The poster for Diary of a Tired Black man. An African glares at an African man who is looking into the distance

The Absurdity of “Diary of a Tired Black Man”

There is an amazingly sad example of a program aired on the IMDB network called “Diary of a Tired Black Man.”  Part fiction, part documentary (street interviews with people), full insanity, this effort illustrated in clear terms Kwame Ture’s statement that any analysis that doesn’t include our enemies is a worthless analysis.  What he meant by that is any oppressed people who attempt to explain the conditions of their people who leave out the system causing their oppression will always come up with a confused conclusion. We wish to add our own attempt at a logical statement to Kwame’s spot . . .

A shadow puppet scene depicting police terrorism from the movie Candyman

“Candyman” and the Impact of White Supremacy

That long history of racist violence against Black men is told in cleverly laid-out shadow puppetry, which simultaneously removes the physical gruesomeness of the acts portrayed while delivering their inhumane brutality. Each shadow-puppet story relates to a different iteration of Candyman, and the collective trauma of centuries of violent racist brutality against Black men turns the Candyman figure into something other than a villain. Terrifying in his visage and actions, certainly, but the question emerges as the connections are made between this history and the urban legend come to life: Is Candyman the monster, or is the monster what created Candyman? . . .