Uncategorized
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The Supers Speak
The Democratic nomination process is apparently over. Thank goodness. It is now up to the superdelegates to seal the deal. In recent days, four black superdelegates—two supporters of Sen. Barack Obama and two of Sen. Hillary Clinton—discussed the tortuous primary campaign and what should happen after today’s contests in Montana and South Dakota. Clinton endorsers…
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Que Pasa Puerto Rico?
So what’s up Puerto Rico? People have consistently tried to tell me that the nations of Latin America are color-blind societies, that racism is simply not an issue in politics or anywhere else. My research in the last five years has told a different story. Despite the fact that many in Latin America claim that…
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Return of the 'Real' White People
I’m glad to see that real white people are back, the kind that justify the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s paranoia. For a while I assumed those kinds of white people had disappeared into the multiculti, Starbuck-sipping, bilingual, globe-trotting crowd that I routinely run across in our nation’s capital—the kind you read about on Stuffwhitepeoplelike.com—the kind I…
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Lakers in Seven
Before we delve into the very closely matched NBA finals, which start Thursday, let me offer a parallel to the LeBron James situation. The superb year and frustrating end that he and his Cleveland Cavaliers experienced are very similar to the middle phase of the career of one the NBA’s all-time greats, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In…
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The Science of Racism
James Watson has long assumed a certain special status among American scientists. The molecular biologist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, for, as the Swedish Academy put it in its announcement for the prize, “their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids…
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Your Wallet Shouldn't Be The Only Thing Getting Slim
That’s right, I said it! The “R” word. And no matter how politicians try to spin it, the fact is, we’re in one. Nationwide people are scrambling to stay employed, afloat and are tossing non-essentials off their fiscal boat. And it’s not just a financial toll; there’s the psychological impact of an economic downturn. Nothing…
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Color, Controversy and DNA
Below are excerpts from the Q&A with Nobel laureate and DNA pioneer James Watson. READ Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s thoughts about this interview in an essay about the science of racism . WATCH portions of this conversation in video. James Watson: I’ve thought about these things a lot over the last couple of months, because…
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Did Obama Betray Wright First?
Barack Obama is deeply indebted to Rev. Jeremiah Wright for two crucial elements of presidential campaign: The first is Obama’s Christian faith and the second is his work with black Americans on the South Side of Chicago. On March, Obama claimed that the video clips of Rev. Wright playing nonstop on television news “expressed a…
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Classical Music’s Latest Bloomer
The 42-year-old, modern classical composer Joseph C. Phillips Jr. is a self-described “late-bloomer.” Now one of the brightest new lights on the modern classical scene, he studied music at the University of Maryland and began his career as an award-winning high school director near Seattle. He honed his gifts as a composer while he was…
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Music's British Invasion, Remembering the '80s and Once Again, The Roots Go Deep
Estelle, Shine I guess no one saw this coming since Paul Revere didn’t saddle up in a Dodge Charger flying down I-495 yelling that the British are coming. But they’re here, and it is a shame that American soul music sounds much better through European lungs. With Amy Winehouse “Elvis-ing” her way into the American…