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HBCUs get a much-needed financial lift
MacKenzie Scott, author and ex-wife of Amazon honcho Jeff Bezos, has elevated her profile in a humongous way. You can bet historically black colleges and universities are grateful for her attention. As well as the stroke of Scott’s pen on checks worth at least tens of millions of dollars. Scott announced last week online she […]
Governor’s emergency powers shouldn’t be limited during pandemic
If you take state Sen. Steve Newman at his word, he merely wants to recalibrate the relationship between the executive and legislative branches when an emergency strikes – like during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Lynchburg Republican has introduced a bill for next month’s special session that would limit the time an executive order lasts […]
Disparity in police decertifications should alarm Virginians
Picture this scenario: A local police officer is accused of getting overly aggressive during an arrest, seriously injuring someone in the process. The chief of police and other supervising officials review the case. They decide to fire the officer. The officer shrugs, packs his bags, and simply moves to another agency in the commonwealth. He […]
‘If we don’t fix it now, we’ll never get it right:’ How to restore trust in policing.
What will restore trust between police departments and the communities they serve, particularly with people of color? A local law enforcement executive in Virginia – thrust into the spotlight since the slaying of George Floyd by officers in Minneapolis – has some ideas. “A real quick fix will be banning chokeholds,” Norfolk Police Chief Larry […]
Change the damn name already
“We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.” – Daniel Snyder, Washington Redskins owner, to USA Today in May 2013 “Never” equals seven years, by my calculations. You won’t see such a definition in the dictionary, of course. You will find, however, that “redskin” is defined as a contemptuous […]
Virginia Democrats are making a mistake in denouncing redistricting amendment
Just months before voters in the commonwealth choose whether to reduce the blatant gerrymandering that arises every 10 years during redistricting, many Virginia Democrats are now saying, “Never mind.” Shame on them. The process to get such a referendum before voters has been a long, tortuous one, with frequent setbacks because state lawmakers in the […]
It took a nation in turmoil for the Redskins to finally elevate Bobby Mitchell
My late father, a D.C. police officer from the 1940s to the mid-’60s, despised the Washington Redskins. He’d fume repeatedly about how the team was the last in the NFL to hire a Black player – Bobby Mitchell – because of its segregationist founder and owner George Preston Marshall. If I heard Joseph Chesley Sr. […]
On Confederate monuments, patience has run out
A few more weeks of peering at century-old monuments to the Confederacy around Virginia was more than many protesters could bear. Not that I’m mad at them. Most of the monuments were erected during the reign of Jim Crow. To Blacks, they’re a strong symbol of inequality, terror and second-class citizenship. A new state law […]
Good riddance to Advance America
Spare no tears for Advance America, Virginia’s largest payday loan operator. The company has now decided to flee the commonwealth before new, tougher regulations passed by the General Assembly begin next year. You can bet the more than 80,000 Virginians who got payday loans, just in 2018 alone, from Advance America and similar companies aren’t […]
A horrific slaying, massive protests and depressing déjà vu
It’s beginning to look a lot like the mid-1960s across America. For young people, or those unaware of U.S. history, that’s not a good thing. Protests around the country have escalated following the video-recorded killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man slain May 25 as a white police officer kneeled on his neck […]
Huge percentages of absentee voters in May show state must prepare for the same this fall
Voters in several localities around the commonwealth participated in last week’s local elections, even if they didn’t queue up at their regular precincts. Given the chance to vote absentee by mail – something state officials had encouraged during the coronavirus pandemic – Virginians did so in droves. That implies two things: We’re taking our civic […]
Practicing religion is more than going to church
Folks who criticized Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam for limiting the size of church services the past several weeks – including opportunists in the Trump administration – acted as if the guv were denying residents their right to practice religion. It’s an odd stance since the regulations, in the face of this awful novel coronavirus pandemic, […]