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Tag Archives: Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass
Virginia on My Mind
There is something that keeps drawing me back to Virginia. Although my father was born in North Carolina, he grew up in Virginia and returned there in 1946 after he was discharged from the segregated U.S. Army. He was drafted … Continue reading
Remembering My Father as I Remember Maceo Snipes, Black Veteran, Shot to Death After Voting in Georgia Primary — July 18, 1946
As a teenager my father, a Native Southern Son (NC and VA), was drafted to serve in the segregated U.S. Army during World War II. Shortly after he was honorably discharged from the Army in 1946, he moved to Brooklyn, … Continue reading
The Inexplicable Endurance of the N Word
As some of you know, I am currently teaching a course, African American Literature in the 20th Century, for Bennington College.Β The primary text for the course is The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, 3rd Edition.Β In the anthology … Continue reading
Posted in Race, History & American Society
Tagged Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Die Nigger Die!, H. Rap Brown, James Weldon Johnson, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, Norton Anthology of African American Literature, passing, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
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James Baldwin’s Journey Through Politics
Thirty years ago I wrote an essay, βThe Election Time Blues.β It spoke about how political discourse in America was depressing; at least, it depressed me, and it continues to do so. When crime is on the platform, it becomes … Continue reading
Posted in Literature & Cultural Criticism, Politics & Public Affairs
Tagged "Journey to Atlanta", Abraham Lincoln, Bill Clinton, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Donald Trump, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush, Harriet Tubman, Isabel Wilkerson, James Baldwin, Joe Biden, John F. Kennedy, Nelson Rockefeller, patriotism, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Slavery, The Best and the Brightest, Willie Horton
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Maya Angelou Redux
On this, Maya Angelou’s birthday, I thought I would repost a blog, “Maya Angelous: A Muse for All.” On this Day of Love, also known as Valentineβs Day, I want to uplift an author and one of her books, I … Continue reading
The Pledge of Allegiance, Little White Lies, and All that Jazz!
It has been more than 50 years since I was in elementary school in the New York City public school system, yet I remember, word for word, the βPledge of Allegiance.β At this time, I thought nothing of it, but … Continue reading
Posted in Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society, Streets of Rage
Tagged 13th Amendment, Atomic Bomb, Black Codes, Black Power, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Camelot, Confederate States of America, Critical Race Theory, Culture Wars, Great Society, Growing Up, Hiroshima, internment of Japanese Americans, James Brown, John F. Kennedy, Little White Lies, Lyndon B. Johnson, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Nagasaki, patriotism, Pledge of Allegiance, raising black boys, Richard Nixon, Robert F. Kennedy, Segregation, Slave Codes, Slavery, urban decay, war on crime, World War II
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Racial Reckoning & Reparations
As a society, we (Americans) have talked about a βracial reckoning,β and reparations for the descendants of Africans who built this country. Neither a racial reckoning nor reparations have happened. A racial reckoning has not happened because most white folk … Continue reading
Posted in Race, History & American Society
Tagged Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Bryan Stevenson, Critical Race Theory, Equal Justice Initiative, Esperanto, Manifest Destiny, racial Esperanto, racial reckoning, reparations, Slavery, W. E. B. Du Bois, White Man's Burden
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Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present
This Black History Month, read by award-winning book. It’s available on Amazon.
National Superhero Day
Today is National Superhero Day. Over the years I’ve written a series of poems about “heroes.” In my last collection, “The Black Blood of Poetry,” which I am shopping around, is this poem: In Search of a Black Hero Coming … Continue reading
