(Below took place in a 24 hr laundromat after midnight.)

Have you ever met anyone who spoke in streams
of hi-falutin phrases but failed to link them up in any
meaningful way? I have, for the first time last night. He wouldn't stop talking. I was in a good mood so I let him prattle while I simulated interest, throwing in a few phrases of my own every eight minutes. He was young and African American. He threw in Abe Lincoln, OJ, Michael, and Kobe. The sociology
of the talk was truly amazing. Abe is his hero (good choice!) and underneath all the apparent equivocation he hungers deeply for OJ, Michael, and Kobe* to be innocent. He was sweet and deeply troubled. We don't get it, still, how devastating it can be to be Black in America. (cf Black Rage written by two African American psychoanalysts decades ago.) 

*Two of the three were found not guilty, and the third is on trial still as of this date, 04/13/05. 

How, how, could Michael carve up his face like that and not have that fact openly commented on in the media for what it is, self-mutilation for not being White?  Instead there are insipid jokes half pretending that it's just makeup.

Barry