fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
CES. The Center for Enriched Studies. Los Angeles’s first magnet school, founded in 1977. I was there. And so was John Otterness. On the first day, after everyone arrived by bus from various far corners of the Los Angeles metropolis, we all assembled in a large auditorium. Time to meet the faculty of our new,…
This week has been an emotional roller-coaster. I can’t recall the last time I felt such crushing sadness about a public event, about the death of someone I never knew. I range from anger about George Zimmerman’s acquittal to deep sadness that Trayvon Martin is not still alive and well and preparing to go to…
[Ed.’s Note: This piece was first published in August, 2012. It is loosely inspired by real events.] Mrs. Cobb stood in the classroom doorway during recess watching her flock. Two of her colleagues stood by an adjacent classroom talking, their voices deliberately hushed. Mrs. Cobb paid no attention to them, nor did she take their…
George Zimmerman was found not guilty. He goes free. Trayvon Martin is still dead. Mr. Zimmerman got his wish. He wanted to be a police officer. He yearned for it. He ached for it. He acted with the air of authority and entitlement of a police officer the day he stalked and shot Trayvon Martin…
This is an easy one. On the one hand we have Orson Scott Card, an award-winning science fiction writer, who is also a raging homophobe who lives in his own little world of homophobia-land. On the other hand we have reality. One of Mr. Card’s works, Ender’s Game, has been made into a motion picture….
{Ed. note: Originally published in 2012.} This eight part story is set in a dystopian future where the only justice poor people receive is from rubbing a plastic statue and hoping that the angel is represented would destroy those who wronged them. Lillian never believed in the whole Harkness thing, but she harbors a secret…
Dear Mormon Temple of Oakland, Hi. You don’t know me, but we’re neighbors. As such, I thought I’d give you some neighborly advice in regards to marriage equality – you know, that whole gay marriage thing that you got so exercised about five years ago. You remember, right? Five years ago this month, after the…
I continue to mourn the death of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. But the bigots were told to go home today. The stupid, indefensible, silly, bigoted, and harmful Defense of Marriage Act was struck down by a 5-4 decision of the Supreme Court. This means lots of things. The federal government will have to recognize…
At one point during my writing of this book, someone suggested to me that I title it “Thoughts on Post-Racial America.” I calmly informed this person that the only way the term “post-racial” America was getting into the title of my book is if it was called “Post-Racial America Is Some Bullshit, and Other Thought…
Last year I wrote that I just wanted George Zimmerman to face trial for shooting Trayvon Martin. This was when a trial seemed doubtful because no one seemed willing to file charges against him. Mr. Zimmerman was allowed to remain free and unencumbered from February 26, 2012, the date of the shooting, to April 11, 2012,…
