The Sharpton Renaissance: How the Reverend’s Reputation Got Refurbished
There was a time, not long ago, when the dominant arbiters of public opinion relegated Al Sharpton to the outskirts of serious, respectable discussion. Sure, he was a fixture on the Ebony magazine list of the 100 “top” black Americans. Sure, journalists called him when they needed a provocative quip. Sure, Democratic Party politicians courted him. But “the Rev” was unmistakably relegated to the black ghetto of celebrity activism. READ MORE >>
A Right of All Citizens
The Case for Early Retirement
The TNR Primary: Part One
In 1991, the Black Law Students Association at Harvard Law School chose Barack Obama to be the keynote speaker at its annual spring banquet. Typically, the association chose to honor with its invitation a senior figure in the world of law--an esteemed professor, a distinguished judge, or a famous attorney. On this occasion, however, the association took the unprecedented step of inviting a mere student, one of their own, to be the speaker. I was in the audience. He delivered an address titled, as I recall it, "Remembering Where You Come From." READ MORE >>
Allen and the N-word.
This past summer, I was asked to testify as an expert witness in the case of Nicholas Minucci, who was charged with having committed a hate crime. In Bensonhurst, New York--which is notorious for its anti-black sentiments-- Minucci, who is white, had beaten a black man with an aluminum baseball bat. When Minucci initially approached this man (whom he suspected of being a car thief), he reportedly said "Whattup, nigga." Prosecutors portrayed that language as evidence of a racial motivation for the ensuing violence. READ MORE >>
Suspect Policy
Consider the following case study in the complex interaction of race and law enforcement. An officer from the Drug Enforcement Administration stops and questions a young man who has just stepped off a flight to Kansas City from Los Angeles. The officer has focused on this man for several reasons. Intelligence reports indicate that black gangs in Los Angeles are flooding the Kansas City area with illegal drugs, and the man in question was on a flight originating in Los Angeles. READ MORE >>
