I first experienced the remarkable ability of celebrityship to neutralize race a decade ago as a Chicago television reporter when I was sent to cover a political rally in a white neighborhood that had been the scene of several anti-black riots, including one in which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was hit in the head with a brick.

No doubt, too, Sand must have hipped him quietly in a whisper somewhere what was happening with the lover

to commit oneself to a certain action

On his safe return, loaded with the white man's things, Kishimbu ascribed his good fortune to the inspiration of diamba-smoke. He advised all his people to adopt diamba smoking as a national custom […]