By The Editors
Dear Readers,
In our first year, we have been fortunate to have attracted an all-star list of contributors whose fresh, bold, provocative insights and engaging writing have become part of our trademark.

For the holiday season, we are sharing with you some of our top stories. Those in the three Feature boxes were among the top ranked based on viewing statistics. Those in the rotation box below represent a combination of our top picks and yours from throughout the year.

With wishes for a wonderful holiday season, we invite you to read those that are new, revisit some old favorites, and have a very happy New Year!

By Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Everywhere I turn these days I keep seeing or hearing the words, “No More Excuses.” From black self-help book titles to black pundits on CNN, these three words have become the mantra of post-racialism in the Age of President Obama. Whether intended or not, the mantra fuels the belief that because of individual black achievements, we have finally reached the promised land of a color-blind, equal-opportunity America.

By Janet Singleton
As of January 1, 2010, the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Act will mandate that insurance coverage for mental health be comparable to that for other medical interventions, for group plans of companies employing 50 or more. What it means, for those who are sheltered beneath its modest umbrella, is that reimbursements, number of visits, annual and lifetime caps, co-payments, and any out-of-pocket costs for psychotherapy and related medications should be in line with, for example, treatment for diabetes.

By The Editors
John Payton, speaking at one of the nation’s most historic black institutions of higher learning, takes on the challenging question – and assertion – President Obama’s election has inevitably raised: Does that mean the United States of America has become a “post-racial” society?

By Makani Themba-Nixon
Many children of color are trapped in underfunded schools where parents must fight for the most basic of needs: lighting, bathroom doors, books and even water.

Yes, water.

By Jin Hee Lee, Vincent Southerland and Christina Swarns
Dissenting opinions — offered not by liberal advocates but by moderate, if not conservative, law-and-order judges — stand as a strong rebuke to the presumed effectiveness of the death penalty system. And they also confirm longstanding concerns about how abuses of power, under-resourced defense counsel, and racial bias undermine both the accuracy and judiciousness of death penalty convictions.

By Lee A. Daniels
For nearly two decades in the middle of the twentieth century, against daunting odds and the ever-present threat of lethal violence, she helped carry the torch of freedom into places where tyranny reigned. Later, she proved her remarkable commitment to public service could work to equally great effect in the arenas of politics, and the federal judiciary. Her name was Constance Baker Motley, and she was one of America’s great public citizens.

By C. Nicole Mason
Recent reports on the recession continue to highlight the disproportionate impact of the downturn on men in comparison to women with regard to job loss and unemployment. However, black and Latino women know that when it comes to unemployment, finding a decent job that pays well has as much to do with race, as it has to do with gender.

By TaRessa Stovall
Due to an innovative diversity effort that emphasizes where students come from rather than the color of their skin, most Berkeley, California, elementary schools are so well-integrated they may serve as a model for other schools around the nation.

By Tananarive Due
As a speculative fiction author who has been to Soweto, and who shouted myself hoarse during college anti-apartheid rallies, I was electrified by the trailer’s gritty, documentary-style sequences of a spacecraft hovering over Johannesburg… But a debate among some filmgoers about the depiction of District 9’s black characters is an example of how allegory can be rife with landmines.