I am trying to understand racism. I know what it is. I know why it exists. I know the history of how it came to be the barometer by which all of mankind is measured, but I don’t understand it. I don’t understand that level of hate. I don’t understand why some will go to such extremes to kill people,
It’s one thing to know something. It’s an entirely different experience to be immersed in your knowledge, feel it with your heart, and see it reflected back at you. That is exactly how local curator, writer, wife and mother Shawanna Brooks wants you to feel when you experience her visual and literary art exhibition, Magic, Mirth, & Mortality: Musings on
The divisions in our country are often lamented as a deep and complex moral crisis. The right-versus-left partisan politicking, as some Star Wars-level epic fight between good and evil. I believe most squabbles could be resolved if leaders legislated by listening to the people they represent and paid attention to the facts as laid out by experts who study the
Last week it seemed as if all eyes were glued to the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. I purposefully did not watch the hearings. However, that did not keep me from seeing the testy tête-à-têtes posted to Twitter and Instagram and catching the recaps on the evening news. The line of questioning from Senators Ted Cruz,
Over the last few weeks, I’ve allowed my son to go out in the world sans mask. Initially, it wasn’t a conscious decision. Rushing out the door to get him to school on time, I forgot to remind him to grab one of his many masks lying around the house. I suggested he get one from the front office at
Florida has gotten a well-earned rep for being the country’s sideshow. “Florida Man” headlines alone illustrate why we’re considered America’s three-ring circus. (No shade to the dearly departed Barnum & Bailey from Sarasota.) But there comes a point for every prankster and practical joker, for every comedian, comic, and clown when you realize your audience is no longer laughing with
My mother was a public high school teacher for 33 years. She worked at Bloom High School in Chicago Heights. As a child, I attended a Catholic school from kindergarten through 6th grade. Between the ages of 5 and 8, when school was over, I either stayed in the school-run after-care program, was bused to an after-school program focused on
On this first day of Women’s History Month I’m celebrating the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court of the United States. I was ecstatic to see the deep brown-skinned Black woman with sister locs standing in her full grace and glory as she accepted President Biden’s nomination to the high court. But beside my childlike giddiness resided
The definition of democracy is “government by the people.” It’s “a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.” By this standard, I wonder, Have we ever had a democracy? I know the United States thinks itself a democracy. As
Tomorrow would have been Jordan Davis’s 27th birthday. Trayvon Martin would have made 27 on February 5th. Instead, we remember them as 17-year-old boys, their lives cut down before they really had the chance to live. This year marks 10 years since both boys were killed. Trayvon, while walking through his father’s Sanford subdivision. Jordan, at the Gate gas station