Dr. Lester K. Spence

Hey. Did the thing on NPR yesterday with my man Jimi and his crew. I’ve done three of these barbershop joints so far and they get better every time. And hell on top of everything I didn’t even have to leave my office! Anyway on this segment we talked about a brother who shot himself to dodge the war, as well as a few other subjects that may catch your interest. Whatever the case I think this particular bit is unique in radio and talk. Check it out here if you get the chance and let me know what you think!

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Thanks to my man Jimi, I got put down with Michele Martin’s new show. I’ve done the political roundtable thing before, to what I thought were horrible results. I can play the political analyst, but what I really do when I’m on the mic…is talk sh*t.

So what Jimi and Michele did was put on a bit where that’s basically all we do. The result is controlled chaos.

Check it out here.  Let me know what you think!!

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Michele Martin has been working on a new NPR show and has been demoing parts of it on her blog.  My man Jimi came up with a brilliant idea.  Instead of having a roundtable discussion of experts as experts about the days events, why not have a roundtable discussion of black men (not necessarily “regular” black men) just shooting the sh*t basically.  So he puts me, Gary Dauphin, Eugene Robinson, and Alvin Patrick of ESPN’s Cold Pizza fame, on the mic.  The results?

There were two takes–one with Jimi at the head, one with Michel Martin.  Check out Ms. Martin’s ideas on the piece, and judge for yourself.

Me?  I haven’t listened to both takes, but I talked to Michele briefly afterwards.  The first one with Jimi was cool because it was almost like the microphone wasn’t there.  The second one with Michele was cool becasue Michel has a very beautiful voice, and a stronger radio presence.  But in her case I definitely knew that the mic was there.  I’d be interested i your opinions.

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I coined the phrase precarious* to reflect contemporary middle class life. Listen to my most recent NPR commentary to hear me talk about it.

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In the wake of Cosby-like arguments damning black people for their condition, I thought it would be helpful to actually talk about the case of a single person who’d done all the right things, but still couldn’t get ahead. Listen to her story here.

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My most recent commentary on NPR deals with the fallout from the defeat of Proposal 2 in Michigan, which would ban most forms of Affirmative Action in college admissions, hiring, and in awarding contracts.  I think the effect on black enrollment at Michigan will be pretty traumatic, while the long term effect on white male enrollment will probably be pretty bad as well.

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While waiting two hours in a Lake County Ill hospital complaining of severe pain, Beatrice (ed.–previously i wrote “beverly”) Vance died of a heart attack. This after she clearly reported symptoms that indicated that a heart attack was imminent (ed. — previously “eminent” doh!). Officials charged the hospital staff with murder, and in an interview with NPR’s Farai Chideya one of them noted that Vance’s race likely played a role. Farai talked to me about it afterwards. One of the things I’ve been reiterating to my black politics class is that care is a political resource. As it is finite, people make decisions–who gets it? who doesn’t? When we’re talking about something like a hospital, the allocation of care becomes political, racial, and in this case, deadly.

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My most recent commentary just came out today. I remember welfare repeal like it was yesterday. Probably the two things I most remember are Clinton’s use of black single mothers to sell the program, and the fact that Maxine Waters didn’t even fight the bill. Bad news. And even though the bill hasn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, it’s still bad policy.

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Just what we need. Bob Johnson wants to create a production house specializing in black family comedies. I can just imagine what the movies will look like. Check out my NPR commentary.

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Oliver Stone’s recent movie on the World Trade Center has come under criticism because of casting issues. You can hear my spin on it. A number of us have fallen victim to the fakelore of white supremacy. This is one case where it is pretty clear to me that black people aren’t the ones with self-esteem problems. My man T3 is on the same page as I am. Take a listen, let me know what you think.

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