The Devil & Dave Chappelle and Other Essays »

William Jelani Cobb, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of History at Spelman College, as well as a critic, essayist and fiction writer whose writings on politics, the African Diaspora and contemporary African American culture have appeared in a number of national outlets. His column “Past Imperfect” appears regularly on AOL BlackVoices. He is editor of The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader, which was a Notable Book of the Year by Black Issues Book Review. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Essence, Emerge, The Progressive, The Washington City Paper, One Magazine and Alternet.org.

An unflinching collection of essays that takes on the subjects of Biggie Smalls, Three 6 Mafia, The King Family, and what it takes to be black at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Introduction     ix
Troubling Waters
Nation-Time: Cotton Comes to Washington     3
41 Shots     19
White Negro Please: Eminem's Race Blues     23
The World Is Yours     29
The Hoodrat Theory     39
The Quagmire Blues     43
The Cosby Show     49
Fear Factor     55
Terror in Black and White     59
Six in One Hand     63
On the Stroll: Pimping Three 6 Mafia     67
Out of Time (Brian Barber's Idlewild)     73
The Trouble with Harry     79
Pimp-Slapping Oprah (Or We Still Wear the Mask)     85
The Hater's Ball     91
What Happens in Rio     97
First Person
My Daughter, Once Removed     111
Seeing Double     117
Two-fifth & Hollis     121
The More Things Change     127
Black-Owned
Kindred's Soul: Words with Octavia Butler     135
Lifecycle of a Butterfly     147
The Killing Fields: Notorious B.I.G.     155
Ore: Requiem for a Neighborhood Badass     161
The Last Race Man     169
Blood at the Root     175
Rev. Al's Big Score     179
King, for a Day     183
Beautiful Struggle: An Interview with Talib Kweli     187
The Stamp of Disapproval     193
What Black People Should Know By Now     199
The Road Ahead of Barack Obama     203
The Tragedy of Colin Powell     209
Malcolm: The Unknown     215
The Genius of Harold Cruse, 1916-2005     219
The Truth about Rosa Parks     223
Seeing Coretta     227
Auburn Avenue Blues     231
Hanging Curve: Barry Bonds as Tragic Hero     235
The Good Example     241
The Devil and Dave Chappelle     247
Past Imperfect
The Millionth March     257
Willie Lynch Is Dead (1712?-2003)     261
The Case of the Disappearing Negro     267
The House Negro Blues     273
Ghosts of Tuskegee     279
OutKasts and Indians     285
Brown v. Blacks     291
The Other L-Word     297
The 41st Acre     303
The Good Ol' Days of Slavery     307
Slavery.edu     311
Forgetting Where We Came From     315