Commentary
Nothing but racism explains Black women’s higher rate of horrible birth stories | Jarvis DeBerry
Tatyana Ali, who starred as Ashley Banks on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” from 1990 to 1996, entered Harvard the next year where she double majored in government and African-American studies. In 2016, Ali and her husband, an English professor at Stanford, welcomed their first child, but only after mother and baby were roughly treated […]
Louisiana should not only legalize marijuana; it should also wipe clean the records of those convicted of marijuana crimes | Daniel Schwalm
While a bill in the Louisiana House that would legalize recreational marijuana is still a long shot to become law, the fact that three House Republicans voted in favor of it in committee is a big step forward for a policy change that’s widely viewed as inevitable. The bill made it through the committee in […]
Louisiana’s racism isn’t confined to history; it’s also present today | Tammy C. Barney
Is Louisiana racist? I pose this question because I was perplexed when U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), proclaimed on national television last week that America is not racist. Scott, the lone Black Republican in the Senate, made this declaration during his Republican response to President Joe Biden’s first address to a joint session of […]
Ray Garofalo won’t get to pass his shaky grasp of history down to Louisiana’s students | Jarvis DeBerry
If Louisiana Rep. Ray Garofalo, a Chalmette Republican, had been engaged in some noble purpose Tuesday — that is, if he had been putting forward a bill that would have been an actual benefit to anybody — then his statement that the state’s teachers should be made to teach “the good, the bad, the ugly” […]
It’s time for Louisiana to end juvenile life without parole | Demario Davis & Stan Van Gundy
Thirty years ago, the United Nations issued the Convention on the Rights of the Child in which it outlined various protections that should be extended to all individuals under 18, including protection from being sentenced to life imprisonment. Yet the United States, which prides itself on guaranteeing all citizens the unalienable right to life, liberty […]
Derek Chauvin verdict is not justice, it’s accountability — and we need more | Trish Zornio
It took about 10 hours for a jury to convict former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of murdering George Floyd, but we should not conflate the win with justice — this was accountability, and we need more of it. A stark reminder of the work yet to be done came when moments after the jury […]
Supreme Court ruling may doom more Louisiana juveniles to permanent imprisonment | Jarvis DeBerry
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling that mandatory sentences of life without parole for juvenile defendants don’t jibe with the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment” and be imposed on the rare juvenile who is “permanently incorrigible,” Louisiana has acted as if incorrigibility isn’t rare at all. It has acted as if […]
The tireless protesting that followed the murder of George Floyd should give us hope | Shawn Anglim & Kahlida Lloyd
As we write this on Tuesday, April 20, we are filled with many emotions — and even an emptiness. We have a feeling of relief that there was a just verdict in the State of Minnesota’s case against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. A jury convicted Chauvin of three counts — second-degree murder, third-degree […]
LGBTQ protections are already scarce in Louisiana; Legislature seeks to make things even worse | Tammy C. Barney
Louisiana is a state of “no” when it comes to protecting the LGBTQ community. No ban on housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity No ban on employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. No ban on discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation and gender identity. No law that […]
Losing mothers and their babies remains a big problem in Louisiana | Jarvis DeBerry
Motorists in Baton Rouge may have seen a billboard on I-12 depicting a balding White man holding open his shirt to reveal a long surgical scar down his chest. “THIS IS WHAT HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE LOOKS LIKE,” the sign reads, as it shows a blood pressure measurement of 145/90. Yes, a scar from open heart […]
A racially and culturally diverse teacher workforce benefits all of Louisiana | Tammy C. Barney
“I am a teacher.” My husband, Keith, would proclaim his occupation to whomever he met. It was his badge of honor, his passion, his calling. My husband taught math and language arts to 6th- and 7th- grade students with special needs. He loved those students as if they were his own. And they loved him […]
The novel coronavirus has no politics, but people threatened by it obviously do | Jarvis DeBerry
It is accepted as a truism in the public health world that health information should be communicated to the public by someone other than elected officials — lest that information be rejected by everybody who doesn’t care for those officials or their party. However, people elect mayors, governors and presidents whom they expect to be […]