Let me hasten to say, what happened at Starbucks in Philadelphia last weekend happens all the time in America, especially to Black men. In this respect there is not much to see here.It’s has happened to me, but not in Starbucks. I don’t go there because the coffee is too expensive for my taste buds.
Tag Archives: Black Lives Matter
A Seed inside a Seed: Memphis Fifty Years After King
Note: This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book on the meaning of Memphis fifty years after Martin Luther King, Jr.
In Memphis, “The King” may be Elvis, but the city since April 4, 1968 has been defined by what happened to “A King” on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel outside of room 306.
Like Dallas, Texas, Memphis, Tennessee suffers from a sense of metaphysical guilt over the blood, in this instance, of a King, who came in peace and was slain in its city. No city leader wants this type of tragedy to occur in their geopolitical space. It simply is not good for business; and if not good for business, city leaders walk on eggshells to cleanse their collective guilt for a crime committed within their political subdivision; and some may argue with their acquiescence.
Breeding Babies or Breeding Racial Hatred?
Breeding babies or breeding racial hatred?
In 1971, I was a college student at Tuskegee University. Two of my classmates and I decided to drive down to Ozark, Alabama to attend George Wallace’s kick-off run for President. Although, the crowd was not dressed in the garb of the KKK, they might very well have been.
Hooray Black Colleges Receive Boost in Omnibus Spending Bill
Good news for the nations Historically Black Colleges and Universities. When President Trump signed the Omnibus Spending Bill today little did he know, he approved a 14 percent increase in federal funding for HBCUs.
Many of the Black schools were founded in the first 50 years following the Civil War. There are 100 HBCUs still in existence. Many of them are in dire need of financial assistance to keep afloat. Last month Concordia College in Selma, Alabama announced they will close their doors following this academic school year, just four years short of a century providing education to Black Americans.
Tuscaloosa More than a Powerhouse Football Team
Have you ever thought about Tuscaloosa, Alabama without your thoughts going immediately to the powerhouse football team whose motto is “Roll Tide Roll?”
If you have, you would be one of the rare people on the planet who does not associate Tuscaloosa with the Crimson Tide of the University of Alabama. For most people Tuscaloosa is visions of Bama on any given Saturday in the fall and usually extending into the first week of January, where they dominate the college football playoffs.
Winds Of Change Blowing Across America
Things are changing. The winds of change are stirring, invisibly moving across America. Change is in the air. This change is lead by a new cadre of foot soldiers, who were not born when the revolution of the 1960s was fought out in the ghettos and streets of America.
These revolutionaries are not seeking out the guidance of their elders, nor are they willing to wait for the elders to turn over leadership to them, as young people did over a half-century ago. This tends to drive a sharp divide between Boomers and the millennial generation.
Kaepernick’s Fearless Duane Thomas Stance
Colin Kaepernick,28 years of age and entering his third year in the National Football League, has the league standing on its ear. Practically every player, including some of his fellow San Francisco 49ers, is speaking out against his intentional failure to stand during the playing of the National Anthem. Kaepernick has vowed to sit during the playing of the National Anthem at the beginning of each of his team’s football games.
Black Power Then Black Lives Matter Now!
In 1966, “Black Power” was the battle cry of young Blacks in America who were fed up with second class status in relation to other Americans, especially, white Americans. The phrase Black Power was as misunderstood as “Black Lives Matter,” its counterpart in 21st century America, is misunderstood today.
Micah Johnson Manchurian Candidate?
Was Micah Johnson a” Manchurian Candidate?” This is not a rhetorical question, or a trick question. It is a question that I pose which I do not have an answer. Was Micah Johnson brainwashed not by enemy forces as was the case in the Manchurian Candidate, (1962 movie starring Frank Sinatra, where a group of U. S. soldiers were captured by the Koreans, brainwashed, then returned to the United States as plants to take control of the government by Martial Law. An updated version of this movie stars Black actor Denzel Washington), but brainwashed by his own government? And if brainwashed by his own government, then for what purpose?
Shame on Bill and Ray
Shame, shame, shame on Bill and Ray is about all I can say about their pathetic attempts to blame Black people who bemoan inequality in the American Justice system.
Ironically, on the same day that former National Football League player, Ray Lewis, posted a diatribe on his Facebook page chastising Black Lives Matter for protesting the alarming death rate of Black people at the hands of police officers, a group of Black Lives Matter protesters in Philadelphia confronted former President Bill Clinton over his 1994 Crime Bill, while he was on the presidential campaign trail for his wife Hillary Clinton.