‘You ain’t Black’ Part 1: what will you do for Black people — er, what the hell did you just say, Vice President Biden?

Lawd. The Democratic Presidential candidate’s appearance with Charlamagne tha God yesterday has left plenty to unpack — and the “You ain’t Black” comment is the least of them. But I’ll cover that too. Here’s the first of three parts. Joe Biden’s words — spoken and not — speak volumes about the lens he places on […]

Here we go with this “Africa is overpopulated” bit again — thanks to Bill Gates, Aliko Dangote, and Mo Ibrahim

“[Africa] Artillery shelling and scorched earth policy have been replaced by an economic dependency.” —Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth Since my childhood, I’ve witnessed speeches, marketing campaigns and herbal tea-sipping Birkenstock Liberals scream the virtues of controlling Africa’s population. So, guess who’s not surprised to find Microsoft and international nonprofit co-founder Bill Gates, […]

Coronavirus and racism — we keep chasing the hammer that struck us, but never the hand behind it

How can Black, Brown and poor people live long lives in communities not designed for people to live long? I saw this “fight COVID-19 now” vs. “Medicare for all” video on Roland Martin’s Twitter feed (be sure to watch the video): Which explains why I can’t be a politician: every policy question has to be […]

The Biden nomination shows that White supremacy has won. Again.

Even if the reigning White Supremacist in Chief has to drone “I’m the greatest President ever” from his political grave to a hypothetical President-elect Joe Biden in January 2021, White supremacy still wins. I’ll start with the premise my axiom that President Donald Trump is either the iconic leader of the modern White supremacy movement, […]

Coronavirus: more proof Black and poor communities are designed for racist death (and politicians don’t care enough)

ask your political leaders why they donʼt talk about ‘social determinants of health’ to see how much they care … I’ll start by heading off the near-inevitable “What about White people” pushback whenever someone else mentions a unique and more intense version of hell that Black and Brown folks are experiencing. Sure — coronavirus doesn’t […]

Senator Harris, the presidency, her Jamaican roots and those curious answers about weed

For whatever reasons, I have this bad habit of writing stuff and not posting it. My thoughts about US Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ interview on The Breakfast Club Morning Show well over a week ago is an example. I’ll do better … My observations about her “Whites-only bank” affiliation aside, the interview went […]

Empty victory: young Black wrestler’s sacrifice

Reading Frantz Fanon or writers like him can make you easily relate to a dictum that seems to describe unequal societies: when you’re on the losing side, a “W” is an welcomed “W” — until you realize it’s not. I see this dictum in the angering story of Buena Regional High wrestler Andrew Johnson, a […]

When the beat stops dropping — marching after Trump

The synchronized goose-stepping to President Donald Trump’s White-America-First drumbeat seems highly familiar to many of you. And this is the point where most media analogies between Trumpism and Nazi Germany stop short. I want to go deeper and explore the policy and moral ramifications of Trumpism’s eventual end — and what will happen once the […]

Bruno Mars and cultural appropriation, part 2: the bake

The fried-rice-and-chicken-wing-theory of Blackness gets too much shine at times. We’ll dig deeper into that point later. I want to continue my thoughts from earlier today about Bruno Mars and cultural appropriation by asking a silly question: what is Blackness? Also, what credentialed person or process gets to determine someone else’s Blackness? No, this isn’t […]

Bruno Mars and cultural appropriation, part 1: the shake

To the folks who continue to drone that performer Bruno Mars is guilty of cultural appropriation — leave him Alone. Yeah, I always thought Bruno Mars played Cruise Ship Funk — the safe stuff that’s deodorized to a sucralose state of Middle-American acceptamce where listens invoke Peoria-grandma-approved happy faces, trying hard to keep a beat. […]