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America Never Was America to Me – The Changing Face of America

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath— America will be!  –Langston Hughes, Let America Be America Again If you managed to sit through the Republican...

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Holding Our Celebrities Accountable

It is time. We cannot continue to support and give voice to “celebrities” who speak nothing but derision, superficiality, and foolishness. Last night, like many of you, I was unequivocally elated to...

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Chicago’s Teacher Strike was Lukewarm at Best

About a week ago, I had initially been excited when Chicago’s downtown was aglow with a flush of red T-shirts as the district’s teachers went on strike again for the first time in 25 years. Finally, it...

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How many Black friends do YOU have?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWZw0ANbar4 I want to thank the always racist and problematic charming and P.C. Ann Coulter for causing me to suffer from one of the most intellectually ambivalent moments of my...

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Obama Doesn’t Have the Privilege to be “Aggressive”

Last night’s debate probably says more about the lazy analytical temperament of the American media and public than it does about either of the two candidates. For those of you who demanded to see a...

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Binders Full of Gaffes

You can usually tell a person’s politics just from the language they use. It’s as simple as the difference between saying “illegal immigrants,” versus “undocumented citizens,” or “homosexuals” and...

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Black Men Are Not Messiahs

 Resolving the complex layers of marginalization and oppression in our society requires that we continually be willing to challenge many of the presuppositions that we hold near and dear to our hearts....

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Resisting the Eloquent Silence

“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  To my jaded contemporaries who think they aren’t voting today. Let me apologize...

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“Kids These Days” Fighting Against Adultism and Fostering Cross-Generational...

“I can help you with the brand new technology / You can help me with the age-old philosophy.” –Better People, India Arie It repeatedly comes to my attention that many adults of our society suffer from...

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More than Just “Thankful”: Thanksgiving, Responsibility, and...

America is a country of contradictions and mythologies. Thanksgiving, a most peculiarly American holiday, is no different. Only in the land where freedom for all is exalted but not practiced do we...

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Black Boys Falling

I write this in ambivalence, dejectedly trying to wrap my mind around a string of incidents that continue to unearth the plight of young Black men in this country. In scarcely a week’s time, 17...

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Refusing to Grin and Bear It

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5fa6TZc8kI Lately, I’ve been greatly concerned with the misconceptions and myths that continue to be perpetuated about youth in our society. For Black youth in particular, we...

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Not Giving Django Too Much Credit

Django is a film that’s been pivoted as an answer, when it raises more questions than anything. Should it be viewed within its historical significance, and the extent to which it can portray the...

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Stop Bashing Black Youth in 2013

A new year brings a new start, and offers us the temporal metaphor to leave our failings and mistakes “behind us,” and march boldly into a reality of opportunity, reconciliation, and love. In this...

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The Radical Power of Ordinariness

As we come upon both the day commemorating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and with Black History Month just around the corner, I imagine (hopefully) that many of us will be reflecting on our...

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I Am the Darker Brother

I, too, sing America.  I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong.  Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes....

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On Being Black and Unwanted at Elite Universities

Last Sunday, the institution I attend, the University of Chicago, sent another sobering reminder to the University community that students and communities of color are not to be seriously valued,...

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“Bad” Kids Don’t Deserve to Die Either

After much clamor and many entreaties, finally President Obama has decided to come to Chicago to address the rampant gun violence plaguing communities of color. Perhaps in a newfound fervor stemming...

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Name (Calling)

By now, many of us have heard about the ugly insult hurled at the wonderful Quvenzhané Wallis, who, by virtue of being talented and Black at the same time, has become another symbol representing our...

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I am from Detroit, Detroit.

Often when I tell people I am from Detroit (particularly white people), I am often met with a look of either bewilderment or amazement. This shock is often magnified when I tell people that I attended...

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