A columnist’s job is “to explain things,” the late, great Tribune columnist Mike Royko memorably declared. The past three decades — from the rise of AIDS, crack cocaine, Ronald Reagan and Madonna to the era of Ebola, medical marijuana, Barack Obama and Lady Gaga — have offered me a heap of explaining to do.
As my approaching 30th anniversary offered an excellent excuse to collect some of my work into a book, I decided to grit my teeth and scroll back through the archives of my own “literature in a hurry” (British poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold’s clever definition of journalism).
From the last days of disco to the first (and I hope final) days of twerking, headline-making controversies began to cluster into enduring themes. They included:
*”Diversity Anxiety”: The old black-white racial dichotomy has morphed into a new era of multiracial, multicultural diversity and a new divide: those who navigate comfortably across racial and cultural borders and those who don’t.
*”Obama World vs. Palin Nation”: The polarized 1990s of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich has grown divided further into a tribal clash between two sociopolitical identities, each with their own slanted news and information media to inspire them.
*”Bill Cosby’s Culture War”: Who would have forecast that the iconic “Cos,” whom I first interviewed as a college student in the 1960s, would give a nonpartisan voice to the black community’s underappreciated conservative values in 2004 — and help pave the way for Obama’s national rise?
More Top Picks Colored Overlays Vs Tinted Glasses Pros And Cons
*”Quiet Culture Quakes”: Many predicted an African-American president, same-sex marriage and legalized marijuana would come someday, but … so soon?
Columnists are expected to help our readers make sense out of the news. Looking back at old surprises can help prepare us for new ones too.
— Clarence Page, Tribune columnist
“Culture Worrier: Selected Columns 1984-2014: Reflections on Race, Politics and Social Change” is available now as a print or e-book wherever books are sold. DigitalPLUS subscribers can download the e-book for free at chicagotribune.com/ebooks.