Race & Identity

The Congressional Black Caucus is 40 years old this year, and with one of its former members in the White House, members are feeling more powerful than ever. As the CBC gathers in Washington for its annual legislative conference weekend-the first since Barack Obama was elected president-some members say the CBC, with a record 43 members, may be more influential now than at anytime in its history.

Nelson Rising, chairman of Tom Bradley’s 1982 campaign for California governor, still remembers the phone call. Bradley called him shortly after 4 a.m. on a long election night, when it was clear Bradley had lost to Republican attorney general George Deukmejian.
“You were right,” Bradley told Rising a bit wearily.

A "fan" of what he calls "The Obama Show," the Cos says if you can't be a doctor, at least be an electrician.

During a wide-ranging interview with John King of CNN, President Barack Obama distanced himself from former President Jimmy Carter's contention that the recent surge of opposition to big government is motivated by racism. Rather, the president observed that the debate over the size and scope of the federal government has been ferocious since the days of Andrew Jackson.

For eight television seasons (NBC, 1984-92), the Emmy Award-winning The Cosby Show, written by and starring comedian Bill Cosby, beamed an unflinching, yet humorous black family portrait into living rooms across America. Cosby, as Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, presided over this historic foray into black upper-middle class life. The sitcom was a window into a certain, often enviable kind of black familial and romantic love, a showcase for amazing talent and a place where the situations or “problems” of a black family were mostly just the same as any other. The No.

Barack Obama had no choice but to disagree with Jimmy Carter. Carter called some of Obama's most hysterical critics racist. But our first nonwhite president once again tried hard not to be sucked into a racial uproar. As much as he and his liberal allies like to declare that Americans need to hash out racial issues publicly, the subject of race can only damage his presidency.

President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I? So asked a pigtailed black girl plastered on buses and billboards around Washington, D.C. The White House blasted the political ad, which promoted healthy food options in public schools, as exploitative -- but the little girl's complaint should resonate with an administration that has prioritized healthy eating and food security, from both the East and West Wing of the White House.

President Obama's biergarten moment at the White House on Thursday may have started out as a political stunt, but in the end it could become a model for the future of race relations in America.

I'm not talking about the "teachable moment" nonsense. Nor am I particularly impressed by the idea that people of different backgrounds should get together to talk about their backgrounds. What's new here, and what I think might just stick, is the idea that people in conflict should sit down and throw back a few beers.

Henry Louis Gates' arrest and President Obama's later remarks have led to a discussion about racial tensions and police conduct.

Ralph Eubanks, author and fellow at the New America Foundation, shares what he believes is teachable about this moment. Link to audio