No Woman no cry: Don’t Cry for Stacey Abrams

Top Democrat in Georgia raised many boats As I watched the midterm returns come in from Florida, for a moment I thought it was déjà vu from 2016. As Democrats’ hopes faded in Florida for Hillary Clinton, so did they fade for Democrats across the country. The red caravan brought to power the 45th president […]

Yes, We Can!

Georgia Republicans Abdicated Right to Lead More than two decades ago, I ran for a seat on the Atlanta City Council and won. It was the Third Council District that included part of the Atlanta University Center, the old Bankhead Highway (now Donald L. Hollowell Pkwy) neighborhoods, Grove Park, Vine City, Washington Park, and […]

What Becomes of Broken Hearted?

Encountering Anti-Semitism in Squirrel Hill America Network executives interrupted the A.M. Joy show Saturday morning on MSNBC. The special report informed us of an active shooter loose in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburg. A deranged anti-Semitic man executed 11 worshipers and injured a half a dozen others at the Tree […]

Stacey Abram’s Raison d’etre/Brian Kemp’s Vigilantism

Kemp and his “Big Lie” Republican Mob Trying to Steal Election The president has created an atmosphere of lawlessness in this country that has emboldened other politicians in power to act against long established precedents and protocols. In many cases what they are doing is illegal and hostile to the rule of law. But let […]

Graham: “Kavanaugh is No Bill Cosby”?

The year was around 1983. We all anxiously awaited the arrival of funny man, Bill Cosby, to enter our public access television studio, owned at the time by Cable Atlanta, the predecessor of Comcast. The studio, located at 10th and West Peachtree Street was the old home of Ted Turner’s first superstation, TBS. Then he […]

By Any Means Necessary: Public Rape of Professor Blasey Ford By Republicans

Who the hell do the 11 white men who are the Republican members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee think they are? Do they believe they are so all-powerful that they can ignore the desires of the American people, 38 percent of whom don’t support Brett Kavanaugh’s promotion to the Supreme Court in the first […]

On Being Called “Nigger”: Open Letter to Naje

On Being Called “Nigger”: Open Letter to Naje – 2018 Revised 2023 Najè and Jabari at opening of Black Panther Dear Najé, I can’t tell you about the sorrow and deep regret I felt when you told me you had just been called a nigger. It was a hot, humid afternoon in “Hot Atlanta.” We were […]

The Magic Ends: Serena is not a thief

This week I wrote about the black girl magic alive among the women of color top tennis players in the world. Today we witnessed the most bizarre of US Opens in recent history. First, Naomi Osaka outplayed Serena throughout the match, most of the time looking like Serena of past times. Serving over 70 percent […]

Politics of Tennis’ Black Girls Magic

After a week of watching with amazement Brett Kavanaugh avoid answering important questions regarding his true positions on racial profiling, Roe v. Wade, and the limits of power of our nation’s chief executive, it was quite refreshing Thursday evening to turn off CNN and MSNBC and sink into my sofa and watch tennis’ Black women […]

“Scared Negro Syndrome”

The late, great Maynard Holbrook Jackson, for whom the Atlanta airport, the busiest in the world, was partially named for often talked about something he called the “scared Negro syndrome.” Many of us would laugh nervously when he would use this term, referring to an African American who was too afraid of pissing off, raising […]