The Hip Hop Anthropologist

Dr. McWhorter's analysis (http://www.nysun.com/opinion/casual-killings/60671/) put a shaky finger on one aspect of a serious pathology with-in a segment of the black community. However, he neglects to fully develop this thesis, the limitations of print media notwithstanding. Moreover, and more troubling, he adopts a blame-the-victim approach, which so many African American intelligentsia and conservatives embrace, broad-stroking a huge swath of the black community in the process, letting what family these kids had off the hook altogether for their failed parenting skill sets. Fact of the matter is that a small, vocal group of black women exerted an inordinate amount of influence on the War on Poverty programs spearheaded by the Johnson administration during the late 1960s. This was at the very height of the social turmoil characterized by the civil rights and anti-war movements, respectively. Although their numbers were small relative to the total census of recipients receiving Aid...

Liberians share a unique bond with African Americans unlike any found in Sub-Saharan Africa or anywhere else in the diaspora. We must foster the ties that bind our two communities instead of relying on white Americans, Asians and Europeans interlopers all who propped up former president Charles Taylor in spite of a dismal human rights record because of his "pro-American" stance. In that respect Taylor brilliantly leveraged his capital to essentially drain the country of crucial resources for years - causing unmitigated bloodshed in the process while leaving a legacy of poverty and squalor in his wake. Liberia is finally on the path to recovery, and now in the mist of rebuilding after decades of turmoil that caused the best and the brightest to seek out refuge in America, Europe and throughout the diaspora. I want to start forging these ties in my own modest way by just contributing to the dialog and suggesting that we African Americans are pulling for Liberia. We also wish to...

With the advent, ascension truly, of Senator Barack Obama [D-Ill] to Office of the President, and Eric Holder as attorney general, the death knell may have finally sounded for institutionalized racism in these United States. Holder set it off Wednesday when he said America was "a nation of cowards" on matters of race, with most Americans avoiding candid discussions of racial issues. The airwaves and world wide web were set ablaze as conservative talk show hosts and their fawning sycophants feigned outrage over Holder's hit-'em-in-the-head truism. For too long black folk have been force fed an unrelenting diet of racism masked as conservatism misinformed in diatribes by the likes of race-hate radio pioneer Bob Grant (WOR) followed quickly by his WABC replacement, a high school graduate named Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham and reigning champion Rush Limbaugh. Unabashed bigots all who only serve as bottom feeders fanning unsubstantiated fears by an ill-inf...

Since its inception, the Internet using the world wide web has helped peeled back what had heretofore been a vast, forbidding and often mysterious world, exposing a wondrous , enticing facade under what frequently lies a sordid dark, dank underbelly. Together we will explore this world from a critical perspective. There are many captains undertaking this voyage all over the world wide web. I am gratified you have chosen my vessel on which to share this journey. Our voyage begins now...