America’s first “Black President” could teach Barack Obama about reaching out to Black Americans. Unlike Bill Clinton & Crew, Obama and his advisers lack the central African-American experience needed to understand and engage Black Americans.

“Politics without economics is symbol without substance” – Minister Louis Farrakhan

August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. The landmark legislation outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S. But, 45 years after the legislation Blacks nor their vote have attained “Black Power”.

Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters are icons in Black American politics. The buzz among Blacks should be about how each of their character is being called into question by a House Ethics Committee. With accusations each used their office for personal gain; the public should use the upcoming hearings to gauge the truth about Mr. Rangel and Ms. Waters What House rule did either bend or brake for personal gain?

THE past 40 years were the best times ever to be Black in America. But, is it still? While the size of Black underclass has tripled since the 1980s, a Black middle-class that was thought to be flourishing may have fallen on hard times. Studies show: “the wealth gap between White and Black American families has more than quadrupled over the last generation”.

WERE he alive today, a number of people would be throwing shoes at Dr. Ralph H. Bunche. Most African Americans know little of the role Dr. Bunche played in today’s Mille-East debacles. Ralph Bunche, not Barack Obama, was the first African American awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. But, among African Americans that know of Bunche many are critics saying he was “a useful idiot” that enabled Western Powers’ plans to establish the State of Israel.

Should South Africa be spending over $6 billion on the FIFA World Cup 2010 while many of its population survive on $120 a month?

WHO do you think you are? Are you a post-racial advocate that feels race is no longer significant or important in American society? How did you answer the US 2010 Census Form Question No. 9: “What is Person 1’s race?” The race question’s choices are: “White; Black, African-American, or Negro; American Indian or Alaska Native.”

Maybe a better question in how African Americans/Blacks/Negroes identify is consideration of: “Just how White is we”?

Like many Black Americans, the Project 21 Black Conservative Leadership Network called the US Senate’s “apology for slavery” resolution “useless”. But, Project 21 seems to singing somebody else’s agenda when they say: “apologizing for slavery and segregation will be used as a lobbying tool to acquire reparations payments”. Is the concept of reparations for Blacks a dead issue and is Project 21 contributor Jimmie L. Hollis right in urging the Senate to “move on”?

It may not be “world-class”, but American lawmakers can now say Heath Care Reform is “a done deal”. Congress and Obama Administration officials say Americans will now get health reform “based on shared responsibility that asks businesses, insurers, providers and individuals to do their part to make health care more affordable and our people and our economy healthier”. While many Black Americans are elated over what is deemed as a political victory for Obama, they’d be native not to note the role health, hospital and insurance companies and organizations played as the legislation was taking place. Major “Pay for Play” was on display: insurance-related companies and organizations employed 4,500 lobbyists to influence the bill.

DESPITE expansive and deep-seated beliefs in the American Dream’s egalitarian concept America’s structure still perpetuates racial and class inequalities. At the base of “the American Dream” is homeownership. A home is equal parts family sanctuary and wealth asset. A home is a status symbol of substance. Homeownership provides: shelter and security and elevated community involvement and in democratic institutions. So, in the worst real estate market since the 1940s on whom do we rely to eradicate racial and class inequalities in homeownership? During the nation’s economic downturn homeownership rates among minority communities declined significantly.