Don't got to be grown

Jimmy sat down heavily on his bed taking off his shoes and socks. He lay down on his bed looking up at the ceiling. Today had been a rough day, Slim Jim called off work and he had to drive one of the cabs himself because they had gotten so backed up with calls. When Jimmy got back to the office there was a note on his desk saying that Detective Richardson had stopped by again and to call him as soon as he got back.

“Sissy!” Jimmy yelled as he flopped down in his chair behind the desk.

Sissy rushed into the room with a bottle of RC Cola in her right hand and a hotdog in the left. She took a big swig of the drink and a bite out of the hotdog and sat down in the chair in front of the desk, placing the bottle of pop on the desk and taking another bite of her hotdog.

“Man, it has been a hell of a day here without you! This is the first time I got a chance to eat my lunch, which is now dinner. This is the third time Slim Jim has called off in two months. You need to replace him boss man.”

“What time did that cop come by here?”

The 32nd Pan African Film & Arts Festival, America’s largest Black-themed filmfest, is taking place Feb. 7 – Feb. 19 in Los Angeles. During Black History Month PAFF annually screens movies ranging from Hollywood studio productions and Hallmark Channel TV-movies to indies, foreign films, documentaries, low budget productions, shorts, etc. Films span the spectrum from Oscar nominees to hard-to-find gems from Africa, the Caribbean, America and beyond that L.A. viewers are unlikely to be able to see at any other venue. Here are reviews of just a few of the films audiences have an opportunity to see.  

BECOMING BLACK: FROM BERLIN TO BENIN & TOGO, GROWING UP BLACK IN A “RED” COUNTRY

Reprinted with new introduction for the elementary literacy education of the Ohio  State Legislature, February 2024

As a historian of literacy, I published this critique of so-called “financial literacy” on January 23, 2022. There is no such subject or object as “financial literacy.” There is reading, writing, and arithmetic together brought together to understand economic matters within specific historical, social, political, and cultural contexts. “Financial literacy,” as I made clear below, is a false product sold by marketers and bought by state legislatures like Ohio’s.

It almost certainly does little good especially for high schools. It is divorced from the study and teaching of history, economics, politics, and arithmetic itself. It is orthodox right-wing ideology, not a “life style” or “preparation” for work. It is the sold and bought and product of fears of decline.