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Nate Parker’s ‘R’ Scarlet Letter Belonged to Mike Tyson 25 Years Ago
Twenty-five years ago this summer, black America had to deal with a very serious allegation: that boxing powerhouse Mike Tyson, in Indianapolis to lend public support to the Miss Black America pageant, raped one of the contestants, Desiree Washington. A late-night encounter between the two in Tyson’s hotel room clearly went the wrong way, and…
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American Lynching: 4,000 Unpunished Crimes
When I speak or teach, I love to tell my audiences that I know, deep in my heart, that they would turn down $1 million if it were offered to them. You would, too. I use a story that those who read about A. Philip Randolph, the leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,…
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'We Need Real Democracy': On the Choice of Stein-Baraka This Fall
I’ll say this about Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein: She may have tried real hard during Wednesday night’s first-ever Green Party town hall on CNN to get mainstream Bernie Sanders voters into the party fold, but she did not stop her running mate, Ajamu Baraka, from saying what he really feels about America. Barack…
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What a Comic Book Reveals About Why John Lewis Led a Congressional Sit-In
Tuesday was the day that U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and other Democrats went back to Congress to figure out what to do next on gun control. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said that afternoon that he wasn’t going to reward Democrats for their civil obedience. Honestly, when Lewis, the last survivor from the 1963…
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George Washington Williams Was a Black Human Rights Activist; So, What Is He Doing Hanging With Tarzan?
In his long and illustrious film career, Samuel L. Jackson has played a dancing crackhead, a Jheri-curled killer, the coordinator of a team of Marvel Comics superheroes (a favorite role of this writer), a Jedi knight and the ultimate house Negro. On Friday he plays George Washington Williams, the pioneering black American writer and African…
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The ‘Ghost’ of O.J. Simpson Still Haunts Us
Every single time O.J. Simpson appears on the television screen, I wind up remembering that he is still alive. That after all he has gone through, O.J. is not yet at the point where white people are spitting and urinating on his grave. The latest time this happened was just Friday, the day of Muhammad…
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That Time Muhammad Ali Beat Superman
The best thing about going to my barbershop as a little kid in the mid-1970s was the Muhammad Ali pinball machine. Black power had faded, to be replaced by Afro Sheen. This was the period when Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes, and Earth, Wind & Fire were pushing the boundaries of spirit,…
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Chasing James Baldwin in Paris
James Baldwin is directly connected to Duke Ellington and John Coltrane in my mind, thanks to the 90-minute documentary James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket. When the Paris section of the film starts, you see mid-20th-century black-and-white footage of a security guard opening huge iron gates that lead to the Eiffel Tower while Ellington…
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Afeni Shakur Lived a Life of Resistance
Afeni Shakur, who died Monday at age 69, always understood the idea of resistance. In her 20s, she was a member of the Black Panther Party in New York City. When the authorities raided the group’s headquarters and charged the Panthers with 156 different charges, including 30 counts of conspiracy, she didn’t blink. She fought,…
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The Pain of Black Music Royalty Gone Too Soon
It’s hard to admit that there are things beyond the comprehension of the intellectual. It’s hard to explain the unexplainable. Not the death of Prince Rogers Nelson, a death we ultimately will understand. What I’m trying to make sense of is why, over the last 11 years, black America has had one devastating day after…
