What follows is the text of a “sermon” that I gave as a “congregational reflection” to an all White audience at the Bethel Congregational United Church of Christ on Sunday, June 28th. The sermon was begun with a reading of The Good Samaritan story, and [...]
Bryan Stevenson on Charleston and Our Real Problem with Race
Corey Johnson2016-11-29T17:39:12-05:00Bryan Stevenson has spent most of his career challenging bias against minorities and the poor in the criminal justice system. He is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery, Ala., an advocacy group that opposes mass incarceration and racial injustice. [...]
Deadly American Extremism: More White Than Muslim— The Numbers
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:12-05:00Everyday, somewhere in America people wait in long lines only to be patted down, or body scanned. We open our suitcases, empty our pockets, and place our computers, belts, and purses on a conveyor band. Instinctively American citizens and visitors respond on demand. We travel [...]
What If We Treated All Consent Like Society Treats Sexual Consent?
Alli Kirkham2016-11-29T17:39:12-05:00You are staying until it’s done You said I could have it once You said you liked it You said you wanted it You are my wife and it’s your duty You owe me You are asking for it [...]
What Happens to a Society When It Turns Against Many of Its Children and Imprisons Them?
Nell Bernstein2016-11-29T17:39:12-05:00Darren was kneeling, but he was not praying. Baptized Catholic and brought up in the church, Darren had turned to his faith to get him through the early years of a decade-long confinement, including months spent on isolation units. Now he [...]
#takeitallthewaydown Clyburn Op-Ed: The Confederate ‘Battle Flag’ Should Come Down from the Statehouse
James E. Clyburn Congressman2016-11-29T17:39:12-05:00The tragedy that occurred Wednesday night in Charleston, S.C., has engendered many personal emotions about race and reopened a conversation about a controversial and divisive symbol. Let us begin with several little-known but well-documented facts about that flag currently flying in front of the statehouse. It [...]
All Lives Matter*
Keith Knight2016-11-29T17:39:12-05:00Keith Knight is many things to many people–rapper, social activist, father and educator among them. He’s also one of the funniest and most highly regarded cartoonists in America, and the creator of three popular comic strips: the Knight Life, (th)ink, and the K Chronicles. For [...]
Coming Soon: Attack of the 14-Year-Old Black Girl
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:12-05:00Coming soon from McKinney, Texas Police Productions, it’s the next summer horror science fiction cop flick, Attack of the 14-Year-Old Black Girl! A frightening teen girl in a bikini terrorizes the police force of a small Texas suburb, making them respond with excessive force and [...]
The Soapbox: When Black Children Aren’t Welcome In White Spaces
Tiffanie Drayton2016-11-29T17:39:12-05:00Many a Black child has that moment when they learn that certain White spaces are off limits to them. That not only are such spaces unwelcoming, but they can possibly be dangerous. The Black teenagers who attempted to attend a pool party on the White side [...]