HARD CRACKERS

On a job in an upscale Baltimore assisted-living facility that I worked at for far too long, going to work meant dealing with a running quasi-racial tension where lines were sharply drawn and people adhered to either one side or the other with little middle ground. Only lines weren’t drawn between Black and white, but […]

My preparation began before even landing in Accra it would seem. It was interesting as I went via Namibia Air and stopped in Windhoek and Lagos before reaching my destination. In Johannesburg the Ghanaians on the flight were, as most black people in South Africa are, very respectful and almost unassuming, especially those designated as […]

Thanks for sending me the latest issue of “Hard Crackers.” It is an excellent issue. It has confirmed my view that we need a similar publication in Southern Europe and particularly in this country. TV news and newspapers here are unable to take the day-to-day discourse seriously, and to convey it to any public. Here […]

When I lived in Baltimore and went to events sponsored by the anarchist bookstore, often I’d notice the presence of one or two ex-Panthers, stray corks bobbing in an ocean of youthful whiteness. They stayed to themselves, never spoke or asked questions and usually would leave quickly afterward. These men would always show up at […]

On this date, 155 years ago (August 6, 1863): “In the midst of your titanic struggle, permit me, as another among the free children of Columbus, to send you a word of greeting and admiration for the great work you have begun. Posterity will call you the great emancipator, a more enviable title than any […]

Driving from Huntsville to southern Tennessee, the Huntsville exurbs soon dissolve into rolling corn fields alternated with soybean patches and then the lanes shrink into just two. This stretch of north Alabama and south Tennessee is speckled with small towns that blend into one another, each announcing “historical districts”; their only real claim to fame […]