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The Wire Goes Dead
I am not good with goodbyes. And neither is David Simon, which is why he left us back at the beginning back where it all started. He dropped us off on the sidewalk stairs and told us to go. And we didn’t wave or smile, we just turned and walked away like a 5-year-old on…
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I Don't Do Brackets, and Here's Why.
One of the few joys of approaching the ripe age of 48 is that curmudgeonliness comes much more naturally than it used to, and I get a good strong dose of it every time the NCAA basketball tournament nears. You see, I’m a big basketball fan but I don’t do brackets. I feel my hackles…
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I'm No Neocon Mercenary
There’s a black writer whose work I follow who is interested in prisoner re-entry programs, supports Barack Obama, reviles the War on Drugs, supports gay marriage, voted for George Bush in neither election and writes of Black English as coherent speech. That writer is, as it happens, me. Recently on The Root there was a…
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Who Cares About Black People?
It’s been two and a half years since Hurricane Katrina swept through New Orleans. And now, walking through the French Quarter or downtown, one sees absolutely no physical sign that the catastrophe ever happened. Walk through a neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward and the same is definitely not true. Acknowledging the contrast, my mind…
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No Time For Smoked-Filled Rooms
Several weeks ago we were presented with the surreal specter of two iconic figures from the civil rights movement battling each other in the name of “democracy.” Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP, wrote a letter in early February to the head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) demanding that the delegates “elected” by…
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Will Black Democrats Abandon Clinton Over Race?
The first thing to know about me is that I am a lifelong Democrat. I have voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1976, when I was first eligible to do so. Furthermore, in 1984, I was a new assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and on Oct. 12th of that year, I…
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The Pride of Harlem
America is being introduced to David Paterson, who will be sworn in as governor of New York on Monday in the wake of Eliot Spitzer’s resignation, as the first African American to hold that office in New York and the first blind governor in the nation’s history. I know him as my childhood friend from…
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Out of Spitzer's Ashes, a New Day
Like all New Yorkers, I am deeply saddened by this week’s events. But out of the ashes of this firestorm comes renewed hope. When David Paterson is sworn in next Monday, he will become the first African-American governor in New York State’s history. His ascension to the office marks the latest in a growing and…
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Kenya's Power-Sharing Accord: Some nagging questions
Suppose that after suspiciously losing the much-needed 25 electoral votes from Florida in the highly disputed 2000 US presidential election, Al Gore had led his supporters in demonstrations. Imagine that Americans had then gone on a rampage demanding that George W. Bush resign, refusing to appeal the election results to the Supreme Court because it…
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Bernard Madoff: The Villain America Needed
Dear Mister Madoff: Before it’s too late, I wanted to thank you for all that you’ve done for America. It’s been reported that Thursday you will plead guilty to 11 criminal charges, meaning you will spend the rest of your life in jail. A legacy like yours should not go unmarked as you fade into…