Julianne Malveaux

NNPA NEWSWIRE — With a Senate dominated by conservative Democrats and obstructionist Republicans, when HR 40 passes in Congress, it is unlikely to pass in the Senate. However, it is essential to acknowledge the enormous progress the reparations movement has experienced since Conyers first introduced HR 40.

NNPA NEWSWIRE — So how many pastors does the Arbery family have? As many as they want. Black folks around the nation and the world are praying for a just result in this trial. We are praying for a judicial ruling that the massacre of Black people is unacceptable. We are praying for an examination of this nonsense called “citizen’s arrest." And we are praying for our leaders, our pastors, our brothers to keep the faith and keep representing.

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Politics is the art of compromise. Someone needs to send Mitch McConnell the memo. He does not want to raise the debt ceiling, putting a vote on that off until December. He does not want Biden's $3.5 trillion infrastructure repair plan. He does not want to guarantee voting rights. And few Republicans are willing to stand up to him, instead of hiding behind party unity, even when they know better.

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Those who write, talk, think, and compute for a living have the privilege of flexibility. Those of us who clean, sit behind a cash register, pick up garbage, or more, don't have the same benefit of flexibility. Too much of the policy conversation centers around providing flexibility for some. What accommodations are we prepared to offer others?

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The multiracial population, which was 9 million in 2010 and grew to 33.8 million by 2020, reflects two things. First, the rate of racial intermarriage has increased, leading to an increase of mixed-race children. Equally importantly, the number of people who are willing to self-identify as mixed race has grown. People who once hid their mixed-race identity or felt pressured to choose one identity or the other, now feel free to embrace the totality of their identity.

NNPA NEWSWIRE - I see the $6 trillion price tag on the Biden legislation as more of an investment than simple spending. A better-educated workforce earns more money, pays more taxes. A healthier workforce means less absenteeism, more efficiency, and productivity. Quality childcare means more women in the workforce —millions of women left in the wake of COVID. The investment makes sense to build our labor force back better.

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Many of those working, especially in meat packing, manufacturing, and most service occupations, don't have the luxury to physically distance at work. Some of these folk earn appallingly low wages, in some cases hovering near the $7.25 minimum, the same rate it has been for more than a decade. To be sure, minimum wages are higher in some cities and states, with the District of Columbia, San Francisco, and Seattle establishing a $15 minimum. Other jurisdictions have passed legislation gradually moving the wage to $15.

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The symbolism was stunning, but it was far more critical that President Biden hit the ground running, and he did. He signed 17 executive orders, reversing some of the most onerous declarations of his predecessor. He dissolved the 1776 Commission, an odious truth-erasing propaganda body charged with developing "patriotic education." Replete with lies, peppered with quotes by Dr. Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln, neither of whom would have cosigned the report, the previous administration had the utter audacity to release this madness on Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday holiday. One of the final slaps in the face from the deranged "leader."

NNPA NEWSWIRE — I don’t think that more than 400,000 people dead is normal. The inability to formally mourn our departed loved ones isn’t normal. Crazy white people storming the Capitol surely isn’t normal. And conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Green is so far away from normal that she is on the insanity spectrum.