Back in 2012, I wrote a Dear John letter to the brothers. My relationships with the Johns in my life were (and will always be I suppose) evolving, transitioning, ending. I'm a stubborn one, but my ideas and opinions evolve, transition, end too. So it is with the Dear John letter. I realized the change [...]
I was 21 years old, 20 years ago, on October 16th 1995. That was the day of the Million Man March/Day of Absence. In what I named "solidarity," I refrained from attending class. I was a solid student. Mostly. So I doubt any of my professors batted an eye. Besides, almost half of the campus [...]
elf-aggrandizing is a familiar response to the systematic stripping of Black manhood, a familiar vestige of slavery and oppression. The arrogant and/or hyper-masculine posturing response to this stripping is pervasive not just in hip hop music, or even reggae toasting from which hip hop was born, but in black communities. Watch pastors, pimps, leaders in those communities and you will note the same material excess and self importance that young people learn to emulate.
Dear You, I told myself that it was because of my father that I fell in love with you. I loved him in the unconditional way children typically love—without acknowledgement or understanding of flaws. My father’s flaws became part of my definition of all men. Once I stopped loving you all by default, I started [...]
darlene anita scott 