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The King James Version of Basketball
LeBron James is the best player in the NBA this year and his performance towers over almost every other player by such a margin that there shouldn’t be a debate about Most Valuable Player; there should just be a coronation for the player sometimes referred to as King James. Yet there isn’t. Players like Kobe…
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LeBron Kong Attacks!
And when he get on he leave your ass for a white girl. —Kanye West I’ve spent the day hugged up with Vogue — staring into its beset April cover featuring athlete LeBron James and android Giselle Bundchen, and trying hard not to be numb. I’m trying to brush off the fact that the first…
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Not Safe for White People
In much the same way that February is an important, border-crossing season for many black media workers (it’s BEM, or Black Employment Month), the weekend that a Tyler Perry movie opens has quickly become a special, border-crossing time for many white film writers. The flicks written, directed, produced and acted in by Perry tend not…
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Lest We Forget: An open letter to my sisters who are brave.
I HAVE COME home from a long stay in Mexico to find – because of the presidential campaign, and especially because of the Obama/Clinton race for the Democratic nomination – a new country existing alongside the old. On any given day we, collectively, become the Goddess of the Three Directions and can look back into…
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A Nash'nul Conversashun 'Bout Race? O-Tay
From the blog of Patrick J. Buchanan: Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to. This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands…
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On Any Given Sunday, Rev. Wright is Wrong
In the wake of Barack Obama’s impassioned and eloquent speech on race, forced by his pastor’s hateful rants, the black church, the historic back-bone of the movement for equality of opportunity, has gotten a bad rap. It has been alleged that the fire-breathing oratory — dripping with hate-America themes, bigoted racial messages and all sorts…
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Clash of The Waves: Feminism in Crisis
This exchange followed a blog post by Rebecca Walker on The Huffington Post. Anonymous: I disagree with your assessment of this election. I think you are really diminishing how much of a threat Hillary is to the male power structure in America. I have never seen the media make the kind of brazen, non-stop sexist…
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Tyler Perry's Conservative Tent Revival
I accept that Tyler Perry is a pop culture phenomenon. His new film, Meet the Browns, took in more than $20 million its opening weekend and his TV sitcom, House of Payne, won three NAACP image awards. But I find myself wondering how thoughtful folks are supposed to respond to the retrograde spirituality and formulaic…
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Hair Tactics: Why I Cut my Dreadlocks
It was Good Friday, when barbershops are notoriously busy, and there I waswaiting alongside grandfathers and school-age boys.My last visit to a barber had been in 1995, and it showed; locks flowing well past my shoulders.The decision to cut them was a long time coming. But every time I thought about it, I remembered how…
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The Perilous Politics of Hair
A strange and sad thing happened to me on my job search this year. I missed out on an opportunity not because of my skills, but because of my hair. I was looking for a little extra money for college this past February, so I applied for a job at my old place of employment,…