One of the major pillars of Barack Obama's presidential campaign strategy has centered around something known as deracialization. It's a dilemma-filled political strategy with a rich recent history. Black candidates in majority-White jurisdictions - from L. Douglas Wilder in Virginia, to Norman Rice in Seattle, to Ron Kirk in Dallas,...

Many people have been screaming at Senator Hillary Clinton to abandon her presidential bid. They argue that she is selfishly standing in the way of party unity and increasingly the likelihood that Senator John McCain will be the next president. The Hillary-must-go-now crowd should tread lightly. What many of these...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain is trying hard not to get lost in all the attention the country is devoting to the hard-fought Democratic presidential nomination contest. He is taking an unusual step in this regard for someone from the Grand Old Party (GOP): he's touring mostly black,...

After six weeks of campaigning, mudslinging, and silly questions to candidates befitting a B-level reality show, Pennsylvania Democrats finally had their say handing Senator Hillary Clinton an important victory over Senator Barack Obama. The win may well be the worst of both worlds. On the one hand, it gives Clinton...

It was announced Friday morning, April 11, that Tavis Smiley will leave his twice-weekly perch as a commentator on the Tom Joyner Morning Show (TJMS). I think this is a big loss (disclosure: I've appeared on Smiley's PBS television show). His departure is disappointing and reveals what happens when...

There are many ways in which the country acknowledges the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Most retrospectives focus on his speeches and how his eloquence inspired a nation. Unfortunately, too often the reason why King and his generation were making demands of the country in the first...

One of the really unfortunate aspects of the current battle for the Democratic presidential nomination is the apologetic position that appears to be taking root in the black community regarding Barack Obama's candidacy. It goes something like this: "We shouldn't press him too much to talk about black issues because...

Barack Obama's campaign has caught fire in communities all over the country. His call for change is resonating with a Democratic electorate fed up with the lies, distortions, corruption, and general crookedness of the Bush administration. Obama's support is running especially hot in much of the black community, which has...

Senator John McCain's win in Wisconsin places him mere inches away from the Republican nomination. McCain's march to the nomination is nearly complete and the time is now to consider how he might use race in a general election campaign against the Democratic frontrunner, Barack Obama. McCain will undoubtedly play...

Senator Hillary Clinton has been taking a beating for a comment she recently made regarding Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the role President Lyndon Johnson played in bringing about the legislative change sought by the civil rights movement. She noted that King's dream began to come into focus...

In scrambling to scrape the egg off their faces and find out what happened to the erroneous polling that caused the media to look so foolish for their predictions in the wake of Hillary Clinton's surprise victory in New Hampshire, some are trying to ascribe a race-based explanation. They are...

Now, the battle is joined. New Hampshire provided the country with a serious nominating contest in both parties by refusing to buy what the media and Iowa were selling. A few observations.

How ya' like me now? I'm sure it must have been difficult for Hillary Clinton to resist the...

It's hard out here for Black pundits/analysts/commentators who haven't come around to drinking the Democratic presidential nomination front-runner Barack Obama is the best-thing-since-sliced-bread-how-did-we-ever-exist-as-a-nation-without-him-this-is-our-last- best-chance-to-elect-a-Black-president-so-we-better-support-him-see-I-told-you-racism-is-dead Kool-Aid. I have learned an unfortunate lesson in observing the Democratic presidential nomination fight: In too many segments of the country -- black and white --...

I find myself increasingly agitated by the response to Barack Obama's win in the Iowa caucuses. I have concluded that far too many people - from the news media to Obama supporters around the country - are reading too much into what it means for the presidential campaign and race...

Voters have finally had their say and the presidential race is now underway. While no one should be surprised that Senator Barack Obama and former Governor Mike Huckabee won their respective party caucuses in Iowa, there are some observations that should be noted as we look to New Hampshire and...

I recently saw a pathetic, ridiculous, half-baked, truth-avoiding, poorly-produced "documentary" that nearly led me to explode. Emancipation, Revelation, and Revolution purports to fill the void in Black political discourse by telling the "true" story of the GOP and its position as a salvation for Black America. In reality, it is...

The conventional wisdom was simple: Senator Barack Obama would trounce his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination in the Black community. His youth, vitality, and freshness, coupled with his call for greater unity in the nation, suggests he has a legitimate chance to win, thereby energizing Black voters in a...

Bill Cosby's Black critics are circling like vultures in response to his new book written with Dr. Alvin Poussaint, Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors. The book is the latest phase in a three-year effort by Cosby to publicly urge change in the Black community. In...

The emerging consensus appears to be that Senator Hilary Clinton has all but locked up the Democratic presidential nomination. That appears premature when one examines the fundraising numbers where Senator Barack Obama has led for most of the year and now just barely trails Clinton. The fundraising totals would suggest...

I had the pleasure of attending Thursday's Republican presidential candidate's forum at Morgan State University. I also participated in a post forum roundtable that aired on the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS on Friday, September 28. I spent most of the forum in the media filing center (more on that...