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An Uncomfortable Convo Between A Black Person And A White Coworker
Setting: Some office, somewhere, with office shit and shit everywhere. Background: After spending much of the previous evening watching and reading about Baltimore, random Black guy (“Deron”) goes to work. Since Deron is a Pittsburgher, all of his coworkers are White. While at work, Deron actually wants to…work. Or talk about work. Or perhaps talk…
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Respectability Politics Are No Solution; They Are A Surrender
At times like these, when the uncomfortable behavior of (mostly) Black people is broadcast to a (mostly) White audience and becomes a national discussion point, a particular type of Black person tends to emerge. Actually, “emerge” might not even be the best word, because it implies that this person rose from somewhere, when in reality…
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Baltimore Is Not Ferguson; Freddie Gray Is Not Michael Brown
It is not difficult to witness what’s happening in Baltimore, Maryland right now and immediately think of Ferguson, Missouri. Or New York City. Or Cleveland, Ohio. Or Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Or perhaps even Los Angeles in 1992. The parallels are obvious; heartbreakingly, evisceratingly, surreally obvious. So obvious are these similarities that it does not take much…
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The Top 10 Lightskinneded Black Male Beefs, Ever
Everything that could have been said about Michael Eric Dyson’s 170,000 word critique of Cornel West has likely already been said. The forensic examination is near complete, the deconstructions have been deconstructed, and somewhere in America, Miley Cyrus is still twerking. Still, one assessment remains. Really, the only assessment that matters. On the list of notable…
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Seven Thoughts On The Ghost Of Cornel West
1. It’s not terribly uncommon for the type of people who’d even be interested in reading Michael Eric Dyson’s thoughts about Cornel West to rib on Dyson for his often torrential and occasionally obnoxious loquaciousness. He is a man very in love with both the words escaping his pen and coming out of his mouth, and…
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10 Things About New York City From A Guy Who's Definitely Not From New York City
I was in New York City for two days last week. I was also there for a couple days in February, 36 hours or so in 2013, and for three days in 2012. By all accounts, this makes me a New York City expert. And, since I’m a New York City expert, I feel completely comfortable…
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A Conversation With A Guy Who Actually Admits To Having Racist Bones In His Body
It follows the same script every time. A (usually White) public figure says or does something that’s kinda, sorta, racist. People notice the racism and call him on it. He replies by denying it, using at least one of the following statements as his “evidence” 1. “I’m colorblind”/”I don’t see color” 2. “I have ***insert…
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How "Coon" Became The New "Female"
“while the word female is appropriate under certain contexts, beware of the cat who uses it as his universal descriptor of all women. honestly, although i have a few theories (my favorite one has something to do with sting and the police), i have absolutely no idea why this is such a strong indicator of…
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Movies To Avoid Watching If You Don't Want To Hate White People This Week
We’ve all been there before. You see a movie with intense racism and/or racial violence, and while discussing the movie later, you joke — well, hopefully just joke — about how it made you hate White people. Of course, you don’t hate White people. You might have even shared that comment with a White…
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The Psychic Toll Of Existing While Black
I’ve never been more conscious of the tenuousness of life and finality of death than I have been since I first considered marrying my now-wife. Bringing someone into my life — a person whose safety and well-being I volunteered to be personally accountable for — just changed things. It changed how I assess the present and conceptualize the…
