Socialcommentary
I have no rage. It is not spent for the day. I was not overzealous at Sunday’s rally in honor of Travon Martin that began in Oscar Grant Plaza. I am not rationing it for its possible need in the coming days and weeks as we – however you define we, as nation or skin […]
they can’t be just girls. not simply middle or high school students on summer break, loving the feel of an unseasonably hot summer sun on their bare legs. they can’t be just girls like the sirens can’t be just falls, or heart attacks. they can’t be false alarms where indigestion is assumed but…”just to be […]
“I’m a card carrying republican.” It wasn’t a newsflash, J has been saying since right around the birth of his second child fiveish years ago “if you aren’t a democratic in your 20s you are soulless and if you aren’t a republican in your 30s you’re an idiot”. Since neither of us are on a […]
I don’t believe America has to be perfect before we can reach out to help other nations any more than i believe i must be perfect before i can reach out to help another person. Hinging help on perfection will leave us all lost. Still, the reaction to Trayvon Martin’s murder reminds me of how […]
Continue reading about Trayvon 2012: where good intentions collide
I can’t seem to find the words to make people understand – really understand – that the accepted fear of a man, not in particular clothing but in particular skin, is how we got to a bullet in the chest. Listening to NPR today, a panel began a meandering discussion which at one point had […]
It wasn’t a happy conversation. My family gathered in the kitchen – a rare occurrence now that my sister and I are grown and gone from the house, her married with a family of her own. But there we were, my parents and sister seated casually around the glass dining table cluttered with the day’s […]
I wrote this back in 2003 and it still feels true to me now. The Black Experience. It sounds like a thrill ride at an amusement park. Strap yourself in and prepare to be amazed or dismayed, amused or abused. Strap yourself in and discover what life is like when your skin is browner than […]
They were staring. Crowding and staring. When J was finally able to move from where he stood vigil over his cousin’s body, his view obstructed by a set of swinging doors and multiple rows of beds with people languishing in various degrees of care or lack thereof, he was crowded and people stared. Unseeing – […]
September 4, 2010 Iganga Town, Uganda I was fuming. My mind working out possible solutions to a work problem. The sun glaring down on me, perspiration filming salty and shiny on my top lip. The ground, uneven and muddy, passed unnoticed beneath my feet. . “Mzungo goodbye,” somehow penetrated the roar in my head and […]
actionable rage
This post isn’t angry. It isn’t poetic. This post is meant to motivate – or at least begin the process of motivation because grief, though necessary, isn’t productive if you never move beyond it. My rage-less sadness that emerged in the face of the Zimmerman verdict does nothing to make circumstances better for anyone. […]
Continue reading about actionable rage