Project 21: New Visions

Forty years ago, I helped black girls become more accepted as the “girl next door” as a Miss America contestant. After seeing this year’s pageant, I fear a Pandora’s box of politics has been opened. It risks making an institution that has helped empower women for almost 100 years irrelevant and further polarize our society. Miss America featured black contestants since 1971, but television audiences only saw fleeting glimpses of them until I advanced to the semifinals as Miss Delaware in 1977 pageant. It was an honor to do so, but my journey was challenging. Racial animosity dogged my progress, ...
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The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled to restore a Michigan law that bans straight-ticket voting. Two of the Justices dissented, concluding that state officials should be permitted to enforce the ban in the November 2016 election. Straight-ticket voting is a policy which says that voters are permitted to select a party's entire slate with a single notation. Straight-ticket voting has been in effect in Michigan since 1891. The ban on straight-ticket voting would have required voters to cast votes for individual candidates. At first glance, one might think, "if it isn't broke, why fix it?" Or perhaps it might appear, ...
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There's a campaign underway to remove President Andrew Jackson's face from the $20 bill and replace it with a woman as a way of "promoting gender equality." The group Women on 20s wants Jackson's portrait removed in time for the 2020 centennial of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. They also, of course, want to "make our money more egalitarian, inclusive and an affirmation of American values." This group, however, doesn't just want any woman. They want a woman of their own choosing. They will send President Barack Obama the specific woman they think should grace ...
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Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is leading 30 other senators in legislation to "audit the Fed." The Federal Reserve, America's central bank, sets monetary policy and oversees financial institutions. Senator Paul's bill would make the institution more transparent by allowing an auditor to report to Congress about its deliberations. Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced similar legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives. This is a cause Senator Paul and his father, former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul, have long championed. It would place a check on the independence of a powerful, yet largely unknown, institution. Reining in the Fed is ...
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There was a time when actor Danny Glover made national news because, as a black man, he said he couldn't get a cab to stop for him. That was before the Uber ridesharing service that is now challenging the cab industry — and winning when it comes to service. I understood Glover's situation. As a black man going to school and working in downtown Chicago while living in the South Side, I relied on public transportation because it was nearly impossible to get a cab to go into my predominantly black neighborhood. There was one time when I left school ...
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After the Great Recession of 2008, an unpleasant phenomena resurfaced. Because of financial distress from the recession, a large number of Americans began tapping into their secured retirement savings. African-Americans and Hispanics were the groups that dipped into these sacred instruments the most. According to a 2012 study by Ariel Investments and AON Hewitt, African-American employees took these "hardship withdrawals" more than any other ethnic group. Fully, 8.8 percent of African-Americans took hardship withdrawals in 2010 as compared to 3.2 percent of Hispanics, 1.7 percent of whites and just 1.2 percent of Asian workers. Because these assets are designed for ...
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In a nation of immigrants, do black lives matter? Apparently not, because black lives are effectively being ethno-racially cleansed from American society by an illegal alien invasion and a growing occupation of our neighborhoods. How? Black America is being challenged by what's been dubbed by its supporters as "comprehensive immigration reform." It is routinely suggested by U.S. presidents, other politicians and even leaders of the black establishment that America is a nation of immigrants. Not all of us are truly immigrants! That sentiment is misleading and wrong because it ignores the fact that so many blacks are not the successors ...
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When it comes to the American economy, there is little success to celebrate unless success is defined downward. Under President Obama, the economic success that's being celebrated essentially papers over the pain of millions of struggling Americans. Obama devoted a significant portion of his uninspiring State of the Union address in January to his alleged desire to revive "middle class economics." It's seemingly nothing more than a continuation of his class warfare campaign rhetoric that pushes wealth redistribution in lieu of actual job creation and stability. Proof of Obama's lack of a real economic plan can be seen in his ...
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In Arizona, the governor recently signed legislation requiring that high school students pass a civics exam before they graduate. It's the same test the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service gives to prospective citizens. As one state senator explained, "a minimal understanding of American civics is of real value." Don't stop there! Students in Arizona and everywhere also should meet a financial literacy requirement. We have graduates who cannot balance a checkbook and don't realize the power of saving. To some, it's more important to have nice stuff than prepare for the future. A survey commissioned by Bankrate found more than ...
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After 50 years of America's "War on Poverty" yielding little progress at much expense, how can we more effectively provide opportunity for our least fortunate brothers and sisters? In 1996, with a divided government similar to what we have now, a Republican Congress and President Bill Clinton created and signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. It reformed traditional welfare by linking government benefits to recipients performing regular work or community service jobs. It also provided federal funding to the states for child care benefits for working parents and some medical coverage, and it permitted states flexibility in designing ...
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Although the prices at the pump are nice these days, the cost of oil should probably be a little bit higher. Sorry. There's celebration because the Dow Jones Industrial Average recently reached a new high of over 18,000, but some stock market experts think the market is long overdue for a correction. This should be cause for concern, but not panic or reason for an outright exodus of equities. For one thing, there's historical precedent. An Oppenheimer Funds study has shown that, on average, there have been two "bear markets" per decade. A bear market happens when there is a ...
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"Black Lives Matter" is a great slogan. As a black man, I agree that black lives matter just as much as the lives of any of our racial counterparts. But chanting, marching and hashtag activism isn't going to work unless we also are willing to see the big-picture problems affecting black America. Here's a hint: making black lives matter has little to do with institutional racism, white privilege and white cops. One website organizing people pushing "black lives matter" calls it "a slogan under which black people can unite to end state sanctioned violence both in Ferguson, but also across ...
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Writers at Salon.com are a very unhappy bunch. Salon features articles about how depressing it is to be an American, how much life sucks for various victim groups and how everyone on the right side of the ideological spectrum is a liar. You get my drift. So I wasn't shocked to see a piece by Priscilla Ward talking about suppressing herself to please white people. Being the braver sort, I dove in — ready to be enthralled by her tales of liberal woe. It actually wasn't fun reading about Ward's angst-laden days and insistence upon sustaining a double life. Her ...
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Noted author and intellectual Shelby Steele, a black conservative, once wrote: "It is time for blacks to begin the shift from a wartime to a peacetime identity, from fighting for opportunity to the seizing of it." It's true. And even though blacks still seem to suffer disproportionately, we now have the opportunity to remedy our problems in ways never before possible. We need to open our minds. When black people fought deep-seated racism and Jim Crow laws that made it next to impossible for most of us to have any real sort of upward mobility in America, groupthink and group ...
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In fighting Ebola, President Obama has repeated his strategy from the Libyan revolution and is leading from behind. As public anxiety spiked at a fever pitch, the President and his staff made pronouncements and took actions leaving more questions than answers. It's no way to address a potentially growing threat to public health. There's good reason to be concerned, as the White House seems incompetent — or, at least, detached — when it comes to preserving public wellbeing. It's time for real answers. It may not be comfortable or good political optics, but lingering questions may cost lives. First off, ...
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Like most Americans, I anxiously awaited the decision of the Ferguson grand jury. My concern was not about how the grand jury tasked with assessing the case against Officer Darren Wilson might rule. I trusted it to act fairly in dealing with the death of Michael Brown. My concern lies with the way the media conducts itself. During the civil rights era, the media played a critical and beneficial role. The media allowed Americans in the North to see firsthand the atrocities committed against African-Americans in the South. Media coverage helped generate the emotion needed and help stiffen resolve to ...
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Some of the greatest people in my life are black men. All of these great black men are heroes to me in some way. They are amazing fathers and hard workers whose work goes unheralded. These black men are my shoulders to cry on. They are a helping hand. They include big brothers and former boyfriends. They are BFFs and study buddies. They are classmates and soulmates. Most of these black men in my life — these heroes — have been stopped by police for dubious reasons. And all were frustrated with the obvious outrageousness of the situations. They have ...
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Charles Barkley has come under fire in the liberal mainstream media (MSM) for calling the Ferguson rioters "scumbags." These are the rioters who looted and burned approximately 20 buildings in Ferguson, crippling small businesses and causing yet-unknown financial damages. I don't want to diminish Mr. Barkley's characterization of the rioters because I've made similar characterizations. But the Berkeley interview, in its entirety, was a thoughtful and reasoned approach on the Ferguson verdict as well as his strong feelings about black culture and issues within the black community. Anyone who didn't take the time to watch didn't hear Barkley's thoughtful perspectives ...
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In interviews before the midterm elections, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks appeared on news programs to warn, as he did on MSNBC, "this is the first election in a generation where the American electorate is unprotected by the Voting Rights Act." Brooks is not accurate: the Voting Rights Act remains powerful and in effect; only a small portion of the Act, Section 4(b), was struck down last year. What's more, when he asserts that the Act was "gutted," his words imply there is a conspiracy to neuter African-American voters by requiring IDs to vote and rolling back conveniences African-Americans disproportionately ...
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When did big government begin taking food out of the mouths of the homeless? That's happening now. The do-gooder welfare state and the regulatory state have gone to war with one another, and the casualties are America's homeless. It's the dark side of nanny-state liberalism. In Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, a 90-year-old World War II veteran could go to jail for feeding the homeless. To control allegedly expanding homelessness, officials in that city enacted new laws last October discouraging public acts of charity. For "Chef Arnold" Abbott, who has fed the homeless on a weekly basis for 23 years, the fact ...
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