Archives for May 2021

When eminently qualified Black women get smeared (or every day that ends in ‘y’)

Featured at Roll Call

She has been endorsed by many law enforcement agencies, including the National Association of Police Organizations, yet she was accused of being anti-police. Baseless innuendo thrown her way has been refuted by support from the National Council of Jewish Women, the Anti-Defamation League and dozens of other local, state and national Jewish organizations. She’s been tagged as “extreme,” which only makes sense if being an advocate for an equitable society qualifies.

The nomination of Kristen Clarke, President Joe Biden’s choice to serve as assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, barely made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. Panelists split 11-11 along party lines, and then on Tuesday, the full Senate voted 50-48 to discharge the nomination from the committee, setting up a final floor vote.

Is anyone surprised at the roadblocks this nomination has faced?

Read the rest atRoll Call
May202021 TAGS: , , , , , , , ,

Mary C. Curtis: Relaxing the Mask Mandate

Featured at WCCB Rising

CHARLOTTE, NC — With the summer ahead, and more than a year into the COVID pandemic, many are celebrating the CDC announcement relaxing mask mandates.

People want to travel and socialize and businesses want to fully open.

But since the new rules apply to the vaccinated, there are still questions about who is and is not safe and if relying on an honor system is dependable.

WCCB Charlotte Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis is weighing in on the new rules.

You can catch Mary C. Curtis on Sunday nights at 6:30 PM on WCCB Charlotte’s CW discussing the biggest issues in local and national politics and also giving us a look at what’s ahead for the week.

Read the rest atWCCB Rising
May202021 TAGS: , , , ,

POLITICAL WRAP: COVID Restrictions Scaled Back

Featured at WCCB Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The CDC says vaccinated people can go out and about and leave their mask at home.

But health officials strongly recommend unvaccinated people keep wearing their masks.

Our political contributor, Mary C. Curtis, gives us her take in the video above.

Read the rest atWCCB Charlotte
May162021 TAGS: , , , ,

Local News Roundup: Gas Shortages In Charlotte; 2040 Plan Splits City Council; Fireworks Over County Budget

Featured at WFAE

Charlotte drivers are feeling the effects of the gas shortage due to a cyberattack on the pipeline that delivers gas to our region, even after the pipeline resumes operation. North Carolina was one of the hardest-hit states in the shortage.

A long City Council meeting showed members lacked consensus over how to move forward on the proposed Charlotte Future 2040 Plan. We’ll hear what council members and the mayor had to say.

It’s budget time. The city and county budgets are in process. We’ll talk about arts funding and hikes in your water and solid waste bills outlined in the city budget. We’ll also talk about fireworks at the County Commission meeting as Commissioner Susan Rodriguez- McDowell clashed with County Manager Dena Diorio over a proposal to withhold money from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools over long-standing achievement gaps. We’ll go over what happened.

Plus, we’ll have an update on COVID-19 vaccines for kids 12 and up in North Carolina.

Guests:

Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time” and contributor at WCCB-TV

Joe Bruno, WSOC-TV reporter

Ann Doss Helms, WFAE education reporter

Hunter Saenz, WCNC reporter

Read the rest atWFAE
May142021

Jaime Harrison says Democrats won’t cede South to GOP

Featured at Roll Call

Jaime Harrison, the former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, generated excitement among Democrats and shattered fundraising records in his 2020 campaign for Republican Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat.

In the end, Graham defeated Harrison by more than 10 points, but Democrats liked what they saw and in January elected Harrison to lead the Democratic National Committee. He’s now tasked with defending Democrats’ slim House and Senate majorities in 2022.

Harrison recently joined CQ Roll Call’s Equal Time podcast. An edited transcript follows.

Read the rest atRoll Call
May142021 TAGS: , , , , ,

Sorry, but ‘Gone With the Wind’ is not a history book

Featured at Roll Call

The White House issued a proclamation last week, of the sort that most presidents have issued about historical events that deserve commemorating, but that were missing, for the most part, during the Trump reign.

This one marked the 60th anniversary of the first Freedom Rides, on May 4, 1961, when traveling on a bus meant risking your life, if you were with an integrated group, sitting in a spot of your choice. Those southbound heroes were willing to face beatings and the unknown at the hands of fellow citizens intent on stopping progress by any means necessary. Angry and afraid, the violent white supremacist mobs refused to acknowledge the humanity of African Americans or the validity of any law that looked forward not back.

It’s the reality — and not the myth of uncomplicated greatness the country has told the world and itself for far too long.

And it’s not always pretty.

For that reason, many Republicans want to “cancel” it, to use a word today’s conservatives have been misusing with reckless abandon. They’d like to erase the history and the essential lessons that reveal so much about how and why America is so divided and its systems — of health care, housing, education and more — so inequitable in 2021.

Read the rest atRoll Call
May132021 TAGS: , , , , , ,

2021 National Headliner Awards

Featured at National Headliner

Honored to be recognized by National Headliner competition w/ 3rd place award in online blog category for my Roll Call columns on the intersection of politics, culture and race. I have another one coming up Thursday (and why not subscribe to my CQ Roll Call ‘Equal Time with Mary C. Curtis‘ podcast):

Read the rest atNational Headliner
May122021 TAGS:

South Carolina Legislators Approve Execution by Firing Squad

Featured at Black News Channel

Charles Blow sits down with Roll Call columnist Mary C. Curtis on the South Carolina House, adding death by firing squad as an execution method for inmates on death row because of the lack of lethal injection drugs. “A lot of companies don’t want to be involved in this,” Curtis tells Blow on why states are running out of these lethal; injection drugs. “They gave prisoners on death row an option to do lethal injection or the electric chair since they don’t have the drugs.”

Read the rest atBlack News Channel
May122021 TAGS: , ,

Mary C. Curtis: Businesses Struggling with Staff Shortages

Featured at WCCB Rising

CHARLOTTE, NC — As the economy opens back up businesses in our area and across the country are struggling to find help.

WCCB Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis talks about what’s leading to the shortage and if it will get better.

Read the rest atWCCB Rising
May122021 TAGS: , , ,

Righting economic wrongs of the past

Featured at Roll Call

Cecilia Rouse is the first Black woman to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, a White House think tank of sorts on economic policy. Yes, she has an impressive background — dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and a member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.

But her mandate seems near impossible. She’s been charged by President Biden to steer the nation out of the economic wreckage from the pandemic with equitable policies for all races — all at a time when the Black community has been hit harder than most. Mary C. Curtis speaks one-on-one with Rouse.

Read the rest atRoll Call
May122021 TAGS: , , ,
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