The Dictatorship

The profound impact of Theo Huxtable on a generation of Black boys

Published

9 months ago

July 22, 2025

The profound impact of Theo Huxtable on a generation of Black boys

I had very little in common with Theo Huxtable. The only son of Cliff and Clair Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” lived in the big, diverse city of New York, while I languished in a small, racist Ohio town. Theo had a good relationship with his parents, while mine were so busy working, they barely had time to acknowledge me in passing. Theo’s family had money; my family was poor. Theo had Black friends (who can forget Cockroach?), whereas I spent my time trying desperately to get white people to like me. And perhaps most crucially, Theo was straight and I was gay — which meant my male peers essentially shunned me for my perceived “girliness.”

Malcolm-Jamal Warnerthe actor who played Theo, died tragically on Sunday while swimming during a family vacation, drowning after a current pulled him deeper into the sea. He was 54 and leaves behind a wife and a daughter. Warner’s acting career continued over the decades after “The Cosby Show” went off the air, but to many Black boys like me who grew up in the 1980s and the 1990s, the character he brought to life as Theo will always be his most iconic role.

For all the ways my life didn’t resemble Theo’s, when I sat in front of the television every Thursday night, watching the laughs and foibles of the Huxtable family, the commonality we shared was unmistakable.

Theo looked like me.

When I sat in front of the television every Thursday night, watching the laughs and foibles of the Huxtable family, the commonality we shared was unmistakable.

White America often doesn’t understand this singular and seemingly simple thing: the power of representation. The magic of looking into a world beyond your own and seeing the possibilities reflected back at you from a person whose skin is the same color as yours, especially during a time when Black faces were especially few and far between on prime-time television, much less during “family hour.” I was buoyed by the fact that Theo Huxtable was dark-skinned, just as I am, and I could see myself reflected in his character — even as his fictional circumstances bore little resemblance to my real-life ones.

Much has been made of what is or isn’t the “correct” way to show Black American life in books, television and film. Many Black Americans bemoan what has been dubbed “Black trauma porn,” which some have defined as the serving up of Black pain and poverty for the entertainment of white people. There have been questions around what fictional characters we are allowed to play (can we be mermaids or elves or Hermione Granger?). And, of course, there is always the danger of Black actors playing those roles that put us in the crosshairs of racist stereotypes.

But Theo Huxtable defied stereotypes. He wasn’t the precocious Black kids Arnold or Willis Jackson from “Diff’rent Strokes,” whose adoption by the kindly Mr. Drummond made their characters little more than framing devices for how good and benevolent rich white men can be. And Theo wasn’t anything like the streetwise pimp Huggy Bear from “Starsky and Hutch.” He wasn’t Jimmy “JJ” Evans from “Good Times,” who, according to my mother, was a “buffoon” the likes of which she hadn’t seen since “Amos and Andy.”

I mean no disrespect to the actors who played these roles; they took the work that was offered, and for Black thespians at the time, the pickings were extraordinarily slim. It seemed like every Black character existed only to be validated by the white characters around them.

But Theo Huxtable didn’t need to be validated by anyone. He had depth and growth. He wasn’t the “best friend,” the comic relief, the criminal with a heart of gold — or just the plain old criminal. He was goofy, irresponsible, willful, mischievous and lovable. In short, a teenager. And for all our differences, those were qualities we shared.

This isn’t to say “The Cosby Show” was especially progressive. Black scholars have opined that the sitcom was unrealistic and didn’t fully convey the breadth of the Black experience. The show could have better directly addressed racism, but instead it gave some the false impression that it existed in a world where racism was a more minor concern. But, at the time, I was just happy to see a different kind of Black family being portrayed on television. And, although rare, its existence in the world was no less real than the one in which I was living.

My two favorite episodes of “The Cosby Show” involving Theo’s character couldn’t be more different. The first was the one in which he was revealed to have dyslexia. I remember he called himself “stupid” — which I believed deep inside that I was, in part because of poor grades and indifferent teachers. But Theo’s diagnosis made me think for the first time that maybe I wasn’t “stupid,” and it made me realize for the first time that Black boys don’t have to be perfect in order to live.

The second was the hilarious “ Gordon Gartrell” shirt episode, wherein Theo desperately wants an expensive shirt that his parents won’t buy him, so he hires his sister to sew one for him — to disastrous effect. I had done something similar a few weeks before I saw the episode, when I took a pair of scissors to my galoshes, desperately trying to fashion a pair of LL Bean “duck shoes,” which were popular in the ’80s. My family couldn’t afford them, and I wanted so desperately to fit in. I wore them to school, and the shoes and I received the drubbing we both deserved. But when I saw Theo Huxtable doing the same thing on television, it became clear to me that he, too, was just trying to fit in. In both these episodes, he was humanized in a way that I hadn’t seen before. He was complex like we all are.

Guest star Malcolm-Jamal Warner on “Alert: Missing Persons Unit” in April. Fox / Fox Image Collection via Getty Images

Theo couldn’t have been played by just anyone and inspired the same emotions. Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s honest and empathetic performance of this young Black man — literally growing up while playing the role on camera over nearly a decade — changed my way of thinking and paved the way for the knowledge that all Black boys’ stories are welcome.

My heart breaks for Malcolm’s loved ones. And I only hope he understood the profundity of the art he brought to the small screen and how many Black boys he inspired to tell their own stories. I’m one of them.

Brian Broome

Brian Broome is an author and screenwriter from Braceville, Ohio. His memoir, “Punch Me Up to the Gods,” was the winner of the 2021 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction.

The Dictatorship

Newly created Polymarket accounts bet big on US-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump’s announcement

Published

46 minutes ago

April 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Newly created Polymarket accounts bet big on US-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump’s announcement

NEW YORK (AP) — A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers.

These bets were made even though, in the hours before a two-week ceasefire was announced on Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s rhetoric had escalated sharply and there were few signals that a ceasefire deal was imminent. Early in the day Trump had issued a warning on social media that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not meet his demand to open the Strait of Hormuz by his 8 p.m. ET deadline.

An analysis of publicly available blockchain data from Polymarket, using the crypto analytics platform Dune, shows that at least 50 accounts, or wallets, placed substantial “Yes” bets Tuesday before Trump announced the ceasefire in a Truth Social post at around 6:30 pm ET. These were the first bets made by these particular wallets.

One of these wallets, created Tuesday around 10 am ET, placed roughly $72,000 in bets at an average price of 8.8 cents. The buy-in for each betting event ranges from $0 to $1 each, reflecting a 0% to 100% chance of what users think could happen. This Polymarket user then cashed out for a profit of $200,000.

Another, which joined the platform on April 6 and traded on this exact event, shows a win of $125,500.

Another wallet, created 12 minutes before Trump’s post, made $31,908 of “Yes” bets at 33.7 cents, and is estimated to have earned a profit of $48,500. The higher price for “Yes” at that time may have reflected the efforts late Tuesday by the government of Pakistan to get Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks.

There is also the possibility that these individual Polymarket users placed their bets expecting Trump to back down, given his habit during his second term to make bold threats only to retreat — a phenomenon his critics have derided as “Trump Always Chickens Out,” or TACO.

While some users took handsome profits, others must wait for payouts because Polymarket has labeled the April 7 Iran-U.S. ceasefire contract as “disputed,” given that Iran was still placing restrictions on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz and missile attacks in the region continued. That dispute could take 48 hours to resolve.

Public blockchain data cannot identify who controls the new wallets. Polymarket uses proxy smart contract wallets, meaning a single user can create multiple accounts. Only Polymarket has the internal data needed to determine whether these were new users or existing users opening additional accounts.

Polymarket did not respond to a request for comment.

Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, who has introduced legislation to regulate prediction markets, released a statement Wednesday saying: “It’s highly unlikely that these are good-faith trades; it’s much more likely that these are insiders with access to information ahead of the public. Without some kind of restrictions, there is nothing stopping government or military officials from profiting from their positions.”

The trading pattern of newly created Polymarket accounts placing strategic, well-timed bets mirrors earlier episodes on the platform. Newly created accounts placed large wagers hours before the January capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and made hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit. Similar clusters of accounts have also repeatedly profited from well-timed bets on military actions involving Iran.

Such bets have repeatedly raised questions from the public as well as members of Congress about whether some traders are using inside information to profit in these prediction markets. Bipartisan groups of senators as well as representatives have introduced legislation that would broaden the definition of insider trading to include prediction markets.

Even the two biggest platforms in the industry, Kalshi and Polymarket, have said they see a need to broaden the definition of insider trading on their platforms.

“This is why these markets need regulation,” said Todd Philips, a professor at Georgia State University who has written on prediction markets and the industry’s regulations. “We can’t have people trading with inside information and expect other traders are going to be OK being in these markets.”

_____

Keller reported from Albuquerque, N.M.

The Dictatorship

Trump administration looks to sanitize George Washington’s slavery history

Published

8 hours ago

April 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump administration looks to sanitize George Washington’s slavery history

Apr. 9, 2026, 5:39 PM EDT

The Trump administration’s fragile white ego is in focus yet again thanks to newly proposed changes for an exhibit in Philadelphia centered on George Washington and slavery.

The administration is being sued by the city over its efforts to whitewash Washington’s history of slave ownership from the President’s House Site, the nation’s first official presidential residence. The push has been put on hold by a judge who compared it to the censorship depicted in George Orwell’s book “1984.”

The attempted alteration of the exhibit came after a Trump executive order demanded a review of national parks and museums to bar any displays that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” Last year, Trump also lobbed a puerile complaint that Smithsonian musuems focus too much on “how bad” slavery was.

And all that kvetching provides context for the changes that Trump’s administration is seeking to impose at the President’s House Site — alterations that The Philadelphia Inquirer said places the first president’s slave ownership “in a more sympathetic light.”

The Inquirer flagged government renderings showing plans for new historical panels to be installed at the site, and it seems clear that the administration’s goal is to make Washington out to be a loving patriot or conscientious objector to slavery, rather than a racist slave driver.

First, note what the Inquirer said has been removed:

The panels taken down by the Park Service in January included displays titled ‘The Dirty Business of Slavery’ and ‘Life Under Slavery,’ as well as illustrations about the Fugitive Slave Act and Ona Judge, who was enslaved by Washington and later escaped.

So the administration wants to omit detailed references to Washington’s slavery history — which Black activists fought for years to include — while also promoting a whitewashed narrative that he was a fundamentally moral man despite the whole “claiming dominion over other human beings” thing. Per the Inquirer:

For instance, on one panel titled ‘Presidents Washington and Adams on Slavery,’ the Trump administration writes that ‘Caught between his private doubts about slavery and his public responsibilities as president, George Washington navigated a nation deeply divided over slavery.’

‘Privately, George Washington often expressed discomfort with the institution and a desire to see it abolished,’ the panel continued. ‘Yet as a Virginia plantation owner, his wealth and livelihood were deeply tied to it.’

And another example:

And later in the same panel: ‘Slaves living in the President’s House experienced a greater modicum of autonomy than elsewhere in the South such as to explore the city and sometimes even attend the theater, with Washington buying the tickets.’

When a censorship regime like Trump’s sees fit to tout a slave owner’s generosity — and the “greater modicum of autonomy” he purportedly granted to those he subjected to brutal bondage and forced labor — it leaves little doubt that the fundamental goal is to sanitize history, rather than teach it thoroughly.

A White House spokesperson told the Inquirer that the administration wants to acknowledge “the full breadth of our nation’s history” and that “no piece of history should be washed away.”

But “whitewashing” truly is the most apt descriptor for a plan that includes touting George Washington as some kind of selfless, principled gift-giver while brushing past, or deliberately omitting, details about his well-documented — and extremely lucrative — history of enslaving human beings.

Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.

The Dictatorship

Thursday’s Mini-Report, 4.9.26

Published

8 hours ago

April 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Crisis conditions in Lebanon: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowed on Thursday to continue striking Hezbollah in Lebanon, hours after he appeared to make a concession by saying his country would start talks with the Lebanese government about trying to disarm the Iran-backed paramilitary group.”

* In related news: “More than 80 countries — which did not include the U.S. — condemned Israel’s lethal strikes on Lebanon. … Several international leaders have condemned Israel’s intensified strikes on Lebanon, which killed more than 300 people yesterday alone, according to The Associated Press, citing the country’s health ministry.”

* This wasn’t a problem before the war: “Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei vowed today to tighten control over the Strait of Hormuz and claimed victory in the ongoing war between his country and Israel and the U.S. ‘We will definitely take the management of the Strait of Hormuz to a new phase,’ Khamenei said in a series of posts on X.”

* Inflation news: “Core inflation held above the Federal Reserve’s target before the recent surge in energy prices, according to a key gauge released Thursday that offers the central bank a snapshot of conditions leading into the Iran war. The core personal consumption expenditures price index, which excludes food and energy, rose a seasonally adjusted 3% in February, the Commerce Department reported. The all-items headline inflation measure increased 2.8%.”

* The good news is, the vaccine saves lives; the bad news is, the Trump administration doesn’t want us to know that: “The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has delayed publication of a CDC report showing the covid-19 vaccine cut the likelihood of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half, according to two scientists familiar with the decision.”

* Even for this White House, her remarks were weird: “First lady Melania Trump denied any ties to convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on Thursday. … ‘The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,’ the first lady began in remarks delivered from the White House. … It was not clear who or which statements or reporting she was referring to.”

* On a related note, Donald Trump told MS NOW that he didn’t know about his wife’s press statement.

* Trump’s animosity toward the NFL has reached a new stage: “The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether the National Football League has engaged in anticompetitive tactics that harm consumers, according to people familiar with the situation.”

See you tomorrow.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”