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 […]

BLACK WOMAN TASHALA DANGEL GEYER PAINTS HERSELF WHITE TO AVOID BEING SHOT BY POLICE

Video presented below without comment — except that Facebook took down the original video before a user brought it back. Crazy love to my Sis Maya P. for putting this on my radar … https://youtu.be/jWtfNmVADcM

A POEM TO SHAQ-FU KOON AND THE STRUGGLE

shaq-fu koon took his mushmouf flow to hit the very same willie kitsune horn that wished jiyū to the embassy prisoner who we know is all breezy among the fading pallid male nigra haters club these days as long as dem leaks can drain the hnic sucking the chicken bone marrow outta black planet […]

KAEPERNICK THOUGHTS

My editorial policy for mentalunrest is simple, if not to a fault: write about events, ideas, truths and creators that others don’t see or attempt to neglect. So — I chose not to write about the Star Spangled Banner sit out by Colin Kaepernick. As a person who decided to sit out the National Anthem […]

SUNDAY SMACK: TREASON OR SLAVERY?

This week’s Sunday Smack inspiration comes from reading Eric Foner’s Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad, where I was reminded of how the British promised Africans enslaved in America their freedom in return for fighting against George Washington’s patriots during America’s war for independence. That would mean any slave who fought […]

POLICE REFORM ALONE WON’T SAVE BLACK LIVES

I’ve been asked for my recommendations regarding police reform so that we won’t have to see African descendants like Alton Sterling and Philando Castile get killed after interactions with police officers. I can rattle off plenty of recommendations, but they’re all tempered by a piece I wrote on November 26, 2014 titled “AFTER FERGUSON: […]

MORE PROOF “ALL LIVES MATTER” FOLKS ARE FOS — CHECK GOOGLE TRENDS

If the sheer number of cases, studies, and high-definition extrajudicial killings can’t sway some to believe that “All Lives Matter” is too FOS to accept even a drop of social justice, let’s look at a source many of you rely on every day: Google. I used Google Trends to track online mentions of the phrases “Black Lives Matter” […]

WHY “ALL LIVES MATTER” FOLKS ARE FOS

How offended, terrified, or angry would you become if I said “Dogs’ Lives Matter” and supported a movement around that brand? You’d likely answer “Not at all” because your cognition permits you to reason that focusing on due respect for dogs and their well-being doesn’t even remotely suggest a hatred for humans, or any other […]

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. […]

SUNDAY SMACK: SHOULD PRO-LGBT RIGHTS BOYCOTT IN NORTH CAROLINA ALSO APPLY TO BLACKS?

This week’s Sunday Smack inspiration comes from the North Carolina General Assembly’s decision to overrule a Charlotte ordinance which banned discrimination against LGBT people. The legislature also banned North Carolina cities from passing LGBT non-discrimination laws, as well as regulating local minimum wages. However, the mounting pressure being placed on North Carolina by large organizations […]