African American
No Donald, Your Approval Ratings With Black Americans Hasn't "Doubled". It Has Halved.
For reasons best known to himself, Donald Trump decided to post an easily disprovable lie on Twitter today that his approval rating with black Americans has doubled: Of course it hasn't doubled -- to the contrary, Trump's approval rating among black Americans has more than ...read more
Black Voters (Especially Black Women) are the Base of the Democratic Party
When I wrote my article yesterday about voter suppression in Alabama, I was resigned that Yellowhammer State would elect Roy Moore - a racist, misogynistic, pedophile - to the Senate seat formerly held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But as I read reports on Twitter about the ...read more
Betty Shelby Goes Free as Police Brutality and Racism is Found Not Guilty in America -- Again
“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. So that the first problem is how to control that rage so that it won’t destroy you.” - James Baldwin America’s white supremacy and state sponsored police brutality has killed us ...read more
Why Rachel Dolezal's Transracialism is Good For America
This article was originally published on Banter M, our weekly digital magazine for members. While the outing of former NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal's as a white woman has angered many, there is an argument to made that her attempt to live as a black woman is actually a step ...read more
106 Year Old Black Woman Dancing With President Obama is The Most Powerful Symbol of His Presidency
On Sunday, the White House shared a wonderful video of the President's meeting with an incredibly energetic African American lady named Virginia McLaurin. McLaurin, who is 106, was invited to take part in Black History Month celebrations -- fulfilling a long held dream of hers ...read more
This Editor Wants More Black People Locked Up and Declares Rudolph Giuliani the Savior of African Americans
In a breathtakingly stupid think piece for Politico, National Review editor Rich Lowry laid out his rationale for locking up more young black men in a article provocatively titled #SomeBlackLivesDontMatter. Lowry's argument goes something like this: Black people protest police ...read more
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Cornel West's Response to Michael Eric Dyson is Pathetic
Part of Michael Eric Dyson's searing critique of former friend Cornel West was that his old mentor no longer had the intellectual chops to be taken seriously. Dyson wrote: It is not only that West’s preoccupations with Obama’s perceived failures distracted him, though that is ...read more
MEMBERS ONLY: Eric Dyson is Right About Cornel West and His Ugly Demise
Michael Eric Dyson penned what can only be described as a devastating takedown of his former friend and mentor Cornel West in the New Republic this week - a takedown so painfully accurate that it should rightly put a nail in the coffin of a once great thinker who has become a ...read more
Bill Maher Wonders If 'Kid Beating' Is A Black Thing
The child abuse allegations against Vikings running back Adrian Peterson have resulted in a fascinatingly convoluted tangent to the discussion of domestic violence surrounding the NFL, one in which, for example, things like the acceptable level of violence against children must ...read more
A White Person's Guide to Having a Black Friend
White people are often confused about how to become (and stay) friends with black people. This is a particular problem if you haven't grown up around black people, and your impression of them comes mostly from music videos, sports programming and network news. As a quick ...read more
Translating Donald Sterling's Warped View of Black Men
Donald Sterling's shocking views on African Americans were revealed by a recording of a conversation he had with his girlfriend V. Stiviano over the weekend, and the ripples are being felt around the country. The tape, leaked by TMZ, is another sad example of America's fraught ...read more
After Trayvon
It was a normal day. Courtney had left work and was picking up her husband. Being the parents of two adolescent boys, they were expected and needed at home. As she waited for Russell, her husband, a police officer drove by and gave her a double look. He drove by a second time ...read more
One Week and Two Tragedies
I am of course referring to the Travyon Martin decision and the untimely death of Cory Monteith. Now, it could be because I have been under the weather but both have me emotional today. First the case of George Zimmerman. Why did the "stand your ground" law apply to him and ...read more
Epic Week in America Politics Reminds African Americans that Money Equals Equality
Last week, America went through some dramatic political changes. The historic voting Rights Act was repealed by the Supreme Court, rolling back the fight for racial equality by decades and putting the voting rights of millions of minorities in jeopardy. Then, Democratic State ...read more
Bill Maher Does Not Understand Black People
Bill Maher is a brilliant comedian and an astute political observer. I will always defend his right to say exactly what he wants, and agree wholeheartedly that comedians should always be pushing the boundaries of what society believes is acceptable. And that Maher does, week ...read more
Voter ID Laws are Resurrecting the Spirit of Jim Crow
By Bob Cesca: If President Obama loses in November, it won't be Super PACs or Republican lies about his record that will defeat him. It won't be fundraising or advertising or punditry. If President Obama loses, it will almost certainly be due to Jim Crow style voter ...read more
Mitt Romney Finally Went There. The Racist Southern Strategy.
By Bob Cesca: Somehow, the team of CG animators who work on the Mitt Romney uncanny valley animations that substitute for an actual Republican candidate continue to let this jittery, awkward proto-human speak without a carefully scripted speeches uploaded to his neural network. ...read more
The Poverty Epidemic the Media Won't Cover
By Ben Cohen: When faced with a serious problem, it is always crucial to understand exactly what you are dealing with in order to change it. The first step is an awareness of the problem itself - if you don't see it, you can't fix it, and the problem remains. And if everyone ...read more
The Daily Banter Mail Bag!!: Double Standards in Racism, the Point of Wolf Blitzer and More!!!
Welcome to this weeks edition of The Daily Banter Mail Bag! Today, we discuss the continued idiocy of austerity, whether there is a double standard when it comes to racism, and the point of Wolf Blitzer. The questions: Greece is about to default on its debt, Spain has 25% ...read more
National Review Fires Columnist For Advising Kids to 'Stay Away From Blacks'
A leading US conservative magazine, the National Review, has fired a prominent contributor over an online column advising his children to protect themselves by avoiding African Americans, to closely scrutinise black politicians and to accept that white people are more ...read more
Please Go Away Pat Buchanan
According to Pat Buchanan, African Americans can trace all their problems back to liberalism. Incapable of thinking for themselves, they "Bought a lot of liberal propaganda on the liberal plantation." And yes, that is a direct quote. Watch (and gasp) below: Visit msnbc.com for ...read more
Joan Walsh Savages Cornel West
Cornel West's tirade against Obama has irked much of the liberal media, largely it seems because West framed much of his critique in terms of race. Writes Joan Walsh of Salon.com: The most tragic thing, to me, about West's meltdown was the way he tried to frame it as a ...read more