Anthony Stanford masterfully tells how African-American history and the fight for equality has made black culture less (rather than more) tolerant of its LGBT members. His research is thorough and meticulous; his writing is clear and engaging.

I found the coverage yesterday of Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) speech at Howard University, a historic African-American college, to be truly fascinating. There was basically nothing in Paul’s statements that were particularly newsworthy. He did not outline a new policy, announce a political move, experience a huge gaffe or endorse a piece of controversial legislation. Yet the story was covered prominently by numerous national media outlets over several days.

Escaped slaves fought on the British side, which promised to free them, during the American war for independence for white men. But nobody liked to talk about that much after the French won the war, although — come to think of it — nobody much likes to talk about the French winning the war, or for that matter about the big losers being, not the British but the Native Americans.

White folks weren’t eager to arm slaves, although an NRA-type genius just said on U.S. televisions this week that if slaves had only been armed they wouldn’t have been slaves. The militias famously protected by the Second Amendment included, perhaps primarily, white militias aimed at crushing slave rebellions. Escaped slaves fought for the Union in the Civil War, which may not have been an insignificant factor in Lincoln’s decision to announce their freedom.

The ability of a President to sway broad popular opinion or change the minds of his opponents on a big issue with a speech is fairly limited, but that doesn’t mean that in certain situations the bully pulpit can’t be very powerful. The President can bring a huge amount of focus to a previously overlooked issue. A President’s opinion also has real sway over his own base and can cause members to rethink their position.

[Welcome Professor Michelle Alexander, and Host Paul Street] [As a courtesy to our guests, please keep comments to the book.  Please take other conversations to a previous thread.  - bev] Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the age of Color Blindness Early in her courageous and important book The New Jim Crow: [...]