Tag Archives: W. E. B. Du Bois

Toni Morrison Slays Moby Dick

Posted on April 28, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Toni Morrison writes that Moby Dick is “[a] complex, heaving, disorderly, profound text.” In my attempt, in my teens and twenties, to read as many “classics” as possible, I set out, like Ahab, to conquer the great white whale of … Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged Aunt Jemima, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, book-review, books, Candace Owens, Clarence Thomas, Herman Melville, horror, James Baldwin, January 6th, Kamala Harris, Many Thousands Gone, Moby-Dick, reading, Toni Morrison, Uncle Tom, Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The African American Presence in American Literature, W. E. B. Du Bois, writing | Leave a comment

The Writing Life: Writing An Award-Winning Epic Poem

Posted on May 13, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My epic poem, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present, was a co-winner of the 1998 Edwin Mellen Poetry Prize for an epic poem on the theme, “the captivity, exploitation, and suffering of … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged 1998 Edwin Mellen Poetry Prize, Africa's Gift to America, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Civil War, Hayes-Tilden Compromise, J.A. Rogers, James Weldon Johnson, Lift Every Voice and Sing, Rene Descartes, Sex & Race, Slavery, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Picture of Dorian Gray, W. E. B. Du Bois | 1 Comment

Happy Valentine’s Day to African American Literature!

Posted on February 14, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Since it is Valentine’s Day, I dare to say that I have an ongoing love affair with African American literature. And, once again, I am teaching African American Literature in the 20th Century for another college. (I previously taught it … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged African American Literature, Amherst method, Andra Day, Black Arts Movement, Black National Anthem, Black Patriotism, Black Poetics, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Booker T. Washington, Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America -- An Anthology, Eurocentric, Henry Louis Gates, Herb Boyd, James Weldon Johnson, Larry Neal, Lift Every Voice and Sing, Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Robert L. Allen, Slavery, Some Reflections on the Black Aesthetic, Three Negro Classics, Toni Morrison, Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The African American Presence in American Literature, Valentine's Day, Valerie A. Smith, W. E. B. Du Bois | 2 Comments

Happy Birthday to Black History Month!

Posted on February 7, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Black History Month is nearly 100 years old! Granted, it began as Black History Week, on February 7, 1926, and didn’t become Black History Month until February 10, 1976. My father, a Native Southern Son, was born in the same … Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society | Tagged Black History Month, Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Civil War, fathers, Frederick Douglass, Gerald Ford, Growing Up, Lost Cause, Martin Luther King Jr., Negro History Week, patriotism, raising black boys, segregated U.S. Army, The Miseducation of the Negro, W. E. B. Du Bois, What is the Fourth of July to the Negro?, World War II | 2 Comments

Black History: “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud!”

Posted on February 4, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My first three posts this Black History Month have invoked Carter G. Woodson, “the father of Black history,” and his seminal work, The Miseducation of the Negro, published in 1926. Most importantly, Woodson, the creator of Black History Month, gave Black … Continue reading →

Posted in Race, History & American Society | Tagged 1619 Project, Alexander Hamilton High School, Bach, Black history, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Carter G. Woodson, Critical Race Theory, Diana Ross, I.S. 318, James Brown, Paul Robeson High School, PS 148, The Miseducation of the Negro, Touch Me in the Morning, W. E. B. Du Bois | 1 Comment

Racial Reckoning & Reparations

Posted on February 24, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

As a society, we (Americans) have talked about a “racial reckoning,” 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 | 2 Comments

A Farewell to Black History Month, 2022

Posted on February 28, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Black History Month is in the shortest month of the year. Caesar Augustus, thinking that the month in honor of his name was too short, took days from February, short changing what would become Black History Month. In fact, when … Continue reading →

Posted in Streets of Rage | Tagged Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Carter G. Woodson, Harvard University, Rayford W. Logan, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Miseducation of the Negro, The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois | Leave a comment

I Wanna Go to Bailey’s Cafe

Posted on February 26, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Gloria Naylor is another Scheherazade. She was a consummate storyteller, wrote beautifully, created engaging stories and characters we could judge if so inclined by the content of their character, not their race. Unlike Alice Walker, Naylor’s male characters have more … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature & Cultural Criticism | Tagged Alice Walker, Bailey's Cafe, Bigger Thomas, Gloria Naylor, James Baldwin, Oprah Winfrey, Relationships, Richard Wright, The Men of Brewster Place, The Souls of Black Folk, The Women of Brewster Place, Their Eyes Were Watching God, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston | 3 Comments

The Work of Reconstruction Continues. . .

Posted on February 13, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880, by W.E.B. DuBois, is a must read. One Amazon reviewer wrote, “This book is a great clue to the puzzle of how we got where we are today.” Indeed, this period would inform the next … Continue reading →

Posted in Race, History & American Society | Tagged Black Reconstruction, Civil War, Confederate Monuments, W. E. B. Du Bois | Leave a comment

The Gift that Keeps On Giving

Posted on February 9, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

J.A. Rogers is probably the greatest autodidact in the history of the world! Not only was Rogers self-taught, but he was also self-financed and self-published. Talk about self-determination and controlling the narrative! I would recommend any book by Rogers. Among … Continue reading →

Posted in Race, History & American Society | Tagged #BlackHistoryMonth, Africa's Gift to America, J.A. Rogers, W. E. B. Du Bois | Leave a comment

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