Malcolm X (1992)
Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett
In the early 1990s, the pre-release hype and merchandising regarding Spike Lee’s Malcolm X movie was a sight to behold. Every black teen in my Midwestern home city (a major portion of which had been destroyed by the so-called Great Migration of blacks from the Deep South) had a Malcolm X hat. This hat was normally all of one color with a prominent “X” on the crown. Read more …
When You’re Black, They Let You Name ‘Em
Rapper Nick Cannon is the most unlikely person to be embroiled in an “anti-Semitism” controversy. Cannon gained popularity as a clean, family-friendly rapper. No one has ever mistaken him for hardcore or gangsta — he’s the nice rapper white families can listen to on their drive to church. His inoffensiveness and bourgeois image Read more …