When the Story Begins in Chains One thing that has troubled me about the way Black history is often presented is where somebody chooses to begin the story. Too many lessons seem to introduce Black people when Europeans are putting Africans on slave ships or when enslaved people are already standing in American fields. We
Black History Did Not Begin With Slavery Read More »
The Man Who Attacked Slavery Without Loving Black People One of the strangest arguments against American slavery came from a white Southerner who certainly was no friend of Black people. His name was Hinton Rowan Helper, and he was born in North Carolina in 1829. In 1857, he published The Impending Crisis of the South:
When Slavery Made Poor White Southerners Poorer Read More »
Remembering Africa Before the Wound When I think about Africa, I refuse to begin the story with chains, slave ships, and somebody else’s idea of what Black people were supposed to be. Africa had civilizations, governments, trade networks, mathematics, architecture, medicine, religion, philosophy, agriculture, and scholarship long before the modern Atlantic world existed. Ancient Egypt
When Africa Led With Knowledge, Spirit, and Civilization Read More »
This Was Not Ancient History When I look at photographs of white parents protesting school integration in the 1970s, I have to remind myself that I am not looking at some distant century. These were not people standing outside a schoolhouse in 1865. This was happening during the age of color television, Motown, Muhammad Ali,
When Racism Learned to Change Its Clothes Read More »
The Comparison Needs More Care Than Competition I understand why Black people sometimes look at other communities and ask why we have not achieved the same level of collective organization, wealth, or political influence. That question can open a serious conversation about history, institutions, family networks, education, land, discrimination, and the long consequences of slavery.
Before Politics, There Was the USFL Long before Donald Trump became president, he was already showing the public a style that would later become familiar on a much larger stage. In the early 1980s, that stage was professional football. Trump owned the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, better known as the
Donald Trump, Doug Flutie, and the USFL: A Football Story That Became Something Bigger Read More »
Freedom Was Never Handed Over Easily Sometimes I look at the history of Black voting in America and ask a difficult question: what if freedom was never intended to come without resistance? Slavery officially ended, but the struggle over Black citizenship certainly did not. Every major step forward seemed to produce another argument about how
The Fight for the Black Vote Has Never Really Ended Read More »
More Than a Beautiful Voice When people talk about Marvin Gaye, they usually start with the voice. They remember the smoothness, the tenderness, and the way he could make a love song sound like it was meant for one person alone. They remember “Let’s Get It On,” “Sexual Healing,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,”
Marvin Gaye: The Man Who Made Music Tell the Truth Read More »
When Rejection Starts Feeling Personal I have heard from people who became convinced they were being blacklisted because the same pattern kept happening over and over. They applied for jobs they were clearly qualified to perform, sometimes inside the same company and sometimes throughout the same industry. Their résumé looked strong, their experience matched the
Are You Really Blacklisted at Work? Read More »
When Life Stops Looking Familiar There have been times in my life when everything that once felt settled suddenly started moving around. Relationships changed, friendships became distant, familiar routines stopped satisfying me, and things I once depended upon no longer felt like they belonged. When that happens, the first thought can be that something has
When Things Fall Apart, Something New May Be Asking to Emerge Read More »