Category: racism

One Year Ago Today: The ‘Very Fine’ Stranger Beside You

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Found this in today’s social media archives, from one year ago today. Author unknown, but incredibly on point.

Aug. 16, 2017

You know what worries me? It’s not that a group of racist idiots lit some tiki torches and decided to have a rally.

I worry that on Monday they’ll go back to their job in human resources and decide who gets hired and who gets fired.

They’ll put their uniform back on and “serve and protect.”

They’ll sit on a jury and decide the fate of a young person of color.

They’ll teach in a kindergarten class. Continue reading →

One Year Ago Today: Confederate Statues

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One year ago today, Tuesday the 15th of August 2017, we were deep into the aftermath of Charlottesville, the city in Virginia where a violent, white nationalist rally led to the death of an innocent counter-protester. It’s hard to believe a whole year has already passed, but here we are.

And though it has been roughly 365 days, nothing has changed. The U.S. appears to be just as divided as it was then, if not more so. Locally, last year on this day there was a Durham rally in my homestate, which ended with a Confederate soldier statue being pulled down by protestors. This happened because, as quoted in the article: Continue reading →

Man Says “I’m Not a Bigot” In Response To Viral Video: Watch & Decide For Yourself

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Today in viral video land, we have a perfect, prime example showcasing the insidious commingling of racism & white privilege.

The story is basically that a white man (Whitman) followed a black man (Lovett) to his home after a minor traffic dispute, and stopped in front of Lovett’s driveway after Lovett pulled in. Lovett got out of his car, calmly approached Whitman, and asked if there was a reason why he Whitman had followed him to his house. Whitman responded, “I just want to let you know what a n—– you are.” Continue reading →

Welcome To America

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Thinking about the fate of the future often worries me. Honestly, the best way to describe the condition (and reputation) of our nation right now is with a pretty outdated, but perfectly accurate term:

Hot Mess.

My generation knows this phrase, despite its evolution in meaning over the years. But for the older folks who might be reading and are unfamliar with “hot mess,” here’s a definition, courtesy Urban Dictionary: Continue reading →

Trump And The Cult 45

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The end game is that the cult leader becomes the single most defining component of the group, over and above whatever ideology the cult is supposed to represent.

Also published on Medium.

 I - capital I, pinterestf - lowercase thick fyou voted for him, are you ready to back down and apologize yet? Can you, even just for a moment, let down your hackles and admit you were wrong — or at least misguided?

If you’re still with him, what more will it take? What is even left to push the outrage threshold any farther? If the leaked audio of crying babies and young children at the southern border, pleading desperately for their parents or relatives whom they were just torn away from didn’t sway you to sanity, what more will it take? Continue reading →

The Kind Of Racism You Don’t Even Know You Have

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Also published on Medium, with audio version available to Medium members.

Look, I get it. I totally understand your reluctance to discuss racism. I know that even hearing the words racism or worse, racist, feels accusatory – offensive, even. I hear you saying, “I’ve never personally owned a slave; why should I be held responsible for things that happened so long ago?” I also know how much you hate it when people “play the race card” to take away things you deserved, like that job promotion. I mean, since Affirmative Action discriminates against white people, that is reverse racism, right?

I get it. I get it because I used to think like that, too.

I never thought of myself as a racist. I’d always had black friends. I grew up adoring Michael Jackson and Prince. The Cosby kids, Gary Coleman… all staples of my youth. I revered the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., I hoped to have the bravery and fortitude of Rosa Parks. I voted for President Obama, twice. How could I be complicit in any kind of racism, and furthermore, why was I being held accountable for it? The cognitive dissonance was strong.  Continue reading →

One Year Under A Trump Presidency

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One year ago last night in the mountains of NC, on a mini vacation we’d been hoping to make for years, my husband and I sat at our cozy dinner, in silence. Above the small, roaring fireplace next to our table was a big screen TV, monitoring the 2016 election results as they rolled in. State after state turned red and projected Donald Trump as the potential winner. I looked around, contemplating asking for another table, but TVs were everywhere, and they were all broadcasting the same thing. Five years of anticipation and planning for our 3rd, private, without kids getaway in 17 years of marriage had led up to this moment, and I felt disgusted. Continue reading →

Rules For Halloween

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Another Halloween has come and gone, leaving us almost within reach of the big feasting holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, but still with enough left over trick-or-treating candy to bridge the gap. For the past couple of years (aside from enjoying the pieces nobody wants) I’ve done some post-Halloween reflecting. It is, after all, a great opportunity to practice developing social skills in real life, and I’ve enjoyed watching my own three kids evolve over the years. They’ve gone from shy, scared, young tots too afraid to utter “trick-or-treat” to confident young people who prefer handing out candy over receiving it, for the most part.  Continue reading →

Today’s Bizarre White House Press Briefing, Annotated

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Today’s White House press briefing opened with Sarah Huckabee Sanders reading another reverent letter from a kid to Trump (which always sound more like something written by a Trump staffer than a kid), and things just went downhill from there.

Seven-year-old MacKenzie, of Dalton, Georgia was today’s enthusiastic Trump supporter. “I think you’re awesome,” she wrote, “in fact, I voted for you in my school election.”  Continue reading →

Free Speech and Hate Speech and The First Amendment, Oh My!

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Lots of arguments are going around about the First Amendment. While most people don’t generally agree with it, they will still assert that white supremacists & neo-nazis have as much of a right to the First Amendment protections as everyone else. But I’m thinking hate speech from groups like the KKK should not be protected under the category of free speech. How does that make sense in 2017? After the Charlottesville tragedy? Ultimately though, it’s the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision.

Currently, the First Amendment names the following as being not protected, or beyond the scope of what’s considered Continue reading →