Cognize

From early childhood through young adulthood, my wife and I lived lives dedicated to sports—she a real and successful athlete (state champion, MVP, honorable mention All-American), and me a sincere, hard-working wanna-be. Our daughter was born in 1989, and I am sure we almost immediately [...]

If you were a fan of the HBO series “The Wire,” you likely remember the scene in the fourth season focused on Baltimore public schools where the term “juking the stats” defined how corporate-driven reengineering of the public sphere has distorted public institutions so [...]

Earlier this month, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) proposed a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA. The ESEA is seven years overdue for a reauthorization. The process presents an opportunity to improve U.S. school systems for communities of color. Unfortunately, Sen. [...]

THE BLOODY SUNDAY MARCH MUST AND WILL TAKE PLACE IN SELMA ON SUNDAY, MARCH 8TH Dear President Obama… We love you. We respect you. We support you. We strongly supported your becoming President and have continued to support you through all the trying times. [...]

I was a senior at Cornell University when I was arrested for heroin possession. As an addict — a condition that began during a deep depression — I was muddling my way through classes and doing many things I would come to regret, including selling [...]

On this 50th anniversary year of the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the Voting Rights Act it helped inspire, national attention is centered on the iconic images of “Bloody Sunday,” the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the interracial marchers, and President Lyndon Johnson [...]

I was sitting in a sweltering California courtroom, serving as an expert witness on an adult case, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a tiny girl, fully shackled, walking down the courtroom aisle beside me. I was [...]

my breath catches in my throat as the continuity of life is abruptly disrupted. again. as i sat down to write a poem about my slain brothers and sisters. (and sisters). another was murdered. i watched live streams of black souls gathering in berkeley, missouri [...]

[ The “Our Lives Matters” project was inspired by the extrajudicial killings of minorities, particularly boys of color who are targeted on a daily basis. Fear of these young men continues to be seen as justification for the use [...]