High School Politics in DC

by | Mar 24, 2007 | Afrofuturism, Education

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently gave DC 122 million for their high schools. (as an aside, i’ve been an Apple guy for the last few years because Windows sucks so bad…but as evil as Windows is pitched to be, it’s hard to argue with Bill...

Voting Rights for DC Around the Corner?

by | Mar 23, 2007 | Politics | 1 comment

I’ve been remiss in not following this story. For the uninformed, because DC is a District, rather than a state, it does not have full representation in either the House or the Senate. In fact, until the early seventies DC didn’t even have a mayor and...

Consumer Branding and the Black Body

by | Mar 22, 2007 | Afrofuturism

I’ve long been interested in the power of branding. In how our bodies are used by corporations to advertise products and lifestyles along with them. In how we sometimes use branding and flip the meanings–one of the reasons that University of Michigan...

Heated Words for Al Gore on Environment

by | Mar 22, 2007 | The Mass Media

At least that is what you’d think reading today’s Washington Post article, depicting Al Gore’s appearance before the House and Senate. Gore in town to discuss global warming has become something of a media darling since his documentary An...

The sad case of Jeff Deskovic

by | Mar 19, 2007 | Racial Politics | 3 comments

We’ve all read stories about people who were freed from prison after DNA evidence exonorated them. Jeffrey Deskovic is one of those cases.  Convicted as a teenager for a murder he did not commit, even when evidence in the case should have tossed it out,...

"There is a Food Desert in Detroit"

by | Mar 18, 2007 | Afrofuturism

Detroit is a city that has approximately 900,000 residents. At its height, 2 million called Detroit home. Most see the blocks upon blocks of empty space and see ghettoes. I see something else entirely. In a city of roughly 880,000 people, there are just two...

University of Michigan rolls out New Diversity Plan

by | Mar 16, 2007 | Politics | 3 comments

Ever since the state of Michigan outlawed race-based Affirmative Action in college admissions, people have been wondering how the University of Michigan would respond. We now know. The question that remains is, how long will it be before the people responsible for the...

Invisible Political Throat Cutter

by | Mar 16, 2007 | Democracy | 1 comment

Sounds like an MC handle doesn’t it (especially if you put the emphasis on the IN in “invisible”)? I’ve been coding dozens of hip-hop tracks for my book project and this is the title I came up with when I came across this article about how one...