It was the best of ads. It was the worst of ads. When I first laid four eyes on Hamilton County Commissioner John Dowlin's "attack ads" accusing Councilman Pat DeWine of "leaving his wife and childr  

Black History Month is like fastening a rope around air. It's slave-catching. It's like embracing a cloud. It's the Middle Passage without rest stops. It's a failed survey of a ubiquitous civilizat  

"Mammy: A term of insult. Never used in any other way by Negroes." -- Glossary of Harlem Slang, Zora Neale Hurston Every day I write the book. I'm forced to churn out pop 'n fresh chapters lik  

"Sinnerman, where you gonna run to?" -- "Sinnerman," Nina Simone LaShawn Pettus-Brown's (LPB) Jan. 23 arrest opens a new chapter on the most intriguing manhunt for a runaway colored man since N  

"Can you go get my gun for me so I can go lock up some niggers?" That's what I hear then-Sgt. Jeff Butler say -- tired, frustrated and angry -- at the videotaped tail end of a February 1999 Cinci  

I was more surprised that The Cincinnati Enquirer even ran Boondocks than I was by the paper's Jan. 4 decision to pull the caustic black-themed comic strip. Pop goes the proverbial carrot before the  

This waning year tasted like a medley of good fortune, hard work and opportunity wrapped in a floured tortilla shell of confusion, tragedy and war. I've never felt more adult than in 2003. I learn  

I wish Joe could see me now. Whenever I brimmed over, he spoke my aspirations back to me without diminishing my excitement. Joe made it OK to be a black alien. That's because he was one. To be you  

"White perceptions of Negroes, and the historical inculcation of these perceptions in the minds of Negroes themselves, are at the root of our present troubles." -- Black Rage by Grier and Cobbs Le  

When Marvin Lewis first came to town, pro-Bengal bobble heads slathered on him responsibilities that had nothing to do with U-turning a losing football team. According to them, Lewis' blackness cam