In the middle of a trip this week through North Carolina, Hillary Clinton strayed off the economic message that was the focus of speeches in Raleigh, Fayetteville and Winston-Salem to talk about race. Clinton took 30 minutes in the middle of a hectic day for a conference call with members of the Trotter Group – [...]

Being black didn’t make me any more susceptible to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s more outrageous theories. Being a lifelong Catholic, the fire-and-brimstone style of preaching was never my tradition. But the interpretations – too often through a racial prism, that have become as endless as the replays of his more fiery sermons – took me [...]

When covering the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, it was the easiest of questions, and it seemed that many journalists couldn’t resist. Black women were tracked down in churches and beauty parlors or chased while walking down the street, and asked: Are you going to vote for race or gender, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton? [...]

Maybe it wasn’t so surprising. John McCain edged past Mike Huckabee in the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday, making him the front-runner – this week. He won over a little more than a quarter of evangelicals. If Huckabee can’t win in a state with this many evangelical voters, can he win anywhere else? Who [...]

A recent Newsweek magazine article examined “The Roots of Fear,” providing scientific evidence of why appealing to our fears works. Apparently, we’re hard-wired to panic first and ask questions later. That comes in handy when you hear a loud noise in a dark alley. But in other circumstances – such as picking a president – [...]

The Oprah-Obama show was all over the news this weekend. Sure, Winfrey’s celebrity and clout signaled the perfect blend of pop culture and politics that has become routine. If Barbra Streisand starts touring with Hillary Clinton, expect more of the same. But as someone who was there to witness the crowd of nearly 30,000 file [...]

So I’ve heard Al Sharpton answering Meredith Vieira’s questions on the “Today” show and Michael Eric Dyson sparring with Pat Buchanan on “Hardball.” They were all discussing whether Don Imus deserves another on-air chance after his insult of the Rutgers women’s basketball team. I have nothing against Sharpton, Vieira, Dyson or Buchanan. Well, maybe a [...]

Now, was that so bad? When six Republican candidates for president showed up last night for a forum at Morgan State University in Baltimore, my hometown, people in the audience all acted like they had some sense. The panel – Pulitzer Prize winner Cynthia Tucker, PBS’s Ray Suarez and Juan Williams, an NPR and Fox [...]

The 2008 presidential election is a long way off, the primary season is barely in sight, yet the religious ritual has already taken hold. There’s been so much God talk lately, it’s become meaningless. God is not a candidate or a campaign manager. Yet, it’s expected and accepted for candidates to declare their faith views. [...]

He stares out from Newsweek magazine. Yes, Barack Obama is everywhere. And the headline, “Black & White,” goes to the heart of what people try to avoid but can’t seem to escape when talking about him: race. That’s understandable in a country that’s been struggling to reconcile ideals with action for most of its existence. [...]