This is a powerful, provocative piece that successfully bridges the gap between historical analysis and modern social commentary.

To refine it, I’ve focused on tightening the transitions between the historical timeline and the psychological "mentality" s…

By Rodney LaBruce & the Unified Advocacy and Leadership Coalition (UALC)

"Poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere." — Rodney LaBruce (Adapted from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)

The Moral Imperative

Ending labor exploitation is not an act of c…

By Rodney LaBruce

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhumane.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This article is part of a larger series where I lay out the moral, historical, and institutional foundations …

 By Rodney LaBruce

“If the Negroes are to be elevated… you must educate the white man more, or he will be overtaken.” – President Andrew Johnson, 1865

President Andrew Johnson said that just months after slavery was abolished. It wasn’t a secret. It wasn…

By Rodney LaBruce

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A Comment That Reveals the Strategy Still Works

Recently, I came across a comment that read:

“Hmmm Clinton fired 377k federal …

By Rodney LaBruce

“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”
—Napoleon Bonaparte

In 2016, America made a bold and unsettling statement by electing Donald Trump. For many voters, it wasn’t about qualifications, policy knowledge, or experience. It was abou…

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
— Stephen Hawking

Why do we, as a society, seem obsessed with the most convoluted explanations—especially when the simplest answer is often staring us in the face?

Chemt…

By Rodney LaBruce

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions."
— Carter G. Woodson, The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933)

We’ve all heard it—go to school, get good grades, graduate from college, and success will follow. …

By Rodney LaBruce

"It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

We’ve all heard the story: If you come t…

By Rodney LaBruce

"If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out three inches, that’s not progress… The healing begins when you pull the knife all the way out—and then start to heal the wound that the blow made."
— Malcolm X

Reparations are…

By Rodney LaBruce

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." – Nelson Mandela

Education is often called the great equalizer, but when you take a hard look at its origins and the system we have today, it’s clear that ou…

By Rodney LaBruce

"Violence may win battles, but nonviolence wins hearts—and with it, the power to create lasting change." – Author Unknown

In the face of systemic oppression, it’s natural to feel frustration and impatience when progress feels slow. For …

By Rodney LaBruce

"An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics." – Plutarch

What Does It Mean to Be Rich?

Defining wealth has always been a subjective exercise. For some, being rich means having a million doll…

By Rodney LaBruce

"There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice."– Montesquieu

Donald Trump was elected President of the United States—for the second time. Unbelievable! A convicted fel…

By Rodney LaBruce

"Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity, it is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life." - Nelson Mandela

I’m a Black man. I was born that way. I had a great f…

By Rodney LaBruce

“The road to freedom is paved with incremental steps.”
— James M. Buchanan

I’ve talked before about how important it is to understand the connection between James M. Buchanan and Charles Koch. While others helped with the strategy, these…

By Rodney LaBruce

"We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communitie…

By Rodney LaBruce

Insofar as the American public wants to believe there's been progress, they often overlook a simple truth: I don't want to be given anything by you. I just want you to leave me alone so I can do it for myself. – James Baldwin.

Early lab…

By Rodney LaBruce

W. E. B. Du Bois captured a powerful reality when he said, “The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” In his book Black Reconstruction in America, Du Bois used this to describe the flee…

By Rodney LaBruce

“Lynch mobs aren't attractive, and they don't get any better just because they are made up of good guys." This was Ben Bernanke's response to criticism during the House Financial Services Committee hearing on March 24, 2009.

As the form…

By Rodney LaBruce

In a letter from a Birmingham, Alabama jail on April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of d…

By Rodney LaBruce

• James Baldwin once said, “Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”
• Baldwin’s words highlight the reality that those who are poor often end up spending more in the long run due to factors…

By Staff Writers

Every one of us deserves a place to call home, one that is safe, stable, and conducive to growth. Yet, when we glance at the current landscape, it's clear that far too many families face mounting pressures to secure such basic living con…