Uptown Notes

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.

What Michael Jackson taught me about Social Justice

A brief round-up of the best pieces on Sotomayor’s nomination by Barack Obama for the Supreme Court.

This post will not be a lofty tribute to Brother Malcolm, if you would like to see one like that, check it out here. This will be a call to action, because that is one of the things El Hajj Malik El Shabazz was about. Today is a National Day of Action to Stop the Execution of Troy Davis and today I saw a heinous video of a young teenager brutalized by the Police of Toledo. I do not doubt that Malcolm would have been disturbed to action by both. Let’s honor him by doing the work!

When is Black public opinion not public opinion… just ask the washingon examiner and Stephen Colbert!

Protest actions: Today a rally against the NY Post for their incendiary “political” cartoon. Student take back NYU and stream occupation live.

I really hope Delonas has a helluva explanation for this political cartoon … http://tinyurl.com/k6ybp

As the clock struck midnight and November 20th rolled in I thought about how 1.20.09 was emblazoned in my memory. I recall seeing bumper stickers years ago that had the date and “Bush’s Last Day” proudly marked. I waited for the date and was glad to see it arrive. I was in DC for inauguration weekend, so like many others, I was out partying. I knew that I had to get up at the crack of dawn, so I left my celebration and attempted to hail a cab to my residence. The weather in DC was a bitter, bitter cold, but I didn’t worry because as I approached a major thoroughfare I saw an ample number of cabs. I saw people hopping in and out of cabs and raised my hand to hail one. As I stood with my hand out, buzzing from the revelry of the weekend, taxis buzzed past me.I am overjoyed that the Obamas challenge stereotypes and have seeped through the pores of seemingly non-porous barriers, but that doesn’t often mean much for how we get along each day. Seeing race is not the issue, the system of racism is.

So in bizarro world news yesterday, my phone and twitter started blowing up about the commuting of sentence that John […]