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Senate Apologizes for Slavery
At two minutes before noon on Thursday, June 18, 2009, 146 years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and 150 days after a black man took the presidential oath of office, the United States Senate, in a unanimous voice vote, apologized to African Americans for slavery and the racial discrimination during the Jim Crow era. It’s…
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My Career: The Remix
The other day I decided to update my resume. First, I changed my title from journalist to content producer. Next, I went through and carefully deleted some entries then updated others. That December 1988 Providence Journal Bulletin Sunday Magazine cover story on heroin addicts in Gloucester, Mass.? Buh-bye. That 1988 summer internship on the features…
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Let Me Upgrade You?
Kyle had just purchased a fresh pearl white Lexus coupe for his birthday. He said he’d rock it for a year or two, then trade it in. “Oh, it’s a lease,” I assumed.”No,” Kyle replied.”Two years…you’re not going to have it paid off by then, will you?””I’ll probably never pay off a car. If I’ve…
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R. Kelly Gets Schooled
R. Kelly has lost his mojo. He’s old, and he’s tired, and the sound and style he perfected are now flowing through the veins of more capable artists like The-Dream, Trey Songz and Usher. There’s nothing wrong with growing old, of course. Except when you think you’re still young. With his first-ever mixtape, The Demo…
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Hating on the Celtics: You Know How We Do
Among the things that have, until now, been universal truths in professional basketball: · Someone, every three years, will be compared to Michael Jordan. It will be a fallow comparison, and the poor fellow will soon be playing in Europe, if playing at all. · The Miami Heat, year in and year out, will have…
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It's Not Easy Being Green
After the Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, the phone rang. I presumed it was an old friend from my childhood in Mattapan, Mass., one of my boys who, back in the 1980s, would typically ride me if the C’s lost a game and half-heartedly congratulate me on…
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Running With Obama
Since the race for the Democratic nomination has drawn to the end, many pundits have begun to ask how the choice of a vice president might help to repair the damage inflicted on the party as a result of the long contest. The Clinton camp has promoted the idea of an Obama/Clinton ticket that can…
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The Other Verdict
Single Father, Author, Screenwriter, Award-Winning Journalist, NPR Moderator, Lecturer and College Professor. Habitual Line-Stepper
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Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
Now that the weather is consistently warm throughout the country, we’ve entered into what the British would probably call high season for weddings. According to American Wedding Consultants, the nation’s oldest association of professional wedding planners, the months of May through October are big favorites for saying “I do.” So, if you’re getting lots of…
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Whiteygate
And so continues the conundrum of being a post-racial black candidate in a still-very-racial world. To speak the truth about anything involving race is to be accused instantly of dragging out that famous racial deck we’ve all been dealt that stands us in such good stead in America. The campaign of Barack Obama has had…