All 36 articles by Laura S. Washington
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The Paradox of Our Media Age—and What to Do About It
We live in a communications desert. How can this be, you, say? Our 24/7 news cycle delivers information by...
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Chicago’s Left Blows Its Big Chance
Rahm Emanuel appears to have made the best of a once-in-a-generation opportunity.
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What Has Barack Obama Done for Black America?
Tavis Smiley gathers prominent black leaders, intellectuals and activists to take the president to task.
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Obama Needs a Black Agenda
The first black president of the United States cannot credibly govern without a national black agenda. But don't...
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Honest Abe and Honest Obe
Abraham Lincoln will rise again. At least that's what Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama would like you to...
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The Whole World Was Watching
40 years ago this week, Chicago police battled protesters at the DNC. Two '60s radicals remember the madness, and look to Denver for change
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Gun-toters in La-La Land
The conservative answer to America's crime plague is to put more guns on the streets. If that's not...
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The Great Election Robbery of 2008?
Come Nov. 4, the elephant in the polling booth is the possibility that the 2008 presidential election will be stolen...
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Obama Not Feelin’ the Love from Smiley
Now that Sen. Barack Obama has taken care of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tavis Smiley appears to be...
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Who Would Ida B. Wells Vote For?
Racism or sexism -- which is worse? Take your pick. Paula Giddings' new biography, Ida: A Sword Among...
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The Nadir of Nader
He's back. And he's got your back. Yes, Ralph Nader has thrown down that withering, raggedy old gauntlet...
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Missing: Minorities in Media
America was burning. The riots unleashed by the April 4, 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. were...
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Fat Kids, Fat Profits
I recently encountered a colleague at the movies. He was big when I saw him a year ago,...
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McGovern Still on the Antiwar Path
The retired senator and former ambassador to the United Nations is stumping for a book he co-wrote with foreign policy analyst William R. Polk called Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now while buttonholing dozens of members of Congress and urging our immediate withdrawal from Iraq
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Come on People! Bill Cosby is Right
Cosby's critics excoriated him for delivering his rant from an elitist ivory tower without offering solutions, arguing that the black poor are the helpless victims of white supremacy and institutional racism
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Katrina Through Rose-Colored Glasses
Race does matter in the caustic caldron of the post-Katrina era--the world still perceives us as "refugees"--permanently scarred victims to be forever adrift in tragedy
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Let’s Pry Open Those Cold, Dead Hands
To defeat the gun lobby, gun-control activists need to get out of late-night local cable and embrace the Internet
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The Crafting of Obama
When Barack Obama launched his presidential bid, he decided to build a staircase, not merely a platform, thereby differing with most African-American presidential aspirants
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Bloomberg Could Tie Centrists in Knots
If the New York mayor runs, he will stymie the ability of the Democratic nominee to play both sides of the fence on issues like guns, gay rights, immigration and choice
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A GLBT Center of Their Own
A combination of public and private funds, Chicago's new GLBT community center enjoys broad political support and is the first of its kind in the country
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Curiosity and a Cat Named Studs
Legendary Chicago writer Studs Terkel celebrates 95 years on May 16, and a new book this fall
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The United States of Amnesia
In America, historians are rarely heard from and seldom honored. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. was an exception to this...
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Obamas Base: Broader Than Black
Black leaders, be wary. If you eschew the Obama phenomenon, you may have to pay a price. On...
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Cultivating the Media Garden
The tides, they were a-rising in Memphis last month at the Free Press National Conference for Media Reform....
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Art Basel Miami Beach: A Whitewash
Since 2001, Samuel Keller, the aging arts wunderkind, has inspired the art world's most seminal and explosive art exposition,...
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The Second Clinton Ascendancy
On a post-election edition of PBS's "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer," presidential historian Richard Norton Smith told...
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Make Democrats Earn Black Votes
The Democratic Party has been taking Black votes for granted for decades.
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Year of the Black Candidate
Many Black candidates sought and won office in the 2006 takeover by the Democrats.
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Debunking the 60s with Ayers and Dohrn
Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, activiists leaders in SDS in the '60's, say a new movement must be built.
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Go On, Amend Away
Should flag burning be outlawed by Constitutional amendment?
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Overthrow, Over and Over
The old saw goes, "the trend is your friend." Let's try that one again. Stephen Kinzer's new book,...
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Democrats Gear Up on the Ground
Eager for victory in November, Democrats are making convenient alliances
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Solidarity from Barrio to Barbershop
A Chicago exhibit, “The African Presence in Mexico,” displays the deep ties between ethnic groups in America
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A Sit-Down with Studs
I'm not a big believer in the cult of personality. Neither was Jim Weinstein, the founding editor and...
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Black Leadership Wanted
Historic events have a way of burning off the mists. Coretta Scott King's Feb. 7 funeral surfaced age-old political...
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