Category: Guest Commentary

Riddle: What is red and blue, but white all over? Clue: “Save your Confederate money boys, the South will rise again!” Got it? Well, let’s move on where the answer to this riddle will be clearly revealed. For starters, this clue or phrase was proclaimed after the Civil War by allegedly defeated White southerners. But,…

In the education of our children there are two vital questions that we must answer: Who is teaching our children? What are they being taught? The future academic success of our students hinges on our thoughtful and serious consideration of these questions. The issues of who’s teaching our children and/or what they are being taught…

What does it mean to create poetry in a time of war? What does it mean to create any art during a time when the United States, the sole superpower on the planet, is primed to do what Nazi Germany wished it could have done? For one, it means to create at a time when…

Tiger Woods, for the first time in 265 weeks (five years and one month) is no longer the number one golf player in the world. Maybe now a Calablasian brotha can get a break? Tiger Woods held the number one position longer than anyone in history (since they started the stat in 1970). No player…

“Duh ha-ha-haaa…Duh ha-ha, ha-ha, haaaaaaa!” My apologies to one of Chicago’s early rap artists, The Duke, if I have not accurately quoted his lyrics. Written in 1985, “Rappin’ Duke,” was a very popular comical homage to actor John Wayne. In the song, Duke, using a Wayne-like voice, did his usual bit of rap braggadocio and…

The German press is still buzzing over the recent jailing and subsequent release of a German ship’s captain by Italian authorities following his rescue of 37 Sudanese refugees in the Mediterranean. After locating their floundering rubber raft near Malta, the captain of the Cap Anamur brought the ailing men aboard, saving them from an anonymous…

We have amassed a host of Guest Commentators during our history of writing . It is very difficult for us to say who are our most significant contributors, but we do know who established us on the scene. Patrice Johnson, a freelance writer, lent her talents and insight to our columns in our initial issue,…

“There can be no great disappointment, where there is no great love.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I am disappointed, I am a bit dismayed and I am somewhat disturbed. Why, you may ask? I’ll tell you. The remarks made by certain entertainers and personalities; as well as the apparent culpability of the “leaders”…

In a historic move, the 95th annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on July 15 for the first time took a strong stand in defense of celebrated Pennsylvania death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. The hard work and hardball tactics of activists committed to Mumia’s freedom turned up the heat…

“I am convinced that America offers something real for black people. It is not though, the romantic love of integration — though, like romance, we may seek and sometimes experience it.” – Derrick Bell, Silent Covenants (2004) My wife and I recently attended an open house in Newark, New Jersey hosted by Keller Williams, a…