Like most of the world, I was shocked by the passing of Whitney Houston, and now that reports and speculation of how she may have died are pouring in, my heart goes out even more to her family and close friends. A week doesn’t go by, it seems, without us having to pay tribute to […]
So much has happened in just a little more than three months into 2012. Whitney Houston passed away suddenly. Rush Limbaugh put his fat foot in his mouth. And Oprah’s OWN may be her first professional failure since “Beloved.” Every day, people like me in the media business read the same newspapers, check the same […]
From the hundreds of musicians that performed on “Soul Train” to the millions of viewers who tuned in every weekend, Don Cornelius’ vision to give Black America a platform to share our music our way became so much more than that. It opened doors for black ad agencies and black products and showed mainstream media […]
I think it’s so fitting that we pay tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen on Dr. King’s birthday. Before Dr. King dared to share his dream of a day when black people and white people were considered equal in this country, a group of black men and women had the audacity to dream – and believe […]
As you know, over the Christmas holiday, I had hip replacement surgery. I want to thank my friend Skip Murphy for sitting in, doing an excellent job and keeping things “on the one.” Yeah, I know he’s stuck in the ’70s – but is that really such a bad place to be? We were thinner, […]
The worst kind of brawl you can get into is one with an opponent who has nothing to lose. Think about it. How many times have you seen a team fighting for a play-off spot taken down by a team that has no chance of going anywhere? For some reason, when there isn’t as much […]
When I was in the seventh grade, I hurt my hip playing unorganized football. Since I was one of the few fat kids in the neighborhood, they’d give me the ball, and all the kids would jump on my back, and I would carry the pile toward the end zone. I was the William “The […]
I think we all have something we need to do, and we’re being held off by fear, procrastination, stubbornness – or all of the above. As you know, I recently had hip replacement surgery that I’ve needed for a while (And thank you so much to those of you who sent me well wishes and […]
it to say, the president had the same kinds of questions, concerns and compassion for Troy Davis that most black people have. With so much doubt centering around his guilt, why would the state of Georgia be so hellbent on putting him to death? These are my words, by the way – not the president’s. […]
A couple of weeks ago, I went to see the Broadway play “The Mountaintop” in New York and loved it. It wasn’t what I expected at all because it depicted a side of Dr. Martin Luther King rarely seen or discussed. It was real, raw and a reminder that before he was assassinated and relegated […]
How many times have we mouthed the lyrics to “We Shall Not Be Moved,” “Oh Freedom” and “We Shall Overcome” without really thinking about the meaning of the words – let alone actually imagining or recalling what it was like to sing them while in the trenches? Celebrating the legacy of Dr. Fred Shuttlesworth stirs […]
We’ve all expressed our opinions, vented, aired it out, and in my heart of hearts, no matter how we got to this point, I believe most of us share a common goal – to re-elect President Obama. That can only happen if we take all the time and energy we’ve been using to debate, defend […]