Actualize

Bryan 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. [...]

Keith 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 [...]

I've started this letter five times and deleted it five times.∗. Even though we’ve never met I’ve known you all my life. I learned you existed from a letter addressed to someone else. A few months ago, my mom told me you wanted to meet me [...]

Black Mothers remember you are warriors the root of African Nations courageous resilient resolute you hold truth on your side you are light in the devastation makers of ways when there are none your existence is revolutionary their institutions will try and convince you to chew [...]

Piercing through the silence a strong and ardent voice emerges. The Poet, Aja Monet is heard to say, “Melissa Williams, Darnisha Harris, Michelle Cassell.” These are the names of many of the girls and women who were injured or killed by police. Sadly, too few have heard [...]

I was four when my mom sat me on the washing machine to explain the situation. Once she was sure I understood, she concluded, “I know how you feel, I don’t have a daddy either.” “But your daddy didn’t want to leave,” I replied “He [...]

Academically overbearing parents are doing great harm. So says Bill Deresiewicz in his groundbreaking 2014 manifesto Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. “[For students] haunted their whole lives by a fear of failure—often, in the first [...]

We are in the midst of another cycle of oppression boiling over into the streets. In Baltimore, protests have erupted over the death of Freddie Gray who died a week after being arrested by police and suffering a broken spine. Protesters took to the streets [...]

My mom has the cheery demeanor, moral sensibilities and lingo of a Leave It To Beaver episode. “Don’t be such a sourpuss,” she scolds. “Have you ever smoked a doobie?” she inquires. “Oh, that is just terrific!” she exclaims. My mom is what I’d like [...]