Saturday, May 03, 2014
RAG on Newsmax: Talking Race
Friday afternoon, I appeared on "The Steve Malzberg Show," part of Newsmax TV (currently Web-only, but word is that it plans on expanding to become a competitor to Fox). Steve invited me after reading my column earlier this week analyzing the Cliven Bundy/Donald Sterling episodes.
Here's the 10-minute segment:
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Here's the 10-minute segment:
Labels: Bennie Thompson, Clarence Thomas, Donald Sterling, NAACP, Newsmax, race, Steve Malzberg
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Icon's Biggest Fan
The day writer and editor Dwayne McDuffie, who passed away Tuesday, learned that a certain controversial black man loved his work and one creation in particular: A surprising phone call led to Derek Dingle, one of McDuffie's Milestone colleagues, going to Washington, DC. Upon Dingle's return, he and McDuffie had the following exchange:
The shock was so great that it actually induced writer's block for several weeks!
Despite McDuffie's palpable angst, the full anecdote shows two things -- one about Thomas and one about McDuffie. I know from personal experience that Thomas will regularly open his office to younger black professionals to get a sense of who they are and where they're going. But, more significantly, the story says something about the relationship between a true artist and his work. McDuffie admits to being a real liberal, who can't stand Republicans -- black or white.
However, he managed to put that aside to create a black conservative comic book character that wasn't a caricature. He managed to tap into a universal truth when he was giving voice to Augustus "Icon" Freeman. A legitimate artist has to project the truth of the world in which his creation exists -- even if it's a reality foreign to that of the artist and the character has a philosophy with which his creator vehemently disagrees.
McDuffie may have been a black Democrat, but he was able to give voice to a black conservative reality recognized as authentic by a true black conservative. Now, that's high praise.
(Thanks to Matt Hunte and Ta-Nehisi Coates for the heads-up on McDuffie's Thomas post.)
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"[Clarence] Thomas is a really big fan of yours, you know."The entire post is truly great. McDuffie openly shares the discomfort felt of himself as someone, "politically to the left of… well, everybody, actually," whose work was held in high admiration by the leading black conservative in the country.
"I know."
"I was in his chambers. It's just like you'd think: dusty law books from floor to ceiling, clerks working industriously on serious legal matters." "Uh, huh."
"He also has a complete set of Icon there. He showed me the leather binder he keeps them in."
"Binder."
"Some of them were out, though. He has his clerks indexing them."
"Indexing?"
"He has them go through and pull out quotes of things Icon says that he agrees with. They mark them with Post-it notes. That way when he wants to use them in his speeches…"
"I beg your pardon?"
"He quotes Icon in papers and speeches. Rather, since you write those lines, he quotes you."
The shock was so great that it actually induced writer's block for several weeks!
Despite McDuffie's palpable angst, the full anecdote shows two things -- one about Thomas and one about McDuffie. I know from personal experience that Thomas will regularly open his office to younger black professionals to get a sense of who they are and where they're going. But, more significantly, the story says something about the relationship between a true artist and his work. McDuffie admits to being a real liberal, who can't stand Republicans -- black or white.
However, he managed to put that aside to create a black conservative comic book character that wasn't a caricature. He managed to tap into a universal truth when he was giving voice to Augustus "Icon" Freeman. A legitimate artist has to project the truth of the world in which his creation exists -- even if it's a reality foreign to that of the artist and the character has a philosophy with which his creator vehemently disagrees.
McDuffie may have been a black Democrat, but he was able to give voice to a black conservative reality recognized as authentic by a true black conservative. Now, that's high praise.
(Thanks to Matt Hunte and Ta-Nehisi Coates for the heads-up on McDuffie's Thomas post.)
Labels: Clarence Thomas, Dwayne McDuffie, Icon
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Garden On The Hill
Call it a bizarre cosmic synergy -- or publishing/marketing genius at its "finest."
Yesterday, NBA head coach Isiah Thomas and the Madison Square Garden operation were found guilty of sexual harassment. MSG and its chairman James Dolan have to pay the plaintiff $11.6 million. It's the highest-profile corporate sexual harassment case in years.
By coincidence or design, this was also the week that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas began the rollout of his autobiography "My Grandfathers' Son." That book features a major section concerning his confirmation hearings which prominently featured sexual harassment charges leveled against him -- almost exactly sixteen years ago to the month.
So, it's Thomas and Thomas.
It's Anita (Hill) and Anucha (Browne Sanders).
It's Supreme Court and basketball court (okay, I'm pushing it).
Truly eerie timing nonetheless.
By the way, one can argue whether the payout in the MSG case was appropriate, but one thing is for sure: Thomas, Madison Square Garden and Dolan deserve everything they get because of their stupidity. Given everything that was going on in the Garden and its "Animal House" culture, Dolan and Co. should have settled the suit months ago. Instead, by letting it go to trial, they've lost more than money (pending appeal); they've lost something far worse -- their reputation (though given what has happened to the Knicks over the last few years, there wasn't much of that left to begin with).
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Yesterday, NBA head coach Isiah Thomas and the Madison Square Garden operation were found guilty of sexual harassment. MSG and its chairman James Dolan have to pay the plaintiff $11.6 million. It's the highest-profile corporate sexual harassment case in years.
By coincidence or design, this was also the week that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas began the rollout of his autobiography "My Grandfathers' Son." That book features a major section concerning his confirmation hearings which prominently featured sexual harassment charges leveled against him -- almost exactly sixteen years ago to the month.
So, it's Thomas and Thomas.
It's Anita (Hill) and Anucha (Browne Sanders).
It's Supreme Court and basketball court (okay, I'm pushing it).
Truly eerie timing nonetheless.
By the way, one can argue whether the payout in the MSG case was appropriate, but one thing is for sure: Thomas, Madison Square Garden and Dolan deserve everything they get because of their stupidity. Given everything that was going on in the Garden and its "Animal House" culture, Dolan and Co. should have settled the suit months ago. Instead, by letting it go to trial, they've lost more than money (pending appeal); they've lost something far worse -- their reputation (though given what has happened to the Knicks over the last few years, there wasn't much of that left to begin with).
Labels: Clarence Thomas, Isiah Thomas, sexual harassment
