Uncategorized
-
Oh, Lord, Kumbaya
At this moment in history when we may need it most, “Kumbaya,” a folk song that started its life as a quiet prayer and became a spiritual rallying cry for millions during some of this nation’s grimmest days, has morphed into something that couldn’t have been imagined during your Boy or Girl Scout days: a…
-
Love the Player, Hate the GM
Sometime in the late ’90s—memory can’t pinpoint when—I was sitting around with a few pals discussing the state of African Americans in the executive suites of sports teams. Certainly progress was being made since Al Campanis’ racist remarks on Nightline, but it seemed that the sporting world was no different than the real world in…
-
An Obama-Palin Ticket
Ever since John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate in August, I have been telling friends that my true “dream ticket” for the 2008 campaign would be Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Sarah Palin.Yes, I know this sounds odd. They are from different parties. They hold opposing views on foreign and domestic policy.…
-
Schooling McCain on the Man Code
It’s easy to look at Sen. McCain begging off a handshake from Sen. Barack Obama and just see a white guy dissing a black guy. But I wouldn’t get Al and Jesse on the BlackPhone just yet—I think that whole thing is a sight more complicated than prejudice and politics. I’m (arguably) as much a…
-
To Be Nina
Fifty years after recording her first hit, a rendering of George and Ira Gershwin’s “I Loves You, Porgy,” and five years after her death from complications of breast cancer, Nina Simone continues to fascinate. She left a benchmark that was, as sung in the opening verse of Funkadelic’s 1978 anthem, “One Nation Under a Groove”:…
-
Breaking News: It's Racism
To everything, there is a season. If summer is the time for civil (or close to civil) discourse in presidential politics, fall is the time for blood sport. And if you’re a Republican trailing in the polls, it’s the season for racist fear mongering. No one should be surprised by the assault John McCain launched…
-
Kind of Blue at 50
Miles Davis made many great records like Nefertiti, Walkin’ and A Tribute to Jack Johnson. He also made landmark records like Sketches of Spain, Birth of the Cool and Bitches Brew. But Kind of Blue remains in a class by itself. The recording’s unique and elegantly subdued sound, probing improvisations and extraordinary musicianship make it…
-
Rising to the Moment
It’s always a bittersweet time for me when I leave my home in Martha’s Vineyard for my home in Johannesburg; home being a place where you have people and things you love, as I do in both these places. With some sadness, I say “so long” to friends I drank and dined with or with…
-
The Truth About Black Love
My in-laws, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Chiles, cut a fine portrait last month, walking down the aisle of a candle-lit room at The W Hotel in Atlanta—she in a stunning champagne gown, with an armful of calla lilies; he in a sharp tux, his fingers interlocked with hers. Brian McKnight’s ballad “Never Felt This Way”…
-
It Takes Green to Go Green
Failing schools, crime and single-parent households are just a few of the challenges facing urban communities. Now, thanks to radical environmentalists and their supporters, a bunch I like to call “Club Green,” they must face soaring energy as well. “Club Green” enthusiasts are everywhere these days; their ideology is part of the liberal orthodoxy, and…