Colin Kaepernick and the Denial of Racism
There ain’t no white man in this room that will change places with me — and I’m rich. That’s how good it is to be white. There’s a one-legged busboy in here right now that’s going: ‘I don’t want to…
Eddie Blue-Eyes
Police Have Already Killed 561 People in 2016
In the USA, you can start your day by watching video of a black man in Louisiana killed by police as he lay helplessly on the ground. You could end it by watching another black man,shot by police in Minnesota,…
Affirmative Action: The Curious History of Race Preferences
Their leaders seem more intent on vying with blacks for permanent victim status than on seeking recognition for genuine progress by Hispanics over the last three decades. — Linda Chavez on Latin@s Anti-affirmative action darling, Abigail Fisher (aka Becky with…
Hate, Homophobia, & Fundamentalism
Researchers have been most effective in uncovering the dark side of homophobia. One researcher, who interviewed over 400 men incarcerated for gay-bashing noted that the gay bashers generally saw nothing wrong in what they did, and more often than not,…
En Memoriam: Muhammad Ali – The Greatest
Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human…
The Death of Scalia and the State of Criminal Justice
Before I move on to the significance (or lack thereof) of Scalia’s demise, I would like to share an anecdote. If you bear with me a moment, I think you will be able to see the connection I am trying…
Black America, Brown America, & the Clintons
For the life of me, I do not understand Hillary Clinton’s popularity with African-Americans and Latin@s. Her positions (which apparently change according to the dictates of focus groups) and her husband’s presidency was, when you examine the numbers, not very…
Martin Luther King Jr, Conservatives, & Misquoting the Dream
Hola mi Gente! The exploitation of King’s name, the distortion of his teachings by conservatives, is one of the uglier developments in contemporary American life. I agree with Michael Eric Dyson that the “I have a Dream” speech should be…
Moral Reasoning and Fundamentalism
Hola mi Gente… One can tease out political differences quite simply — how individuals view the role of government, freedom, and a just society is directly related to their level of moral reasoning. Your racist uncle behaves in that way…
Mass Incarceration and Criminal Justice: From the Plantation to the Bing
You ain’t gotta be locked up to be in prison / Look how we livin’ / 30,000 niggas a day up in the bing, standin routine / They put us in a box, just like our life on the block.…