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Mad Men: Pete Campbell's FUBU Moment
At least now we now know how we got from here: (spoiler alert) To here: So far, my take on race in Mad Men is that it’s enjoyable (read: not stressful) to watch the show deal with race in a mostly ancillary fashion—the black characters have been presented sparingly, underscoring just how insulated and out…
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Joe Wilson's War
It’s a safe bet that when Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” during President Barack Obama’s address to Congress, he had no intention of being the lone angry voice cutting through the silence of Obama’s pregnant rhetorical pause. Wilson got sandbagged by his Republican colleagues who suddenly fell silent—he thought he’d be part of a…
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George Will is Wrong … This Week
There are two sure things every Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos: George Will and the heartbreaking “In Memoriam” segment listing the week’s war victims. Apparently, the former has just started paying attention to the latter. In two columns this week, George Will announced that he’s against not only the war in Iraq, but…
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George Will is Wrong … This Week
There are two sure things every Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos: George Will and the heartbreaking “In Memoriam” segment listing the week’s war victims. Apparently, the former has just started paying attention to the latter. In two columns this week, George Will announced that he’s against not only the war in Iraq, but…
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White Skin, Black Masks
More thoughts on race and Mad Men Season 3 thus far: To recap, Racialicious’ Latoya Peterson, writing for Double X, argued that Mad Men Seasons 1 and 2 came up short in the show’s portrayal (or lack thereof) of racial issues in the overall narrative of late ‘50s/early ‘60s social change. I responded with my…
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Not Too Late for an Obama ‘Staycation’
Not everyone’s going to be happy to see the first black first family tossing the Frisbee around next week. In the last month, the president’s critics, particularly on the right, have, in their customarily hypocritical, player-hating fashion, been holding him to a higher standard than past presidents: No other president would be expected to cheerfully…
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Say Uncle, Mr. President
It’ll take President Barack Obama more than a couple of town hall appearances to get his health care reform proposals back on track because health care isn’t the only thing that needs tweaking—he needs someone on the team to help him figure out how to get his mojo back. Obama has aides for every occasion:…
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Are We Mad About Mad Men?
A few thoughts about Latoya Peterson’s take on Mad Men from Double X last week: She’s right that to the extent that the show is about the social dynamic of the late ‘50s/early ‘60s, there’s been relatively little attention paid to racial issues on the show’s first two seasons—and the black characters have been fairly…
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Sotomayor: A High-Tech Cinching
The U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the next member of the U.S. Supreme Court, and it’s first Latina Justice by a vote of 68-31. Nine Republicans broke ranks and voted with 59 Democrats to confirm. The other 31 Republicans, whether intentionally or not, wound up ratifying the ugly, disingenuous attacks against Sotomayor that…
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A Black and Tan on Tap at the White House
If there’s a silver lining to the otherwise cloudy controversy surrounding the arrest of The Root’s editor-in-chief, Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., it’s that when Gates and Crowley meet President Barack Obama at the White House for a beer Thursday, it’ll be the ultimate race-relations role reversal. Instead of a black emissary like Booker T.…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
