and how far blacks had come since segregation, he led with a righteously indignant censure about wasted opportunities in the post-civil rights movement era, including criminality, illegitimacy, drug abuse and other pathologies that have eroded ...
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A national health-care system may be the Holy Grail of American liberalism. If only the government managed medicine, the argument goes, costs could be restrained, quality assured and access extended from the poshest beach house to the humblest shotgun shack. On NBC’s “Meet the Press” last fall, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Illinois Democrat, advocated a “universal health-care system over the next 10 years.” If Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, reaches the Oval Office, she likely would take another crack at socialized medicine, as she did so disastrously in 1994. Amy Ridenour of the National Center for Public Policy Research ...
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Throughout my life, I have always been an eager viewer of the television offerings of Bill Cosby. As a child, I remember rising early on Saturday mornings to watch "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" cartoon. As a young adult, I have fond memories of our Thursday evening family ritual of gathering around the television to watch the "The Cosby Show" and "A Different World." It is unquestionable that Bill Cosby is a great comedian and a creative genius when it comes to developing television comedies. Of late, he has become a social critic of what he considers a breakdown ...
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Deep racial fault lines were exposed on the campus of the University of Michigan in September of 2005 after two Asian students claimed that two white students urinated on them as they passed under an apartment balcony. Before an investigation of the allegations could begin, embattled school administrators - already under pressure to prosecute and expel the alleged offenders - began with the assumption that their campus was a "harsh" place for minority students, where "incidents... have targeted our students based on their race." Even though schools such as the University of Michigan are awash in the culture of diversity, ...
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The message is alarmingly loud and clear to adolescents: There's nothing wrong with promiscuous sex. Network television and cable programs, movies, song lyrics (along with suggestive music videos), internet research and chat rooms render graphic sexual images and dialogue 24 hours a day/7 days a week. These media outlets are an advertising showcase illustrating the thrilling aspects of sexual activities without any regard to the consequences. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the "sex ads" are working: In 2005, 47 percent of high school students claimed to have had sexual intercourse, and 14 percent ...
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Founded to secure and protect the "citizenship rights" of black Americans, the NAACP established an honorable reputation fighting Jim Crow laws, championing school desegregation and advocating groundbreaking civil rights legislation. George Washington Carver, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and other NAACP members are widely celebrated as American heroes. But as the NAACP succeeded in bringing social and economic equality, it appears to have left itself largely devoid of a mission. In the 1990s, the NAACP suffered a severe decline in membership, disastrous mismanagement and nearly $5 million debt. In an effort to rebuild itself, the board named former ...
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It is common to hear that public schools are failing our children.  Despite this identified and obvious problem, giving parents an alternative - school choice - is fought tooth-and-nail by teachers' unions and other advocates of government-run education.  Scores of children, especially those in the inner city, find themselves trapped and essentially left behind while this debate rages. In Harlem, at last, there is now a ray of hope.  According to The New York Times, "by the end of next year, Harlem will be home to 17 charter schools, publicly financed but privately run - more than in Staten Island, ...
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It's a sad fact that an achievement gap between minority and white students exists.  The real question is what to do about it. For too long, affirmative action - boosting minorities in the college admissions process - has been the preferred big government remedy.  Defenders say this helps achieve "diversity" - a sacred concept in academia - and makes up for discrepancies in school funding and quality. After years of controversy over affirmative action, Michigan will soon decide if racial preferences remain the status quo.  Sparked by two 2003 Supreme Court cases challenging the University of Michigan's use of racial ...
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