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We Hood! We Votin'–and Throwin' It Up!
In Ishmael Reed’s 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo, a dangerous epidemic, “Jes Grew” threatens 1920s America. For the uninfected, the virus’ symptoms are troubling and sudden, centering on an obsession with the dances, lingo and clandestine locations associated with ragtime and jazz. Jes Grew infections start in the country’s colored precincts, but the virus soon shows…
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A Stone-Faced Lie on the Mall
The night before he was assassinated in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously roared that he had “been to the mountaintop” and he had “seen the promised land” of freedom, justice, and equality. That spirit in the final phase of King’s life has been captured brilliantly by Chinese sculptor, Lei Yixin, who was commissioned…
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John Edwards: Obama's Ace in the Hole
It was the finest moment of the agonizing slog this election season has become. John Edwards was back, bringing a gift of reconciliation by merging three concerns that have divided loyalties this year: race, gender and class. By endorsing Barack Obama on Wednesday, Edwards pointed voters back toward the “moral shame of 37 million people…
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Selling Out for a Losing Cause
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Could it be that as Hillary Clinton was nodding off, waiting for that fabled 3 a.m. phone call, the ghost of Dylan Thomas took possession of her soul? She rages on and on against the dying light of her…
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A Forever Family
I was born a ward of the state in Maine, and I grew up in the foster care system. I was blessed to have been placed with families who cared for, supported and guided me, and to have been loved by incredible women who gave me the discipline and confidence to develop a successful career…
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Becoming My Own Advocate
I was first placed in foster care at the age of 6 after my mom gave me away to a friend who abused me physically, mentally and emotionally. That was the beginning of a painfully long relationship with the foster care system, marked by 11 different placements, nine different schools and countless attempts to find…
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Disconnect Me
OMG! Not another invite. Please, “friends,” I beg of you. They all start out the same. “Friend X has sent you an invitation.” Because this invite has come by e-mail and not through the Postal Service, it’s immediately clear that it’s not for pending nuptials or a bat mitzvah. It’s for yet another social networking…
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An Unlikely Threat to Democracy
When Turkey’s chief prosecutor brought a lawsuit this spring asking the country’s Constitutional Court to close down its governing political party, he set in motion a dangerous chain of events that could undo years of political and economic progress in Turkey. The prosecutor, along with many of Turkey’s top judicial and military officials, consider themselves…
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The Last Hug
I never realized, until recently, that I don’t know the day my mother died. I don’t think I ever knew. All I know is that I knew she was gone before anyone told me. I was ten when my mother died of Lupus, a disease of the red-blood cells that affects mostly African-American women between…
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Weather Changes
From 1987 to 2002, Mark McEwen was the face of CBS morning television. The warm, roly-poly McEwen, with his big moustache and bigger smile, made a perfect television weatherman. His sunny disposition and first-thing-in-the-morning cheer were nice to wake up to. But two years ago, as he puts it, “there was a change in the…