0 "... Our Flag Was Still There..."

By: Marvin DeBose Picture: Twitter @FergusonAction  Activist Bree Newsome takes down the Confederate Flag from outside of the Statehouse in Columbia, Sc. So when are people going to decide to stop lying to defend the Confederate flag? Over the past week, amidst the controversy surrounding that flag, what I've realized is that there are mainly three types of people who defend the Confederate flag: 1. The person who doesn't know history... I know many of these people who have either grown up seeing this flag at grandma's house, or they simply think its just cute flag that represents country/rural...

0 What Charleston Means

Photograph by Lissa D'Aquisto, courtesy of City of Charleston (The Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC) By now, many of us have heard of the horrendous acts which occurred in Charleston, SC in which a gunman opened fire in the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, killing 9 people. Media outlets and pundits have already described this incident as “incomprehensible” and “unbelievable”. I would’ve agreed with them… that’s if I hadn’t already known what country I was living in. One survivor of the incident recalled the gunman, a white male saying to the members of the congregation, “You rape our women and you’re taking...

0 Seinfeld & The Culture of Political Correctness

PHoto CREDIT: ROBIN MARCHANT/GETTY By: Marvin DeBose “So what's the deal with all this political correctness?” That's a question that actor/comedian Jerry Seinfeld may have been asking after a recent interview in which he discussed the difficulty of performing as a comedian on college campuses due to what he believes to be a culture of political correctness. In an interview with ESPN radio, Seinfeld stated, "I don't play colleges, but I hear a lot of people tell me, 'Don't go near colleges. They're so [politically correct].'... They just want to use these words: 'That’s racist'; 'That’s sexist'; 'That’s prejudice.' They don’t know what...

0 McKinney, USA

By: Marvin DeBose It looked like a scene out of the 90s TV show Walker Texas Ranger; a cop running toward the camera at full speed. But it wasn't a TV show it was a viral video showing a police officer in a suburban community responding to a reported disturbance in the area. Within the first few seconds of the video, Corporal Eric Caseboldt, a 40-year-old Navy veteran, who had been with McKinney police for 10 years, is seen on the video running at top speed  down chasing an unseen perpetrator. At first glance, it almost seems as if he might be chasing a suspect who is armed.  Then the camera pans right, and the officer returns...

0 "What Would Dr. King Think?"

By: Marvin DeBose He's our convenient hero. We see him in old grainy footage from the 1960s smiling, marching and giving speeches. When people yell slurs at him, he is unfazed. When attacked physically, he is calm. People see him as America's symbol of peace and racial harmony. He's our go-to Black leader for any words of wisdom that address social issues, such as race, but aren't too controversial (Sorry, Malcolm X). Of course, I'm talking about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who's seen as our our happy-go-lucky, turning-the-other-cheek, loving-his-enemies, courageous leader. We typically think of him within the context of the last few minutes...

2 Ferguson: The Product of Deferred Dreams

By: Marvin DeBose Since last summer, I've begun to realize that American history often repeats itself. In the past few days since the decision regarding Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson to not be indicted for the death of Mike Brown, I've realized that many of us live in different versions of the United States of America. More importantly, the past few days have shown me that, its that there are still a lot of us who don't understand that the American experience is very different for different people. And history shows that a great deal of people's experiences in this country are dictated based on race, class and gender. But depending...

0 "It's Not About Race"

By: Marvin DeBose For all of the people who are on the whole "it’s not about race" and "Well, looting is wrong too" campaign in regards to the death of Mike Brown, I'm going to challenge you. I challenge you to look at things from outside of your own perspective. Maybe to you this isn't about race because you've never really HAD to analyze racism... Or maybe you didn't WANT to. Yet, for Black people in America, especially those from lower-income areas such as Ferguson, Mo. and parts of the St. Louis area, racism is omnipresent. It's in the schools, in the courtrooms, in housing and and even jobs. So when people talk about...