'WE CAN AGREE TO DISAGREE'
Many Black Voters Shrug Off Obama's Gay Marriage Announcement

Lauren Brown Jarvis, 05/11/12

National Communications Director, New Leaders Council

Tavis Smiley believes America has the power to completely eradicate poverty amongst its citizens in a little as ten years. He questions how America could allow the dreams of its people to transform into a nightmare.

Dr. L. Toni Lewis, 05/11/12

Dr. L. Toni Lewis serves as the chair of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) healthcare division. As a family practice physician and a geriatrician, Dr. Lewis represents an authentic voice for SEIU's 1.2 million healthcare members.

The Affordable Care Act is the law that empowers nurses, doctors, and healthcare workers, who actually deliver care, to better manage care so patients have the best possible outcomes. Nurses will no longer be simply reacting to critical care situations.

Rebecca Wanzo, 05/11/12

Associate Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Washington University

DOMA is not Jim Crow, but DOMA legislation is one of the principle moral and ethical issues of our time, and this is why it is important to name the specificity of this kind of harm.

Minister Leslie Watson Malachi, 05/10/12

Director of African American religious affairs, People for the American Way

In 2008, I heard too many pundits imply that African Americans would automatically vote for President Obama simply because he is black. Today, I'm hearing that the only thing that will drive us away from him is the issue of marriage for gays and lesbians. Both assumptions are offensive.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, 05/10/12

Author and political analyst

Opposition to discrimination has always been a morally and politically right position for Obama, and that has included gender and sexual preference, not just racial discrimination. There was no doubt then that it was only a matter of time that Obama would finally say yes to gay marriage.

Lisa Belkin, 05/09/12

Senior Columnist on Life/Work/Family, Huffington Post

Like Obama, my children magnify and inform and give meaning to everything I do. And if I had the power to transform the debate on same sex marriage in this country, I'm pretty sure I would be thinking of my sons as I did so

DeAndre Roberts, 05/08/12

20-year-old activist from California

We're going through a second civil rights movement. Now, we've switched our attention from "negroes" and "whites" to "gays" and "straights."

Marcia Dawkins, 05/10/12

Visiting Scholar, Brown University

Some fans have launched a campaign to see that actor Jesse Williams gets cast as Finnick. This happens all the time in Hollywood. So what's the big deal? Well, to begin with the character's color, or lack of it, depending on how you see him, is striking.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, 05/07/12

Author and political analyst

The scramble to dig up any piece of salacious dirt, gossip, or innuendo about President Obama before he was President Obama is never ending. The latest in the long train of purported tell-all exposes on Obama is no different.

Craig Werner, 05/08/12

Professor of Afro-American Studies, English and Integrated Liberal Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

A child of the 1980s who's openly critical of the cultural trends he identifies, author David Sirota describes the Huxtable Effect as the source of "two of the most deceptive arguments" supporting the idea that race can be "transcended."

Carol Biondi, 05/03/12

Commissioner, Los Angeles County Commission for Children and Families

Twenty years after the L.A. riots, can philanthropy play a meaningful role in addressing the gross over-representation of Black males in prisons and correctional facilities in California?

Richard Whitmire, 05/03/12

Veteran newspaper reporter, Author of The Bee Eater: Michelle Rhee Takes on the Nation’s Worst School District

We need to stop lumping black and Hispanic students together -- both in terms of how we measure progress and in terms of policy. The groups have different educational needs.

Nicole Glass, 05/03/12

Freelance Journalist

The end of a racist nation cannot just come from an integration of races in schools, the workplace and politics. It must come from a very personal change in perception. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 changed the law, but it's the people that change a culture.

Malika Saada Saar, 05/02/12

Director, Human Rights Project for Girls

I grew up loving the Village Voice. During the 80's and 90's, it was also one of those rare mainstream publications in which the Black and Brown mind, body, and spirit were routinely celebrated. That is why I am heart-broken to witness how it now survives off the exploitation and enslavement of girls.

Janet Mock, 05/02/12

Writer and trans advocate; Staff Editor, PEOPLE.com

I will never be silent just because the topic of gender identity and race are uncomfortable. CeCe McDonald, Paige Clay, and other trans women of color are human beings first, and when we turn a blind eye to injustice, we close our hearts and minds on ourselves.

TCU 360, 05/01/12

Student News Source at Texas Christian University

If one is not able to recognize his or her own privilege, then they will always carry this ignorant perception that all a person needs in this society to succeed is a strong work ethic and intelligence.

Peter Hong, 05/01/12

Senior Deputy for Agency Review and Support for Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas

The news stories marking the 20th anniversary of the riots have given L.A. a well-deserved pat on the back. But journalists haven't explored how one vital sector of L.A. may be less able to handle the city's racial complexities than it was 20 years ago.