Category Archives: Race, History & American Society

Writing on race, Black history, slavery, segregation, civil rights, white supremacy, racial inequality, historical memory, and the continuing influence of American history on contemporary society.

“Violence is as American as cherry pie”

Posted on November 26, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

H. Rap Brown, now known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, famously proclaimed in the ’60s that “violence is as American as cherry pie.”  Little wonder, in the aftermath of the no indictment of the Ferguson, Missouri white police officer who killed … Continue reading →

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All creeps, catcallers are not Men of Color

Posted on November 11, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Remember the video posted about two weeks ago by Hollaback, which showed a white woman, casually dressed, walking the streets of New York City and being catcalled, etc? It shows mostly Black men and Latinos engaging in this behavior. Another … Continue reading →

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Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet” (April 3, 1964)

Posted on October 31, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Mr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: I just can’t believe everyone in here is a friend, and I don’t want to leave anybody out. The question tonight, as I understand it, is “The Negro Revolt, and … Continue reading →

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A Comparison of New York State Laws and Regulations and Slave Codes

Posted on February 21, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

A number of years ago, long before Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow,” while doing research for an essay entitled “From the Plantation to the Penitentiary,” I came across some striking similarities between New York Laws and Slave Codes. From … Continue reading →

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The King is Dead!

Posted on January 20, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The King is dead! I was 7 years young when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Growing up in the ‘60s, what one historian called the Decisive Decade, there was death all around. At 7, I didn’t understand the impact … Continue reading →

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Even a Black Poet is Considered Armed and Extremely Dangerous

Posted on January 20, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

(For Henry Dumas) It was a time when a president, a presidential candidate, a Prince of Peace, a Black knight in shining armor, and Black Panthers, were gunned down. Assassinations with political ramifications. But who’d think that a poet would … Continue reading →

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Nelson Mandela — On Love, Commitment and Freedom

Posted on December 6, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

This is an excerpt from an essay I wrote a number of years ago about Nelson and Winnie Mandela: I think we also have to break away from the bourgeois tradition of romantic love which isn’t necessarily about creating the … Continue reading →

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For Black People and All Peoples who Supported the Right to Vote for Blacks

Posted on November 5, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Vote! There was a time when Black people and all women could not vote in this country. The Union was formed in 1776, and Black men did not get the right to vote until 1870, with the passage of the … Continue reading →

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The Three Erics

Posted on October 10, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Three years ago, when I turned 50 years of age, I wrote a poem in the tradition of Ginsberg’s “Howl!,” talking about what had happened to some of the best of my generation. I titled it “Celebrating Fifty Years of … Continue reading →

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Reflections on Black Patriotism

Posted on July 12, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I remember, in the summer of my life, when my blood boiled, as hot as the sun, with righteous indignation at American injustice. This, from a native son, a born and bred Brooklynite. I remember, in my youth, questioning Black … Continue reading →

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