Malcolm X
What Am I Saying When I Say 'Nigger'?
I'm still trying to figure out what the most loaded two syllables in the English language mean to me.
Black Lives Matter
Institutionalized racism isn't just about the headlines you read or the grand jury verdicts that inspire protests, it's something that infects the consciousness of black people everywhere.
'Concerning Violence' Is a New Meditation on Africa's Struggle for Freedom
We talked to Göran Hugo Olsson, the director of the new documentary—narrated by Lauryn Hill—that brings Frantz Fanon's thinking to the big screen.
A St. Louis Suburb Is America's Latest Racial Hotspot
The police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked looting and riots Sunday night and clashes with police on Monday.
Remembering Master Fard Muhammad
February 26 is Saviors’ Day, the birthday of the founder of the Nation of Islam. Master Fard Muhammad will probably never get his due for his contribution, but the biggest challenge to fully appreciating him may be that he so effectively escaped...
Lifetime’s Assassination of Malcolm X
In the Lifetime Original Movie 'Betty & Coretta,' they present cardboard versions of what I like to call "Early Malcolm" and "Real Malcolm." But Early Malcolm and Real Malcolm are not real. They are both fabrications that serve to oversimplify a...
What Would MLK Say About Today's America?
"He would totally celebrate with Obama. They would have a heart-to-heart and Obama would be inspired even more. It would be a really awesome meeting. I can only imagine them doing dinner together and sitting in one room privately, without cameras."
Genius in Exile
Writer James Purdy's work is like a dark underground river that flows undetected through the American landscape and deserves to be waded in.
I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore
I've always had this belief that if you produce something beautiful, and it's packaged beautifully and has had some love and attention invested in it, then somebody will want it.