Deed Theft Steals Homes. Why Does Organized Retail Crime Get More Outrage?

As Congress targets organized retail theft, America still struggles to show the same urgency when Black, Brown, older, and LMI homeowners lose generational wealth through deed theft. I recently remarked to friends over tea that government officials seem to be more outraged over groups of young adults stealing Gucci handbags than over people stealing houses. […]

Almost $5 Billion Was There for War in the Caribbean — But Not There for Brownsville, Brooklyn

Over the past year, America has found money for military adventures in Venezuela, the Caribbean, and the Eastern Pacific. We’re talking about boat strikes, naval deployments, oil blockades, and regime-change — for national security. Brown University’s Costs of War Project and the Institute for Policy Studies estimate that America’s operations in the region cost at […]

Juneteenth: Beyond the Watermelon and Cookout

“Hmm. Didn’t know where to go. Turned us out just like, you know, you turn out cattle. [ laugh ] I say. Didn’t know where ta go.”—Laura Smalley, former slave in antebellum Texas; interviewed the Library of Congress’ Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project Laura Smalley’s recollection of living in Texas […]

Obama, Harris, Black Men, Black Women, and the Bigger Problem No One Talks About

As if white supremacy has nothing to do with this … Black men’s apparent problem with Vice President Kamala Harris running for Commander in Chief and former President Barack Obama admonishing those men about their feelings show how white supremacy — no, not white people — has such a voodoo headlock on Black intimate partnerships […]

Tyrese’s Ignorance of the ‘Asian Hate Crimes Bill’ — Symptom of a Disease Too Big for Him To See

Even stars chase clout for more shine, but that’s not the real problem. After shrugging my shoulders and giving a gas face while watching The Shade Room’s Instagram reel of singer and actor Tyrese Gibson blasting the Biden-Harris administration for signing the so-called Asian Hate Crime Bill while ignoring the safety needs of Black and […]

Why Gaza’s Latest Unchosen Trauma Reflects a Sad Day in America

Reflecting on the Flour Massacre Israel starved the Gazans, and then murdered scores of them two days ago for starving. The Israeli military’s version of the story is that the unarmed Palestinians’ desperate rush towards the humanitarian aid trucks posed a threat to the soldiers on the ground. And US President Joe Biden still ships […]

Marion, Kansas Police Raids Town Newspaper, 98-Year-Old Owner Dies

We should call out attacks on the press in all towns, large and small … I rarely read a local news headline from the Midwest that says, “Kansas Newspaper Owner Died in the Line of Duty After Police Raid”. So, yeah. I started digging. The decedent is 98-year-old Joan Meyer, co-owner of the Marion County […]

The Jerry Jones Miracle, or Why Police and Sesame Place Reforms Will Always Fail

Arguably more mysterious than the stories of Magical Negroes … This piece about institutional racism’s unspoken truth came to mind during my most recent digital sabbatical. Lemme change that: this truth has been on my mind since the day a young White supremacist shot and killed nine Black churchgoers in South Carolina, but the piece […]

1493 is the White supremacist parent of 1776 and 1619

Spain’s Doctrine of Discovery opened America and the rest of the so-called ‘New World’ to centuries of slavery and colonization. The racist backlash to the 1619 Project — also known as the 1776 Project — is yet another inelegant White supremacist trick, disguised as a call to national unity at the expense of legitimate explorations […]

Wealth gap will continue to weaken Black and Brown power — even as the majority population

This is a national security issue in the making … W. Kamau Bell’s “The Wealth Gap” episode from his United Shades of America CNN series will air tonight, which triggered me to think about a specific racial crisis America will face two decades from now, if economic inequity isn’t addressed. “Sometime after 2040” is what […]