Uncategorized
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Burden of Proof
While on a seven-country tour this week, dignified and presidential images of Barack Obama have replaced last week’s cartoon image of him as a fist-bumping, flag-burning terrorist. This isn’t the first time that questions of Obama’s patriotism and loyalty have been raised, then quieted, by an inspiring speech or image. Throughout this presidential election, Obama…
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Obama in Berlin
When I moved to Berlin eight years ago—in the wake of a rash of neo-Nazi attacks against foreigners of color—I wondered if people stared at me because they didn’t want me in their country. I suspected men who came on too fast were merely toying with a fetish. I thought the cold, standoffish manner from…
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When Thugs Cry
It is time to pull this car over and give you gangsta rappers something to cry about. Cry about genocide in Darfur. Cry about the lack of support for the people in Burma. Cry about the displaced New Orleans folks that got gutted and uprooted like seaweed. Cry about poverty, teen-pregnancy rates and joblessness. But,…
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Black in America, Now What?
In Black in America, CNN’s four-hour-long series premiering this week, we learn some facts that may be news to viewers, including:— The prolific, loquacious Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson has a younger brother who is serving a life sentence for murder.— A fresh-faced, 18-year-old black single mother in the Bronx does not have the virus…
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Who Gets Paris, Prince and Blanket?
The further postponement of the child custody hearing for the children of the late Michael Jackson is evidence that lawyers for both Debbie Rowe and Katherine Jackson are keenly aware that neither woman is perfectly positioned to withstand the scrutiny of a child custody hearing. But Katherine Jackson has a considerably stronger case for custody…
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The R-Word
Master TV satirist Stephen Colbert frequently pokes fun at the notions of racial political correctness by having his brash conservative pundit character proclaim that he cannot see race. It’s a simple and reliably funny conceit that plays on the prevalent, if specious, notion that we live in a post-racial era, one that ignores, or optimistically…
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Gen Y and the Colorblind Lie
“Are you serious?” he asked. And though I was, I couldn’t help but notice the disbelief in his blue eyes, his pale face furrowed in confusion. I searched his expression for an inkling of empathy. There was none. “Why,” he had to wonder, “can’t I say the word ‘nigga’?” Before you judge, consider the confusion,…
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Race Shmace, Whatever
The situation is this: Two friends of mine; one white male, one black female. One very incendiary word. And the black girl wasn’t the one who said it.I watched the following exchange with nervous curiosity, my eyes flitting back and forth as if the two were engaged in an intense game of ping-pong. My white…
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The Eclectic Slide
Thirty years ago this summer, I made my escape from deep in the heart of Texas, where far too many people seemed to think my name was “Uncle Tom” because of my musical tastes. My freedom train left Dallas and stopped at an Ivy League college in New York City; I figured this would be…