There was the proposed massive budget cut to the Department of Housing and Urban Development; the incessant rhetoric about a rise in crime in the nation, that lacked evidence to back it up; the threats of a renewed war on drugs. ... read more »

The way forward is to embrace an America where our tensions and intentions are not based in what we hope America to be... ... read more »

They promised to replace it with a plan that would cover more people and bring costs down ... read more »

Education should never attempt to stamp out culture but expand student’s exposure to various people and experiences ... read more »

Some people have been great parents others have left much to be desired ... read more »

A Giveaway to Guilty Cops  ... read more »

We all weren’t blessed with mothers like Clair Huxtable and because of that Mother’s Day can be especially hard ... read more »

Trump’s time in office so far has been a systematic and vicious assault on civil rights ... read more »

Complacency is killing us. And together with its counterpart, silence, is a huge barrier to Black social, political and economic justice. Sadly, Black people, generally, and Black leadership, in particular, tend to perpetuate a status quo that is inimical to their own best interests. Yes, we are perhaps the most resilient people on the planet. But there is a disturbing parallel between our collective silence on crucial issues like failing to consistently denounce injustice and the “silence of the lambs” syndrome among Jews in Nazi Germany. ... read more »

As we gather to remember and mark the 25th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles Revolt and to discuss the course of history after it, it is important to place it in the context of the long history of Black resistance in which revolt is a central and defining feature. Indeed, ours is a history of resistance through which revolts run like a bright red line, stretching from the age of colonialism, imperialism and the Holocaust of enslavement through segregation and the Black Freedom Movement of the 60s to the revolts and other forms of resistance in our time, from Ferguson onward. Such critical remembering is at the heart of the article below, previously published as a 20th anniversary assessment and reveals how history does not exactly repeat itself, but retains features of things and thoughts which remain stubbornly among us and require continuing righteous resistance for their removal and the radical transformation toward which revolts point and push us and history. ... read more »

I was having a conversation last week with a local producer who was trying to put together a piece commemorating the 25th anniversary of the South Central Los Angeles Riots. ... read more »

Today is National Transgender HIV Testing Day and I'm making it a point to address the issues of our Transgender brothers and sisters. ... read more »

Three years ago, Boko Haram terrorists burst into dormitory rooms at the Government Secondary School in the northern Nigerian town of Chibok and kidnapped nearly 300 girls simply because they dared to get an education. ... read more »

Since the people of South and West Los Angeles sent me to the Legislature in 2013, I have partnered with leaders from every corner of the state to restore transportation funding. Every year, there was a choice that pitted transportation funding against major priorities. ... read more »

Among the sacred names of our honored ancestors which we raise and praise this month, let us pay homage and pour libation for Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898—January 23, 1976), a truly Imhotepian man, in the classical African sense of the word, i.e., a master of many disciplines of knowledge and skilled practice directed toward bringing good in the world. Indeed, he was a critically acclaimed actor, singer, scholar, civil and human rights activist, orator and advocate of workers and everyday people everywhere. However, it is important to note that it is not simply his professional excellence and achievement which made him who he was and won for him accolades, honors and reverent respect around the world, but also his profound and steadfast commitment to his principles and his people and to humanity as a whole, especially ordinary, everyday people. ... read more »