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'The Abstinence Teacher'
There is nothing particularly “black” about The Abstinence Teacher. Tom Perrotta’s new novel does not have any significant black characters. It is set in the kind of upper-middle-class suburban environment where the minorities are Indians or Persians rather than African Americans. And while a church plays a major role in the story, it’s a non-denominational,…
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Exactly Wright for Obama
Here is a radical notion: this is exactly what Barack Obama needed. Clearly, he needed to stiff-arm Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but more than that he needed to show some outrage and maybe even a little bit of rage. He needed to show that he is capable of action when action is what is called for.…
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Not a Chance, Scalia
In 1994, when Marion Barry was re-elected mayor of Washington D.C. following his troubles with crack cocaine, he famously challenged the many whites in the city to “get over” the results of the election by working with him. Barry, the first chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and very successful D.C. politician, was…
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The 40-Year-Old Re-Virgin
If you want to meet a real 40-year-old virgin I’m available for interviews. OK, technically speaking, since I have actually had sex, I’m not a virgin. But it’s been 10, long years! Yes, the equivalent of a decade; I didn’t stutter. So, I think my drought makes me eligible for reinstatement into Club Virgin. And…
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Wright Prophet, Wrong Direction
Reverend Jeremiah Wright has spent the last several days carefully placing himself within the prophetic tradition of African American religion. I attempted to place him in this same context here on The Root when I explained that he, like the biblical Jeremiah, is among the truth tellers who regularly warn the government that divine destruction…
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Frayed Bootstraps in the Black Mecca
Early last year I was called for jury duty. I headed to the court building in downtown Atlanta, semi-grateful for the reprieve from admin meetings and hoping to get some grading done — until I wandered into the wrong courtroom and was stunned by what I saw. The room was completely filled with black males,…
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An Open Letter to Michelle Obama
Dear Michelle, Can Barack please have a cigarette? No, stop right there, maybe you don’t get it: the future of the free world depends on it. Barack looks tired, and he’s been awful on TV. I think he’s bitter, bitter about not being able to have a cigarette. Cigarettes got him this far…can he please…
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If They Are So Scared, How Come We're The Dead Ones?
Ida B. Wells, at the turn of the 20th century, called it a “threadbare lie.” She was talking about how lynch mobs masquerading as law enforcement justified their actions by claiming black men were raping white women. But Wells was on to a larger delusion, one that not only inspired sexual hysteria 100 years ago,…
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The Sin of the Reverend
It’s a reasonable question, given the potentially catastrophic damage he wreaked on the Illinois Senator’s White House aspirations with his bombastic performance at the National Press Club this morning. At the precise moment when Obama is facing questions about his ability to connect with white working class voters, Wright chose to put himself back into…
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On Rappers and Rap Sheets
The recent spate of rap stars making criminal justice news will come as a surprise to no one, especially those of you who equate hip-hop culture with prison culture. Nor will it surprise those of us who have accepted the fact that, in the black public sphere, record sales (or any sales for that matter)…