More and more students continue to ask me do they have the right to record the police when they arrive on the scene. NAACP Legal Counsel Khyla D. Craine attempts to answer this question below: The question about our right to film and take pictures of police officers in the line of duty has resurfaced […]
Author Archive | Shannon Reeves
Power and Politics as Mechanisms of Influence
Last week I served as the keynote speaker for the Ronald E. McNair Undergraduate Luncheon at the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc’s 10th District Meeting in Detroit, MI. I spoke about the impact of politics as a fluid business. I wanted to share with these young men how politics is a contact sport and how […]
The Frustration of Black Republicanism
In 1985, legendary NAACP icon Tarea Hall Pittman said to me as a young teen, “Black people need to have a seat at the table wherever decisions are being made.” She did not just say the Democrat table. The point is, the problems of Black America require all hands on deck. No one should […]
Getting on the Bus…..to see “Selma”
Loading up and on the move!
Alabama A&M University Government Students Analyze “Selma”
(photo by J.Saintjones) I was able to spend the afternoon with some of my students to view the Academy Award nominated film “Selma” in Huntsville, Alabama
Free Community College Sounds Hot. But How Do HBCUs Feel About That?
BY: CHARLES D. ELLISON Posted: Jan. 16 2015 1:24 PM With several HBCUs fighting for survival in the face of financial crisis, is President Obama’s plan to make community college free coming at the expense of historically black schools? Philosophically, President Obama would give us all four free years of a college education if he […]
Scholars: ‘Selma’ Film Likely to Have Social Justice Impact
By Ronald Roach In the days leading up to the Christmas Day limited release of the civil rights era film Selma, the filmmakers and lead actors saw fit to integrate messages from the Black Lives Matter protests and social media campaign into their promotion of the new movie last month. That merger of film promotion […]
Obama goes there on ‘acting white’
By Jonathan Capehart July 22, 2014 The Washington Post In the panoply of insults African Americans hurl at each other, there are two that are meant to stunt the viewpoints and ambitions of their victims. One is being called an “Uncle Tom.” We covered this ground back in May when I urged folks to stop […]
What President Obama gets wrong about ‘acting white’
By Nia-Malika Henderson July 24, 2014 – The Washington Post When President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama speak to an audience of African Americans, particularly students, they invariably mention the trope of “acting white.” That is the notion that one impediment to black students’ success is the belief in some black communities that academic […]
Too Many Black Churches Preach the Gospel of Greed
By Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. New York Times – Originally posted June 25, 2014 I once wrote that the black church was dead. It was a deliberate provocation. I wanted to spark a conversation about the role of black churches in light of contemporary challenges, particularly the crisis of American capitalism. Black pastors preaching the need […]
