Uncategorized
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It's the Sexism, Stupid!
Amy Alexander’s essay dismissing the bereavement faced by Hillary supporters prompted me to make a few conclusions of my own from my vantage point as an Obama supporter working as a political organizer with Clintonites over the past two years. All I can say is: Wow! This piece is intense. What immediately came to mind…
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Saving Our Streets– A Response to Community Violence
All across Harlem USA, it’s known as the ‘Memorial Day Shootout.’ And no one wants to remember it. As families, friends and acquaintances celebrated the season’s most picturesque evening late that Monday, a scene erupted on the borders of Marcus Garvey Park that could have come right out of a frightening war movie. And when…
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Good Grief: Exploiting Bereavement in the '08 Campaign
Just when I thought the unsavory litany of insults, absurdities and hypocrisies that defined the race for the Democratic presidential nomination could not possibly get any longer, the long goodbye of Hillary Clinton proved me wrong. The Grief Narrative that led up to the New York senator’s grin-and-bear-it endorsement of Barack Obama on Saturday just…
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Young, Black and in Decline in the Obama Age?
As the country braces for a bruising general election fight between John McCain and Barack Obama, I can’t help but wonder whether young black voters are going to matter at all. Four years ago, you couldn’t even think about the presidential election without having someone toss you a “VOTE OR DIE” T-shirt or tell you…
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Sister Soul
For much of her musical career and indeed her life, Lalah Hathaway’s legendary last name likely mattered most to the people who encountered her. There was a novelty to Hathaway’s debut recording in 1990—the daughter of a legendary soul singer makes good—though 18 years and four recordings later—Hathaway is a fully-grown woman who can stand…
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Hustle and Show
There isn’t much sexual salaciousness in Sudhir Venkatesh’s ethnographic treatment of gang culture on Chicago’s South Side. He was a relatively naïve graduate student at the University of Chicago when he first started studying crack-dealing gangs in one of the country’s most notorious housing projects. Venkatesh embarked on a sociological journey that would educate him…
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Heroes and Heels: The Best and Worst of Campaign 2008 — So far!
The Democrats appear to be quickly moving to unity after a delayed but, in the end, very powerful concession speech from Senator Hillary Clinton. She endorsed Obama with stentorian clarity. She also pledged a committed fight to secure victory for the Democratic ticket in the fall. Bravo! One cannot have watched this prolonged primary season…
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The Separate But Equal News Network
There’s a conservative joke poking fun at liberal media that predicts coverage of an impending apocalypse would have the headline “World to End: Poor and Minorities Hardest Hit.” Despite his tenure as a Republican congressman, it seems J.C. Watts never heard that joke. Then again, maybe he did and just didn’t understand why it’s funny.…
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Does Indy Diss the Developing World?
The box office has given its ecstatic verdict on the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. ($482 million in gross ticket sales and counting.) But one little discussed metric that some people have been using to judge Skull (or, at least, that I have) is: How offensive was it compared to…
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Revisiting A Classic
A couple of weeks ago, I bumped into Roberto, a college classmate on the street. Since we were both class of ’82, this is a drop-everything moment: We live in the same Manhattan neighborhood, but our contact seems limited to annual chance encounters. After catching up, our dialogue turned to sports, and Roberto made a…