If you start practicing now, you can probably eliminate these words from your vocabulary by Black History Month — Statistically speaking, about 75% of White people don’t even have a Black friend, but on the off chance that you are one of the White people who do, I have a message for you from your (one) Black friend: Do better. In her New York Times bestselling book White Fragility…

Life is worth living. They won’t be better off without you You didn’t let them down And if you did, it can be healed Restor(i)ed Resolved. Yes, the hole is deep, But there are stairs. Yes, your feet are bleeding, But there are chairs. Someone cares Someone cares Someone always cares. Something is…

The year was 1830. The conspiracy was — in a word — ludicrous. Earthen mounds and artifacts had been discovered on the land of a white Ohioan named Thomas Worthington. Dating revealed these artifacts were at least 1000 years old, and possibly older than the pyramids. This was a major…

A Ukiah

A senryu

It’s 2022. By now, most people have heard that when it comes to race, intentions don’t matter. But what if they do? Not in the I-had-good-intentions-so-you-can’t-call-me-on-my-actions type way — that’s not flying in 2022. As Jamie Utt told everyday feminism: “What we need to realize is that when it comes…

You’re not protecting your kids. You’re protecting your racism — “I wouldn’t feel comfortable showing that to my [younger] child.” a Eurodescendant woman tells me when I ask her to consider having her sons join a youth discussion of When They See Us. Her youngest is thirteen. She considers herself an ally. Yet when given the option, she can ‘protect’…

The real reason why none of your closest friends are Black — “Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. …

An ode to estuaries, fjords and fountains When white women cry, Black men die, Black womxn get fired, White men heave a sigh. “Our cherished property is our solemn duty, We have to protect Karen, Nancy, and Judy.” They punish the chattel when we get unruly Don’t talk back to Karen And don’t piss off…