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Models Monday: Baby it’s Cold Outside

One day after the southern style Atlanta cold kept teachers and educators inside, I dressed my son in corduroy pants, turtleneck, sweater, his thickest winter coat (Ezra Jack Keats Snowy Day Peter style), hat and gloves while the car warmed for at least 15 minutes before we set out for school. All this for about three minutesContinue reading “Models Monday: Baby it’s Cold Outside”

Yep: Fan Sums up Cleveland Browns’ Season

To this perfect message, I would only need to add 20+ years to this man’s “pain and misery” to capture my tireless commitment to this team. You definitely know you’re from Cleveland when instead of a win, you’ll accept a close loss as a slight victory.

Models Monday: Investigation Discovery and Us (Black Boys in American Culture Part 3)

If I’m not watching sports on television or something sports related, the only network that I watch is the Investigation Discovery (ID) network. The network does not in any way acknowledge race as a relevant category of analysis regarding its programming, but I would say that 95% of the stories feature crimes committed by whiteContinue reading “Models Monday: Investigation Discovery and Us (Black Boys in American Culture Part 3)”

Odd Sightations

A sightation is a term I coined to refer to a visual reference, an optical echo that re-stages some primary, illustrated source. Angela Y. Davis has been one of the most eloquent critics of contemporary sightations of historical images that empty them of political content by substituting a distorted replication that represses radical resistance againstContinue reading “Odd Sightations”

On Black Boys in American History (Part 2)

Gentle, quiet, well-mannered black boys are unrecognizable actors in American history; instead, these children are most always fiendish brutes in the cultural imagination and reified as such in daily life. The attempted crucifixion of Brenton Butler exemplifies this unfortunate truth. On Sunday morning, May 7, 2000, a white woman was shot in the face byContinue reading “On Black Boys in American History (Part 2)”

Models Monday: On Black Boys in American History (Part 1)

Though it is usually unwise to make broad, sweeping generalizations, I’m going to risk being foolhardy in making this claim about black boys in American history: It is impossible to mark a single decade in American history where your entry point into it remains unblemished by some gross injustice carried out against black boys; theContinue reading “Models Monday: On Black Boys in American History (Part 1)”

Merry Christmas

Christmas Snow and Christmas Sunshine

One of my oldest and dearest friends sent me the photo above with the message, “Caroling and crepes at the Westside Market! What could be better?” It’s a good question. While I can’t say that I miss Cleveland’s bone chilling cold, it’s a beautiful place to experience Christmas. There’s rarely snow in the South atContinue reading “Christmas Snow and Christmas Sunshine”

Models Monday: The Limits of Ideology

I used to dread going to many of my feminist theory or feminist themed classes; especially the graduate ones. While the course content could have been interesting, the classes were often filled with women, many of whom were well beyond their twenties, who asked questions like these: Can you enjoy baking cookies for your familyContinue reading “Models Monday: The Limits of Ideology”

Captivity + Time = Mark 8:36

Mandela I never thought that I would be spending so much time thinking about Nelson Mandela and whales, but I have been. In paying attention to the many commemorative magazine covers honoring him, what appeared more profound than his passing was the documentation of a black man with a raised fist living as long asContinue reading “Captivity + Time = Mark 8:36”