Opinion

EVERYTHING’S POSSIBLE By Sondra Samuels Years ago my husband Don and I had a neighbor I’ll call Teresa. Teresa was pretty, smart and caring. She lived down the block from us in a dilapidated house riddled with roaches, mice and lead paint. Her home was and still is owned by a well-known slumlord. Teresa, about […]

VOICES OF THE VILLAGE By Lissa Jones In his struggle against apartheid in South Africa, for which he was killed, leader and activist Steve Biko, defending a group of Black South African men unjustly charged in a South African court, found words to describe what I believe in my heart to be the essence of […]

YEAH, THAT’S RIGHT, I SAID IT By Sheletta  Brundidge Where are they getting these raggedy airplanes from? Is Boeing using aluminum foil to cover the exterior and taking tips from Toyota on how to install brakes? Oh my Lord, this is just another reason that I don’t fly anymore. Shawn and I began boycotting airlines […]

MELLANEOUS By Mel Reeves I attended Governor Mark Dayton’s Black Economic Summit a few weeks ago, and like most of the folks there I didn’t receive an invite. And to be fair, I still am not sure that it was an invitation-only meeting, but that was the rumor. Speaking of rumors, I heard quite a […]

THROUGH MY EYES By Ron Edwards Tuesday’s April 5, 2011 edition of the Star Tribune reported an unveiling of the legislation for a new Minnesota Vikings Stadium (“Vikings stadium bill skirts vote on sales tax”) that will allow a local government to increase sales taxes for the project without taking it to the voters first. […]

ISSUES & NEW PERSPECTIVES By Lucky Rosenbloom I have to ask this question: What kind of messages are Democrats sending Black people, in particular youth, these days in times of debate and being outnumbered? Let’s start with Brother Keith Ellison. Keith must have learned a lot from hanging out with Hillary Clinton. I call it […]

LITTLE BY LITTLE By Matthew Little An early April edition of JET magazine contained a feature news item titled “The New NAACP.” Its premise is that this century-old organization that has been unquestionably a pillar of strength for Black people since slavery has become (or is rapidly becoming) a multicultural organization. The general tone of […]

VOICES OF THE VILLAGE by Lissa Jones “After I was placed in the cell, I began to hear sounds of licks…and screams. I could hear the sounds of licks and horrible screams, and I heard somebody say, ‘Can you say yes sir, nigger? Can you say yes sir?’ and they would say other horrible names. […]

THROUGH MY EYES by Ron Edwards During his address to the nation on Libya on Monday, March 28, 2011, at National Defense University in Washington, D.C., President Obama made mention of the $80 billion in Libyan funds that have been seized in the United States. This is in addition to the $165 billion seized so […]

SOMETHING I SAID by Dwight Hobbes After careful consideration, this column might, on occasion, be, shall we say, a bit abrasive. “Something I Said” may have been a little hard on its subjects, some well-known, widely admired figures a few readers would just as soon not see raked over the coals. Past missives have railed […]

PASTOR’S CORNER By Mary Flowers Spratt Is special education failing your child? What are you doing about it? These are questions that were asked by N.A.P.S.E.A. (National Association for Professional Special Education Advocates). This article is the first in a series I will call ”A Voice for Children with Anxiety Disorders.” Special education is difficult […]

“Our Black-White jobless gap worst in the nation,” a recent Star Tribune headline read. “Worst in the Nation” stood out like a neon sign. The article pointed out that in 2009 over 20 percent of all Black folks in Minnesota were unemployed, while only 6.6 percent of Whites were unemployed. The article seemed to imply […]

I find it interesting that, in all the protests throughout the Middle East, the Iraq protests are the only ones protesting for “improved government services.” Everyone else in the Middle East is protesting to overthrow their government, except in Iraq. Supposedly they are happy with their new government, and they are taking to the streets […]

Did you ever stop to take note of the many basketball tournaments that take place this time of year? They are beginning to spread like wild fire. From the NBA to the Pony League, they seem to be spreading all over the place. In a sense, it seems that these events, and the wild celebrations […]

“The pot was empty,/ The cupboard was bare./I said, Papa,/What’s the matter here?/I’m waitin’ on Roosevelt, son,/ Roosevelt, Roosevelt,/Waitin’ on Roosevelt, son./ The rent was due,/ And the lights was out./ I said, Tell me, Mama,/ What’s it all about?/ We’re waitin’ on Roosevelt, son,/ Roosevelt, Roosevelt,/ Just waitin’ on Roosevelt./ Sister got sick/ And […]

Last week’s column reported three Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights (MDCR) personnel who have emerged as heroes in exposing serious ongoing ethical and illegal MDCR breaches. This week, a fourth: Ronald G. Brandon, former chief supervisor of the MDCR Investigative Unit. His ouster from the department and City of Minneapolis came after his expressions of […]

In my mild-mannered secret identity, I usher for a great metropolitan theater establishment. Step in a phone booth and emerge as a nondescript, nattily attired entity who, when you’re downtown Minneapolis in the Orpheum, State or Pantages Theatre venues, shows you to your seat, where the restroom is, the bar, generally facilitating your enjoyment of […]

”In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a mother or father who will attend those parent/teacher conferences, or help with homework after dinner, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, and read to their child.” — President Barack Obama, address to Joint Session of Congress, February […]

This column continues my five-year investigative reporting of a city government that stands for itself, not its citizens. This government, the City of Minneapolis, continually makes reports with false and erroneous information about its compliance to the general pubic, to the State of Minnesota, and to the federal government, and treats whistleblowers with intimidation and […]

Whether we are aware of it or not, most of us hold values and ideas that are in direct contradiction of where we stand in society, and some of us oppose ourselves. This irrationality is a direct result of the propaganda war that has been launched against the U.S. working class. In losing this war […]