The four works described below, all written by Black Philadelphia women, appear in my new anthology, “A Black Philadelphia Reader: African American Writings about the City of Brotherly Love.” I’m a professor…
Tag: Black Americans
How the manosphere found its way into the Black community
In the summer of 2023, I read that YouTube had demonetized a podcast called “Fresh & Fit,” meaning that the show could no longer earn ad revenue. While YouTube didn’t point to…
Ja Morant shows how a ‘good guy with a gun’ can never be Black
“Man enough to pull a gun, be man enough to squeeze it,” rapped NBA superstar Allen Iverson on his song “40 Bars.” This was two weeks prior to the 2000-01 NBA season,…
How Black Americans combated racism from beyond the grave
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently published a story about a Black cemetery in Buckhead, a prosperous Atlanta community. The cemetery broke ground almost two centuries ago, in 1826, as the graveyard of Piney…
After ‘Rapper’s Delight,’ hip-hop went global – its impact has been massive; so too efforts to keep it real
Soon after the fall 1979 release of “Rapper’s Delight,” versions of the first commercially successful rap recording began cropping up around the world. Two Portuguese-language versions, “Bons Tempos” and “Melô Do Tagarela,”…
A century ago, a Black-owned team ruled basketball − today, no Black majority owners remain
For the first time in 20 years, the NBA began its season with no Black-owned franchises. In fact, there’s been only one Black majority-owned team in league history. In late 2002, the…