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Remembering Tom Morgan

I am sad to report today that my colleague Tom Morgan, a legendary journalist, has passed away. Tom was a native of St. Louis and during his career he served as a reporter and editor at the New York Times, Washington Post and Miami Herald. He came to my attention in the 1990s after he had become the first openly gay president of the National Association of Black Journalists. I did not know Tom well, but I admired and respected him immensely.

An attractive, well-built man with a serious journalistic pedigree, he left a strong impression on me the very first time we met. I interviewed Morgan for my first book, One More River To Cross, and he talked to me about the challenges of being openly gay in a leadership position in a major black institution. The experience of being a trailblazer was not entirely new to him. His great-great grandfather, Captain Charleston Hunt Tandy, led the fight against Jim Crow segregation on the streetcars of St. Louis. "I grew up understanding that there were people who put their lives on the line for the civil rights struggle," he said during our interview.

Posted in race on December 24 2007, 10:14PM | Read More | Comments (6)

A Tragic Death And "The Black KKK"

There is a peculiar thing about tragic death that inspires both intense anger and sober reflection. In death, we often overlook the shortcomings of the deceased, if only for a brief moment of grieving. At the very least, it is not the time to criticize the deceased.

Malcolm X learned this lesson in 1963 when he provided an ill-timed public comment on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Malcolm said that Kennedy's death was a case of the "chickens coming home to roost" for all the violence that America had created in the world. Facing a widespread public outcry over the remarks, the Nation of Islam censured Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad banned him from public speaking for 90 days. A year and a half later, Malcolm X would be assassinated too.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that the murder of Washington Redskins football player Sean Taylor would spark bold comments of outrage and quick responses of moral indignation today. It all started when a black sports columnist named Jason Whitlock wrote: "The Black KKK claimed another victim, a high-profile professional football player with a checkered past."

Posted in race on December 6 2007, 12:48PM | Read More | Comments (51)

What Would You Do?

What would you do in this situation?

One day a black teenager goes to a party where alcohol is served and a white teenage girl asks him to leave because she feels "uncomfortable" around him. He complies and goes home, but the girl then tells a male teenager at the party that the black teen had threatened her once before in an Internet chat room. The white teen then calls the black teen on his cell phone and yells at him using the N-word. Unsatisfied, the white teen then gathers four other white teenagers and they drive to the black teen's house.

The drunk white teenagers pull up in the driveway of the house and block off the street. One of the teens is carrying an aluminum baseball bat. The black teen and his father then walk outside the house to the driveway. The father is carrying an unlicensed handgun. The black teen follows with a hunting shotgun. Words and threats are exchanged and eventually the father fires one shot into the face of the first white teenager. The white teen dies at a hospital an hour later.

Posted in race on November 28 2007, 12:25PM | Read More | Comments (72)

The Criminalization of Blackness

I was talking to Jasmyne Cannick on the phone yesterday and she told me that she and her little sister had been harassed at a Las Vegas shoe store over the weekend. Apparently the store management thought that her sister, who is black, might be a shoplifter because she was carrying a "big" purse. The staff, who are also black, followed her sister instead of helping her.

Then Jasmyne told me of a sign she had seen in a West Hollywood bar that seemed to tell some potential black patrons not to come in. Next to an illustration of a young kid with a head wrap, tank top and baggy pants, the sign said: "If you look like this in any way, shape or form, go home and change." Now I've been to black bars and night clubs that post signs prohibiting "athletic wear" and "sneakers," but I've never seen a bar or club post an image of what not to wear. So why post a sign like this in a mostly white gay bar in West Hollywood?

Posted in race on November 13 2007, 1:12PM | Read More | Comments (77)

No More Blackout Days

In case you missed it, last Friday was National Blackout Day. It was the day when African-Americans were supposed to refrain from spending any money in the economy in a protest designed to show the country that our dollars are important. Developed by attorney Warren Ballentine, Blackout Day was supposed to harness the economic power of a community that spends an estimated $715 billion a year. "If we were to stop spending for one day that is $2 billion that will not be in the system," a press release announced.

So did it work? As far as I can tell, America did not come to its knees. Although the head of the nation's largest bank was forced out of his job over the weekend, it had nothing to do with the power of Blackout Day. Ironically, the departure of Citigroup's CEO had a lot to do with the collapse of the subprime lending industry that had targeted black and Latino neighborhoods, but the protesters didn't even pay attention to that scandal. So what did the protest accomplish, other than generating a good deal of emails and blog entries and making a few of us feel better? Not much.

Posted in race on November 5 2007, 10:13AM | Read More | Comments (36)

Free At Last

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Friday that Genarlow Wilson, the 21-year-old inmate who had been imprisoned for having consensual sex with a high school classmate, was to be set free. The court, in a 4-3 decision, ruled that Wilson's 10-year prison sentence constituted "cruel and unusual punishment." Wilson's sentence had drawn widespread condemnation from civil rights leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA).

Posted in race on October 27 2007, 12:26AM | Read More | Comments (39)

Katrina v. California

Victims of Hurricane Katrina languished inside the New Orleans Superdome for days without food, water or basic supplies. Victims of the California wildfires waited in Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego with massages, acupuncture, stress counseling, Starbucks coffee, beef empanadas and fresh Caesar salads. The contrast couldn't be more apparent.

When the hurricane hit, President Bush was vacationing at his nearby ranch in Crawford, Texas, but decided not to make a quick trip to visit the people who had been hit by the country's worst natural disaster. He flew over in Air Force One instead. But when the wildfires ravaged southern California, the president flew 3,000 miles across the country to comfort the victims. The victims in New Orleans were mostly black and poor. The victims in California are mostly white and relatively well-to-do. So what's going on here?

Posted in politics·race on October 26 2007, 10:47AM | Read More | Comments (44)

in race

Remembering Tom Morgan

A Tragic Death And "The Black KKK"

What Would You Do?

The Criminalization of Blackness

No More Blackout Days

Free At Last

Katrina v. California

He's Back: The Return of Bill Cosby

Suspended Justice

The Repackaging of Clarence Thomas

There He Goes Again?

Hip Hop v. America

The Jena 6 and American Justice

We Only Care About White Men

The Boxer Rebellion

Is This Ad Racist?

Blacks Support Hate Crimes Bill

"No Snitching'" Rule Makes No Sense

The Hip Hop Side Step!

Don Imus Is Gone...Now What?

What Rutgers Tells Us About Duke

Fox News Loves Black People

Is This Racism?

So Now He's Black Enough

Why Is The Peace Movement So White?

Barack Obama, Blacks and Harvard Law

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