What’s in a word? Now’s a good time to examine some of the words being thrown around in connection with the nationwide protests, most of which have been peaceful. Words like looting and riot and thugs, weighted code words usually applied to public unrest. Words usually reserved for people of […]
When the white, female Central Park dog walker recently called the police on the African American birdwatcher, she was enforcing her “white space,” a perceptual realm that often works to keep people of color (POC) in their place. White spaces are all around us, public and private places where white […]
This week I saw something I hadn’t seen in a while: household furnishings and belongings piled on a sidewalk. At first I didn’t know what it was. Then it dawned on me – this is an eviction. Somebody couldn’t pay rent and now a family is on the street. A […]
In substance and style, Colin Kaepernick is the heir to Martin Luther King Jr. It was an elegant and eloquent gesture for him to take a knee during the national anthem in 2016, and thereafter, for social injustices against blacks. It was at once a powerful and submissive pose, for […]
And speaking of Martin Luther King Jr., one of the things that made him more palatable to whites was the rise of Malcolm X, who spoke black truth to power in a more fiery way. King and Malcolm X were different only in style, for at the end of each […]
Been seeing this post on social media and I call BS. Martin Luther King Jr. may not have burned a building, robbed a store or destroyed a town BUT he was REVILED in his lifetime. He was jailed, including right here in St. Augustine. He was spied upon and wiretapped by […]
Are we re-living 1968? I’ve been thinking about this as Minneapolis has started to burn over the police killing of yet another black man. 1968 also was a presidential election year, one marked by a great deal of unrest. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, as was Robert F. Kennedy […]
