Politics
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Earn Our Votes: The Black National Convention Aims to Set an Agenda That Both Political Parties Must Address
If there won’t be peace, then let there be a lesson in the destruction of Black bodies. Let the funerals of those unarmed Black bodies killed by police resonate on a frequency so high that it breaks through white silence, shakes the rafters of white supremacy, and seeps into the consciousness of America. Let the…
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Day 4: Satan Slept, and What We’ve Learned Now That the Republican National Convention Has Ended
So what did we learn? We learned that the end is just like the beginning. We learned that the mind can convince itself of anything. We learned that Trumpism doesn’t care about Black life, but we knew that. We learned that there are some Black people who will gain the world (or just white gaze)…
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Turning Pain Into Policy: Kamala Harris, Ben Crump Explain Why Police Reform Starts With Economic Justice
Whatever personal feelings one may hold about vice presidential hopeful Kamala Harris’ history as a prosecutor, attorney general and senator, the vast majority of lawyers, legal scholars and criminal justice experts agree on one inarguable fact: She is not Mike Pence. Unlike Pence, Harris wears a mask. Harris doesn’t think COVID-19 will take a self-care…
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First Look Clip: Ava DuVernay Reveals to Oprah What She Felt Right After Kamala Harris Was Announced as VP Candidate
August 28 is an important date. 2020 is an important year. That’s why Oprah Winfrey has decided to launch OWN Spotlight: Culture Connection & August 28th, featuring separate conversations with Ava DuVernay and Rev. Al Sharpton with regard to the historical context of this date as well as the significance of the Black vote and…
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Trump Wants Biden to Take Drug Test Before First Debate
I don’t think we ever discussed the similarities between President Trump and boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. Both men are at the top of their game: one a pugilist and the other a racist. Both men have trouble reading big words. Both men have more money than me, and both men have requested that their opponents…
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Day 3 of the How to Make White Friends and Ignore Black Death Conference, aka the Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention dragged on into day three and pulled America into an alternate universe in which Chick-fil-A is open on Sunday, some 177,000 people have not died from COVID-19 and the world didn’t watch an unarmed Black man get shot seven times at point-blank range in front of his children. That can be…
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How This Week's March on Washington Has Adjusted Its Political and Social Justice Goals to the Coronavirus
On Friday, activists from across the country will commemorate the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington with another demonstration in the nation’s capital, this time centering the victims of state-enabled violence. With police brutality and racial justice issues commanding an unprecedented amount of political and social energy—and with greater support for criminal justice reform…
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Politicos Want Biden Out of the Basement. Stay Your Ass Right There, Joe
Apparently some Democrats and Republicans have been making fun of Democratic presidential Joe Biden’s respect for the Chevy Tahoe of airborne diseases, COVID-19. There is a movement of folks who believe that with the election less than three months away, Biden should be traveling around the country and social distancing while air-kissing babies. “I think…
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When a Black Man Yearns to be the Worst White Man
I’m reminded this afternoon, when rewatching Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s goofy speech at the Republican National Convention, of Pinocchio. And of Icarus. And of Antonio Salieri. And of Tom Ripley. And of the Chrysler 300. And of so many other people and places and things—fictional and as real as tree bark—that have pined to…