Forget Red State - Blue State politics. But don't forget that all politics is local. The Christian Science Monitor's Patchwork Nation project is redefining political geography based on social and economic data, and in the process is clarifying the issues that will matter to Americans come November.
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It turns out that in many parts of the United States, corporal punishment is still standard operating procedure. A joint Human Rights Watch and ACLU report finds that nearly a quarter of a million students were paddled or spanked last year. Adding insult to injury, black students and special education students received a disproportionate share of the punishment. The Takeaway explores what this says about the American school system and the culture that perpetuates these modes of discipline.
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A historic demographic shift is expected to come ahead of schedule…Census projections say racial minorities—about one-third of the U.S. population now—will become a majority by 2042, and 54 percent by 2050. Pulitzer Prize-winner Dale Maharidge wrote about these issues more than a decade ago. He’s the author of “The Coming White Minority,” and other books focused on cultural change.
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Guest: Sam Roberts, The New York Times
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It is pedestrian in scope, takes for granted the complexity of black people, our multiple political agendas and is oh-so-typical of mainstream, pop thinking — you know, that almost analysis that substitutes rich reporting and thought for simplicity and personality profiles that are supposed to be deep.

An article to be published in the August 10, 2008, New York Times magazine provocatively asks, “Is Obama the End of Black Politics?” The Takeaway tests that notion with the article’s author.
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Last week the Black AIDS Institute, an advocacy group, reported that if Black America were its own nation it would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with AIDS. Among its findings the report also states that nearly 600,000 blacks are living with HIV and up to 30,000 are becoming infected each year. The report provides a new perspective on the AIDS epidemic and negligence in its treatment.
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Last week, 6,800 people gathered in Chicago for UNITY, a conference held every four years for journalists of color. It's the largest reoccurring journalism convention in the nation. Between panels, a Sunday appearance by Barack Obama and industry parties, attendees spoke with The Takeaway about media coverage of the 2008 election.
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Controversial affirmative-action ballot initiatives in three states — Nebraska, Colorado and Arizona — are making news for the presidential candidates. Arizona senator and presidential candidate John McCain has said he supports a measure in his state that would ban the use of preferential treatment when it comes to race or gender. He says he's always opposed quotas. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wagged his finger at his rival.
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As the presidential candidates work to court the growing Hispanic population, the National Latino Congreso, a minority activism group, is registering Hispanic voters like never before. The Takeaway talks with two organizers about what they're doing to bring the powerful bloc to the voting booth come November.
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The Blogging While Brown conference is on until Sunday, where, for the first time, bloggers of color from around the world have united in Atlanta to discuss their influence on the media and elections.
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The thing I remember most vividly about beginning my internship at TransAfrica Forum, the foreign policy lobbyist group founded in 1977 to pressure the U.S. Government to do right by Africa and the African Diaspora, was that I didn't want to be there.

The American Medical Association has issued an apology to black doctors for a history of racial discrimination. But is it a case of too little too late? The Takeaway talks with Dr. George C. Debnam, who experienced the AMA’s racial prejudice firsthand as a young doctor in North Carolina in the 1950’s.
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Guest: Fernando Pizarro, Univision
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Americans have widely varying interpretations of the Fourth of July. For some, it’s a day off from work. For others, it’s a sacred day, commemorating the American colonies declaration of independence from England. In one of his famous moments of oratory, former slave Frederick Douglass offered another take: "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.” The July 5, 1852, speech was called "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro."
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When Barack Obama discussed fatherhood and, specifically, black fatherhood on Father’s Day, he was, of course, opening a can of worms. As he rattled off the grim statistics about how many African-American children are being raised without their fathers and the effect that absence is having on their lives, I could almost feel large sections of the black community tightening up.

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A new report suggests that colorblind adoption leaves white parents unprepared to raise black children. Parents may not be mentally ready or have the appropriate social tools to parent children of a different race from their own. In turn, youngsters may experience social and psychological problems later in life. What does this mean for 1994's Multiethnic Placement Act, which says adoptive parents cannot request a specific race for their children? The Takeaway talks about these issues with a transracial family.
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Morehouse College, the nation's only all-male historically black college, has selected a white student as its valedictorian for the first time. David Wall Rice, a graduate of Morehouse and now a psychology professor there, looks beyond the novelty.

Well, now that we’ve finally moved on from the Pennsylvania primary, and all of the media attention paid to the white working class, the most important bloc of voters, like, ever, to Pennsylvania, we’re moving on to North Carolina. And I can’t wait to have the same lavish, dare I say, slavish attention paid to me, the black voter.

National Archives

Has our vision of Dr. King's message been sanitized by the passing of time? We've all heard, "I have a dream." In a less-well known speech, King said, "There comes a time when a man must take the position that it is neither safe nor politic nor popular — but he must take it because it is right..."
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