culture
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We Need a New National Anthem; Here Are 10 Folks Who Could Do It
Despite going to graduate school in the discipline, my greatest education in philosophy happened at the barbershop. Old Man James, my barber since I was in elementary school, once hipped me to some game about the tension between blackness and patriotism in America. “Y’all still singing the national anthem in school, young blood?” he once…
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Seattle Seahawks #AllLivesMatter Protest Is an Act of Political Cowardice
Are you ready for some football? Are you ready for some flag-waving, solemn, 15th-anniversary-of-Sept. 11 remembrances? Are you ready for some Colin Kaepernick-inspired Black Lives Matter demonstrations by NFL players? If not, too bad, because you’re going to get all of those things when you tune in for any team’s NFL kickoff today, with the…
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A Love Story Interrupted by 9/11
Dennis Shortt remembers that morning as if it were yesterday. Whenever he found himself on the East Coast side of their Chicago-New York City romance, he usually beat his fiancee, Sharon Moore, up in the morning, even though she was the first to leave their Jamaica Estates apartment in the city’s Queens borough for work.…
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#Attica45: Muhammad Ali Recites His Powerful Poem About the Attica Prison Uprising
In 1972, one year after the Attica prison uprising, Muhammad Ali traveled to Ireland to fight Alvin Lewis. While there, he was interviewed by Cathal O’Shannon. Just as pretty as ever, “the Greatest” spoke on his boxing career, the importance of being Black (with a capital B), getting rid of our “slave” names, the Nation of Islam, racism,…
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'Educational Choice' Is a Slogan Slick Enough for Donald Trump
Donald Trump outlined his policy and philosophy for K-12 education in a speech Thursday at Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy or CASSA, a for-profit charter school in the largest city of the battleground state of Ohio. The Republican presidential nominee and founder of Trump University accused Democrats of trapping black and Hispanic youths in…
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The Half-Woke CliffsNotes to Homophobia and Misogyny
I never used CliffsNotes. Not because I believed in some uncompromising code of ethics that made me reject shortcuts in favor of hard work and discipline. My mother just wouldn’t let me use them. When I was a rising 10th-grader, I tried to get her to purchase a copy of the CliffsNotes for Albert Camus’…
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If This Father-Son Photo Makes You Uncomfortable, You're the Problem
I have no idea why these images, posted on Facebook eight months ago of Eric Owens and his son, are going viral now, but they are—and some of the comments are disturbing. While Owens has received a lot of love and support, some people seem to think that this is too intimate and “emasculating” a…
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Unique Views Podcast, Episode 10: Odd Couples and Flashy Pastors
And then there were two—and almost one, until Patti LaDanielle, aka Danielle Young, got her act together. That’s right; I almost had to Mathew Knowles her from the group after an off-air argument that we hashed out on-air. I won’t drag you through the details, but just know that I was right and apologized the…
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About That Michelle Obama Essence Photo …
I said I wasn’t going to write about it. But I have to. I. Have. To. On Wednesday evening, I was practicing my ritual of procrastinating by browsing through Instagram. A friend, an Essence editor, posted a new image of the first couple that will run in the upcoming October issue. The Obamas are on…