Thursday, January 18, 2024


What’s So Funny About Madea? Nothing.

February 26, 2009 by  
Filed under Entertainment, News, Weekly Columns

Tweet (Akiit.com) I went to see the Tyler Perry movie “Madea Goes to Jail,” in which Perry plays a wise-cracking black grandmother, Madea, short for “Mother Dear” and ebonically pronounced “muh deah.” With an extensive criminal past that includes “supersize stripper,” attempted murderer and check fraud artist, Madea is a near-cult figure among many African […]

The Chris Brown Lesson for Black Men…

February 23, 2009 by  
Filed under News, Weekly Columns

Tweet (Akiit.com) Some discussions are simpler than we’d like to think. Sometimes there is only one answer, one response, one appropriate ending to a debate. This in fact would be one of those occasions. A few weeks ago Mo’Kelly mentioned how he worked for the Grammy Awards (NARAS) back in the day and how he […]

President Barack Obama Is Our First Life Coach…

February 23, 2009 by  
Filed under Health, News, Weekly Columns

Tweet (Akiit.com) Barack Obama is the first person of color to be elected President of the United States of America. He is also one of the youngest, least partisan and most technologically savvy, and in my opinion he’s the first president to life coach the country. His campaign used many of the techniques I teach […]

Was Lincoln a racist?

February 23, 2009 by  
Filed under News, Weekly Columns

Tweet (Akiit.com) I first encountered Abraham Lincoln in Piedmont, W.Va. When I was growing up, his picture was in nearly every black home I can recall, the only white man, other than Jesus himself, to grace black family walls. Lincoln was a hero to us. One rainy Sunday afternoon in 1960, when I was 10 […]

The new ‘old face’ of conservative opposition…

February 23, 2009 by  
Filed under News, Weekly Columns

Tweet (Akiit.com) With the changing of the executive branch from republican to democratic hands and the subsequent strengthening of the democrat majority in Congress, the inauguration of President Barack Obama found many Americans exhaling a collective breath of relief. As the Bush years came to their celebrated end last January, many Black folk, among millions […]

CHRIS BROWN’S SELF-CENTERED APOLOGY…

February 18, 2009 by  
Filed under Entertainment, News, Weekly Columns

Tweet (Akiit.com) After a weeklong silence, Chris Brown has finally spoken about the pre-Grammy incident in which he allegedly beat his girlfriend, Rihanna, with his fists until she was bruised and bloodied. But in the self-centered apology he issued on Sunday, Chris seems more interested in repairing his image than with accepting personal responsibility or […]

Bill Cosby still making people laugh — and think…

February 14, 2009 by  
Filed under Entertainment, News, Weekly Columns

Tweet (Akiit.com) Trying to interview the loquacious Bill Cosby over the phone is sort of like trying to capture the full-blast output of a gushing fire hydrant in a plastic sandwich bag. On one end, the iconic entertainer unleashes a torrent of free-flowing, digressive soliloquies. On the other end, you futilely scribble away in your […]

Obama marriage inspires fascination, imitation…

February 13, 2009 by  
Filed under News, Weekly Columns

Tweet (Akiit.com) She’s a busy mother of two and a full-time executive at a film distribution company, but sometimes Susan Margolin can’t help it: She Googles Barack and Michelle Obama, not to check on his latest policy initiatives, but to see what they’re doing as a couple. “They went to the Kennedy Center with the […]

Protecting The Black Image…

February 11, 2009 by  
Filed under News, Weekly Columns

Tweet (Akiit.com) At some point, the image of President Barack Obama has to inspire us to rise to higher heights in every arena possible. But before we can do that, we need to be serious about the business of protecting our image. Unfortunately, some of the most vicious assaults on the Black image have come […]

Stereotypes hurt self-image…

February 11, 2009 by  
Filed under News, Weekly Columns

Tweet (Akiit.com) As a sociologist and feminist, I am aware of the nuances involved in interpersonal relationships, namely the particulars of how race and gender shape our behavior and perceptions. In short, I understand people. I do not, however, understand the backward ways that some folks think. I’m referring to a conversation with members of […]

Next Page »