“Black Fatigue”

‘I think I’ve had at least seven books that have been banned in the United States,” says Ibram X Kendi, in a tone that carries no bitterness but stops just short of pride. It’s proof, he says, that his works on racism, which extend from deep, scholarly histories to a biography of Malcolm X for children, are getting through to the right people – and annoying the right people. According to the writers’ advocacy group PEN America, his books have been banned at least 50 times by multiple US school districts during the tumultuous “anti-woke” backlash of the past five years. He’s not happy about that, but nor was he discouraged. “I understood that the major reason why people were singling me out and demonising me was because they did not want people reading my books,” he says. “And when the character assassinations did not work to the scale that they wanted them to, then they started banning my books, and the books of many others.”

Last week I embedded Part One of conservative talk show host Steven Crowder’s visit to a black barbershop to talk to the guys there about “black fatigue”. It was harsh but important. But it was important, as a sign of how difficult it is to have these conversations in polarized America. It revealed an epistemological chasm.

Well, here is Part Two, and it makes Part One seem like a tea party. This is very difficult to watch, but you need to see it, because it offers quite a dire picture of life in America today. This is what you get when you have an honest cross-racial conversation, as opposed to the performative kind in which black people complain, and white liberals politely sit there and nod along guiltily and affirmatively …

This is part 1 of the video

Skyrocketing housing and grocery prices are disproportionately hitting Black families the hardest. Here’s what is needed to fix it

Canada is in the throes of a cost-of-living crisis, and Black communities are being hit the hardest. As rents skyrocket and grocery prices soar to alarming heights, Black families are disproportionately pushed to the brink and trapped in a relentless cycle of economic exclusion. While policymakers mull over solutions, Black Canadians continue to live the brutal reality of making impossible choices between shelter and sustenance.

I doubt they are privately funded but no annual reports are available.

Canadian Black Policy Network (CBPN), a nonprofit advancing racial equity through data-driven research, community collaboration, and strategic policy advocacy to improve outcomes for Black communities across Canada.

White people are to blame of course.

Recently, a large group of black youths began pummeling several white adults in downtown Cincinnati.

The original altercation apparently broke out between a black and white male in he-said/he-said fashion. But that dispute soon turned into a virtual free-for-all.

Numerous male and female black youths sucker-punched a middle-aged woman and a man. Others continued to kick or body slam the victims, who were sprawled on their backs and seemingly unconscious.

Hooky and right hooks.

Several brawls broke out during a high school senior skip day party at Jones Beach State Park on Thursday, forcing local police to disperse the group with a helicopter and shutting down the beach as tempers flared along with the temperature.

Jones Beach had to be cleared today using a police helicopter. Multiple complaints of cultural enrichment had been called in by concerned citizens. pic.twitter.com/2tHv9suLfK

— Jere_Memez (@Jere_Memez) June 6, 2025

Piers Morgan, in a February podcast, accused his guest, “trans activist” Blossom Brown, of “race-baiting.” Brown replied, “Black women cannot be racist to white women.” Brown then added this inability to be racist to white women extended to Morgan: “How am I racist to you? I’m Black. I can’t be racist to you.” Brown also accused Morgan of lacking “the intellectual capacity to understand” this position.

Ryan Clark is a black ESPN host. After Donald Trump won reelection, he posted a video in which he said he voted for Kamala Harris, that former President Barack Obama’s administration was “scandal free” and that Obama conducted his presidency with “grace and with elegance and with decency.” As for Trump, Clark said: “The difficult part is I do understand that not everyone that supports him believes in his rhetoric. Not everyone that supports him thinks bigotry is OK …”

Black fatigue is not exclusive to White people.