LEVEL Man

Whiteness hasn't always been a thing in America, though the concept of the other is eternal. Class has always been the determining factor in acceptance. Money could mostly buy favor, though there were distinguishing factors like old and new money. Whiteness didn't exist until after Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 when groups of the lower classes, Black enslaved people, Black indentured servants, and white indentured servants joined forces against the governor of Virginia and burned down Jamestown.

On September 17, I was invited by NABJ, the National Association of Black Journalists, of which I am a member, to attend an “in-person conversation” with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in downtown Philadelphia. It is during a similar conversation with NABJ in August, that her conservative rival, Donald Trump, questioned her ethnicity, causing an uproar and making headlines.

Darrell-Britt Gibson’s mother deserves a consulting credit for her son’s romantic drama She Taught Love. Gibson, who labels her a prolific writer, had planned to end his romantic drama on a dark note. His mother, who was a champion for everything her son wrote, couldn’t finish the script because she loved main character Mali (pronounced Moll-e) — a sports agent who'd been diagnosed with a rare, fast-moving cancer — and knew her son was planning to end her life.

American and British politicians have provided rich pickings for satirists, writers and artists on both sides of the Atlantic, over the decades. And the leading figures of the first age of neoliberalism weren’t immune from being remorselessly mocked by sketch writers. As extraordinarily formidable as Britain’s first woman Prime Minister was, the clever clogs at ITV, found several ways of sending her up, in the ground breaking Splitting Image show.

I imagine Heaven as a place without fear, populated by angels who love without condition. They’re like celestial Labrador Retrievers that way. Angels are also not afraid. They are never in any real danger. They just spread their wings and fly. Angels never have to worry about paying bills, having their hearts broken, or getting hit by a bus. For all eternity, it’s just light and warmth: singing and fluttering and occasional visits to poor ol’ Earth. Immortality is boring, but it’s secure. Safe.

In the midst of an important election season that some people believe will test the very foundations of democracy, it’s still good for our collective mental state to get distracted with laughter. I saw a meme last week that made me smile: “OK. So I understand that my body can’t digest corn and that’s fine.

As the winds of intolerance are blowing toward Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, we mustn’t forget that any attack on the part of the community is an attack on the whole. When racist rhetoric is normalized, all Black people feel the chill. Consider the falsehood shared by Congressman J.D. Vance and former President Donald Trump that Haitians were kidnapping and eating people’s pets.

Lt. Governor Mark Robinson is only the Republican nominee for Governor of North Carolina because Donald Trump endorsed him above all other candidates in the Republican primaries. The Republican nominee will be at a rally in North Carolina next week, and Robinson won’t be at his side. The Trump campaign issued a statement shortly after CNN reported on Robinson’s comments on a porn site a decade ago without mentioning his name.

Racist dog whistles are used to garner support without triggering public scrutiny. Using this strategy allows politicians to speak negatively about a group by appealing to others who share those views while benefiting from plausible deniability. In America, this is illustrated best by the Southern Strategy.

For the second time in just over two months, a gunman planned to assassinate Donald J. Trump. In both cases, some political party supporters raced to blame the other candidate and party. In the first instance, on July 13, 2024, the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, PA, was killed on the scene. His almost non-existent social media was scoured in an attempt to link him to a cause.