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To Protect and Serve?
Even before the car stopped, the police officers began swarming out of their own cars. They snatched the three young black men out of their vehicle, threw them onto the ground in the streets of North Philadelphia, and for more than 30 seconds kicked and punched and swung billy clubs, brutalizing, torturing and dehumanizing the…
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Mixed-Up on Gay Marriage
“As to mixed marriages, the most delicate question of all, it is to be noted that 29 states – all those of the South and many in the Southwest – forbid it. In the North, such marriages are frowned upon, and represent an almost insignificant percent.” —The American Negroes, special bulletin published by the U.S.…
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The Man Behind the Music
Music reflects a people’s political, social and cultural life, so it is no surprise that “We Shall Overcome” conveys the optimism and determination of the Civil Rights era, and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin On?” conveys the disillusionment of the post-Civil Rights era. Similarly, it is no surprise that since Barack Obama has opened a new…
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The Appeasement Game
Barack Obama is, for the moment, winning the silly appeasement debate raging in American politics, but the fact that the fight is occurring at all highlights a set of vulnerabilities that Obama must address quickly if he is to win in November. Because he is still distracted by a prolonged primary battle with Hillary Clinton,…
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Diplomacy Isn't Appeasement
It’s always sad to see those who have blundered egregiously defending their mistakes to the bitter end – hoping that forceful repetition of erroneous arguments will somehow make up for what they lack in wisdom. We have seen this tactic throughout the failed presidency of George W. Bush, especially regarding his disastrous choice to invade…
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Café au Lait, Sans Politics S’il Vous Plait
I’d had enough of the political horse race which seemed to consume every intelligent – and not so intelligent – conversation for months. So I left the country, hoping a week in France would rescue me from the unending palaver about the Democratic presidential campaign. It didn’t work. Seems the folks over there are just…
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Dear Class of 2008
I know that everyone is saying, “Congratulations.” We say it because we are proud of you and what you have accomplished. I want to say something else; something that others may not say. “I am sorry.”We have a lot of reasons to apologize.We have taught you to think of education as a program, formula or…
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College? I Don't Need No Stinkin' College
We often hear calls for more black people to get college degrees, out of an assumption that it is becoming all but impossible to enjoy a middle-class existence without a B.A. This counsel is not as wise as it sounds. The idea of four years of college as a “normal” experience in America took hold…
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Is College for You?
By this time of year, most students have ended their semester of fretting about whether they will or will not be accepted to this or that college. They have spent the past few months greeting the mailbox with a mixture of fear and hope. Those who received disappointing responses may now be joining the ranks…
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Forget the BBQs, Remember Baghdad
I can still see the faces of some of the men and women in the United States armed forces serving in Iraq. Some were smiling, some grimacing, most stared with piercing eyes from behind black shades. Many were hues of brown, most were white. They all deserve to be remembered. It was October 2003. I…