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(ThyBlackMan.com) Like most Americans, I have had seemingly endless discussions in the wake of the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti at the hands of ICE agents in Minneapolis. Yes, I understand that “murder” is a legal distinction that must be determined in a court. However, what I have seen dozens of times, from multiple angles, leaves no doubt as to the moral question of the nature […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) White People Created Jazz is a claim that resurfaces whenever cultural memory becomes inconvenient. It is often framed as a bold correction to political correctness, yet it collapses the moment it encounters history, geography, and lived testimony. Jazz is not an abstract idea whose origin is lost in time. It is a specific response to a specific set of conditions experienced by a specific people. Those people were Black […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) As this reflection is written, Wynton Marsalis stands at a rare threshold in American cultural life. After nearly forty years, he is preparing to step down as founder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, the institution he helped build into a permanent home for jazz inside one of the nation’s most prestigious cultural spaces. A two year transition period has been announced, signaling not a retreat but […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) As I read the commentary across social media, legacy media and the broader public discourse surrounding the latest deadly shooting in Minnesota, I see something deeper than disagreement over facts or law. I see a nation struggling to reconcile rights, authority, fear and accountability in moments when events move faster than judgment. Let’s begin with the Constitution and the Second Amendment. The right to bear arms is not granted […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) Black men financial stress is something most of us know well, even if we do not always call it that. We feel it in our chest when the bills are due. We feel it in our silence when somebody asks how things are going. We feel it when we tell ourselves we are fine even though we are barely holding things together. For a lot of Black men, money […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) Black men mental health awareness is not a trend, a moment, or a talking point meant to circulate briefly and disappear. It is not something that can be addressed with a few public service announcements or occasional social media posts. It is a lived, daily reality shaped by history, survival, silence, and expectation. For many Black men, mental health is something managed quietly, often alone, long before it is […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) On behalf of the nearly 9 million people who are now in default on their student loans, a coalition of advocates from consumer, civil rights and education organizations are appealing to the federal Education Department to halt its plans to begin garnishing borrower wages this month. Default status connotes borrowers are 270 days or more behind on their payments. Citing new research from Protect Borrowers, formerly the Student Borrower […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) For many Black Americans, Muhammad Ali was never just a boxer. He was a warning, a lesson, a mirror, and in many ways, a permission slip. He gave voice to thoughts many of our parents and grandparents carried quietly in their chests. He stood in public the way a lot of us were taught to stand in private. Unapologetic. Certain. Unmoved by white approval or comfort. Ali understood something […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) Hip hop has always been political whether it wanted to be or not. From its earliest days in the Bronx, the culture spoke truth to power, chronicled poverty, resisted authority, and gave voice to communities ignored by mainstream America. Even when the music leaned toward escapism, the backdrop was always real. So when one of hip hop’s most visible and influential figures stands on a federal stage and calls […]

(ThyBlackMan.com)  Measles is a “cost of doing business,” says a highly placed official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I’d like to know what business that is. To be fair, let me finish the CDC principal deputy director’s quote. Ralph Abraham said that measles is a cost of doing business “with our borders being somewhat porous for global and international travel.” Thing is, the U.S. saw over 2,200 […]