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10 Books That Didn't Get 'The Treatment'
What is “the treatment”? When it comes to books, it’s the New York Times review, the conversation with the author on Morning Edition, placement upfront at Barnes & Noble. And for every book on any subject that gets “the treatment,” there are a couple of others that get lost in the shuffle—and it’s not always…
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Why Juneteenth's Not My Thing
I am John Hamilton McWhorter, the fifth. The first John Hamilton McWhorter was a slave. This Thursday is Juneteenth, when I might be inclined to celebrate the emancipation of John Hamilton McWhorter, the first. Or not. Truth to tell, I have never quite gotten the hang of Juneteenth. I suppose I should. What could be…
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College? I Don't Need No Stinkin' College
We often hear calls for more black people to get college degrees, out of an assumption that it is becoming all but impossible to enjoy a middle-class existence without a B.A. This counsel is not as wise as it sounds. The idea of four years of college as a “normal” experience in America took hold…
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'Conscious’ Rap That Isn’t
The Words I Manifest: Is Conscious Rap Different? And you will find that this perspective is best –-check it out/ These are the words that I manifest. Gang Starr, “Manifest,” No More Mr. Nice Guy A typical take on rap is that whatever Paul Wall and Busta Rhymes are pulling, there is a whole body…
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Even Beneath the Haze, Blacks Used to Do Better
Ta-Nehisi Coates has a very smart piece on Bill Cosby’s latter-day “Come On, People” crusade in the latest issue of the Atlantic Monthly. It will deservedly be a standard reference for years to come. However, Coates makes one well-intentioned mistake: he thinks people who decry the current state of the poor black community are nostalgicists.…
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I'm No Neocon Mercenary
There’s a black writer whose work I follow who is interested in prisoner re-entry programs, supports Barack Obama, reviles the War on Drugs, supports gay marriage, voted for George Bush in neither election and writes of Black English as coherent speech. That writer is, as it happens, me. Recently on The Root there was a…
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Blackness: A Quick and Dirty Primer
In the The New York Times last Sunday, Jill Nelson dismissed the idea that black people ever really wondered whether Sen. Barack Obama was “black enough.” My memory of how Obama was being discussed a year ago is different from Nelson’s. Today, however, black people who question Obama’s authenticity are indeed a fringe. So what’s…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
