Community Checkup

Everyone’s going bananas over the Vogue cover with LeBron and Gisele and the King Kong image it conjures up. Those who take issue with it say that the cover perpetuates negative stereotypes of black men as aggressive and animalistic. Then there’s the complaint over the stereotype of successful black men’s preference for white [...]

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My man, L, inspired me to say something about HBO’s The Wire. L has to be the greatest fan of the show as well as its greatest proselytizer. He is also quick to admonish you for not being on top of the most recent developments of the series. When I told him I had [...]

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Since my op-ed in the Philly Inquirer, I have received a few emails about the historical inaccuracies of The Great Debaters. My response has been that: (1) my piece was really more about debate and hip-hop than it was about The Great Debaters, (2) the film is not meant to be a [...]

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My article in The Philadelphia Inquirer…
Debate through a hip-hop lens
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Movie trailers are great for sparking the imagination. Believe it or not, as I watched the trailer to The Great Debaters, a movie based on a true story of how a debate team from a small black college defeated a top-ranked white debate team, [...]

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I was made aware of this video a couple of months ago but resisted writing on it since I did not want to give it any more air play than it was receiving at the time. But now that the film is out and is all over the blogosphere and newspapers, I don’t think [...]

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This is an interesting article in the NY Times. I love “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and think the show deals with race in a fresh, funny, and unique way. The most recent season with “the Blacks” is particularly good. The show doesn’t just make fun of blacks (although there is plenty of that); [...]

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As if on cue, today’s Yahoo case demonstrates my point in yesterday’s post about corporations needing to be forced to act morally and responsibly. Here’s what happened:
Yahoo Inc., reeling from a growing backlash over human rights and its China operations, settled a lawsuit Tuesday that accused it of illegally helping the Chinese government jail and [...]

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From an NPR story:
Last weekend, members of a campaign called “Enough is Enough” rallied at the homes of two top TV executives.
They are demanding BET and MTV stop airing what they call demeaning and offensive portrayals of African Americans and women.
One of the things the interviewee from this story stated was that companies such as [...]

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Following on the theme of my last post on models of educational success… A couple of years ago, PBS produced a great program, “Making Schools Work” where they highlighted effective educational approaches such as Success for All, Comer School Development Program (SDP), and Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP). There is extensive research on [...]

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Jank Morton’s response to my op-ed in the Baltimore Sun:

I reviewed your article, and I am at a point of concern as it relates to the symbiosis of the Justice Policy Institute and “Journalists” who continue to source this organization for this flawed comparison. I believe this point needs absolute clarification, and while you imply [...]

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