It is extremely disturbing to me when I hear gay people and immigrants—even third and forth generation—attempt to equate their problems with Blacks and the civil rights holocaust.

Allow me to simply the differences and inform you about some personal encounters. Some will seek to minimize the inhuman treatment by saying that it happened a long time ago. They lie through their teeth because racism is alive and well in 2010.

(NNPA)—I just returned from the seven-day Tom Joyner Foundation Fantastic Voyage from Miami to St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Coco Cay, Bahamas. This was my first time on the cruise and if you’ve never been on one, picture “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” on steroids.

As was the case when I attended the first Essence Music Festival in 2002, I was advised to pace myself. Even though I tried—skipping some events and sleeping late after going to bed some mornings at 4:30 a.m.—I still couldn’t wait to crash once I got back home. Don’t go on the cruise thinking you’re going to rest.

(REAL TIMES MEDIA)—Anyone who has followed this column for the last several years knows how passionately I feel about victim’s rights and recovery for those who have suffered sexual violence or assault. When one in five women in America and one in six African-American men or women are reportedly victims of sexual violence in this country, we cannot sit by and let others suffer in silence because of our old-fashioned, puritanical views of sexual propriety. I am in favor of tough sentences for sexual predators and I cheer every time Chris Hanson shocks some pervert sitting in his underwear in a suburban kitchen. Despite all that that, the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that sexual predators can be held indefinitely is something that any American, even an advocate for sexual violence has to stand against.

(NNPA)—I couldn’t believe the headlines in a recent issue of the Los Angeles Times which asked whether President Obama had responsibility for the oil spill on the Louisiana-Mississippi coastline.

Of course, as president, he has a responsibility to see that it is cleaned up, first by the resources of BP, the company that made the mess, but ultimately by the U.S. government.

But at this stage of the crisis, the article felt decidedly like there was some culpability of Obama for not having had his Minerals Management Service regulate oil drilling more vigorously. This doesn’t wash, because it’s like blaming the Obama administration for not being able to see into the future, but it is consistent with the way in which he has been viewed increasingly.