Fidel Castro — a Different Kind of Bastard

With former Cuba President and revolutionary icon Fidel Castro’s passing, it’s a good moment to quote an insightful response US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt supposedly gave about a decade prior to Cuba’s revolution, after Roosevelt’s Secretary of State called then-Nicaragua President Anastasio Somoza Garcia a bastard: “Yes, but he’s one of our bastards.” Explains a […]

Remembering David Mancuso, Loft Lord

When placed in chains, they created spirituals that gave birth to much of the music you hear today. Gave them tough, green leaves — long thought to be degenerative cabbage shoots — and the resulting simmered collard greens they made have graced the menus of countless restaurants. Shut their writers out of the mainstream publishing […]

WIKILEAKS: 8 AFRICAN AMERICANS NAMED TO CLINTON’S VP LIST

Here’s another interesting Wikileaks email that surfaced: Vice Presidential choices for Hillary Clinton — including eight Black people! This past March, John podesta emailed a list of running mate options to Clinton “Organized by food group,” Podesta explained. He never provided names to these groupings so I took a crack at labeling: Catalyzing Latinos Javier […]

WE STAND WITH KORRYN GAINES TODAY BY LOGGING OFF FACEBOOK

There are fewer of us liking and sharing Facebook posts today in recognition of how the social media giant shut off Korryn Gaines’ access to her Facebook and Instagram accounts — at the Baltimore County police department’s request — just before a SWAT team ended an hours-long standoff with Gaines by kicking in her apartment door and shooting […]

MATTY’S ROCKET COMIC CREATOR TAKES ON POLITICAL PARTY CONVENTIONS

Not sure how this didn’t hit my radar earlier but Tim Fielder, creator of Matty’s Rocket and a prominent cartoonist of Afrofuturism imagery, teamed up with his twin brother Jim to visit Cleveland and Philadelphia to ink and shoot their observations of the respective Republican and Democratic conventions — as told by everyday people. The […]

CLINTON’S AMAZING WEEK OF ‘NO’

As the presidential candidate who’s “willing to debate anytime and anywhere,” and is willing to speak with any investigator about her private email troubles, Hillary Clinton seems to be saying “No” a lot lately. Saying “No” to a Party of No Guts primary debate with opponent Bernie Sanders in California makes sense on the surface […]

DESPERATE HILLARY

It’s obvious that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s scrying about her impending New Hampshire primary doom had led to panic and desperation — she dispatched hubby Bill Clinton, the former President who killed a Black man to be elected, incarcerated many more Black men to get reelected, made the poverty situation of Black families even […]

ABOUT THIS OSCARS BOYCOTT

“A two hour Laura Ashley commercial.” That comment from Variety magazine explains why — in my world, at least — Jada Pinkett-Smith and or others who want to boycott the 2016 Oscars for its absence of color in the nominations are a bit late. But welcome anyway. I’ll get to Laura Ashley […]

REMEMBERING MAURICE WHITE

Many of us feel pain after hearing the news of Earth Wind and Fire co-founder Maurice White’s return to the Creator. The emotional outflow has been all over social media since last night, and for good reason. Through EW&F, Maurice help to build an African-inflected, multi-genre sound that extended across astral, diasporic, rhythmic and […]

SLAVE REPARATIONS WILL LIKELY TURN DEADLY

So, what’s my reaction to the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent’s recent visit to the United States where they urged the federal government to consider slavery reparations for African Americans? My reaction remains similar to what I’ve told friends who asked me this question during the […]