Race
the thing is…it does more damage. not simply to property, although the blazing cars and crushed car and business windows show proof of that, but of lives. fourteen arrests so far and what does that mean for young brown people. livelihoods of folks who own property that has been destroyed. resentment – on both ends […]
the rain wasn’t coming down hard but it was persistent. i draped my letter jacket, leather side down, on the soaking parking lot and squinted in the waning light looking for the locked lugnut so i could remove the flat tire. my sister had hit a curb and didn’t seem to readily recall how to […]
i’ve wanted to write for more than a week. so many things going on personally and beyond…but a friend of mine sent me this video and i finally got the chance to sit down and watch it…take 11 minutes and do the same. it isn’t the cause of my internal struggle but it does represent […]
i’ve been stewing. i didn’t start off this way. at first i was panicked. turning on my television last tuesday morning i caught the blue ticker tape running under a video of obama. “obama talks about race today”. i cringed and immediately my finger pressed the off button. it was instinct. i was mortified, certain […]
i don’t know how often it changes…or what would make it change but…do me a favor, go to google and put in “black women” then click images. … i need a moment to grope for words because of all the beautiful black women i know, of all the artwork and images i’ve seen in my […]
silly me, i forgot i’m brown. tonight a friend and i went out to eat…or rather, that was the plan. a place was recommended to us and so we arrived eagerly anticipating the good food we’d heard about. we were met with a wait…understandable, it is the warehouse district down by the civic center. 15 […]
in 1950 psychologist keneth clark conducted a ground breaking study that illustrated the self esteem – or lack there of – of black children. the premise was simple…two identical dolls were set in front of little brown children and they were asked simple questions…which was smart? which was pretty? most answered the white doll? by […]
if you read my sister’s blog this is a repeat…if not, well, let me just say this is a special irritation of mine. i’ve never been able to quite put my finger on why the seeming compliment of “you speak so well” bothers me. it is a lot like telling me i’m pretty…for a black […]
I have a friend who jokes about being a miscegenation. He contains multitudes and adamantly refuses to be put into a little American box meant to define him The zed, at least Auckland, is a lesson in that same kind of hybrid. On campus, very few people check a single box. This afternoon while lolling […]
white woman
“whi wom…whi wom…” they followed me for a ways down the path., as much a greeting as a declaration. To the throng of excited children assembled, I am a “whi wom” – white woman. Some Liberians have explained it as my foreignness, white woman as a catchall for not being Liberian; others, that I am […]
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