Thought — Page 5

Where Black Moms Matter

February 11, 2013

Finally, Obama Going to Chicago to Talk About Guns and Our Dying Children

By NICK CHILES After online petition drives, blogger pleas, demands from a range of leaders such as Jesse Jackson, and millions of water cooler and dinner table conversations, President Obama is finally going to Chicago to talk about guns. The White House announced that after his State of the Union ...

February 7, 2013

Black Women and Heart Health: Know the Symptoms Of Attack and Be Smart About Your Heart

My mother had beautiful hands—lovely, long and fresh, just like her. She kept her fingernails dipped in maroons and dark browns—subtle, but still noticeable. Strong. As she got older, though, Mommy’s hands became gnarled with the inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis, almost at the same time that a workplace accident took ...

February 6, 2013

Three-Year-Old Mistakes Pink Gun For Toy, Dies From Gunshot Wound To Head

A Greenville, South Carolina, family is burying their 3-year-old son today, less than a week after he was killed when a neon pink gun he mistook for a toy discharged. Temorej Smith died Friday in a bedroom of his family’s apartment as he and his 7-year-old sister were playing with ...

February 6, 2013

Would You Buy a Bulletproof Backpack for Your Child?

By NICK CHILES Would you buy your kid a bulletproof backpack? Apparently a whole lot of parents are answering that question with a hearty “Yes!” Since the ugly Newtown massacre in December, companies that manufacture bulletproof backpacks are seeing a huge jump in sales. The vice president of one of ...

February 5, 2013

California Pre-School Sex Scandal: School Closing Its Doors After 4- and 5-Year-Olds Admit Oral Sex

A church-run pre-school in Carson, California is shutting down after parents found out kindergarteners were allegedly giving each other oral sex, and now families of the abused children are stepping forward to file a class-action lawsuit against the school, church, principal, teacher and an alleged child perpetrator. ABC News reports ...

February 4, 2013

ADHD Diagnoses In Black Children Increases By 70 Percent—Along With the Use Of Strong Meds

African American and Hispanic children have seen a jump in their diagnosis rates for Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder—a trend that comes as more psychiatrists are prescribing antipsychotic drugs some researchers argue haven’t been proven to accurately treat ADHD. A recent study by Kaiser Permanente found that the overall rate ...

January 31, 2013

Latest Cop Outrage: Bronx Boy, 7, Handcuffed, Questioned by Police for 10 Hours

By NICK CHILES There’s been a lot of discussion in recent days about posting armed police officers in every school in the country as a way of preventing the kind of shocking tragedy that befell Newtown, CT, last year. This idea was first proposed by the National Rifle Association and ...

January 28, 2013

Lil Wayne’s ‘No Worries’ Made Me Question Myself as a Dad To Black Daughters

By NICK CHILES It was Lil Wayne’s song “No Worries” that did it— sent me hurtling down yet another slippery slope on the rollercoaster ride that is parenting. A prominent part of the song is Wayne’s blushingly explicit tribute to abundant pubic hair. Every time it comes on the radio ...

January 24, 2013

Michelle Obama’s Hair: FLOTUS Bangs Are Sexy, Grown and Inspiring For Moms

Virginia Republicans are hijacking the state’s electoral vote system, Congress is prepping for another debt ceiling knock-down, drag-out, and, for the first time ever, the Pentagon is about to allow women to serve in the combat zone, but my God, let the TV, newspapers and internet tell it, and Michelle ...

January 21, 2013

Celebrating Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Prince Of Peace

Today, as a nation, we celebrate what would have been Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 84th birthday, perhaps the most gratifying element of his legacy is that King Day is rapidly becoming a day across the nation when people commit themselves to the service of others. From schools to corporations ...