Dr. Lester K. Spence » media http://blacksmythe.com/blog The Future is Here Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:50:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 God, Government, and the Ghetto: An Interview with Michael Leo Owens http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/08/10/god-government-and-the-ghetto-an-interview-with-michael-leo-owens/ http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/08/10/god-government-and-the-ghetto-an-interview-with-michael-leo-owens/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:50:19 +0000 The Good Doctor http://blacksmythe.com/blog/?p=981 To many people, black politics and the black church is synonymous. But the relationship between black churches and politics has changed over the years, in partial response to changes in local, and national political priorities, and also in response to changes in black communities. Going beyond analyses that examine how churches engage members in political activity, Michael Leo Owens, Associate Professor of Political Science at Emory University, studies church-state collaboration in the post-civil rights era. I had the opportunity to interview him about his book God and Government in the Ghetto. Listen below!

]]> http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/08/10/god-government-and-the-ghetto-an-interview-with-michael-leo-owens/feed/ 0 More about the United States Social Forum http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/07/21/more-about-the-united-states-social-forum/ http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/07/21/more-about-the-united-states-social-forum/#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:34:28 +0000 The Good Doctor http://blacksmythe.com/blog/?p=967 A few weeks ago I was able to attend and speak at the United States Social Forum held in my hometown of Detroit, Michigan. I had a couple of different interviews about it. One conducted by Marc Steiner–this one was special to me because he interviewed my father and I together. The other one was conducted by Minister Faust, an Afro-Canadian science fiction author out of Edmonton. His show “The Terrordome” is the oldest Afrocentric radio show in all of Canada. Probably one of the oldest in North America.

The Marc Steiner Show.

The Terrordome.

]]> http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/07/21/more-about-the-united-states-social-forum/feed/ 0 Presenting at the United States Social Forum http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/06/24/presenting-at-the-united-states-social-forum/ http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/06/24/presenting-at-the-united-states-social-forum/#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:02:11 +0000 The Good Doctor http://blacksmythe.com/blog/?p=965 And I’ve been here soaking it all in. Several thousand men, women, and children in downtown Detroit, and we can scarcely get a mention from the mainstream press, while the Tea Party continues to soak up bandwidth. I’d say “amazing” but of course it isn’t.

For those of you nearby I am presenting at a workshop on spatial inequality tomorrow (Friday) at 10am. The title of the workshop is “Borders, Buildings & Bounding: Cross Cutting Solutions to Displacement & Devaluation of Communities of Color.” I’ll be speaking about spatial inequality and its different forms, focusing on a dynamic called “municipal underbounding.”

In other news this week President Obama rolled out a new Fatherhood Initiative. I talked about it like a dog on NPR.

Well…not really like a dog. I’ve too much respect for dogs.

]]> http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/06/24/presenting-at-the-united-states-social-forum/feed/ 6 Talking Black Space/White Space with Marc Steiner http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/03/10/talking-black-spacewhite-space-with-marc-steiner/ http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/03/10/talking-black-spacewhite-space-with-marc-steiner/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:00:45 +0000 The Good Doctor http://blacksmythe.com/blog/?p=956 I wrote a piece entitled Black Space/White Space for the february issue of The Urbanite. All of the comments I’ve received, even the critical ones, have been thoughtful and respectful. I had a chance to talk about the piece in more depth on the Marc Steiner Show. Although I’ve been on the show several times now and always enjoy it, what I appreciated in this case was that we were able to spend an hour talking through this issue. It’s my hope we can do this on a regular basis.

]]> http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/03/10/talking-black-spacewhite-space-with-marc-steiner/feed/ 0 White Space/Black Space http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/02/03/white-spaceblack-space/ http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/02/03/white-spaceblack-space/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:00:22 +0000 The Good Doctor http://blacksmythe.com/blog/?p=945 This month The Urbanite is running an issue on “Race”. I was asked by the editor to write about the phenomenon of “self-segregation”. So rather than pen a piece about black kids deciding to sit all by themselves, I took another approach. I wrote a piece about the desirability of “black spaces”. Spaces black people can effectively “breathe” in. Of course it’s a bit more complicated than that. But I only had a couple of thousand words to work with. And on top of it I was able to take one of the worst days of 2008 (the first day of the Fall 2008 semester) and use it. Take a look and see what I mean.

]]> http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/02/03/white-spaceblack-space/feed/ 8 Why John Edwards should run again…and why looting isn’t the issue http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/01/22/why-john-edwards-should-run-again-and-why-looting-isnt-the-issue/ http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/01/22/why-john-edwards-should-run-again-and-why-looting-isnt-the-issue/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:54:19 +0000 The Good Doctor http://blacksmythe.com/blog/?p=925 John Edwards revealed that the affair with his campaign staffer Rielle Hunter produced a child, even as his wife was dying from cancer. Although a number of pundits and politicians are glad his political career is over, I’ve second thoughts.

The tragedy in Haiti has taken a devastating turn, and the media has followed turning towards looting and making it the central issue. We saw this narrative four plus years ago in Katrina.

I wrote a couple of pieces on these issues for NPR. My Edwards piece can be found here. My Haiti looting piece? Here.

]]> http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/01/22/why-john-edwards-should-run-again-and-why-looting-isnt-the-issue/feed/ 1 Bringing in the New Year on the Marc Steiner Show http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/01/04/bringing-in-the-new-year-on-the-marc-steiner-show/ http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/01/04/bringing-in-the-new-year-on-the-marc-steiner-show/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:48:50 +0000 The Good Doctor http://blacksmythe.com/blog/?p=918 I knew Baltimore was the right place for me when a month into my time here I found out they had an annual book festival. I really knew it was the right place when I first appeared on the Marc Steiner Show. Baltimore is blessed with a few top notch interviewers–people who have the right politics as well as good people skills. Today I was on the Marc Steiner Show talking 2009 politics at the local level. I talked a little bit about the Sheila Dixon case–an issue I don’t think I got around to blogging about here. I compared her and Kilpatrick in Detroit, and talked a little about what I think needs to happen in both cities as we enter the second decade of the 21st Century. Listen in here. Please chime in.

]]> http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/01/04/bringing-in-the-new-year-on-the-marc-steiner-show/feed/ 0 Top Politics Stories of the last decade http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/01/03/top-politics-stories-of-the-last-decade/ http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/01/03/top-politics-stories-of-the-last-decade/#comments Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:43:23 +0000 The Good Doctor http://blacksmythe.com/blog/?p=910 Tell Me More had me on last week to talk about the top political stories of the decade. It went…ok. I wished I could’ve gotten another crack at some of the questions. Michele asked us which loss hit us hardest. As I’m thinking about it now, I realize that I lost two very close friends I thought would be around for the long haul. The first friend I lost at the beginning of the decade, not a week after the 9/11 attacks. One of my oldest friends, he sold weed to make ends meet in the poor working class town we grew up in. He was murdered in his home while defending his family. More than any other individual put paid to the myth that 9/11 changed ALL of our lives irrevocably.

(9/11 happened back when the Afrofuturist list was still vibrant. After the attacks, one of the list members asked what she could do to feel safe. I responded slightly tongue in cheek “move to somewhere black people live.” A white science fiction author–I believe it was Bruce Sterling but don’t get me to lying–delurked. I didn’t even know he was there.  He went on this long spiel about how Al-Queda didn’t give a damn about black people and would kill black Americans as readily as white ones. I then asked him whether each discrete American building/city/space was equally in danger of being targeted by terrorists, and THEN whether the places that were more likely to be targeted were more likely to be populated largely by whites. I KNEW black people who barely escaped 9/11…but at the same time I knew that cities like East St. Louis, boroughs like the Bronx, weren’t in danger of terrorist attack. He never responded.)

The second friend I lost this past Labor Day weekend. A vice-president of a Detroit Benz dealership (the only one IN the city), he had a heart attack while at work. By the time his co-workers realized what happened it was already too late. His wife was a doctor, and while he was big, with a shot-putter’s build, he had a clean bill of health as far as I know. A member of Kappa Alpha Psi, so many of his fraternity brothers paid their respects they encircled the church three times. I still find it difficult to think too much about it without breaking down. He left behind his wife, and three children. He was two months away from 41.

I wish I had the presence of mind to mention them.

I also wish I had the presence of mind to be clearer about my critique of Bush. (As an aside THE most important political event of the last decade was Bush v. Gore. We’d be living in a VERY different place if Al Gore is President between 2001-2008. The economy would still have tanked, perhaps. But 9/11 wouldn’t have happened–recall that Rice ignored the Clinton administration’s warnings that terrorists planned to fly planes into American targets.) When asked what Americans could do in the post 9/11 moment, Bush said something to the effect of…”shop.”

The moment he missed there? I can’t think of a single statement that was more inappropriate given the moment. Because of our patriotic fervor–fervor that the Bush administration used to invade a country without cause, used to pass an act that gave US officials the right to spy on American citizens without cause–we would’ve supported almost anything at that moment. And what he suggested was that we…shop.

Right.

]]> http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2010/01/03/top-politics-stories-of-the-last-decade/feed/ 0 Spence on NPR’s Barbershop and The Colbert Show http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2009/07/30/spence-on-nprs-barbershop-and-the-colbert-show/ http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2009/07/30/spence-on-nprs-barbershop-and-the-colbert-show/#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:38:34 +0000 The Good Doctor http://blacksmythe.com/blog/?p=873 I was on Tell Me More last week talking Michael Vick and Cat Fancy, Obama’s Health Care plan, and of course the Gates stuff. Take a listen (and now read the transcript!) here. Some of the best stuff didn’t make it to the final cut–I think this is one of the few cases where Tell Me More should have an extended edition on their website.

I also made it to The Colbert Show. I did a bit on WJZ a couple of weeks ago about the Obama NAACP speech and then promptly forgot about it. But a few days later my folk on facebook are telling me they saw me. Now for a second I thought they were clowning me. Then I thought briefly about Shark–the television show with James Woods (they had a black left-leaning lawyer named “Lester Spence” that was probably named after me). Whatever the case I KNEW that while I was supposedly on Colbert, I was fast asleep.

But then I saw the clip which I unfortunately don’t know how to embed here.

 

 



]]> http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2009/07/30/spence-on-nprs-barbershop-and-the-colbert-show/feed/ 3 Black Greek Impropriety, an Apology for Slavery, plus the Iranian Election http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2009/06/25/black-greek-impropriety-an-apology-for-slavery-plus-the-iranian-election/ http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2009/06/25/black-greek-impropriety-an-apology-for-slavery-plus-the-iranian-election/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:22:33 +0000 The Good Doctor http://blacksmythe.com/blog/?p=845 I’ve been doing the media thing a bit while I get this book done. 

Yesterday I was on Midday with Dan Rodricks. Last week (while I was on the way to tape for NPR incidentally) Congress passed a resolution apologizing for slavery. We debated its merits on the show. You can listen in here. Dr. Carol Swain was Dan’s other guest. She’s pretty conservative, so I expected her to be against it…and I was right, but wrong. She was against it, but because she felt it was weak, and done under the wrong administration–she suggested Bush do it in 2004. 

What I tried to drive home was that while this was a failed apology in some aspects–because it was a voice vote we can’t really distinguish who supports it and who doesn’t, to the extent this is about truth and reconciliation there was little “truth” telling, and it wasn’t really “advertised” (how many of my readers even know this occurred?)–it represents a political opportunity. An opportunity to actually press the government to talk about what they are apologizing for, an opportunity to use this moment to begin not only a larger conversation, but to continue mobilizing for resources. Swain and most of the callers didn’t see it. But for me politics is about pushing forward and extending possibilities in the face of compromise. 

On Monday theGrio published a piece I wrote on black fraternity and sorority improprieties. When criticizing black fraternities and sororities we tend to focus on either perceived exclusionary practices–selecting folks based on loot, or on skin color–or on hazing. While I’ve never seen evidence of the first in my twenty years in, I do understand that the second is a problem. However a problem that we don’t spend much time dealing with, because of the secretive practices of the organizations themselves, is their anti-democratic business practices. A member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sued the International President and the International Board because the board awarded the president a stipend of $250,000 without either informing or vetting the decision with the body. Check that piece out here.

Finally I visited the Barbershop last week, to talk about Iran, about Kobe, about the GOP, and about Father’s Day. I’m pretty sure our discussion about Iran got cut short, but i really wish we could have extended it because the discussion we had in the studio was rich. And for what it’s worth though I watched less of this NBA championship than any NBA championship I can recall, I think that what Kobe accomplished puts him in a very very small group. The only other star player to get a ring without another Hall of Fame/Top Fifty type player is Hakeem Olajuwon. Not Isiah. Not Bird. Not Jordan. Not Shaq. 

Maybe Garnett as I think of it, depending on how we think of Ray Allen and Paul Pierce…..

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