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Black Americans are constantly struggling with an array of paradoxes one of which is our sense of “home.” For many of us, America is the only “home” we know and we all know the reason. As such, America is only “home” in its tangible sense.particularly because we can never fully feel comfortable here.
In
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, Michael B. Jordan and Jodie Turner-Smith’s characters reflect upon this as Black soldiers fighting for a country that doesn’t love them back. Can Black Americans fully be patriotic in this country, given the grotesque history as well as the ongoing affront to Black lives?
Photo: Chris Pizzelo-Pool (Getty Images)
In a year that pushed the timing of the Academy Awards from its typical February date to a Sunday in late April, our stars showed up and out in a riot of color rivaling any spring garden. Whether in neon brights, jewel-toned hues or the poshest of pastels, this year’s red carpet was not only the most diverse in Oscars’ history (no, really despite a deeply disappointing and arguably disrespectful end to the festivities); it was also one of the most colorful, as the stars shirked of a year’s worth of mourning garments (and loungewear) in favor of a far more optimistic palette.
Photo: Viaval Tours (Shutterstock)
It’s not very often that I am astonished by the sheer caucasity of white people. I’ve written stories about a white woman claiming to have been called the n-word in school because she has bigger lips than like six other white people; a story about a Republican declaring that the three-fifths compromise wasn’t racist; one about a guy who argued with his entire chest that a Robert E. Lee High School shouldn’t be renamed because “Jesus never condemned slavery”; and I’ve writtenseveralarticlesabout white people’s bootleg Braveheart anti-mask revolution that they haveinsisted is comparable to America’s civil rights movements.
Michael Harriot is on assignment this week. Before he left, he asked someone to fill in for today’s mailbag but everyone on staff was really busy, so
The Root hired me as a one-time freelance writer to fill in. Honestly, I was surprised to get the call. After all of the insults and draggings I’ve received from writers here, I thought they hated me. Perhaps
The Root is trying to appear as if they are fair and balanced.
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Anyway, I’ve never done this before so I thought I’d introduce myself before I do this mailbag thing. I’m much older than any of the writers here and I’m one of the few white contributors in the history of this site.