Bishop Talbert Swan

He darn sure wasn’t white

History has a way of repeating itself with America choosing white mediocrity over Black excellence. In 1969, the NBA adopted the now-iconic silhouette based on Jerry West. By then, Bill Russell had already won 11 NBA championships in 13 seasons, revolutionized the game, and had just led the Celtics past West’s Lakers once again in the NBA Finals. West, despite being one of basketball’s all-time greats, had not yet won an NBA championship. His lone title would come in 1972. Many have asked ever since: if the logo was going to represent basketball excellence, why wasn’t it Bill Russell, the most dominant winner the league had ever seen? Now fast forward more than five decades. The WNBA has one of the most accomplished players in basketball history in A’ja Wilson. She led the University of South Carolina to an NCAA championship, has won three WNBA championships, four league MVP awards, Olympic gold medals, Finals MVP honors, and has established herself as one of the greatest players the women’s game has ever seen. Yet much of the conversation about the “face of the league” has centered on Caitlin Clark, a young white player who is still at the beginning of her professional career and, with no championships at either the NCAA or WNBA levels, has come remotely close to matching Wilson’s résumé of championships and accolades. That raises an uncomfortable question: Why does American sports culture elevate white stars as the defining image of a league while Black athletes who have built dynasties and accumulated historic accomplishments are treated as secondary? Why does sustained Black excellence have to compete for the recognition that comes so naturally for white mediocrity? Bill Russell deserved to be recognized as the defining symbol of his era. A’ja Wilson deserves to be recognized as the defining player of hers. The conversation isn’t about who’s the most talented. That’s obvious. It’s about why America thinks only whiteness can represent greatness.

I wish I could tell you those words shocked me. They disturbed my spirit, but they did not surprise me. Why? Because I have spent much of my ministry confronting this very theology. More than twenty years ago, I wrote a book entitled No More Cursing: Destroying the Roots of Religious Racism, specifically to expose and dismantle the racist misuse of Scripture that has been employed for centuries to justify the enslavement, subjugation, exploitation, and dehumanization of Black people. I had hoped that by now this heresy would have been buried alongside the slave ships and the auction blocks that gave it life. Yet here we are in 2026, still hearing preachers stand behind sacred desks and recycle the same poisonous theology that was once used to bless chains, sanctify plantations, and comfort the consciences of enslavers. What makes this especially tragic is that these ideas are not isolated to one preacher or one church. They continue to circulate throughout segments of White evangelicalism, Christian nationalism, and Reformed circles that have never fully confronted the racial sins embedded within portions of their theological tradition. The language may be updated, but the message remains the same: that Black people somehow require White oversight, White leadership, White supervision, or White civilization in order to flourish. It is simply White supremacy wearing a clerical collar. The most disturbing part is that Pastor Dale Partridge is only forty years old. He was just seventeen when I wrote No More Cursing: Destroying the Roots of Religious Racism, yet more than twenty years later he is preaching the very same racist theology, proving that White supremacy is not merely remembered, it is intentionally passed from one generation to the next. Get the book: amazon.com/No-More-Cursin…

WAS NOLAN WELLS MURDERED? Three white boys, one the son of a judge, another the son of a lawyer, and another the son of a law enforcement officer, go to an island in Mississippi on July 4 with a Black teenager. They come back. He doesn’t. His cellphone does. Days later, Nolan Wells is found dead. Authorities are reviewing video reportedly showing an altercation before he allegedly disappeared. The explanation offered is that Nolan simply decided to stay alone on a remote island and somehow find another way home. Reports have also fueled questions about the deletion of social media accounts by those who were with him. Given America’s long history of unequal justice, it should surprise no one that many Black Americans view this case with deep skepticism. When influential families are connected to a case surrounded by unanswered questions, transparency isn’t optional, it’s essential. In my view, this sounds like murder, possibly a klan initiation, being covered up because the guilty parties have well connected parents. The official narrative doesn’t add up. Too many questions remain unanswered, and Nolan Wells’ family deserves a complete, independent, and transparent investigation. Until every fact is accounted for, I will continue to question whether the whole truth has been told.

Let’s stop pretending we don’t know how this would be playing out if the races were reversed. If an 18-year-old white football player went to a remote island with three Black teenagers, those three teenagers came back without him, returned with his cellphone but not him, investigators were reviewing video of an apparent argument before he disappeared, and their social media accounts suddenly vanished, America wouldn’t be telling everyone to “wait for all the facts.” They would already be branded as suspects in the court of public opinion. Their faces would dominate cable news. Their mugshots would be splashed across television screens. Reporters would be interviewing classmates, neighbors, teachers, and ex-girlfriends, digging for anything that could paint them as guilty before an autopsy was even completed. Nolan Wells deserves that same level of urgency. His family deserves that same level of scrutiny from investigators. And the public deserves the same insistence on transparency that routinely accompanies cases involving white victims. The fact that one of the young men with Nolan is the son of a Jackson County judge makes transparency even more important. When influential connections exist in a case already surrounded by unanswered questions, public confidence isn’t restored by asking people to stop asking questions, it is restored by conducting a thorough, independent investigation and following the evidence wherever it leads. Until every question has been answered, skepticism isn’t an attack on justice; it’s a demand that justice be done. #JusticeForNolanWells

Racism doesn’t survive because Black people TALK about it, but because white people, practice, protect, excuse, and benefit from it. This is why white Americans are just as racist in 2026 as their predecessors were in 1960.

Racism doesn’t survive because Black people TALK about it, but because white people, practice, protect, excuse, and benefit from it. This is why white people are just as racist in 2026 as their predecessors were in 1960.

174 years ago, in 1852, Frederick Douglass asked the question, “What to the slave is the Fourth of July.” Here was the answer they gave four years later in Yazoo City, Mississippi, where my grandmother was born in 1902.

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On July 4, 1776, while white America celebrated its declaration of independence, approximately 500,000 enslaved Africans and their descendants remained in chains in the thirteen colonies. They made up roughly 20% of the colonial population of 2.5 million people, human beings denied the very liberty proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence. 📹Press play and let the song speak truth. For my ancestors, there was no freedom to celebrate. There was no liberty. There was no justice. There was no equality. They were bought, sold, raped, whipped, branded, exploited, and treated as property while a nation declared that “all men are created equal.” Today, there is a determined effort to sanitize that history, to pretend slavery was merely an unfortunate chapter, that enslavers were simply “men of their time,” and that the brutality of chattel slavery should be viewed through a softer lens. No. There is nothing ordinary about owning another human being. There is nothing admirable about building wealth and a nation on stolen labor, stolen lives, and stolen futures. We do not celebrate July 4 because we were not free. Independence Day was not independence for Black people. Our ancestors remained enslaved for nearly another century. Then came Black Codes, Jim Crow, racial terror lynchings, legalized segregation, disenfranchisement, redlining, mass incarceration, and the ongoing struggle to be recognized as fully human. Our fight for freedom did not end in 1776, or even in 1865. In many ways, it continues today. That is why Frederick Douglass asked, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” His question still confronts America’s conscience. So today I ask another question: What to Black people today is the Fourth of July? Until liberty, justice, and equality are more than promises on paper, it remains a day that reminds us not only of America’s stated founding ideals, but of America’s unfinished work to actualize them 250 years later. #IndependenceDay #4thOfJuly #America250

Ted Nugent tells his followers, “Never hate to tell the truth,” then shares Tyrus’ claim that Black people are the most racist group in America. Martin Luther King Jr., who actually confronted America’s racial reality with courage, said the vast majority of White Americans were racist, consciously or unconsciously. One man spent his life challenging the system that enforced segregation, lynching, voter suppression, and discrimination. The other amplifies rhetoric that blames the victims of that history. History will always force a choice: Who has earned the credibility to speak on America’s racial condition—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., or Tyrus? I’ll take the judgment of the man who confronted racism with truth, sacrifice, and his life over a television personality whose commentary flatters the prejudices of those who never wanted to hear King’s message in the first place.

Read my latest ‘Selling Out the Struggle’ Link (@TalbertSwan/selling-out-the-struggle-410bf7c0e02a" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">medium.com/@TalbertSwan/s…) There is an old saying that every person has a price. History has repeatedly shown that, for some, all it takes is the right check. The latest reports that 50 Cent is set to perform at Donald Trump Jr.’s exclusive Executive Branch club, following appearances by Busta Rhymes, Ja Rule, and Timbaland, are not just entertainment news. They are another reminder that too many Black celebrities are willing to monetize their influence while their own people are under attack. Predictably, the excuses have already started. “It’s just business.” “They’re entertainers.” “They’re getting paid.” “Mind your business.” No. This is our business. When a government and a political movement are dismantling civil rights protections, attacking diversity initiatives, erasing Black history, weakening voting rights, targeting affirmative action, and advancing policies that disproportionately harm Black communities, the question is no longer whether an entertainer has the right to cash a check. The question is what price they are willing to put on their conscience.

Let’s talk about contact to the neck. A hard basketball play involving Alyssa Thomas and Caitlin Clark has been turned into proof, amongst maga’s kaitlyn klark klan, that Black women are “targeting” a white player. Never mind that basketball is a physical game, the league reviewed the play, and imposed its discipline. Here’s the hypocrisy. The same people screaming about a foul on Caitlin Clark had no such moral outrage when Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes until he killed him. They defended the officer. They questioned the victim. They justified the violence. Apparently, a split-second basketball collision is an unforgivable assault, but a man dying under the knee of a police officer was somehow acceptable. That contradiction tells us everything. If your compassion only appears when the person on the receiving end is white, while your empathy disappears when the victim is Black, your outrage isn’t about justice. It’s about whose humanity you choose to recognize. Basketball is physical. Racism is deadly. Know the difference.

MAGA has once again found a way to turn basketball into racial grievance. Black women are not “targeting” Caitlin Clark. They’re competing. The WNBA has always been a physical league. Hard fouls, tough defense, and intense rivalries aren’t evidence of targeting based on race, they’re evidence of elite competition. And let’s stop pretending Caitlin Clark is somehow unquestionably the best player in the league. She’s an exceptional talent with a bright future, but the WNBA didn’t begin when she arrived. A’ja Wilson is hands down the best and most dominant player in the game today. And there are other Black players whose resumes, accomplishments, and overall impact surpass Clark’s. What we’re witnessing isn’t an honest discussion about basketball. It’s the same old “Great White Hope” narrative that has been recycled for generations, elevating a white athlete by portraying Black excellence as jealousy, hostility, or resentment. Celebrate Caitlin Clark’s talent, but don’t manufacture a racist narrative that demonizes Black women simply because they refuse to treat her differently than every other player on the court. It’s basketball, not a MAGA culture war.

Everybody with a phone and a social media account thinks they’re an activist today! x.com/i/spaces/1pKdR…

Make it make sense

MAGA seeing no problem with dehumanizing a brilliant, accomplished Black woman affirms the mephistophelian nature of the ungodly, immoral fiends that are part of it and the vile demagogue that leads it.

Trump’s obsession with the Obamas has never been political. It has always been personal, racial, and ugly. First, he spent years pushing the racist birther conspiracy against President Obama. Then he shared content depicting the Obamas as apes. Recently, a fighter stood in the White House and referred to Michelle Obama as a man, and the White House said nothing. Now Trump is publicly referring to Barack Obama as a “stupid son of a bitch.” The pattern is impossible to ignore. MAGA’s problem has never been that Barack and Michelle Obama failed. Their problem is that the Obamas succeeded. They cannot stand the fact that a brilliant Black man became President of the United States and that a brilliant, accomplished Black woman became one of the most admired First Ladies in American history. So they resort to what racists have always resorted to: dehumanization. They question Barack Obama’s legitimacy. They question Michelle Obama’s womanhood. They compare them to animals. They mock them. They insult them. They attempt to strip them of the dignity routinely afforded to white public figures. And then they wonder why people call them racist. No, this is not about policy disagreements. People disagree about politics every day. This is about a movement that repeatedly reaches for racist tropes whenever the Obamas are involved. Barack and Michelle Obama will be remembered as historic figures who served this nation with intelligence, grace, and dignity. The people obsessed with demeaning them are simply revealing themselves as vile, denonic, racist, human refuse.

America keeps telling Black people to trust the system, respect the verdicts, and accept whatever the courts decide. The problem is we’ve been watching who gets the benefit of the doubt. Kyle Rittenhouse crossed state lines with an AR-15, inserted himself into a volatile situation, killed two people, and was acquitted. Donald Trump later welcomed him to Mar-a-Lago for photo ops and praise. Daniel Penny placed Jordan Neely in a chokehold until he died. Jordan Neely never touched Penny. Penny was acquitted and later celebrated by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance as a hero. Meanwhile, Karmelo Anthony, a Black teenager involved in a confrontation with a larger white student who initiated the physical encounter, claimed self-defense and was sentenced to 35 years in prison, more time than former white police officers Derek Chauvin and Amber Guyger got for the murders of George Floyd and Botham Jean combined. That’s why many Black Americans are not interested in lectures about “self-defense,” “respecting the verdict,” or “trusting the law” from people who applauded Rittenhouse, celebrated Penny, defended George Zimmerman, raised money for Derek Chauvin, and still make excuses for Amber Guyger. The pattern is impossible to ignore. When a white person kills a Black person, we’re told to understand the fear, consider the circumstances, extend grace, and give the benefit of the doubt. When a Black person kills a white person, suddenly there is no grace, no nuance, no context, and no benefit of the doubt. Don’t tell us the system is colorblind when we’ve watched the same people cheer one verdict and rage against another based almost entirely on who was holding the weapon and who ended up dead. The issue isn’t whether America believes in self-defense. The issue is whose self-defense America is willing to believe.

Ben Swan was a veteran, civil rights leader, legislator and proud champion for Springfield. He spent a lifetime making Massachusetts fairer, stronger and better for the next generation. A huge loss for Springfield and our state. Keeping his family, friends and all who knew and loved him in my heart. masslive.com/westernmass/20…