Gospel

(ThyBlackMan.com) Somebody decided a while back that a serious Black man ought to look as if he is hauling a boulder up a hill. I never agreed to that. My pushback happens right here in the kitchen, volume up, nothing loud about it. Most of what gets published about brothers my age could pass for a case file. Statistics. Warnings. The weight of the world folded into a paragraph and […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) Political parties trade in loyalty, yet no Black man should hand a campaign the right to decide whom he respects, mentors, hires, or stands beside, especially not an outfit that will forget his name the morning after the votes are counted. I have lived long enough to watch good men get sorted into piles by folks who never sat at their table. Some clerk in a campaign office, a […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) You couldn’t find a wackier candidate than Francesca Hong, the Democratic Socialist vying to become the governor of Wisconsin. She wanted to defund police and abolish ICE, topping it all off with a call to end Thanksgiving. “Saturday Night Live” couldn’t have made her up. Hong lost the Democratic primary but left behind some sobering thoughts. She finished second by only a hair and against a sterling Democrat with […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) Since March, America has been running an accidental experiment and glimpsing what the country might look like without one of its dumbest statutes. The results are in, and they embarrass a century’s worth of U.S. lawmakers and defenders. The statute is the Jones Act, passed in 1920 to rebuild and protect the U.S. merchant marine fleet after World War I disrupted American shipping capabilities. It requires that any vessel […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) “The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. … They conferred against the Government the right to be let alone — most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.” — Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) The rapid spread of public surveillance cameras represents something far more consequential than a new piece of police technology. It represents a fundamental […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) Last month, President Donald Trump left the summit in Ankara, Turkey in a catering truck. He walked onto the old Air Force One in view of all the cameras, then snuck onto a catering truck to be whisked to a military jet, which flew him to England, where he snuck back onto Air Force One. And no one was the wiser until this week, when the Washington Post and […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) For many Black families across the country, the moment an investigation officially closes rarely feels like an ending. A department announces its findings, a report gets filed, and the public conversation moves on within days. For the people left behind, that same moment often marks the beginning of a much longer fight, one that plays out far away from press conferences and official statements, in kitchens, church basements, and […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) By every measure and means of rational and relevant consideration, calculation and comprehension, August is a month of major historical markers and milestones for us as African peoples. Indeed, it is an August of revolution, revolt, rebellion, insurrection and resistance of various kinds, and therefore, we call it Insurgent August, the August of rising up in resistance. The root meaning of the word insurgence is to rise up, and for us […]

(ThyBlackMan.com) Sadly, Donald Trump’s war against Iran which he launched at the behest of Israel, is rapidly spiraling out of control. It is now threatening to engulf larger regions and sections of the globe! How did this happen? How have Trump’s foolish actions against Iran devolved into a wider conflict that is resulting in massively damaging consequences to the global economy and stability? The obvious answer is, very quickly.  The US […]