‘Sinners’ Releases in Black American Sign Language. Here’s What That Means
Why NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Tried To Play The Black Card…Literally
‘Waiting To Exhale’ 30 Years Later: Where Are They Now?
What Diddy Will Eating and Doing In Prison This Fourth Of July
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Another Apology for Slavery
The General Assembly in Tennessee is bandering about the notion of a bill professing “profound regret” for that state’s roll in the American Slave trade, but there is no addendum that would include any kind of reparations, sympathy card or balloon bouquet, so I am always confused about who, exactly is supposed to feel better…
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Clues to Smith's 'Detective Agency'
He’s not the first person that you’d expect to author a series of mysteries starring Mma Precious Ramotswe, an enterprising “lady detective,” a Botswana woman of “traditional build.” Novelist Alexander McCall Smith is, after all, neither Botswanan nor female, but a Scottish law professor who was born in Zimbabwe and educated in Zimbabwe and Scotland. …
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Another Cop, Another Video
Don’t get caught slippin’. That’s the lesson for anyone who wants to put forth any malarkey about a post-racial nation. If you haven’t heard by now, NFLer Ryan Moats and his wife were pulled over while rushing to the hospital to see her dying mother. Before you fly off the handle, try to put yourself…
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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…
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The Blackest Eye
As she observes the racial dynamics at play in the Democratic presidential contest, Toni Morrison must be somewhere biting her nails. The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer never struck me as the nervous type, but if ever there was a case for the jitters, it is now. In recent months, Morrison has had to stand back and…
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With Friends Like These …
Dear Mr. White: After reading your hypertensive response to my article, I could not help but wonder if the straw man would press assault charges. Having read your work on previous occasions, I will admit to being a bit surprised by that you took the tone of a feuding rapper at my suggestion that there…
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The Democrats' Texas Hold'em
-What is Sen. Barack Obama going to do about his Latino problem? No use pretending he doesn’t have one. The numbers don’t lie. Sen. Hillary Clinton crushed him among Hispanic voters on Super Tuesday, defeating him by 20, 30 and 40-point margins in places like Arizona, New Mexico, California and New York. Obama’s poor showing…
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Secretary of 'Soul'?
Quincy Jones, bandleader, composer, producer and Grammy-laden powerhouse of the entertainment world, was on CNN on Inauguration Day, getting personal and global at the same time. The much-traveled Jones had been back to his old stomping ground, Garfield High School in Seattle. There, he chatted up a group of students and discovered, to his dismay, that they…
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Strip Mall Medicine
Tucked away at the edge of a ramshackle strip mall on the black side of town in Montgomery, Ala., there’s an AIDS clinic. When I was last there, in 2005, the mall featured just a couple of weather-beaten shops—a dollar store, a beauty parlor—and this nondescript clinic, quietly declaring its presence without using the word…