May 24, 2012, 1:25 pmBlacks and Marriage Equality: An Update By FRANK BRUNIThere has been a great deal of attention over recent years to black Americans’ attitudes about homosexuality and to their feelings about same-sex marriage in particular. This was a big part of the coverage of Proposition 8’s fate in California, and it has been an equally big part of the story of Maryland’s movement toward marriage equality.I wrote a column on the topic last fall.In light of that, I thought I should provide this update, suggestive of a significant shift among black Americans.Public Policy Polling just today released these results from Maryland, whose governor has signed marriage-equality legislation, but whose voters could overturn that in a referendum later this year:A new Public Policy ... Continue reading →
Clementi Family, via Associated PressTyler ClementiThe Dharun Ravi case clearly evokes strong reactions, manifest in the number of comments my post yesterday received. I was glad to read through them and fascinated as I did. I admit I wasn’t able to give each a careful look, but I did get a sense of the variety of sentiments and of some recurring themes.Based on that, I wanted to offer a few additional thoughts.It was noted that perhaps Dharun has been reluctant to apologize in a big way because he or his lawyers fear his words could be used against him in a civil suit by the Clementi family.Thus far, it’s unclear that any such suit will be filed. I checked this afternoon with my colleague Kate ... Continue reading →
Daniel Krieger for The New York Times Eric Ripert, the executive chef of Le Bernardin. More Photos » ERIC RIPERT has been the executive chef of Le Bernardin for 18 years, and people sometimes ask him if he gets tired of cooking fish. Clearly these people have never eaten at Le Bernardin. No other restaurant in the city makes the simple cooking of fish (and the fish at Le Bernardin is cooked simply, when it is cooked at all) seem so ripe with opportunities for excitement. Some of the thrills are the hushed kind, like the way black garlic, pomegranate and lime support the crisp skin and white flesh of sautéed black bass. Others are scene-stealers, as when a white slab of steamed halibut is ... Continue reading →
Sorry seems to be the hardest word.As Judge Glenn Berman noted before handing down Dharun Ravi’s sentence yesterday, Ravi never said it clearly enough, to enough of the people affected by what the judge rightly labeled his “colossal insensitivity,” and with what felt like a genuine enough sense of regret. You could tell Berman didn’t like Ravi much.And yet the judge nonetheless handed down the sentence he thought appropriate, a light one. Just 30 days in jail, along with a fine and many, many hours of community service.Although emotionally unsatisfying and even legally debatable—as the judge noted, Ravi indisputably obstructed justice in numerous ways—that decision did a measure of honor to the way our justice system is supposed to work. It was driven, clearly, not ... Continue reading →
One of the things I love best about political commentary is how quickly it gets ahead of itself. I speak of the Michelle 2016 drumbeat. I don’t mean Bachmann; hence, two l’s. I mean Obama. And in truth it’s less drumbeat than flute warble, but still. It’s out there: a vague murmuring about whether the first lady might, for example, seek a United States Senate seat from Illinois. And it’s interesting, not for its plausibility — by most accounts she’s repulsed by the rough-and-tumble of Washington — as for a question it raises about political dynasties: Why don’t and why shouldn’t they extend to spouses as often as they do to siblings and children? Could Hillary Clinton, initially derided as a two-for-one upstart, turn out ... Continue reading →
WHEN I listen to President Obama speak to and about women, he sometimes sounds too paternalistic for my taste. In numerous appearances over the years — most recently at the Barnard graduation — he has made reference to how women are smarter than men. It’s all so tired, the kind of fake praise showered upon those one views as easy to impress. As I listen, I am always bracing for the old go-to cliché: “Behind every great man is a great woman.” Some women are smarter than men and some aren’t. But to suggest to women that they deserve dominance instead of equality is at best a cheap applause line. My bigger concern is that in courting women, Mr. Obama’s campaign so far has seemed ... Continue reading →
