TheGrio • 7th November 2022

Justice Clarence Thomas needs to go

Justice Clarence Thomas needs to go Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is in the news again, and not in a good way — unless you are down for insurrection plots, corruption and conflicts of interest. And what we are hearing about the justice is more proof that it is time for him to leave the bench and take some of his colleagues with him. The latest report from

TheGrio • 1st November 2022

Meet Edward Blum, the man who wants to take down affirmative action

Meet Edward Blum, the man who wants to take down affirmative action Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday to decide whether to throw college affirmative action programs in the dustbin of history, and the highest court in the land appears poised to scrap the policy. We have the most diverse Supreme Court we have ever seen, yet it features an ultra-conser

TheGrio • 31st October 2022

We have to talk about the white supremacist-adjacent, MAGA-loving Black folks

We have to talk about the white supremacist-adjacent, MAGA-loving Black folks Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. White supremacist-adjacent, MAGA-loving Black figures such as Kanye West would be dismissed as buffoons if they weren’t so dangerous. As they say in Philly, Kanye West f’d around and found out when he lost his spot on the Forbes list of billionaires. This, after Adidas, Gap, Balenciaga and o

TheGrio • 21st September 2022

Alabama planned to use a new, untested method for the death penalty. Even though the execution was blocked, here’s why you should care

Alabama planned to use a new, untested method for the death penalty. Even though the execution was blocked, here’s why you should care Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio Bad habits are hard to break, and this most certainly applies to Alabama and the death penalty. Alabama wants to execute prisoners with a new, untested method of capital punishment called nitrogen hypoxia. Death row inmate Alan Miller w

NBC News • 13th September 2022

Opinion | In the Pennsylvania Senate race, a familiar GOP strategy is at work

Supporters of Mehmet Oz — the Donald Trump-backed Republican Senate nominee in Pennsylvania — are going after Oz’s Democratic opponent John Fetterman with a new series of attack ads. The new spots, which are part of a $500,000 ad campaign from the pro-Oz group American Leadership Action, criticize Fetterman for a 2013 incident in which he pulled a gun on a Black jogger and detained him after mistakenly believing he had committed a crime. Unsurprisingly, the 30-second version of the ad started a

TheGrio • 7th September 2022

The 5 states with ballot initiatives to abolish slavery in 2022

The 5 states with ballot initiatives to abolish slavery in 2022 Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. It’s 2022, and five states have ballot initiatives to abolish slavery. Yes, you read that right. In the “land of the free,” the states of Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont have an opportunity to vote to abolish slavery, as part of an effort by the criminal justice reform movement effort t

TheGrio • 29th August 2022

Will a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act help Black communities get environmental justice?

Will a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act help Black communities get environmental justice? Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. Is a key to helping protect Black communities from climate change hidden in the Inflation Reduction Act? In what is being hailed as a victory for the Biden administration and Democrats, the Inflation Reduction Act has been framed as a “game changer” for a country grapplin

TheGrio • 16th August 2022

'The stakes are so high': Austin Davis and a new generation of Black leadership are running against a rising MAGA tide

‘The stakes are so high’: Austin Davis and a new generation of Black leadership are running against a rising MAGA tide Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. In this crucial midterm election season, democracy is on the ballot, and that’s real. Issues such as reproductive justice, voting rights and many basic freedoms hang in the balance as Trump acolytes hope to take power at the state and federal level, ga

TheGrio • 4th August 2022

Democrats helped an election-denying, MAGA candidate win a primary. They better hope it doesn’t come back to bite them

Democrats helped an election-denying, MAGA candidate win a primary. They better hope it doesn’t come back to bite them Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. Democrats think the best way to keep Congress is not only to run against the most extreme, election-denying, QAnon conspiracy-theory peddling, Trump-blessed candidates, but also to promote those candidates in Republican primaries and send them to the g

TheGrio • 22nd July 2022

Republican candidates who believe Trump's Big Lie are winning primaries

Republican candidates who believe Trump’s Big Lie are winning primaries Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. Trump is no longer president, but the Trump cult continues to peddle his Big Lie—that the 2020 election was stolen from the former president. More than 100 Republican candidates for office—in statewide, U.S. House and Senate races—are drinking the orange Kool-Aid and promoting Trump’s bogus claims

Random House • 18th July 2022

A Good Country -Virtual Book Launch with Sofia-Ali Khan

TheGrio • 15th July 2022

It's time to root out white supremacists in the military and law enforcement

It’s time to root out white supremacists in the military and law enforcement Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. White supremacists in the military and law enforcement are not a new phenomenon. But the crisis is growing like a cancer, and now, apparently, the government is finally taking this utmost threat seriously. In light of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, if America fails to root out the white dome

Al Jazeera • 10th July 2022

US: murder of Jayland Walker was indeed ‘routine’ police practice

Two years after the police murder of George Floyd, racialised police brutality is still tragically ordinary in America. The June 27 police murder of Jayland Walker in Akron, Ohio proved yet again what many of us already knew: In the United States, even the most mundane encounter with the police can be deadly for you if you are Black. The lawyer representing his family said Walker was shot “approximately 90 times”. Body-cam footage released by the police confirmed the count. An initial autopsy

TheGrio • 1st July 2022

Democrats’ response to the overturning of Roe shows how weak and out of touch they really are

Democrats’ response to the overturning of Roe shows how weak and out of touch they really are As Republicans celebrated the end of abortion rights, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi led Democrats in the singing of “God Bless America” on the Capitol steps. Other than fundraising off the Supreme Court decision and telling people to vote harder, the Democrats seem to lack both a short-term and long-term strategy. As one person recently tweeted, “My roommate described Republicans as the mass shoot

TheGrio • 29th June 2022

This is not how a president should act

This is not how a president should act Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. The testimony from the special emergency session of the House Jan. 6 committee confirms what many should have known and definitely should know now: Trump was an unhinged president who had no business being anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Trump was all about the Capitol riot, and now is the time to lock him up. Most of the

TheGrio • 28th June 2022

Anti-Trump conservatives are not your friends

Anti-Trump conservatives are not your friends Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. Some Republicans do not support Trump. Some have even spoken out against him and ignored his calls to overthrow the government and establish a Trumpocratic MAGA dictatorship. But if they are on board with the other 99 percent of the GOP agenda—policies that strip Black people of their rights and dignity—they most certainly

TheGrio • 25th June 2022

It’s time to tear down the Supreme Court because it is a threat to Black life

It’s time to tear down the Supreme Court because it is a threat to Black life Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. The U.S. Supreme Court is an illegitimate institution that is a threat to the lives of Black people and other marginalized groups in particular, and those who are not white Christian supremacist men. Now is the time to shut the whole thing down now and start from scratch before more people di

Rutgers Today • 22nd June 2022

Rutgers Commemorates Juneteenth

What Juneteenth Calls Us to Remember Recognizing Juneteenth is a somber act of remembrance; a declaration that this country should continue the hard work of becoming the beacon of liberty and righteous independence that it claims to be. Juneteenth, the federally recognized holiday that honors the emancipation of enslaved people, is a reminder that freedom is incomplete if it is based on anything less than the truth. Taking a close look at the history of “The Star-Spangled Banner” helps illumina

TheGrio • 3rd June 2022

Uvalde is a reminder that police are not always the best narrators because they lie

Uvalde is a reminder that police are not always the best narrators because they lie Police do lie, and often. Those who accept what police officers say as the God’s honest truth are likely to get their feelings hurt at some point. While many reporters working the crime beat simply rely on the police department press releases to get to the “truth”—and copy and paste the police statements into their articles—the Uvalde, Texas, massacre, has revealed what many in the Black community and other comm

TheGrio • 24th May 2022

Is monkeypox a Black disease? Many in the media seem to think so

Is monkeypox a Black disease? Many in the media seem to think so Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio. As the monkeypox virus spreads—and the media hype up this outbreak into the new COVID pandemic—news organizations are racializing and colorizing this new virus du jour. A rare and mild virus with a low infection rate, monkeypox has a history in remote parts of Central and West Africa. However, the cases t