You might not be very familiar with Francis Bacon’s Essays, Civil and Moral, but I’ve read them all closely—several times. Indeed, I’ve read and reread many of Francis Bacon’s works. I learned a lot from Bacon’s writings as well as from those of two of his famous contemporaries, Chistopher Marlowe and the quasi-enigma William Shakespeare [...]
I just read “Some Arizona University Programs Threatened by Proposed Ban on Affirmative Action” by Peter Schmidt (author of Color and Money), and it reminded me of a few questions I asked of a few Black and Hispanic lawyers during a recent meeting. Here are paraphrased versions of the questions I asked.
1) Why would a [...]
An article authored by Peter Schmidt and entitled, “Advocates of Diversity Grasp for Ways to Drive Change in Legal Profession,” was published by The Chronicle of Higher Education this morning. I left the following comment in the comments section.
I agree with Steve (Comment #2) that the pressure to maintain high LSAT scores for rankings purposes [...]
“I wonder what will happen here if supplies crash (like the water supply is crashing in Atlanta), or, TPTB simply cut off supplies in selected cities for political reasons?”
—cnulan, “75th Anniversary of Genocidal Man-made Famine”
The comment I had planned to leave in the above-quoted Subrealism discussion thread was long and would have been truncated. So, [...]
I didn’t plan on publishing any new posts for a few more weeks; however, I just reread a lengthy comment I submitted to the good discussion thread for Cobb’s “The First 22 Rules,” and I thought it was good enough to share here as a blog post.
Cobb:
“As for my pitiless attitude, I think it’s rather [...]
Take a peek at this short article, “Minority Students Fare Better in Colleges When High-School Classmates Also Enroll, Researchers Say” published by The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 11, 2007.
A working draft of the paper containing the preliminary findings referenced in the article can be viewed here. Please do not reference this draft paper [...]
Over the past 10 years (give or take a few years) do you think racism in the US has gotten better, worse, or stayed the same?
Do you think there may be some areas where we have improved and others where we have gotten worse? If so what areas do you see changes for the [...]
The doctoral program I’d most like to complete and the one that would best prepare me to produce rigorously researched and novel scholarship would be Princeton’s Graduate Sociology Program. Cornell’s Graduate Sociology Program is a close second. If I were one of the rare quasi-Afrocentric Black men to be admitted to one of these programs, [...]
If you grew up on the Hip Hop music I grew up on, then you probably know a lil’ something about groups such as Brand Nubian, Digable Planets and, especially, Poor Righteous Teachers. After you had listened to groups such as these for a few years, though you might not have become a full-fledged God [...]
I’d not make a very good ‘nigger’ or ‘nigga’ debater. My heart wouldn’t be in it. I might be creative enough to come up with a novel argument for or against the use of one or both words, for or against their influences on Black American history, culture, or social psychology, but I doubt it. [...]
“What if Dr. King’s dream actually did come true?”—Cobb, “Critical Mass in Dr. King’s World.”
There are Blacks who believe Dr. King’s dream did come true. I suspect most of them, thanks to their parents, their communities, their teachers, their talents, or their luck are living upper-middle-class lives or better, using Standard American English with great [...]
Parenting is no easy task. In fact, of all the things I’ve done in my life, nothing has challenged me and humbled me as much as parenting our children. Good parenting is like a prolonged balancing act, and it often requires the use of balancing tests. A good parent must weigh the costs and the [...]
A little more than a decade ago, I read Dr. Marimba Ani’s Yurugu for the first time. Though I had received a good undergraduate education before I read it, I now know I was not ready for it then. Even so, I read it and took away what I could, misunderstanding much of Ani’s theses. [...]
Cultures1 are beings. They influence all of us. Cultures can be enablers and promoters of human enlightenment, health, compassion, and justice. And cultures can constrain, repress, or oppress us, sometimes sinisterly and painfully. They can control political and economic power distributions, and through controlling those distributions they can control arts, sciences, laws, histories, moralities, and [...]
My man Ed Dunn (External Ed) from Dream & Hustle asked some questions in the comments thread for “Cultural Discomfort.” In response, I meditated, in writing, about why some Black law students deal with the discomfort in exchange for the social benefits, wealth and prestige, they are promised if they measure their success as they [...]
By 11:00 a.m. today, I was caught up on my readings for my contracts and torts classes. I had a few hours to myself before my afternoon classes would meet and my friend cancelled our lunch appointment. So, I read a little from Peter Schmidt’s new book Color and Money: How Rich White Kids Are [...]
Cobb’s “Game or No Game” got me to thinking this morning. His post inspired me to organize my reply in the form of a theory. For now, I’ll call it the Four Modes Theory.
Cobb, what you describe as “cross cultural game” and what other theorists, such as Pierre Bourdieu described as “cultural capital,” is a [...]
Professor Bernadette Atuahene concludes her Blackprof.com post, “What are the consequences when the powerful are impervious to justice?,” with the following question.
“In your view, what are the consequences when the powerful are impervious to justice?”
A few answers to this question are floating around in my head. The one I find most interesting is below the [...]
Malik is hosting a good conversation over at his blog, The Struggle Within. In the comments thread for his blog post, “New Directions,” another blogger and blog commentator, Angela, responded to my comments. Below is my response to Angela.
Angela:
I don’t value people based on their amounts of wealth, power, or prestige. And I don’t think [...]
Jimi Izrael’s recent blog post about Karrine Steffans, aka Superhead, inspired me to learn more about this woman and her work. The sexcapades of famous celebrities don’t interest me much, so I never desired to read Ms. Steffans’ kiss and tell book. I’ve not seen any of the movies in which she starred. I’m no [...]