First Lady Michelle Obama. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) The amazing W.E.B. Du Bois is often celebrated as one of America’s greatest educators, historians, human rights leaders, prolific authors, and galvanizing change agents. What many may not realize is that during the first half of the 20th century he stood among that select group of “enlightened” men who championed the rights of women, and who argued that their full empowerment was crucial to the continuing development of democratic ideals and practices. The degree to which Dr. Bois believed the unfettered role of women in American society was an absolutely essential one can be summed up in part by these words from his pen: “...No state can be strong which excludes from its expressed wisdom, the knowledge possessed by mothers, wives and daughters.” There are numerous reasons to spend time considering Du Bois’ insight on women’s equality at this specific juncture of history in th

Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office to President Barack Obama. (official White House photo by Lawrence Jackson) “Hope drowned in shadows emerges fiercely splendid–– boldly angelic.” --Aberjhani, from The River of Winged Dreams One of the political jabs with which critics of Barack Obama used to attack him during his first run for the U.S. presidency was that his proposed platform was more rhetorical poetry than political substance. That charge has been largely reversed at this 2013 beginning of his hard-won second term. The cry now––mostly from those frequently described as extremist conservatives, Tea Partiers, and the “ New Plutocrats ”–– is that the poet in President Obama has allowed power to exert its corruptive influence. It has, they charge, caused him to imagine that he is “a king” in a country where monarchy is not the law of the land. The supposed evidence is his successful passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

                                President Barack Obama on the cover of TIME Magazine . “Beneath the armor of skin/and/bone/and/mind most of our colors are amazingly the same.” --from ELEMENTAL, The Power of Illuminated Love (Aberjhani) Despite the Associated Press’s recent gloomy poll on racial attitudes in the United States, most Americans would probably agree that race should not have played as powerful a role as it did in the 2012 presidential election campaign resulting in the ultimate re-election of Barack Obama . But there are at least two good reasons that it did. First, consider the approximately one million African-American men and women currently either imprisoned, on parole, or rushing blindly down a path likely to lead to prison. Too many of them grew up, during any given decade of the last half century, believing they were either destined to go to prison as some form of rites of passage, or they should expect to die ––as Trayvon Martin and my brother

President Barack Obama with 1 st Lady Michelle Obama and other U.S. political leaders at 1 WTC in New York (photo by Jewel Samad and AFP Getty Images) “Democracy does not have to be a blood sport . It can be an honorable enterprise that advances the public interest.”      ––f ormer U.S. President Bill Clinton When former U.S. President Bill Clinton made the above statement at the 2012 Democratic National Convention on September 5 in Charlotte, N.C., he was referring to the intensely negative elements that have made their way into the current presidential election campaign. He could, however, have been discussing almost any kind of attempt to resolve major differences where individuals choose to rely on brutality or guerrilla decontextualization as opposed to civility and communication. Imagine the many possibilities of what life might, could, or would be like for so many today if Osama bin Laden had developed a different perspective on how best to address what he

President Barack Obama on cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. Barack Obama rarely speaks of would-be political opponents as enemies but rather as representatives of specific interpretations of Americans’ shared human condition. Speaking with Jann S. Werner in the October 15 edition of Rolling Stone magazine, he pointed this out about his most vigorous critics... For more please click link: Obama, the Tea Party, and the art of political persuasions (part 3): Reality Gap - National African-American Art | Examiner.com

First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama The racial aspect of the Tea Party movement––despite African-American and biracial Tea Partiers who tote signs that advertise their opposition to Obama–– has proven particularly disturbing for many people. Members have defended themselves many times over against charges of racism and claim that Democrats are simply “playing the race card” in order to avoid confronting the real issues. For more please click the following link: Obama, the Tea Party, and the art of political persuasions (part 2): Signs - National African-American Art | Examiner.com

The election of Barack Obama to the United States presidency represents more than one man’s personal political victory. It also in part represents the triumph of the cultural values, diverse spirituality, and enduring legacies of a people who survived centuries of slavery to emerge as a globally influential and celebrated community. Stocks in products exploring and documenting African-American culture have ebbed and flowed since the 1920s-1940s Harlem Renaissance which helped generate and coincided with America’s famous Jazz Age. Interest surged forward again during the 1960s Black Arts Movement and yet again with the more recent boom in Afrocentric literature, in both traditional publishing houses and among independent authors turned publishers, from the 1990s to the present. The impact tends to be a cross-industry one that enhances the quality, productivity, and profitability of different institutions. Universities, high schools, museums, libraries, the film industry, and