The worst part of every morning is thirty minutes before my alarm goes off. Because I’m awake before I want to be, my mind spinning, potent emotions circulating through me. What I’m experiencing is a byproduct of a crisis brought on by impending middle age. As the minutes pass, the irritation, sadness, and regret swirl together, forming an all encompassing whirlpool that bursts through the fragile iteration of contentment I’d built the previous evening with a satisfying dinner, Netflix streaming, and reading before bed.

The sun’s rays spill through the blinds, bathing the walls and carpets with light and announcing…

Television

The misunderstood black criminal, often portrayed as irredeemable in movies and television, a blight on civil society with no inherent value beyond that of being a prisoner in a cage. Creators in the past have been hesitant to study the whole of the black criminal, the object of a distrust and hate far exceeding the antipathy extended toward the typical white criminal.

I’ve watched a lot of television shows featuring white men operating on the wrong side of the law. They are usually referred to as antiheros, contrarians to the law, but suffused with enough redeeming qualities to make them…

On October 11, 1991, faced with impending implosion of his carefully constructed law career, an incensed Clarence Thomas, one of two black men nominated for a seat on the United States Supreme Court — Thurgood Marshall was the other — lashed out at the Senate Judiciary committee, comparing his current plight to those blacks who routinely faced lynching in the not too distant past.

It’s 7:30 in the morning, or fifteen minutes after I’ve left the house, the absolute nadir of my morning commute. I’m stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic along the residential thoroughfare, my jaw flexing and hands squeezing the steering wheel, as there are too many parents endeavoring to drop their young children off at the neighborhood school. And all of this takes place before I merge onto interstate seventy, where the probability of another traffic jam is more than fifty percent. But at least there is constant forward momentum along the interstate, even if it is gradual and maddening. …

Last week, I sat down for lunch at the Denver Biscuit Company— my favorite restaurant — with a long-time friend. Customer traffic had died down by this time, providing us the opportunity to find a table situated by a window, settle in, and talk to each other without feeling encumbered by the presence of a dense crowd. As we waited patiently for the waitress to deliver our biscuit dishes, I brought up the topic of television, as I’d recently come across a new television show, one so exceptional that I’ve come to regard it as a bucket list item for…

Television has become more of a consistent companion during the last fifteen months, one of the main vehicles I use to manage my emotional health in a world ravaged by Covid-19. I plan my evenings and weekends around my shows, partitioning hours of streaming after eating dinner during each day. Most of the shows I stream contain a sufficient amount of violence and dark themes, leaving me unable to watch them in the presence of my mother — some of the imagery is very upsetting to her. So I usually end up streaming these shows on my laptop computer, ear…

I’m a liberal progressive, an espouser and advocate for reforms that engender a more equitable and inclusive society, one that provides for the needs of traditionally marginalized groups of Americans. I support a fifteen dollar per hour minimum wage and I want millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share of taxes. I am in favor of stringent gun control measures, LGBTQ civil rights, expanded family leave, Black Lives Matter, Medicare for All, robust immigration, and a strong safety net. I think traditional conservatism creates a breeding ground for avarice, exclusion, stasis, and abject humiliation. …

2001

The hostel was situated in upper Manhattan, on the west side. I tiptoed through the premises for three weeks, careful not brush any part of my body against certain surfaces, as they were infested with dirt and grime, the communal toilets and showers being the worst offenders. And the hostel was rife with skulking individuals, brazen thieves searching for every available opportunity to abscond with your possessions. Never once did I feel safe while staying there, as I became desperate to escape the place. …