Free Republic

She calls herself the "Graffiti Grandma," and now a Washington Heights resident is speaking out after she said she was arrested in April for simply writing a message on the side of a boarded-up building — using chalk. Amid ongoing protests and growing concerns regarding policing during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NYPD is now facing outcry for a different kind of arrest that landed Jill Nelson behind bars. Nelson, an author, said she was walking down a block in her neighborhood when she passed the business that has green plywood all around it. She pulled out a piece of chalk...

Well, it's Black History Month, and I'll bet you haven't heard one thing about George S. Schuyler (1895-1977). George S. Schuyler was, simply, the greatest black journalist this country has ever produced. (Normally, I eschew qualifiers like "greatest black," as opposed to "greatest," period, but this is journalism we're talking about. I will never, in five lifetimes of sitting in newspaper morgues, looking at microfilms of ancient newsprint, be able to read enough to determine who America's greatest journalist was.) From 1924-1966, he bestrode the black press like a colossus. Working for Robert Lee Vann's (1879-1940) Pittsburgh Courier weekly newspaper,...

Well, here it is the second Black History Month, and I'll bet you haven't heard one thing about George S. Schuyler (1895-1977). What's that, you say, there's only ONE Black History Month? Where have you been?Nowadays, New Year's Day signals the beginning of Black History Month I (or is it Martin Luther King Month?), and last summer in New York, for several weeks, some Harlem institutions held celebrations that certainly made it sound like we were in BHM. About 12 years ago, pc director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) said that every month should be Black History Month, and...

Those are the words and thoughts of Jill Nelson, “journalist, teacher and author. She is a regular contributor to MSNBC.com.” After reading her May 2, 2003, editorial, it’s no wonder she fears America more than al-Qaida or the Taliban, she hates the country as much as the terrorists, and as they say, “the enemy of my enemy…” Here we have all that is wrong with America. An American teacher, journalist and author who can speak her mind on a website visited by millions, explaining her dread at having a government that is willing to fight for her right to speak...

It might be easier if all racists were like Bobby Frank Cherry: easily identified, cartoon character good old boys. It might be simpler if all racism manifested itself in violent, clumsy ways. But like any virus, in order to survive, racism adapts to its conditions. These complex times call for a more subtle approach. Today, some racists wear suits and ties, run big bureaucracies or work in government and private corporations. Some are those who have declared racism dead, that the playing field has been leveled, and that affirmative action unnecessary and in itself racist. Today’s racists are those who...