Maybe white students deserve more credit than they get. Maybe — apologies to The Who — the kids are all right. Leo Glaze seems to think so, based on a tweet I chanced upon... — Updated 11/6/2021

Condoleezza Rice wants to move on. She concedes that what happened on Jan. 6 was “wrong.” It was, she told the hosts of “The View,” an “assault on law and order, and an... — Updated 10/30/2021

I’ve got something to say about “you people.” That, as you may recall, was how I referred, in a recent column, to Mike Pence and others who have apparently sworn an oath to... — Updated 10/23/2021

Dear Mike Pence: Most of them are fervid adherents of bizarre conspiracy theories and fascist dogmas that might yet burn this country down. Many of them spew a noxious slurry of... — Updated 10/16/2021

Maybe Facebook can’t be fixed. Did anyone ever think of that? As a whistleblower releases damning information, as Congress holds another hearing into the harm the company does,... — Updated 10/9/2021

Here’s what happened when Ruby Bridges went to school in 1960. Four federal marshals escorted her. She walked through a mob of outraged white people. They called her names. They... — Updated 10/2/2021

Those pictures are traumatizing. That’s because they contain so much more than what’s in them, so much more than horse-mounted U.S. Border Patrol agents at the Rio Grande in... — Updated 9/25/2021

It was a day that did not end. It went on for days, it went on for weeks, it went on for years. But then you look up and somehow, 20 years have gone, and you realize with a start... — Updated 9/11/2021

It’s been five years since I first speculated in this space about the end of American democracy. In doing so, I felt like a man climbing out on an especially creaky limb. But as... — Updated 9/4/2021

He said many profound things that day. He said America had given African Americans “a bad check.” He said he had come to remind the nation of “the fierce urgency of now.” He... — Updated 8/28/2021

Chris Rock described it as a kind of temper tantrum. This was in 2011. “When I see the tea party and all this stuff,” the comedian told Esquire, “it actually feels like... — Updated 8/21/2021

They told them they had bad blood. What they actually had was syphilis, but the U.S. Public Health Service never shared that diagnosis with the almost 400 African American men,... — Updated 8/17/2021

Gunther Hashida killed himself last month. We don’t know why. At this writing, we don’t even know how. What we do know is that Hashida, an 18-year veteran of the D.C. police... — Updated 8/7/2021

It’s not that we forget. But sooner or later, news becomes history, and the awful thing that happened loses its power to shock. You remember the emotions you felt, but you... — Updated 7/31/2021

We live in ignorant times. By now, surely this is obvious beyond argument to anyone who’s been paying attention. From the Capitol insurrectionist who thought he was storming the W... — Updated 7/24/2021

It was, let us say, an interesting weekend for democracy. Call it a tale of two cities. One is Dallas, where thousands of so-called “conservatives” — the word has less... — Updated 7/17/2021

I owe a lot to Gary Mahoney. He was the campus conservative back in the middle ’70s, when I was a student at the University of Southern California and we went at it hammer and... — Updated 7/3/2021

One wonders sometimes if the Democrats really get it. As needed voting-rights reform goes down in flames because some of them thought it more important to defend the filibuster than... — Updated 6/26/2021

The morning bell rang at Republican High (“Home of the Fightin’ Pachyderms”) as students shuffled in. Gretchen Niedermeyer dry swallowed a couple of pre-emptive aspirins and... — Updated 6/19/2021

Dear Sen. Joe Manchin: It has only been 56 years. As Americans, we are pleased to call ourselves one of the world’s oldest democracies. We are actually one of the world’s... — Updated 6/12/2021

There is no such thing as the united states. As an era of medical mask mandates draws to a close and we begin to ponder lessons learned, that one should top the list. Not to... — Updated 5/29/2021

Fifty years ago. Left-wing terrorists exploded a bomb at the U.S. Capitol. An Army officer was convicted in the massacre of civilians at My Lai. Vietnam chewed up another 2,414... — Updated 5/22/2021

Let’s talk about Foxitis. That, as you may recall, was the explanation attorney Joseph Hurley offered this month at a court hearing for his client, accused Capitol... — Updated 5/15/2021

Its Constitution fixed the value of African Americans at three-fifths that of other humans. Its bloodiest war was over whether they should be enslaved. It has no institution ... — Updated 5/8/2021

An open letter to the children: We owe you an apology. Meaning all of us in the generations above you. We had one job where you were concerned, and that was to keep you safe.... — Updated 5/1/2021