Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
I hate taking selfies. But I finally caved, and ended up being happily upstaged by the image of Papa Renty. He’s a Black founding father too many want to whitewash from history. iPINIONS explains the backstory behind my new profile pic. Read more on Substack: https://ipinionsdaily.substack.com/p/my-new-profile-pic-says-more-about Read more.
From the Blacks they brought in chains to the Blacks and Browns they cage in prisons and the Browns they deport in shackles — for some, America has never been the land of the free… Read more.
Graduate students use Critical Race Theory (CRT) to examine the myriad ways race and the legacy of racism affect a person’s life experiences in America, especially with respect to education, employment, housing, healthcare, and the criminal justice system. But Republican propagandists have reframed it as a liberal plot to impose the guilt of 19th century… Read more.
The New York Times is marking the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first blacks in America with a three-month editorial series called The 1619 Project. The series will document and narrate how enslaved blacks were already building America at Point Comfort before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. It will also… Read more.
Juneteenth and reparations for slavery Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It stems from slaves in Galveston, Texas, not being informed of their emancipation until June 19, 1865. That was two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863. What about reparations? The US House of Representatives… Read more.
I have been making this claim for decades. It’s based primarily on the fact that Frederick Douglass personified both the contradictions and promises that define America’s founding documents. And he did so like nobody else has or ever could. Unfortunately, even black historians have been so indoctrinated with white historiography, they invariably try to qualify my… Read more.
Africans selling Africans Like many people, you might think Europeans captured Africans to enslave them in the so-called New World. This, however, is one of history’s greatest misconceptions. After all, for centuries before Europeans set foot on the continent, Africans had been capturing and enslaving fellow Africans. Moreover, they were aping the customary practices of ancient civilizations… Read more.
For years, CARICOM leaders have been demanding billions in reparations from the British government for slavery. For just as long, I’ve been trying to disabuse them of their legally, politically and morally unsustainable demands. I tried in such commentaries as “The Fatally Flawed Demands for Reparations for Slavery,” February 16, 2007, and “CARICOM Demands for… Read more.
