Here we go again with the mothers taking responsibility for their daughters. The uproar about Will Rogers is interesting as well. Apparently, in his efforts to be sympathetic to black people, he called them “darkies.” Probably thought it was a term of endearment. Oh well.
The New York Age, February 3, 1934
This column was written a full 15 years before my father became a father (as far as I know), so I find it amusing that he was so quick to stand in judgment of parents, particularly mothers of girls. My mother used to say that the three of us had a lot more freedom than we would have had my father been healthy enough to put his foot down. Frankly, I think he would have been no match for us.
The New York Age, January 13, 1934
Rather than increase the price of a haircut during the difficult years of the Great Depression, my father thought barbers should do a little less talking about politics, clients’ romantic exploits, etc. If he only had known that his observation that “the average barbershop might easily be seen as an ‘institution of learning and observation,’ was as true in 1934 as it is today. Perhaps he would have enjoyed the Ice Cube movies. Moreover, Harlem Hospital’s recent problems with quality of care are apparently not new.
The New York Age, January 6, 1934
Looking for something fresh to write about on Election Day, I searched my father’s columns for wisdom from the past. A footnote in a column published in the New York Age on November 3, 1934, implored readers to elect “Mrs. Eunice Carter” to the New York State Assembly. The name had a familiar ring. Five […]
My barber called Kamala Harris a “ho.” The shop I go to is not the stuff of Black culture lore. It’s not a boisterous place. It doesn’t reek with toxic masculinity. It’s a nice, quiet, family friendly kind of enterprise. The worst I have been subjected to in the nearly three years I’ve gone there […]
On Saturday, Feb. 17, I will be among several individuals inducted into the 2024 Class of the Black Legends of Silicon Valley. This is quite an honor. Previous recipients in the News and Documentary category in which I am being honored include journalists with stellar credentials. Loretta Green, an award-winning reporter for several local papers […]
My short story, “The Donna Collection” is included in the new anthology 166 Palms 2020. Buy the anthology on Amazon.
Blown away and humbled. The first piece of fiction I’ve ever gotten published wins an award. The story is published here.
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