The fact that Tuskegee University’s fall dress code generated headlines, heated discussions, hard feelings, and any conversation at all is worthy of note. I ordinarily mind my own business (because I have some), but this topic I couldn’t avoid. Ironically, I had a discussion last week with my two youngest granddaughters, Maya, 19, and Morgan, 18, about why I believe bonnets, du-rags, pajamas, and such on campus are an affront to our ancestors who expect us to do better, and move the generations forward. I’m amazed that Tuskegee would have had to create, enhance, and inform students that they’d be…
Author: Cynthia Bond Hopson, Ph.D.
“…and a child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6 This passage from Isaiah came to mind immediately as Pope Leo XIV welcomed 164 children and youth from around the world to his summer home July 29, for what was termed a Peace Concert, or a Canticle of Peace. The young people, many whose homes, sense of safety, innocence, hopes and dreams had been ravaged by bombs, drones, power seekers, greed, and aggression, stood tall, sang courageously, and offered hope to a world that seems oblivious to the bleak future they and future generations might inherit. This prophetic line from Isaiah envisions…
As this fall’s elections quickly approach, some of the candidates for governor are downright scary, and if we’re not well informed and actually vote, our days ahead may be too. Only a few gubernatorial candidates are running ads now but it behooves us to attend forums and engage on all levels as our 51 st governor is selected. It’s probably too much to hope for someone who is accomplished, kind, compassionate and sensitive, who listens, and whose commitment to party doesn’t trump what’s best for us, our cities, and this beautiful state. Perhaps a prayer vigil begun now for such…
The new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago opened in time for this year’s June 19th Juneteenth holiday, and from all accounts, it’s something important to see. At this point it doesn’t matter whether you admired, supported, or loathed our nation’s 44th president and his wife Michelle; when the dust settles, I suspect this historic couple will be judged as much by what they did as what they did not do. The Obamas, their girls, her mother, and their dog captured the world’s attention as the nation’s first African American presidential family. For many African Americans, their election in 2008 was…
The newly redrawn Tennessee congressional districts may be many things but describing them as fair, legal, defensible, and an accurate reflection of the will of the state’s voters is like saying the Grand Canyon is a ditch. I watched in disbelief as President Donald Trump directed Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to undertake immediate redistricting after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling struck down race-based district lines in Louisiana last week. Before the call was barely finished Governor Lee gathered the Tennessee legislature to hurriedly redraw our lines, despite the fact we were in the midst of election season. Our beautiful state…
This latest government shutdown is a Democrats versus Republicans blame game. Yes, it is unacceptable that we’re having another one, and yes, it ought to be against the law that government employees who work don’t get paid but politicians who exploit this faithful labor as bargaining chips, do. For weeks we’ve seen mile-long lines in airports around the country with a daily litany of how Transportation Safety Administration agents quit or didn’t come to work because they haven’t been paid. Be clear: I understand Democrats are holding Homeland Security funding hostage to get ICE reforms; and, I understand President Trump…
Edwin Starr’s 1970 protest anthem from the Vietnam War era poignantly asked “War, what is it good for?” That question today is still the right one to ask though sadly, this “absolutely nothing” remains the correct answer almost 56 years later. Countries and factions go to war but we know in terms of human lives maimed and lost, homes, habitats, and communities ravaged by bombs, in war, nobody wins. Whether we justify the missiles, bombs, drones, ships at the ready, or get to brag about our might and cool toys, the result is the same. When you count the families…
When my parents repeatedly warned “Everybody is not your friend,” and “Choose your friends carefully,” they must’ve known the guilt-by-association trouble Jeffrey Epstein’s friends would encounter. From the rich and powerful to aspiring wannabes, I suspect we haven’t felt the full weight of this sordid sex trafficking tale and the unfriendly tenacles waiting to snare those who keep trying unsuccessfully to distance themselves from him. We’ve had a million distractions–legislative holidays, foreign invasions, resignations, political wrangling, court delays, and President Trump’s insistence that this is a partisan attempt to discredit him, but Epstein’s horrific acts won’t go away. We, the…
Poverty is big business and a bunch of folks make millions from/because of it. Of course, I didn’t just figure this out– I said it in a lecture 30 years ago. My students and I then painfully discussed exorbitant rents, subpar housing, wages, food deserts that led to limited choices and chronic diseases—the list was longer than the lecture. What has prompted today’s conversation is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and its “day on not a day off” philosophy that emphasizes helping neighbors and an intentional focus on the dignity of work and our role all year. First, the…
Before I comment on whether Dr. Jamal Bryant’s wife’s ball gown at a recent UNCF fundraiser was too revealing, too tight, or inappropriate, let me first say I mind my own business because I have some, and, none of it goes by the name of Dr. Karri Turner Bryant. Even if Brother Bryant hadn’t bought the dress in question, and loved/hated it, or you thought it was way too much, we should do what blues great, Memphis Minnie, advised decades ago: “Use good judgment and keep your big mouth closed.” In the African American church, first ladies—(the pastor’s wife, not…