[This post originally appeared in Longreads.] When I was about 7 or 8 I had my first serious conversation with my mother about the future: what I wanted to be; how I wanted to get there; how things really “were.” The word “were” in this context was probably my first paradox. Things that “were” were infinitely complex, yet simple. They were understood with or without understanding. You had to know how things “were” before they made themselves known, or you would regret having made the acquaintance. There were jobs that were “gone” as she described it. Jobs that paid well right out of high school were “gone.” Jobs with security were “gone.” Before those jobs had “gone,” they had been scarce for black folks in her experience anyway, but now they were accessible in theory but nonexistent in reality. Now the door that would have been closed because of Jim…
In his first few days in office Trump and several members of his team attacked the media for underestimating the size of the crowd that attended the Inauguration.…
[This article originally appeared on Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fuckery-donald-trump-lies_us_588126a8e4b096b4a230a23f?fx74o5hg6bf6tuik9] In his 1987 comedy film, “Raw,” Eddie Murphy jokes about an argument with fellow comedian Bill Cosby about Murphy’s use…
[This article originally appears on the Society for US Intellectual History blog http://s-usih.org/2015/02/invisible-men.html.] In his seminal works – Shadow and Act and Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison created…
https://vimeo.com/97284525 American Moai is an exploration of the prison industrial complex and its similarities to the ‘moai’ of Easter Island. The moai are huge statues built to stand…
Civilizations are remembered for the monuments they build, but what is seldom explored is the degree to which those monuments define and in some cases destroy the peoples…
https://vimeo.com/90189265 There was a funny twitter beef a few weeks ago between Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian and comedian Marlon Wayans about emasculation or feminization in hip hop…
Wednesday night Arizona governor Jan Brewer vetoed SB1062, a controversial bill that was supposedly intended to protect the religious freedoms of businesses and individuals who might out of…
In writing the movie “Dr. Strangelove”, Stanley Kubrick and his co-writers faced a problem. They had set out to write a serious movie about the dangers of nuclear…
The angry mob of white southerners that surrounded Robert Williams and his entourage in June of 1961 met a familiar sight with a deeply disturbing variation. The mob,…
One of the ways institutions preserve power is through creating rules and regulations that are labyrinthian, archaic and seemingly unchangeable and then repeating them over and over again…
This past Sunday marked the anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school which claimed the lives of 26 people, among them 20 children. In the…
[slideshow_deploy id=’1954′] Overview This was an interesting, but confusing week. On the international front, Nelson Mandela’s funeral and memorial service was Tuesday, yet the focus seemed to be…
Uruguay legalized marijuana a few days ago, inspiring drug reform advocates and drawing the ire of the United Nations. Here’s what the UN had to say: “[the decision…
The recent reincarnation of Robert Kelly should remind us of the dangers of waste: wasted time; wasted money; wasted potential. Defenders of R. Kelly are legion. The sophisticated …
Dear Shawn, I hope you’re right that Herman Cain will make another presidential run! Reporters everywhere will rejoice, especially since they will no longer have Michele Bachmann around…
In ‘Rule and Ruin’, Geoff Kabaservice, explores the history of the Republican Party, shining light on what some consider now an endangered species: the Republican ‘moderate’. Geoff is…
The trial of George Zimmerman began a few weeks ago with the prosecution resting its case last Friday. Like all high profile/high stakes trials, moments and memes have…
The reaction from some on the right to Jay Z and Beyonce’s Cuban vacation reminds me of the moments following the death of Stringer Bell on ‘The Wire’.…
Last week Dr. Ben Carson further damaged his credibility and his chances of becoming the 2016 Republican presidential candidate by equating proponents of gay marriage with those that…
When my son was about one and a half he would occasionally walk over to the bookshelf, toss all of the books from the bottom shelf onto the…
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/duelinginterests/2013/02/03/race-and-reaction-a-conversation-with-corey-robin Every week or so an author or pundit posits a new theory to explain the ‘crack up’ on the Right. Some attribute it to opportunism run amok;…
One of my favorite characters on “The Boondocks” is Uncle Ruckus, a hard-working, self-hating, foul-mouthed, delusional black man whose hostility to black people is only matched by his…
“Django Unchained” leaves me in the odd position of contributing to a problem while I propose a solution to it. Django’s not a serious film about slavery or…
In the weeks and months following President Obama’s reelection, Republicans will struggle to rebrand and redefine themselves for the electorate. A few have already come forward with prescriptions…
As the post-election euphoria wears off, many of President Obama’s supporters – myself among them – ponder his future and that of the conservative movement. Conservatives seem to…
Several months back a statistic emerged that was revealing yet misunderstood. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney would receive 0% of the black vote in spite of the fact that…
The Voter ID debate demands that one acknowledge the obvious, but then advance the absurd. Of course voter fraud occurs. Lyndon Johnson stole his first election back in…
Working in NYC means riding public transportation and occasionally having a crazy person strike up a conversation about mind control serum in the water, Jewish cabals, or gay…
Friedrich Nietzsche, when discussing the character of his countrymen, observed that to be German was to endlessly question ‘what is German’. Many attribute this sense of civic alienation…
A couple of weeks ago Chick Fil A’s President, Dan Cathy, went on the record with his support of ‘traditional marriage’, noting his frustration with the ‘prideful and…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gf4jN1xoSo] It is widely believed that the Religious Right traces its political origins to Roe v. Wade, suggesting that outrage over abortion led the often apolitical evangelical movement…
Last week the NAACP launched an investigation into the arrest of Creflo Dollar, an Atlanta mega church pastor accused of assaulting and battering his fifteen year old daughter.…
Last week, as rappers Jay Z and Kanye West were about to go onstage and perform their hit single ‘N*ggas in Paris’, actress Gwyneth Paltrow tweeted “N*ggas in…
By the time you read this new facts will have emerged, but this is what we know so far. Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old young man, leaves…
The goal of a ‘Drug Free Society’ resembles that of a “Workers’ Paradise” or a “Rational Market” in its presumption that human beings are both predictable and perfectible,…
[This video originally appeared on Huffington Post] Episode 1 – The Prototype 1963 The first episode dissects a shooting that managed to be both the crime of the…
I announced this a few weeks ago on Facebook and Twitter and a few other places, but not here. I was recently published in the Baffler and Salon.com.…
[This piece originally appeared in Salon.com: http://www.salon.com/2015/04/07/march_madness_and_the_ncaa_purity_lie_how_the_billion_dollar_basketball_industrial_complex_blinds_us_to_our_biggest_flaws/] In a nation split by partisan bickering, one of the few documents that both liberals and conservatives await with genuine enthusiasm…