Cavs Welcome Big Comeback Win in Boston

In the NBA, no team has ever won a championship in late February, but a team can gain confidence. The Cleveland Cavaliers double-digit comeback win over the Boston Celtics on Thursday was a much-needed morale boost for a team that had previously lost their last eight games, in the TD Banknorth Boston Garden, including the playoffs, dating back to Jan. 2007.

Tigers Apology and Jim Brown's Challenge

Thank you to Jim Brown for holding Tiger to a higher standard, by questioning Tiger's ability to be a complex human being vs. a superhuman athlete in 2002, 2008 and 2009. Given Jim Brown's character, flaws and all, its amazing how he continues to reach out, support, and challenge others (i.e. Richard Pryor, Muhammad Ali, etc...). I really hoped that Tiger had ears to listen all these years.

No Rebellion?! The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth: Christianity, Colonialism, Slavery and Revolutions

Part One: Moses, Blackness and the Meaning of Meek

Recently (and in the not-so-distant past) I have had various conversations with professors and graduate students on the role of religion, specifically Christianity, in Africa and her descendants. There is the role of religious syncretism (the mixing West African religions and Christianity) as a method of spiritual, mental, and physical survival (if you are from the South, you know what happens at a “Home Goin’”). There is the role of the Black Church as a sanctuary and “safe place” for meeting and organizing during much of the Civil Rights Era. The more controversial side (the dark side of “Christians”) discusses how Christianity sanctioned colonialism in Africa and around the world. How it warranted the discrimination of Blacks grounded in religious enlightenment theory via the “Hamitic Curse” Myth. But a recent conversation, for some reason, really got me to thinking. The person(s) stated: “Isn’t God opposed to rebellion? He said ‘the meek shall inherit the earth’ and ‘turn the other cheek’? Doesn’t ‘meek’ mean ‘timid’? Sounds like God is in favor of slavery.” Hmm…So I began my study.

Sports, Prison, Violence and Black Masculinity

I have a three-year old son, who is rather tall and strong for his age. Apparently, having parents over six-feet tall did not help any. I remember one day sitting in a restaurant with my son when an older white couple came up to us and said, “He is so cute and so big. I just know he is going to be a football player.” At this point my son hadn’t reached one year old yet, but had received similar comments previously. I responded to the couple, “Or maybe he is going to be a principal or a scientist.” After awkward silence, they left. Years later, he continues to receive the same career predictions. To which I jokingly say, “My son is going to play badminton and chess.” Usually laughs follow, but there is a level of seriousness disguised in my humor. Why is a tall strong black man having tactical skills in chess or dominating the badminton court funny? Is he not a black man if he participates in such activities? I tell this story because certain ideas of black manhood is pervasive in many of our minds. We see many of these manifestations in popular culture. If black men stereotypical have a high acumen for sports, does it matter which sports they play? Or is it only aggressive contact sports that are reserved for and assumed to encompass black masculinity? How do these constructions shape our knowledge (or assumed knowledge) of black men?

The Sit-Ins Remembered: A Fight for Much More Than a Hamburger

Exactly fifty years ago, on Monday, February 1, 1960, Joseph McNeil, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Ezell Blair, Jr., four freshman at North Carolina A & T, an historically black college in the heart of Greensboro, North Carolina, refused to leave a lunch counter at a downtown Woolworth's department store after being denied service because of their race in accordance with local custom and law.

Black History Month

In 1926, Carter G. Woodson began the celebration of Negro Achievement Week which was to be celebrated the second week in February to coincide with the birth dates of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The week-long celebration was eventually extended to the entire month. In 2010, we celebrate black history month many different ways. You may see many programs on campus, different organizations showing their formal recognition, large corporations showcasing to the world their interest in black history month, and provocative facebook statuses challenging the norm of black history month.