Category: Free the Jackson Five

Years ago, my father told me a little rhyme he learned growing up in Mississippi. “If you are white, you’re alright. If you’re brown, stick around. If you’re black, get back.” This little ditty seems to capture what happens when Minnesota publishers of white mainstream publications put black people on the cover of their magazines.…

Like Moses coming down from Sinai with the Ten Commandments hot from the hand of the Almighty, Minnesota Law & Politics publisher Bill White will soon give us another Minnesota “Super Lawyer” list. The chosen will be revered among lawyers (or at least that is what they will tell their clients to justify higher fees).…

Why does North Minneapolis, which boasts the Twin Cities’ highest concentration of black folk, appear to have the most trash on the ground? As a newcomer to the “North Side,” I have been shocked at the garbage strewn about my ’hood. When I complained to then Fifth Ward rep and Minneapolis Council President Jackie Cherryhomes…

What do Norm Coleman, Clem Haskins, and 70s soul man Billy Preston have in common? They all understand that “nothing from nothing leaves nothing—you gotta have something, if you want to be with me.” On first blush, it looks like both Norm and Clem are getting something for nothing. Clem got paid to leave a…

Before dreadlocks and cornrows, there was the Afro. The Afro was 15 percent hairstyle and 85 percent political statement. Armed with my Afro, I was a true “brother.” I grew my first ’fro in 1971. I was a bad–ass 13 year-old Denver kid just itching to help free the oppressed—Angela Davis, the Chicago Seven, even…