James Baldwin said, “To be a Negro In this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” And goddam am I in a rage today! Not unlike the rage of the last 4 years under a genocidal, pathological liar, racist, white supremacist, forever impeached piece of shit…
Breaking Down the White Supremacist System That Murdered Tyre Nichols
This one hurts. For myriad reasons. And ya KNOW the video is bad when people kept saying please keep it peaceful before the release of the video. Let’s get into it. 1) Tyre Nichols should still be walking this Earth. That is first and foremost. He was brutally murdered over a traffic infraction. A traffic infraction…
I Owe Much of My Opportunities, Privilege, and Rights to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Those Who Struggled for Civil Rights
Growing up, Dr. King was frequently spoken of in my home. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 and I was born July 4, 1970, so his death in relation to my birth was probably at the front of my mom’s and grandma’s minds as I was the first mixed kid in the family. My…
Belated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Post
On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, things look bleak, his legacy and life’s work threatened. It feels dystopian, foreboding, and surreal. 1) Here we sit in the midst of a global pandemic that has killed over 800,000 people domestically and more than 5 million people globally. In this country, far too many workers have…
What Doesn’t Kill You, Makes You Stronger
I’ve never heard a bigger piece of bullshit propaganda than this title. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. It might not kill you, you might emerge stronger, and it’s more than likely that what doesn’t kill you will leave you more and more broken, cracked, damaged. And it charges interest, further depleting you in…
Supporting Our Students and Ourselves the Day After
Purpose: Recognize: To prepare our classrooms and virtual campus for additional predicted violence surrounding the upcoming Inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris on January 20, 2021. Manage what is to yet to come: We must reckon with the violent insurrection we witnessed on our nation’s capitol and remain vigilant beyond 1/20/2020 because white supremacy…
Resources About Anti-Black Racism
In so many ways, to understand what anti-Black racism is requires one to dig into the true unapologetic and uncensored history of this country (the U.S.) and the wider world. Anti-Black racism is global. It is colorism. It is the ways in which Black people the world over have been subjugated and abused by people…
Reparations Now – 2020
Thinking about the Biden/Harris plan for Native Americans on Indigenous People’s Day seems meaningful. And it seems like a good plan. I am not Native, so cannot speak beyond what the people in this article said. However, I think this is a good re-start/re-beginning. I’d love to see something like a constitutional amendment that included…
Why I’m No Longer Telling White People To Read White Fragility
I’ve been reading, learning, listening over the last several months. I’ve watched while Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility flew off the shelves with the recent uprisings against systemic racism. I saw the article where it was exposed that she owns 3 homes and the charities she had supported or claimed to support related to fighting systemic…
The Thing About Gaslighting and Abusive Behavior
Listen, all of us need to deeply understand that we are heading into THE most dangerous time in the modern history of this country. I don’t think we are seeing this very clearly. Anyone who understands anything about domestic violence knows that the most dangerous time for a woman leaving an abusive relationship is when…
The Responsibility of Higher Education to Eradicate White Supremacy
Higher education in the United States has a white supremacy problem from root to stem. As with every long-standing system in this country, white supremacy is just baked into our curriculum, processes, and policies. Our inequitable outcomes are perfectly predicatable. The system is working as it was designed. So, in 2020, at this inflection point…
White Accountability to Black Lives
Much has been written in the last several weeks (and in fact, over the years and decades) about what white people can do to get in the struggle for full racial equity, how to be an ally, how to beef up their knowledge base. I don’t intend to rehash any of that. It is Googleable,…
The Intimacy of White Supremacy
I’ve had so much going on in my brain for months now and have not been able to get it out of my bones. Everything I’ve written lately has been trash because I have not been “inspired” to write. I keep trying. Writing is an old friend that I call upon to help me process…
Grouchy in Paradise 