Like many African-Americans, I’m lactose intolerant. I discovered this just over a year ago when I began suffering from phantom headaches and a general malaise. These symptoms were really uncomfortable and made it difficult to focus on tasks requiring analytical thinking. You see, I had an addiction to coffee doused with cream, and since giving that up wasn’t an option, I sought a solution that would soften the symptoms and thereby permit me to continue to poison my body. Within days, Doctor Google prescribed lactase, the enzyme most humans produce on their own to process lactose. I tried it and…

America needs Donald Trump — this is what I said, with a straight face mind you, to several African-American brunch companions last weekend in Northeast D.C. No, I haven’t switched political parties, and no, I haven’t lost my mind, and no, I didn’t say this as a means of silencing this extremely loquacious bunch so that I might get a few words in edgewise (although, as I think about it now, that wouldn’t be a bad tactic to use in the future). …

Objects at Rest

It strikes me that over the course of history, American and otherwise, the success or failure of movements often turns on how well the essential problem is articulated. Today, we often frame the unique issues facing the African-American community within the familiar, and somewhat outmoded, infrastructure of civil rights.

We have to stop doing this.

By speaking of the challenges we face in this way, we inadvertently de-emphasize their significance because many people, both within and outside of the black community, see our ongoing battle for equal protection under the law as a battle that has already…