contributors - Melissa Harris-Lacewell

about Melissa Harris-Lacewell

  • Black American culture exported to Africa

    By Melissa Harris-Lacewell

    11:14 AM on 07/09/2009

    In April I delivered the W.E.B. Du Bois lectures at Harvard University. In this series of lectures I took up issues surrounding African American citizenship in the contemporary United States. I tried to think about how the years between Hurricane Katrina and the election of Barack Obama have created new...

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  • Celebrating the full narrative of America

    By Melissa Harris-Lacewell

    9:56 AM on 07/03/2009

    O, let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free. -- Langston Hughes As a child I was never conflicted about July 4th. Independence Day celebrations were a marker of freedom from school, an opportunity for grilling...

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  • Preserving the arts may save our kids

    By Melissa Harris-Lacewell

    7:43 AM on 06/17/2009

    I spent last Friday night at a 4th grade poetry slam. I wasn't sure I wanted to go. As the mother of a first grader I know that sometimes parents and teachers simply have to smile widely and clap loudly so that our kids will feel supported even when their...

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  • Race getting the silent treatment in healthcare debate

    By Melissa Harris-Lacewell

    2:54 PM on 06/08/2009

    "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane." --- Martin Luther King, Jr. In June the Obama administration launched its national initiative for healthcare reform. With healthcare taking center stage on the domestic policy agenda Americans will soon be debating the relative merits...

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