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An Elegy for Obama
I am in mourning. As the presidency of Barack Obama draws to a close, I keep thinking about a piece I wrote for The Root eight years ago when he was sworn in for the first time. Back then, I couldn’t stop singing anthems of joy and patriotism, grounded in what now seems like a…
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The Meaning of the 4th of July Now
This essay from our archives is every bit as relevant today as it was when we first published it in 2010. What, to a black American in the age of Barack Obama, is the Fourth of July? I answer: the day that reveals to him, more than any other, how much America owes to blacks…
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What a Tale of 2 ‘Johns’ Teaches Us About the N-Word
The death of a dear friend last week reminded me of a small incident, a long time ago, that might shed some fresh light on the seemingly endless debate over racial respect and who can and can’t use the word “nigger.” The friend was John Egerton, with whom I worked during the early 1970s at…
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Richard Cohen’s Racial ‘Groundhog Day’
Tempting as it is to join in the fray, I’m taking no part in the online beatdown that Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen is suffering for his ill-advised comments about interracial relationships. Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jelani Cobb and a host of other brilliant young writers have already got that covered. Besides, I’ve got my own bone…
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Virginia Race Proves That GOP Won’t Nix Tea Party Easily
(The Root)—Thank providence for Robert Sarvis, the Libertarian candidate for governor of Virginia. Because of him, I don’t have to sell my house in Richmond and move out of the state. Even though there is little hard evidence to support it, I can’t shake the feeling that if Sarvis had not been on the ballot,…
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Scholars of Color Working in Isolation
(The Root) — Remember the name Maurice Green — not the Olympic sprinter, but the energetic young scholar who founded the International Black Doctoral Network Association Inc. The newly minted group just completed its first convention in Philadelphia, drawing 400 black Ph.D.s and doctoral candidates from a wide variety of disciplines to network, present papers…
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Obama Gets a Lecture From Putin
(The Root) — What does the U.S. have in common with Blanche DuBois, the crazed heroine of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire? They both depend on the kindness of strangers. We depend on China and other nations to subsidize our huge deficits, allowing us to mount costly forays into the Middle East while not…
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King's Children Are at It Again
(The Root) — Talk about ugly timing. Word comes from Atlanta that on the very day on which thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, the sons of Martin Luther King Jr. were dragging their sister into court, accusing her of planning to keep using their…
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March 2013: What About the Future?
(The Root) — As an exercise in further deifying Martin Luther King Jr. and further solidifying an oversimplified version of his legacy, yesterday’s 50th-anniversary celebration of the historic March on Washington was a huge success. But as a means of kindling a new and badly needed social movement that could meaningfully address the unfinished business…
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No More About a Dream. I Want to Hear a Plan
(The Root) — I was a 17-year-old face in the crowd of 250,000 when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his immortal sermon at the March on Washington. I was standing so far behind the Reflecting Pool that I could barely make out the figures on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and the historic words…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
