culture
-
Unique Views, Episode 36: A Gentler, Kinder Mike Tyson
The saying goes that it’s better not to meet your heroes, and Danielle Young, aka Patti LaDanielle, has met me, and we see how that has worked out. Clearly, I was her podcast hero because my voice is a cross between a soft beach breeze and Idris Elba’s face. I hate to admit it, but…
-
Just a Reminder: The NCAA Is a Plantation, and the Players Are the Sharecroppers
One of the biggest bait and switches ever pulled on American citizens was the ruse of collectively shared farming. It was a simple but effective long con. Farmers and plantation owners convinced newly freed slaves and poor people to work a portion of their land in exchange for a share of the harvest. In theory,…
-
Clearly, NY Post’s Naomi Schaefer Riley Doesn’t Understand My Work Educating Students of Color
In what was intended to be a critique of my recent keynote address at the 2017 SXSWedu conference, an uninformed, aspiring education columnist with no experience in research, theory or practice in the field does a wonderful job of showcasing her ignorance about teaching and learning, and exemplifying a major issue in the education of…
-
Sean Hannity Is Garbage, but Not All Opinion Shows Are Trash
Ted Koppel performed a great service to his country in telling Sean Hannity to his face that he was “bad for America.” Hannity can simmer in his lingering anger over the widely shared clip that originally aired on CBS Sunday Morning as he sees fit, but it does not absolve him of the sins that…
-
Why Keyshia Cole Joining Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood Is Good for Her and the Show, and Great for Fans
As a lover of the subgenre of R&B I describe as “Eff-that-ninja music,” Keyshia Cole is a pioneer. Keyshia’s entire catalog more or less keeps within this prism, but her first two albums are her strongest efforts. On her debut album, The Way It Is, Keyshia was basically that girl with Kool-Aid-red hair who would…
-
Scandal Recap: Oh Dear, Abby
Abby, you in danger, girl! At the end of last week’s Scandal episode, we learned that Abby Whelan, President Fitzgerald Grant’s chief of staff, was involved in the shooting of Jennifer Fields and Huck. This week’s episode is dedicated to showing us exactly how Abby got caught up. The real story begins 60 days before…
-
The Danger of Forcing the ‘Runaway’ Label on the Missing DC Girls
Double-digit numbers of young black and Latinx girls in the nation’s capital are missing and, as expected, there has yet to be a national outcry. Instead, within the past week, Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department and other social media outlets are now focused on emphatically underscoring the message that social media distorted the stories and…
-
How Gentrification Destroys Black Voting Power
Remember when the nation’s capital was so black that Parliament Funkadelic nicknamed Washington, D.C., “Chocolate City”? Maybe you’re old enough to remember when California’s Bay Area was so black that it birthed the Black Panthers and everyone knew what Sir Mix-a-Lot meant when he rapped about an “Oakland booty.” If you’re too young for that,…
-
Watch: Artist Lina Iris Viktor on the Misconceptions of Blackness in Art, and Painting With Pure Gold
Artist Lina Iris Viktor is known for creating works using a palette of black, majorelle blue and pure 24-karat gold, but she refuses to be tied down to any particular aesthetic. She has a background in film, photography and performance art, so her work is expressed across multiple media. When we spoke, she was intensely…
-
Meet the Detroit Mentor Who Inspired That Emotional Father-Son Scene in This Is Us
Like a lot of young men today, Jason Wilson, CEO of the Cave of Adullam Transformational Training Academy in Detroit, grew up without his father around. Struggling with his emotions and resentment toward his mother, Wilson turned to the martial arts. Today he’s turned his childhood struggles and his passion for martial arts into an…