Michael Cottman

Blogs

Craig Kirby is changing the faces of golf one swing at a time. Kirby, founder of “Golf. My Future. My Game,” is on a mission to introduce more Black teens to the game of golf. Kirby started the nonprofit golf foundation in Washington, D.C., in 2014 to expose the predominantly white sport to Black kids […]

  Frank Davis is an accomplished African American millionaire who hasn’t felt the sting of racism in years. Until now. Last week, Davis, and his son, Michael, entered their room at the luxurious Art Ovation Hotel in Sarasota, Florida, and their July 4 vacation was abruptly interrupted by a racist, three-word note: “You’re a N—-R.” […]

Richard Overton, who turned 112 years old in May, is America’s oldest living war veteran: He survived World War II, bombs and gunfire, the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, but became the recent victim of identity theft. High-tech thieves cleaned out his bank account with a few key strokes on a computer. Overton’s family said they […]

Add Kevin Moore’s name to the growing list of unsuspecting black people who are becoming victims of racial profiling in public areas for no apparent reason. A neighbor called police on Moore, a Black firefighter in Oakland, California, as he was conducting a safety inspection, dressed in his official firefighter uniform and carrying his city-issued […]

It happened again — and the pattern of racism in public spaces continues. Here’s the troubling, consistent behavior: There are some white people who are looking for a reason – any reason – to call the police on innocent Black people in parks, on streets and in coffee shops across America. But this most recent […]

Dr. Windell Davis-Boutte, a Georgia dermatologist, is a self-described hip-hop “dancing doctor” — in the operating room. But her days of grooving with surgical instruments may be over for good. It’s not exactly clear what Dr. Davis-Boutte was thinking but authorities said her dancing and rapping during surgery, singing while wielding a scalpel over half-dressed […]

  Is there political power in a rap video? Days after former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s youngest son, Jonas Kilpatrick, produced an emotional music video, entitled “Too Much Time,” which calls for Kilpatrick’s discharge from prison, Kilpatrick was abruptly transferred to a low-security federal prison in New Jersey this week. Kilpatrick was transferred after more […]

The last time I spoke with former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was in 2010, following his 99-day jail sentence for perjury and several years before he was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison for crimes that included racketeering and mail fraud. “I understand what my position as mayor meant to our community, and I […]

It didn’t matter that star actress Roseanne Barr surged into full apology mode Tuesday after tweeting a bizarre racist rant saying Valerie Jarrett, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, looks like a “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby.”   I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I […]

I didn’t know ‘Strolling While Black’ was an issue – until now. Donald Sherman, a lawyer and father, is confused and frustrated. Sherman, who is African-American, was pushing a stroller carrying his baby, Caleb, at Kingman and Heritage Islands Park near the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. last week when racism took hold. A white […]

President Donald Trump claims he may actually pardon Jack Johnson after 105 years — the first African-American world heavyweight boxing champion who was convicted in 1913 for driving his white girlfriend across state lines. Trump said actor Sylvester Stallone – who played the boxer Rocky in several hit movies — is urging Trump to pardon […]

Micheal Brown, a brilliant high school senior, is still waiting for a formal apology from Fox News – and he certainly deserves it. Brown has been offered a full ride in scholarships to 20 different colleges, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford – but his celebration was somewhat dampened after Fox anchors in Washington, D.C. […]