“Tavis said it right: if Black America’s recognized leaders are unwilling to push President Obama on these issues now, how can they expect to hold the moral authority to question any other president henceforth about issue directly pertaining to Black America? The answer would be that they couldn’t.

For decades, social conservatives have relentlessly targeted Black Churches as a way to bring more African-Americans into the Republican Party. Despite many sincere efforts, the numbers of church going African-Americans who vote Republican is smaller now than ever before.

While there has been much debate and talk about the Religious Right within the Republican Party, one could equally and strongly argue that African-Americans make up one of the largest socially conservative voting blocs in the Democrat Party. Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life released a detailed study on the religious views of most African-Americans. The research was unique in that the new analysis found blacks to be the most religious group of people in the United States population as a whole.

According to the research, when compared to other racial and ethnic groups, African-Americans are among the most likely to report a formal religious affiliation with 87% of African-Americans describing themselves as belonging to one religious group or another. The analysis also finds that nearly eight-in-ten African-Americans (79%) say religion is very important in their lives compared with 56% among all U.S. adults.

Why don’t black people listen to or produce Rock music?

Apparently, the music died on February 3rd, 1959 when Buddy Holly, Richie Valenz, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash following a concert. Apparently, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin’ Wolf, and Big Mamma Thornton were also on that plane, if in fact, the music had died. Oh they were not. Then what the Hell was that song about? Oh that song was about the day white music died. Got It.

In short, Black people don’t subscribe to conservatism or listen to rock music because they gave it away. Many of their reasons were valid but for the most part they are outdated. As long as we as a people limit our political perspective and our artistic tastes we’ll lock ourselves out of the mainstream and all the opportunities therein.

HIV/AIDS is a leading killer in the African-American Community not only because of the rate at which African-American people engage in sexual activities and participate in the drug culture but also because they are not using preventative measures which are available to them.

Since President Obama rammed through Congress his reckless $787 billion stimulus bill the number of unemployed Americans has been steadily increasing, especially among African-Americans. For months that the president’s stimulus bill has failed to create the jobs he promised, and now the NAACP recognizes it, too.

Black Republicans running for various offices this election cycle seem to be running from race while running their race. This is one of the most asinine things I have every seen, but not unexpected. This is why Black Republicans have no credibility within their own community

When people think of South Carolina, they think of . . . I know, Comedy Central. Given the state’s generosity in providing punch lines, Jon Stewart really ought to consider taking a pay cut. What people do not typically think of is black Republicans, a perception that could change soon if a young man named Marvin Rogers has his way.

I will never vote for a Democrat again. My relationship with the DNC has been troubled from the beginning . Much to the dismay of my family and friends I came out as a conservative in 2008. This shift in my political ideology was more complex than I had anticipated. The strongest challenges relate to my gender and ethnicity such as societal perceptions of what makes a good African American feminist. I had to break free of the labels and look at my values not as a Democrat or a Republican, but as Afrocity.

As time went by and the southern conservative began to switch from the Democratic Party to the republicans and increased their level of influence, the idea of an “eastern establishment” which had until then formed the base of support for the Republican Party had become a target for the modern conservative movement.

Too close to home is all I think of in learning of the death of another one of my nearest and dearest friends from breast cancer this morning. The latest victim entered the hospital in July and is dead today less than six weeks from initial presentation. Of the six of us who hung together in high school and for class reunions, three are dead of breast cancer.

One thing I have learned and noticed during my many trips to Africa is a lot of these attitudes are taught to Africans. They are taught that Black Americans are not serious people, they are criminals, and they should not be trusted. Most African’s only image of Blacks come from BET or the Hip-Hop community.

African-Americans were both proud of and excited about Obama, but in the 45 years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, black Americans had seen doors to power, influence and wealth open just enough to admit just a few without fundamentally altering opportunities for the majority. Indeed, responses to a recent CNN/Essence Magazine/Opinion Research Corp. survey indicate that black enthusiasm about Obama exists side-by-by side with deep skepticism about America’s racial progress.