New Gold City

Malcolm Little, around 8 The second set of observations while reading, in parallel, both The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Dreams from My Father . Preliminary research for my next novel.  Honestly, in reading the autobiographies of two of America's most defining cultural figures, you find a lot of similarities in their early lives. It's kind of stunning. However, one of the significant differences between how Barack Obama and Malcolm X grew up is that from a young age Malcolm's parents made him highly aware of his special skin tone, while little Barry's family seems to have actively sought to minimize any concern about pigmentation when he was young. Obama, in fact, had to figure things out on his own -- leastways, as he tells the story. Both situations are logical as far as they are described by these two. Early in his autobiography, Malcolm X notes that his parents seemed to treat him in opposite ways because his complexion was so much lighter than his siblings'...

Author Matt Johnson and his book cover floating next to him You will find a lot of articles online that came out in the summer of 2014 claiming that Asian Americans are the fastest growing minority group in America. They apparently had a growth rate of 2.9% from 2000 to 2010, overtaking Hispanic Americans who only had a rate of 2.1%.  Let's get this straight: In actuality, the fastest growing "minority group" in America is people who identify as mixed race. Results from the 2010 US Census show citizens who identify as "two or more races" had a 32% increase in numbers from the 2000 US Census. Read about it at HuffPost in "Multiracial American Population Grew Faster Than Single-Race Segment In 2010 Census." So, 2.9% versus 32%. Who wins? Hell yeah, Mulatto Nation! We rock! And the media, once again, is full of shit. Of course, us hybrids only represent 2% of the U.S. population. Asian Americans sit at 5.6%, while Hispanics represent 17.1% of the puzzle p...

Today's New York Times contains an excellent essay by the playwright David Mamet called "We Can't Stop Talking About Race in America." The essay is part of The Times' super-sized Arts & Leisure section cataloging all the new cultural events coming this fall and winter. Mamet has a new play coming out this fall called Race . If you know Mamet, you know that he provides some fearless insights on this subject. Let me offer a few choice quotes to get you to go read the piece: "Race, like sex, is a subject on which it is near impossible to tell the truth." "Most contemporary debate on race is nothing but sanctimony..." "The question of the poor drama is 'What is the truth?' but of the better drama, and particularly of tragedy, 'What are the lies?'" In light of all the moments we've had this year: with Barrack Obama's inauguration; the Valley Swim Club in Huntingdon Valley, PA; the Gates-Crowley face off; mad...

Race is boiling up again in the collective conscience of public media and viewership. Michael 'Kramer' Richards' comedy rampage got things going in grand style. Joe Biden kind of goofed his way into heating up our national confusion with his improvisational riff on Barack Obama as " the first mainstream African-American [candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean ". But Biden is by no means alone in coming across as a twit (I sat and chatted with Biden and his mother once at a bus stop in Wilmington, Delaware, and I know the man is not a twit and that he certainly deserves to be considered a strong contender for President of this country). As you will see in the links contained in the short essay below, the foot-in-mouth syndrome is growing with a fervor. Sadly, it's not just liberalish people of European descent who are letting loose. ****************************** Beyond Prejudice and Stupidity I am not yet convinced that I will be voting for Barack ...