“Both Sides are Bad” and the Shrinking Middle

There’s no other way to say it, these are odd times for a lot of Americans. If you ever find yourself in an environment where people hold different opinions, the tone is undoubtedly different now than it’s been in any other recent time. So while our social media feeds may be echo chambers of our…

The Falsehood of Diversity

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last few years it’s that the notion of diversity and cultural understanding is overwhelmingly one-sided. Meaning, the dominant culture does very little to accommodate that of sub-dominant cultures, even though we all more or less occupy the same spaces.   I was blessed to grow up in…

The National Security Health Risk

A lot of activity, funding, and attention has been attributed to stabilizing the Middle East for reasons of our own National Security. While those battles rage on, we would be remiss to ignore the threats occurring on our own soil. Not necessarily one of violent or terrorist means, but one of our nation’s growing health concerns.…

Should We Be Nice to Bigots?

Welcome! Today Roy and I will be doing a semi-live conversation regarding a fee.org article that the both of us read called Fight for a More Civilized Bigotry by TJ Brown. Obviously, I suggest you all read it, but the article basically hits on centuries-long issue of understanding the bigot. With the Trayvon Martin case starting the…

Sports are Politics, Politics are Sports

With a score of 28-3 late into the third quarter and an Atlanta Falcons lead, #BlackTwitter popped the champagne in its own special viral manner, letting the memes, gifs, and crying Jordan photo-overlays fly before the outcome was actually decided. A little too prematurely it would turn out, as the 4-Time Super Bowl Champion New…

If Black Lives Matter so much, What about Black-on-Black Crime?

“How can you say Black Lives Matter, when they’re killing each other in the streets?” “We need to Police ourselves” “It’s a culture problem, Black People just need to take responsibility for their communities” In light of the series of recent incidents where the indications point to unarmed Black people being unjustly killed at the…

A Minority’s Guide to the New World Order

When I was seventeen years old and Barack Obama was first elected, I remember two prevailing thoughts. One was an incredible sense of pride, the perfect example of how hard-work, charisma, and timing can lead to an accomplishment we didn’t predict happening for another couple of decades. The second thought was that while having an…

Where would you be in 1963?

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April of 1968. It was fifteen years later in 1983 that the Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday was passed nationally (sponsored by Republicans and Signed by Reagan). While some states enacted the holiday in recognition of Dr. King’s accomplishments in a short 5 years after his death…