Leonard Pitts Jr. Columns category, Page 6

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ still feels urgent, still feels now

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 American lives. And across the country, needles were lowered for the first time to the grooved surface of a certain...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Sometimes you wonder what they’re so afraid of

Not that the subject has ever been easy. No, as has often been noted in this space, this country has been positively Herculean in its effort to remain ignorant of African American history. From schools trying to ban it to state laws restricting it, to textbooks telling lies about it,...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Let’s talk about ‘Foxitis’

That, as you may recall, was the explanation attorney Joseph Hurley offered last week at a court hearing for his client, accused Capitol insurrectionist Anthony Antonio, who is facing five federal charges for his role in the attack. “You want war?” he reportedly yelled to police. “We got war! 1776...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: We keep hitting new political lows

We keep hitting new lows. So perhaps we ought not be surprised that the GOP, the party that brought us the insurrection of Jan. 6, now presents the public, if figurative, execution of Liz Cheney. At this writing, she is not yet politically dead, but the vultures are certainly tying...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Why can’t we have nice things?

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 — not one — that is free of racial discrimination. Yet, we are supposed to take seriously those who now ask if...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Missing the days of thoughtful debate

Thirty years ago, when I was still a music critic, I received a letter from a lady who informed me in no uncertain terms that I didn’t know what I was talking about. This was after I’d written about the origins of gospel music, a subject on which I considered...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: We’ve failed our children

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. “Save the children,” pleaded a man named Marvin Gaye a long time ago. But we...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Leave these children alone

Look, I get it, OK? A lot of this, you plain do not understand. Much of it leaves you confused. Well, me too. I have no idea what it must be like to grow up feeling as if you were assigned the wrong body, a girl with boy genitalia or...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Bryant’s is not an open-and-shut case

Sorry, but this is not an open-and-shut case. This is not Tamir Rice, Philando Castile or Walter Scott, unarmed and clearly executed on camera by police. No, the bodycam video of last week’s killing of a 16-year-old Black girl named Ma’Khia Bryant tells a more complicated story. In it, we...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Real justice shouldn’t be this difficult

I sat there trying to remember how to breathe. I suspect I had that in common with people — particularly African American people — all over the country. Didn’t we all hold our breath as we awaited the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin? Then that verdict was read....
Leonard Pitts Jr.: ‘A riot is the language of the unheard’

“The anguish we are suffering cannot translate into violence.” So said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey last week in the wake of yet another police killing of yet another unarmed African American man. The sentiment was altogether fitting and proper, especially given that his city was the epicenter of a national...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: It takes 2 parties to be bipartisan

There is nothing sacred about nine. The number was not carried down from a mountain on stone tablets, nor did it appear in a burning bush. In fact, before the Supreme Court contained nine justices, it contained six, the number fixed when the tribunal was established in 1789. Then, in...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Another word for anxiety is fear

Apparently, Robert Pape was surprised. Notwithstanding earlier research or the alarm raised in this and other forums, Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, expected, when he began studying the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, to find the rioters acted out of economic anxiety....
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Chauvin trial cannot vindicate America

America is on trial. Or at least, that is the conviction of many observers as Derek Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer, faces judge and jury in the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man. America on trial: it’s a headline in Time, the Toronto Star and Agence...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: ‘A change gon’ come’ — GOP policies won’t break us

Dear Republicans: Let’s just say this plainly. You are a people lacking integrity and honor. And you have not a thimbleful of respect for one of this nation’s most sacred principles: Meaning equality under the law. One person, one vote. That harsh appraisal is necessitated by your response to losing...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Small wonder the church is shrinking

So, it seems the church is shrinking. The mosque and synagogue, too, for that matter. Not that this is breaking news. It has long been known that the numbers of Americans who belong to religious organizations are dwindling. But last week, that decline hit a milestone. For the first time...

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