An Ineffective Way to Fight Crime

"More than a year has passed since Commissioner Raymond Kelly of the New York Police Department issued a memorandum ordering officers to follow a 1977 state law that bars them from arresting people with small amounts of marijuana unless the drug is being publicly displayed. Even so, a lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society in June and pending in state court makes the case that the police are still arresting people illegally in clear violation of both the commissioner’s directive and the state law. More than 50,000 possession arrests were made last year." [Read more]

Is Job Creation on Obama's Second-Term Agenda?

"High unemployment and declining incomes means that a large share of the American public is facing significant economic hardship. President Obama can keep deficit reduction on his second-term agenda, but he needs to make certain that it does not interfere with the public's number one priority -- job creation." [Read more]

Black Voters Swung Swing States into Obama's Column

"African-American voters played a key role in President Barack Obama’s re-election by voting in higher numbers than they did four years earlier, according to Dr. David Bositis, senior research associate for the Joint Center for Political and Education Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank for black elected officials." [Read more]

Obama’s reelection sparks racially charged protest at Ole Miss

Around midnight on election night, news spread on Twitter that a group of University of Mississippi students were protesting President Obama's reelection. The crowd quickly grew from a few dozen to as many as several hundred, and the rhetoric took an ugly turn as some people shouted racial slurs. [Read more]

Marine Corps Starts Ad Campaign to Try to Diversify Officer Ranks

The United States Marine Corps, long dominated by white men, is starting a marketing campaign to attract more minorities and women into its officer corps. 

The effort kicks off on Thursday with television commercials during professional and college football games, glossy advertisements in sports magazines and a series of Internet videos. Titled “Fighting With Purpose,” it features a black lieutenant and a female captain who are actively engaged in their home communities as well as in leading Marines. [Read more]

Chart: Almost Every Obama Conspiracy Theory Ever

Mother Jones magazine documents the "fake birth certificates, ghostwriters, teleprompters, a teenage trip to Mars, and more of the most paranoid and bizarro Obama conspiracy theories out there. [Find it here]

AP poll: Majority harbor prejudice against blacks

In all, 51 percent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent in a similar 2008 survey.

When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 percent, up from 49 percent during the last presidential election. In both tests, the share of Americans expressing pro-black attitudes fell. [Read more]