Socrates: What’s up y’all?

We can divide history into decisive events and defining moments.

Near the end of Black History Month, I watched a Netflix documentary on Bill Russell, “Bill Russell Legend.” I’m lifelong fan of the game and the NBA, and I saw and remember everything in the documentary from the early 1960s on - I mean everything.

A fork in the road is a metaphor for a deciding moment in life or history, when a choice between presented options is required, and once made, the choice cannot be reversed. The chaotic nature of America in this moment is present because America is at that metaphorical fork in the road and t…

After constant pressure from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other right-wing conservatives, the College Board kicked off Black History Month by stripping down its African American Studies Advanced Placement course. 

I normally think of my columns as independent of one another, but occasionally I realize I’ve written a series of columns that individually stand alone but could also be considered variations on the same theme. I’d like to extend the themes of a couple of recent columns to really emphasize h…

I’m always amazed this time of year, MLK Birthday celebrations, that a man as articulate as Dr. King, who spoke so eloquently on his own behalf, and with voluminous documentation of what he thought, we-Black Americans when we pause to honor his life and work, reference so little of it. A Bla…

You may be familiar with the Winston Churchill quote about democracy being the worst form of government except for all the others. But there’s another, often-overlooked, quote by Churchill about democracy, “The best argument against Democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”

There is an early scene in the 1987 movie, “The Untouchables” when a tough street-tested Chicago cop, Jim Malone (Sean Connery) is explaining in church to FBI agent Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) about how to take down Al Capone. The existential question that Malone puts to Ness about Capone is…

I wrote my first opinion column for the St. Louis American in August of 2014, when then managing editor Chris King, asked me to write a reaction piece to the killing of Michael Brown by former Ferguson police officer Darren Walker. After my retirement from St. Louis County government in Janu…

There are 221 House Democrats, including the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. There are 50 Senators in the Democratic Caucus, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Vice President Kamala Harris. She is positioned to cast a 51st vote to break any 50/50 Democratic-Republican vote.

It’s a moral imperative that all Black children learn to read, not just be functionally literate, but learn to become active, critical readers capable of comprehension of how new ideas and facts change your understanding of what you know or what you thought you knew.

How should one comprehend what’s happening today in American politics, and the arch of American history that brought us to this moment?

We’re familiar with the metaphor “thinking outside the box.” which means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. But the metaphor presumes the box is serviceable.

Last month, Congress adjourned for its August recess, specifically the U.S. House of Representatives. They left town without extending, or even speaking to, the federal eviction moratorium. On the other end of Pennsylvania Ave., the White House was equally silent. This moratorium affected se…

When I write a column, I try to focus on an idea or event that is relevant to Black America.

There was a time last year that I believed it was possible that America was on the cusp of positive change, even during a surging pandemic and while Donald Trump was still President of the United States.

The Barbershop: Socrates, you’ve helped us understand something. White folks are always talking about American Exceptionalism and how American democracy is the standard that the world should aspire too. So why when their democracy is attacked like on January 6, or Republican legislatures sup…

St. Louis American columnist Mike Jones describes former St. Louis Councilwoman Hazel Erby, recently deceased, as a "ferocious champion" of the needs of the African-American community in this article, originally published on April 14, 2019.In the sixth chapter of Isaiah, God asks a profound …

The Barbershop: So, we’re gonna get into the why of voter suppression in 2021.

The Barbershop: Hey, Soc. Since you’re here, we wanna run something else by you before you get up.

The Barbershop: What’s up Socrates, how you doing? I knew you were due for a cut and was hoping you’d come through today ‘cause we been talking about some things all day and some of these Brothas asked, “When is Socrates coming thru,?” ‘cause they wanted to hear from you on a couple of things.

I want to extend on my “Is a next Civil War in our future” column published May 20.

After January 6th it would not be hyperbolic to say the United States is facing a political crisis of potentially epic proportions.

White America's Zombie past that refuses to die

I recently watched “Amend: The Fight for America,” a Netflix documentary that I highly recommend, and once again came to the conclusion that America has a race problem. Captain Obvious would say America has always had a race problem, though we’ve never really talked about it because we have …

This is arguably the most problematic, violable and dangerous time in the country’s history

America has only made one unique cultural contribution to the world, that’s jazz. Jazz is to America what democracy is to Greece. 

There’s a large bureaucracy that actually runs the city of St. Louis, the real job of the mayor is to decide where the city needs to go and determine the best way to get there, adjusting the course as required by circumstances.

As I watched the machinations of Donald Trump after losing, I thought about doing a column considering whether there are any limits of white privilege?

As we approach the eve of the MLK Birthday holiday these words from “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens’ epic novel about the French Revolution came to mind: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … it was a season of light, it was a season of darkness.”

One of the things that happens when you write an opinion column is when you get to the end of the year you write something about what were the most important  events of that year, muse about what they meant and what they may mean for the new year. But I believe also when you’re writing in th…

You never get the right answers when you ask the wrong questions, and you always ask the wrong questions when you don’t understand the problem.

The title of former President Barack Obama’s memoir is “Promised Land,” and in a recent Atlantic Magazine he explained his reason for the title was he was not willing to give up on the American project. Despite his brilliance, his choice of the title and the Atlantic quote represents an exam…

Art philosopher Arthur Danto observed, “We erect monuments so that we shall always remember, and build memorials so that we shall never forget.” Art serves many purposes, but perhaps its most important is the memorializing that which must always be remembered.

White America, history has its eyes on you

On the last night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Billy Porter reprised a song from the 1960s, “For What It’s Worth.” The song is better known by its iconic lyric, which seems to be as relevant at this moment as it was for the moment when it was recorded by Buffalo Springfield in…

I want to commend former state representative Joshua Peters for his commentary “Black politics in a time of revolution” in The St Louis American. Peters’ cogent insight into the emergence of new Black political leadership that will change the character of Black politics as an effect of the B…

Max Ehrmann reminds us in “Desiderata” (1927) that, whether or not it is clear to us, the universe is unfolding as it should. That thought came to mind when I saw that Joe Biden had selected U.S. Senator Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee for vice president of the United States. I di…

“This time feels different” might be the most repeated phase in America at this moment, and that’s because it’s true. This time does feel different.

America is obviously having a Man in the Mirror moment on the issue of race as the result of the police murder of George Floyd. In the ensuing three weeks we have seen multiethnic, multiracial mass protests against the system of American policing. These protests have not only touched every c…

When dealing with the political establishment, always remember that whatever they say it is, it ain’t that. This has never been truer than when discussing policing in America.

Now that Joe Biden is the official unofficial Democratic nominee, all the other candidates have dropped out and endorsed him, and former President Barack Obama’s endorsement is seen as his official unofficial coronation, the question is: now what? 

In the iconic movie Casablanca, Captain Renault (Claude Raines) is forced by the Nazis to close down Rick’s Café (really a casino, where he’s been gambling). Rick (Humphrey Bogart) asks why he’s being shut down. Renault’s ironic response, as the dealer hands him his winnings, is now a classi…

How did this happen? How did we come to be in this place? Why are we so unprepared to deal with this?

I want to you to ask yourself a question. Take your favorite African-American pundits on your preferred cable news outlet and ask yourself when you’ve ever heard them discuss or analyze how any policy proposals by a Democratic candidate for president specifically relate to the condition of t…

I cast my first presidential vote in 1972, and I’ve never not voted. I’ve never consider voting for a Republican as a matter of principle: we believe completely different things about the role and purpose of government in civil society. It doesn’t mean we can’t coexist, as long as I have eno…

I began my governmental career in March 1977 when then St. Louis Mayor John Poelker appointed me to the Community Development Agency Commission. I was 28 years old. My governmental service officially ended January 27, 2020 when Missouri Governor Mike Parson appointed Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge …