Sons want to become like their fathers. Fathers desire their sons to be an extension of themselves and reflect their values, character, and accomplishments. Fathers and sons have mutual expectations, a healthy co-dependency whereby father and son depend on each other to fulfill their roles. I never wanted a Ron Alexander Jr, any kid that would look, talk, act, or think like me. Where did my apathy come from? Or was it apathy? Liz was a one-night stand with whom I never intend

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1979 when I was twenty-nine. My bipolar diagnosis predated my drug addiction by six years when in 1985—at thirty-five years old--my lust and obsession with cocaine began. That is when my bipolar disorder entwined itself with drug addiction, making me dual-diagnosed in clinical terms, leading to a total mental dysfunction that lasted for over twenty years. I rejected the bipolar diagnosis and the prescribed medications: I stayed in deni

The drama of armed patrols of Black Panthers confronting the police in Oakland, California, made national headlines in 1966 when I was sixteen. Against a smoldering landscape of police brutality in Oakland, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense took a solemn oath to protect black communities from police violence. Founders Huey P Newton and Bobby Seale, who first met at Merritt College in Oakland, risked their lives to uphold the oath. Their display of courage and their fie

I once believed that living as a Black man in the United States was my worst nightmare, given my encounters with racism and discrimination.

I was a forty-year-old, ambitious black professional when I moved from Philadelphia to Chicago in 1981 to work for Burrell Advertising. Chicago sits on Lake Michigan. As the plane pulled in for a landing, I discovered a wondrous city of bold architecture. The view from the plane hoovering over the city was breath taking. I saw apartment buildings taller than any building in Philly. The iconic John Hancock building, which, at the time was the tallest building in the world, pun

I remember watching for the first time Alice Walker's film adaption from her book, The Color Purple. I was stunned by the audacious portrayal of incest and pedophilia on the big screen, as was the NAACP and other prominent civil rights organizations who bitterly criticized Walker's book for openly breaching the taboo of airing black folk's laundry in public. There were loud calls to boycott the Color Purple, even though incest and pedophilia were common on plantations, as por

I was first diagnosis with having a bi-polar disorder in 1999 when I was twenty-one years old.