True Social Justice & Racial Equity Is Hard Work
Dear White Elementary and High School Administrators: Did you see what happened at the University of Florida’s graduation ceremony on Saturday? Did you see that White usher pushing Black graduates off the stage? Please, don’t be that guy. As we approach graduation season, can we have a tough, but honest, […]
There’s danger in the singular Michelle Obama Black girl role-model narrative. There has been a beautiful picture circulating of a young African-American girl looking up in awe at Michelle Obama’s portrait. In her official first lady portrait, Michelle is gorgeous, regal and no doubt inspiring. Michelle is amazing and she […]
This post was inspired by a Nayyirah Waheed poem, “African American II,” from her book “Salt.” In the 1400s, Europeans first arrived to my Mother Africa’s house. My Mother Africa’s house was, and still is, rich and full of treasures like gold, diamonds, copper, aluminum, petroleum and many other resources. People who […]
If you teach the Negro that he has accomplished as much good as any other race he will aspire to equality and justice without regard to race. Such an effort would upset the program of the oppressor in Africa and America. Play up before the Negro, then, his crimes and […]
To my beautiful, brilliant Black daughters, I have so many hopes and dreams for you, that if I tried to say them all, they would run longer than the entire Harry Potter series! My hopes for you, my two beautiful Black girls, are so simple and yet also entirely grandiose. […]
“How can I be sexist? I have a mother, a wife and daughters!” If you’re a woman reading that sentence, you almost certainly won’t have a problem finding the flaw in its all-too-common reasoning. There are plenty of men in the world who love their mothers, wives and daughters while […]
Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions pledged to defend free speech on campuses and criticized the idea of creating safe spaces on campus, protected from hate speech. He argued that classrooms should be places of “robust debate.” To that I say, bring it—bring on honest, fact-based conversations about history, race […]
People loosely use the term “good schools and diversity” without looking into it or researching what that means. When you get below the surface, it means achievement for the White kids, but not for everybody else. That’s not good enough for me. Currently, my husband and I live in Broadview, […]