Morphological Confetti

Photo Source: Showtime The late great Chicago soul singer, Sam Cooke sang and announced that "A Change is Gonna Come." On season five of Showtime's, "The Chi," the award-winning writer, creator, producer, actor, and CEO Lena Waithe is helping to change the way everyone views Black men in life space. The  APA Dictionary of Psychology defines  Life space as  a representation of the environmental, biological, social, and psychological influences that define one person’s unique reality at a given moment in time. The physical and psychological environment of Black men in life and in film has been in jeopardy for decades but Waithe is helping to change that perception while maintaining characters who are flawed but redeemable. On the eighth episode of The Chi, Season 5 “Sweet Thing” (S5E8) the overriding theme is all about change. For some, change can be painful. Change means that things will not remain as they were; in fact, change can mean a shift that is sometimes...

In education, the United States ranks 17th out of 50 countries. That is a sad number for a country that claims leadership in so many other areas. It seems that education is not the top priority. It is proof that many are not concerned with problems that do not affect the majority. For instance, it is mostly inner-city neighborhoods in various urban centers across the United States that are being affected by the growing number of school closings. The parents and leaders of those communities are concerned because it will not only cause inconvenience for a disproportionate number of African American parents, but it will also be dangerous for the children who will have to attend other schools in other neighborhoods. Why is this such a bad thing? Well, there are rival crews and gangs in those other neighborhoods. This may sound silly but it is the sad reality. What are the choices for African American students growing up in this type of environment? Well, many of them will be b...

She was grandma's older sister. I called her Amanita. She was born and raised in Washington, D.C. Grandma once described her as the "party" sister or at least the more adventurous one. She hit all of the hot spots as a young woman in DC during the 1940’s. Her favorite hang out spots were places like, The Howard Theater and bars like The Casbah on U Street. She would outgrow the DC scene and move to Chicago sometime in the 1950’s. She lived on the South Side of Chicago for almost 20 years before moving back to DC in the late 60’s. By the time I came along, Amanita had lived most of her life. She settled down into an apartment on E street in Northeast DC. In fact, her apartment was right across the hall from my grandmother’s place. Amanita would get me dressed every morning for school when I began kindergarten at Gibbs Elementary in 1972. She would fuss and tug as she tried to get me ready for school in the morning. I would always asked her for some pickles because I cou...