Privilege (and lack thereof)

“Our Nation Is Moving Toward Two Societies, One Black, One White—Separate and Unequal”. This is a quote from report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, a committee put together by President Lyndon Johnson after civil unrest during the mid 1960's. If this were written today "Black" and "White" would likely be replaces with "Wealthy" and "Not".

I Was Published Again in Today’s Boston Globe

My letter calls out the fact that the MAGA deportation effort is an attack on brown people, it's to make our country whiter. What MAGA really means is Make America White Again, ignoring that we never really were.

Occupy Washington

Today Donald J. Trump nationalized the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of the District of Columbia and called out the National Guard to occupy the city. He did all of this based on a lie: the "rising" rate of crime in the city. Fact: the crime rate in our nation's capital is at a thirty year … Continue reading Occupy Washington

Identity Politics / Intersectionalism

We often hear the term "identity politics", often from right wing critics on places like Fox News.  Their definition, for purposes of their complaints, is that we on the left, and in the Democratic Party, have different and individual platforms for various groups.  They pretty much mean a sliced and diced set of ideas rather … Continue reading Identity Politics / Intersectionalism

Outraged

Are you outraged?  If you aren't you should be.  Perhaps you will be after reading this post.  Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said that abortion isn't in the Constitution.   He's right.  It's not.  Ask yourself: why would it be?  The Constitution was written by men, white men to be exact.  Let's be more precise, they … Continue reading Outraged

Safety

“The safest communities are not the ones with the most police, prisons, or electronic monitors, but the ones with quality schools, health care, housing, plentiful jobs, and strong social networks that allow families not merely to survive, but to thrive.” - Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of  Color Blindness … Continue reading Safety

That Word

In the biographical documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, Toni Morrison tells a story from when she was four or five years old.   She was just learning to read and write.  She and her older sister were playing with chalk in front of their house.  They copied a word they saw written somewhere down … Continue reading That Word