This is a curated version of a PBS extra I will be referencing in an upcoming piece.
James Baldwin appears in Boston public television producer Henry Morgenthau III’s “The Negro and the American Promise,” alongside Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. The New York Times described the James Baldwin segment as “a television experience that seared the conscience.” Continue reading Video: James Baldwin on “The Negro and the American Promise” | PBS
We have come this far. We have farther to go. Together. Continue reading Selma
FBI Director Comey ‘s speech is notable for many reasons. It is most notable for his directness in referencing and qualifying racism in a way few in public service have dared show in recent memory. For that, I thank and commend him. It is clear that this is a subject near and dear to his heart. Continue reading FBI Director Comey’s Truths about Policing and Race
First, the Huffington Post’s assessment:
Continue reading Where jobs, wages and the economy really are
When people think of James Baldwin, they think of Go Tell It On The Mountain, The Fire Next Time, or Giovanni’s Room.
They might think of his articles for The New Yorker. They wouldn’t readily think of him as a documentarian. He was that too! Continue reading Take this Hammer: James Baldwin in Oakland, 1963
It is a common mistake to overestimate the contribution of immigration to the increase in poverty. Today’s purveyor of this erroneous association is the WaPo’s Robert Samuelson, who writes in the context of a discussion about immigration reform:
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan announced defeat at the hands of the “war on poverty“—a war his predecessor Lyndon Johnson had waged since 1967. InThe Atlantic the year after, Nicholas Lemann explained why all anti-poverty programs need not be as “ill-fated” as the ones spearheaded over those decades.
Continue reading What If We Had Measured #Poverty Differently for the Past 50 Years? | CityLab
October 9, 2014Three years ago, reporter and former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert took to the road and traveled across the United States to gather research for his new book, Losing Our Way. Continue reading Bob Herbert: Restoring an America That Has Lost Its Way | Moyers & Company
If you will take a brief amble with me through some budget weeds, I assure you it will be in your interest.
Even people who pay some attention to such things don’t know that an important work-support for low-income families is scheduled to expire at the end of 2017. I’m talking about parts of the refundable portions of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) that were expanded in recent years. Without Congressional action, these improvements will go up in smoke at the end of 2017.
By Jared Bernstein
They’re out and I’ve got an extensive analysis up at PostEverything. For here, some highlights.
–The poverty rate fell more than I expected last year–down half-a-percentage point from 15% in 2012 to 14.5% in 2013. It was fully driven by a sharp decline in child poverty rate, which fell almost two percentage points, from 21.8% to 19.9%, the largest one-year decline since 1966.
