Uncategorized
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The Last Dance
The King is dead. Long live the King. King Nando’s death on February 2 didn’t get much media attention. There was just a brief mention on Billboard’s web site. His last hit records were heard on stations that catered to Latinos in New York and Puerto Rico in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and…
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A Clay Moment
As Clay Davis, my favorite character on The Wire, would say, “sheeeeeeit!” Yesterday’s election results have given me the blues. I was hoping that Barack Obama would knock Hillary Clinton out of the race and lock up the Democratic nomination. Instead, Clinton’s big wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island have set us up for…
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Groundhog Day for the Dems
Somewhere between Texas and Ohio on Tuesday night the Democratic political groundhog saw his/her shadow and decreed at least another six weeks of campaigning. After crucial wins on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton said she was staying in and Barack Obama, somewhat comforted by his lead in delegates, will have to wait a while before claiming his…
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Could an Obama Win Backfire on Blacks?
Abigail Thernstrom, the conservative commentator on race in the U.S., once called me a member of the “doom and gloom” contingent among black political scholars. So, that probably makes me overqualified to make this assertion, but here goes. An Obama presidency could seriously backfire on African Americans. It is true that should Barack Obama become…
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Redemption Along the High Road
The high road is a hard road. Barack Obama is often compared to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. because of his soaring rhetoric and charismatic grace. But on Tuesday I night I realized that Obama is more like King in another way: He is leading a 21st Century non-violent, political campaign. Over the past week…
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A House Divided
I am tired of trying to explain this to my husband, so I’ll explain it to you instead. I have been an advocate for the civil rights of African Americans since back when we were called Negroes. Growing up during the 50s and 60s in Chicago, I was well aware of the fault lines of…
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Give the People What They Want
In a competitive primary season, the question of endorsements is always a hot topic. But this year, the jockeying for support has reached its zenith with the tightly contested race for the Democratic nominee threatening to go all the way to the Democratic National Convention and being potentially decided by “superdelegates,” a pool of elected…
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Who Wasn’t in New Orleans with Tavis
In one of my favorite episodes of “The Boondocks,” Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. awakens after 32 years in a coma. Confronted with the black community, circa 2006, Dr. King is appalled. BET, Michael Jackson and “Soul Plane” are among the things that push Dr. King to the point of calling us “trifling, shiftless, good-for-nothing…
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Let It Be Over
Even though I live in Ohio, I don’t have a clue which Democrat will win the state’s presidential primary today. At this point, I almost don’t care. I just want it to be over.The newspaper where I work reported over the weekend that it’s “neck and neck.” It said Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York…
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What Color Does It Hurt?
In his 1995 book Rage of a Privileged Class, Ellis Cose noted that behind the external trapping of success—good educations, comfortable incomes, nice homes—middle-class blacks are angry and disillusioned. In her new book, Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting (Scribner) author Terrie M. Williams warns that over a decade later something’s still…