Let's get one thing out of the way here at the top: I don't listen to a lot of music or watch many music videos. I also don't follow Kanye West's career. Basically, though I sometimes listen to it, I really don't know crap about rap.

On the other hand,...

Well, here's a piece I never imagined myself writing: A defense of a white man's use of the N-word.

I want to start with a little back-story: I don't use the N-word. Not ever. But I used to, not so long ago. I used it in the context of talking...

Let's face it: YouTube rocks if you know what you're searching for, but if you're just clicking on random links, it's usually a pretty disappointing experience.

Except when it's not! This particular YouTube video made my day.

It has just 700 views. I wish it had 7 million.

My Facebook and Twitter friend @clyde_online, a community organizer in DC, has been pestering me to define U.S. white culture. Up until now, I've demurred.

Frankly, there are other things I'd rather write about. Besides, though I'm certainly aware of the status and meaning that our civilization has...

Race is sexy. And sex is racy. Is it any wonder that our society seems fascinated, obsessed even, with their combination? Consider the latest photo shoot by Mikael Jansson titled Let's Get Lost, in the current issue of Interview Magazine.

I've been reading, talking, and thinking a lot about justice lately. And the deeper I get into it, the more evident it is that our justice system isn't meeting our needs. What we want, I think, is a justice system that produces not just rehabilitation, but redemption. Is...

They're physically powerful and move with an unusual combination of grace and speed. They're sexually seductive, in a forbidden sort of way, and dangerous -- even the well-mannered, law-abiding ones are, at their core, threatening. They're monsters, ever ready to prey and feed on human fears, if not their lives....

In a previous blog post, I argued that to determine if an expression of humor was racist, it is necessary to carefully examine it's impact. In this post, I want to consider a particularly ambiguous case:

If you haven't yet seen John Mayer's interview with Playboy, well, all jokes about "reading Playboy for the articles" aside, you really should just pause here and check it out, because the interview is really very "very." Trust me, this will make sense...

When it comes to activism, students often feel powerless. After all, they argue, they don't have the ability to change rules, much less laws, or even influence how existing rules and laws are interpreted. Being students, which, by definition, means being in the process of learning rather than leading --...

I enjoyed Obama's first State of the Union address, in large part because I like listening to our President. I like seeing our first African American President too. Though I'm not so naive as to think that it's an indication of a post-racial...