Uptown Notes

To me, the situation of urban education is much like the common cold, as technology advances, we find more and more options that tend to abate sickness, cover the symptoms, but still there is no cure. The biggest confusion that I see emerging around urban education is the highlight of a few successful schools in a city and mistaking that as the probable, that is what will likely happen, in the city as the whole.

Recently, I had the pleasure of being on the Addicted to Race podcast. I was on with Tami from What […]

I just watched Precious, Lee Daniel’s film based on the novel Push by Sapphire, and the only way I can find to describe it is extraordinary in the superlative and literal sense. Extraordinary, in the superlative sense, for its craftsmanship in visually and textually telling a narrative of the composite character Precious. It is extra-ordinary (beyond ordinary), in the literal sense, in that it concentrates on a particular set of lives ravished by sexual abuse, physical abuse, and poverty. This is not the tale of all in poverty, but it is a tale that exists.

On Sunday night, Kanye West once again burst into the limelight with his interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at […]

A look at what happens when race and gender are uncorked in a chicago eatery

Do you know some Black birthers? I bet you do!

Guest on Addicted to Race podcast 112 on Gates, Obama, and deeper racial dialogue.

Why I didn’t jump up and talk about swimming pools or Skip Gates … and maybe why you may not as well.

Cornel West and Carl Dix tangle at CCNY on Tuesday night.

This Monday July 13th I will be speaking at the NAACP Centennial Convention on Educational Advocacy.