Sometimes racism isn’t about vicious bigotry and hatred towards those with different skin color than your own, let alone a willingness to walk into a church and massacre nine of those others because you think they’re “taking over your country.” Sometimes, racism is manifested in the subtle way a person can dismiss the lived experiences […]
In the wake of recent police killings of young black men — John Crawford, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice most prominently — there has been much discussion about the way in which large numbers of white Americans, and especially white police, view African American males. The criminalization of the black male body has […]
The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, The Culture of Cruelty: How America’s Elite Demonize the Poor, Valorize the Rich and Jeopardize the Future (San Francisco: City Lights, 2015) This section explores the way that many (especially on the right) downplay or dismiss the problem of poverty and the hardship faced by the […]
Poor Bill O’Reilly. I mean, it’s not as if we should actually expect him to know anything about black people or black culture in America. This is the guy, you’ll recall, who was actually amazed — amazed — a few years ago when he went to Sylvia’s restaurant in Harlem, only to discover that black […]
My appearance on the David Pakman Show, 5/29/14 to discuss white privilege. Sorry about the loud wallpaper in the background…you can thank the Indianapolis JW Marriott for that visual effect.
Well, another week has gone by, and once again we have a treasure trove of evidence to suggest that there is something seriously wrong in Pleasantville, by which I mean white America of course. Now I don’t mean all white people, mind you, or the entirety of white America, so don’t think I’m being racist. […]
Hilarious and on-point segment from All In with Chris Hayes, lampooning the black-culture-bashing antics of Bill O’Reilly and others on the right by flipping the script and examining signs of white cultural decay…
My appearance on Disrupt with Karen Finney on MSNBC, along with Rashad Robinson of Color of Change, from August 3. We’re discussing the right-wing rhetoric on race and their cultural critiques of the black community since the Zimmerman trial. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Predictably, white conservatives are at it again: blaming black people specifically, and black culture more broadly, for various crises facing the African American communities of this nation. In the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict, and black anger over the racial suspicions that animated Zimmerman’s decision to follow Trayvon Martin the night he was killed […]
I’ve never been a fan of Juan Williams. Far too chummy with his FOX News colleagues and too eager to attack longstanding civil rights leaders in the name of supposedly courageous political “independence,†Williams is one I have never thought to defend before. But today such a defense is deserved. Williams, it turns out, has […]
