Dear Nichole The week you were born, I hid behind a Raggedy Ann and Andy toy box and waited for your Mama to bring you home. I didn’t hide simply because I was sad that you were taking my place as the baby of the family; nor did I hide because I, as a 7 year old child, had never [...]
1. Our Grandmas used to beat us to remind us that there was a massive price to pay for being black, free and imperfect. Years later, we’re still paying that price and we have yet to accept the probability that, all things considered, not one black man in this country really deserves the positive or [...]
Ether. I never expected to keep my job as a professor at Vassar, not even waaaaaay back in the day when money folded both ways and people still bought new cars. So of course, I don’t expect to keep my job in this recession. But what fool does? I’ve been on the tenure track at [...]
Ether. First, we’re colored as folks whose communities are icily imploding from crime because we “don’t snitch.” Now, they want to ridicule Letreasa Goodman as an overzealous McNugget snitcher. Why does this story have shoes, puffy socks and Air Maxes? Because Americans need to believe that above all else, black folks love chicken. And most of [...]
“I’m tired of folks, them closed minded folk. You know what I’m sayin’? It’s like I got a demo tape and don’t nobody wanna hear it. But it’s like this: The South got something to say. That’s all I got to say.” Andre’ 3000 1. In 1998, I stood in the basement bathroom of [...]
Ether. I have often spoken to you about good and evil, and this has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world and between the two, there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere unless the ideology being advanced is democracy [...]
Ether. T’was night before Christmas, and all through Grandma’s house, not a creature was creeping, while I was waxing my cousin and them in Scrabble. Half-way through the waxing, my cousin asked, “Wait. Is ‘swagger’ a real word?” This wasn’t the first time I’d heard someone wonder aloud if swagger, like “diss” was a “real” [...]
Ether. “I was going to be a writer, God, Satan, and Mississippi notwithstanding … And, here I was, left with only myself to deal with. It was entirely up to me.” — James Baldwin 1961 1. The night that Barack Obama beat McCain/Palin into All-American dust, I hugged a lot of good white folks. Hundreds [...]
ALL THINGS CONSIDERED — In June 2008, City Coldson and his nemesis LaVander Peeler become the first black male duo to win the State of Mississippi Spelling Bee. Both boys are asked represent the State at the Regional Bee. Turmoil and misunderstanding ensue as City and LaVander have reason to doubt the merit of their [...]