7 WAYS COLSON WHITEHEAD’S UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IS PURE DOPENESS

I expect Colson Whitehead’s National Book Award-nominated novel, The Underground Railroad, to win plenty of kudos for its ability to convey a layered story of metaphoric Afro-mysticism surrounding Black slaves, particularly a young woman named Cora, who are pursuing freedom from the antebellum South. Abolitionists, pro-slavery supporters and the ideological permutations in-between help to frame […]

Read More 7 WAYS COLSON WHITEHEAD’S UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IS PURE DOPENESS

SUNDAY SMACK: DID US GOVERNMENT COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY?

I just completed my second reading of John A. Williams’ novel Clifford’s Blues — a well-written but far from feel-good story of a black, gay jazz musician imprisoned in Nazi Germany.  The book frequently mentions the gruesome medical experiments performed on prisoners by Nazi physicians — which made me think of the 1932–1972 Tuskegee, Alabama syphilis […]

Read More SUNDAY SMACK: DID US GOVERNMENT COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY?

MUHAMMAD ALI THOUGHTS

My meditations of a post-Muhammad Ali America hit on a sad reality that we still have too many White folks — and  let’s be sure to include an excessive number of the Black ones as well — who view the words and actions of confident Black folks as “Cocky.” “Too aggressive.” “Arrogant.” Or much worse. […]

Read More MUHAMMAD ALI THOUGHTS

SUNDAY SMACK: IS THIS GRATITUDE?

This week’s Sunday Smack draws from some personal family experience — or more specifically, that of my Grandmother on Dad’s side of the family. Everyone in the community called her “Mother.” Before Mother owned a candy store, she cleaned homes for a living. Mother had a client, a wealthy White woman, who considered Mother a […]

Read More SUNDAY SMACK: IS THIS GRATITUDE?