I’m not doing the students good if they’ve seen a film 10 million times already. I’m trying to introduce them to things. I’ll say, “You know there was some good s— made before you wer...
White Collar Crime prosecutions at all time low. It seems to me that there is a massive decline today in compassion and in moral courage. And I think that, in some ways, both are connected. On so...
I’ve been following the Detroit Lions almost all of my life–I write “almost” because I don’t have memories of any games before 1979 or so. I’ve lived in two cities with better teams�...
https://www.lesterspence.com/on-the-lions-and-charismatic-leadership/
This week a number of journalists have written on the fiscal challenges of the BU Antiracist Center. After having received millions of dollars in support the center has laid off a number of its s...
https://www.lesterspence.com/on-the-bu-antiracist-center-and-kendi/
Been thinking about coming back to writing on the internets. Long story short I wrote one of the first if not the first social science blogs for a while, then transitioned to public writing throu...
On September 11, 2001 I was a 32 year old professor at Washington University in Saint Louis, making a left turn onto Forest Park on the way to work. As I listened to The Tom Joyner morning show...
A few years ago I mashed up Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July Speech as performed by James Earl Jones with Marvin Gaye’s soul-searing performance of The Star Spangled Banner. Mixcloud delet...
https://www.lesterspence.com/the-frederick-douglass-marvin-gaye-remix/
A few weeks ago I listened to a WDET interview with Errol Henderson on the 45th anniversary of the development of black studies. Check it out. In the wake of the rise of black student protests o...
“Art among us blacks has always been a statement about our condition, and therefore it has always been political.” —Ossie Davis Richard Iton’s In Search of the Black Fantastic is one of t...
Battling Respectability Politics Since 1969
https://www.lesterspence.com/michael-dawson-and-lester-spence-on-neoliberalism/