A new Word In Black report reveals that over 60% of Black Americans don’t trust the safety of their food, while soaring costs push families toward cheaper, less nutritious options.
Word in Black
Posted inOpinion
OpEd: Stephen A. Smith’s problem isn’t his opinions. It’s accountability
When the National Association of Black Journalists handed ESPN’s flagship commentator a “Thumbs Down” award over recurring commentary targeting prominent Black women, Stephen A. Smith promised revenge, exposing a glaring refusal to answer to his own community.
Posted inOpinion
Obama still lives rent-free in Trump’s head
As Trump defends a thin Iran agreement, Obama opened his presidential center in Chicago surrounded by cultural icons and former presidents. In an op-ed for Word in Black, Joseph Williams argues the contrast says everything about legacy and grievance.
Posted inOpinion
Immigrants are vital community members
Let’s start acting like it Somewhere between the wrenching ICE raids that tear families from the places they call home and the political battles those raids spark lies a question we have never fully confronted: What does it mean to belong? And what do we owe people who live, work, worship and contribute alongside us […]
Posted inOpinion
Black votes shift the nation’s moral compass
When we vote, the ground itself shifts. The air feels different the next morning, as if the earth finally released a breath it has been holding since Reconstruction. I’ve seen it happen. Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, was one of those moments when history stopped pretending to be distant. Mississippi turned its head toward justice again. […]
Posted inOpinion
Black women mayors are democracy’s brightest hopes
Election Night 2025 didn’t just make headlines, it made history. In Detroit, voters shattered a 324-year barrier by electing Mary Sheffield as the city’s first woman and Black woman mayor. Her victory is more than symbolic; it reflects the transformative power of Black women’s leadership and adds to the growing sisterhood of Black women mayors […]
Posted inOpinion
What Black women want and what Virginia needs
All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk. This admonishment came from novelist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, one of the most prolific Black literary figures of the 20th century. Tracy Chiles McGhee, a Zora Neale Hurston biographer, shares context, noting this reference is loosely drawn from Hurston’s 1942 autobiography, “Dust Tracks on a Road.” Zora unapologetically leaned into […]
Posted inOpinion
I posted an ICE tip line in anger. I’ll regret it forever.
Dear Chicago, You were my second home for nearly 15 years. I still love you deeply. And today, watching ICE raids tear through your neighborhoods, I feel nothing but heartbreak and shame. I’m writing to apologize for something I did in 2016, right after Trump’s first election win. In anger over what I saw in […]
Posted inNews
We are witnessing Jim Crow 2.0
From book bans to museum censorship, attempts to sanitize U.S. history are accelerating. Denise Forte warns that “Jim Crow 2.0” is here—undermining education, truth, and democracy. Here’s why resisting historical erasure matters, and what must happen now.
Posted inOpinion
When Trump’s troops come, it won’t be to help Black people
I’ve lived long enough to know that when power feels cornered, it looks for a mirror to break. The Insurrection Act is that mirror, a 19th-century law revived whenever those in charge want to project fear instead of face truth. Written in 1807, the Act allows the president to deploy the military on U.S. soil, […]
Posted inOpinion
Lifeline for Black student parents at risk
Last month, Senator Tammy Duckworth and Representative Katherine Clark reintroduced the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS) Reauthorization Act to keep the program running through 2031 and increase its funding to $500 million annually. CCAMPIS is designed to help low-income student parents cover the cost of child care. It can fund on-campus or […]
Posted inOpinion
Shutdowns: what they do and who they sacrifice
Tell the truth about who suffers when the government disappears, and about who profits from the disappearance.
Posted inOpinion
Don’t let your climate power slip away
A call to action “You have power unless you give it away” are words my grandmother instilled in me as a young boy growing up in the mountains of Appalachia. Her words have been echoing in my head as the seasons turn. Today is the first day of fall, and already the air feels unsettled, […]
Posted inNational
Trump’s message to abusive cops: ‘We’ve got your back’
Despite federal rollbacks, police accountability isn’t dead. Experts say the real work is happening in local courts and communities—far from Washington.
Posted inOpinion
Lessons from three tragedies: Adams, Williams, and Robinson
Three Black men have recently made headlines for different reasons, highlighting the issues.
Posted inNews
How Tim Walz finally stopped JD Vance from sane-washing Trump
VP candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz debated on the issues of the 2024 presidential election, with Walz exposing Vance’s lies and Trump’s unfit nature for office.
Posted inNews
Kamala Harris unites Democrats, makes history at 2024 DNC convention
Kamala Harris has united Democrats and united the party, banishing the ghosts of 1968, 2000, and 2016, and has introduced a strong vision of American power as a force for good in the world.
Posted inNews
News Analysis: Kamala Harris for president
Vice President Kamala Harris has been endorsed by President Joe Biden to be the Democratic Party’s new nominee for re-election, and the party must unite behind her to defeat Donald Trump.