Travel

And what to skip

If you’ve been following my adventures in Scotland series, you already know that my first international voyage taught me three things: Heathrow is the seventh circle of hell, it’s whisky, not whiskey, and everything tastes better in Scotland.

I could write an entire book on my undying love affair with Scottish food. For now, I’ll focus on the three things I really wish we could get in the United States.

Food in Scotland is generally much better quality than food in the States. I am told that this is because of EU regulations on produce and…

Travel

Planes, trains, and automobiles

When God first told me to go to Scotland, I knew exactly two things about the country: scotch and Highland romance novels. While that’s not a bad foundation for a relationship with a person, it’s probably less than ideal for visiting a foreign country. This was my first experience with international travel, and I was going to a cold and rainy land I knew nothing about.

Navigating Scotland was an adventure complete with breathtaking views and rom-com worthy foibles. Consider this one part cautionary tale, one part how-I-spent-my-winter-vacation.

My flight plan was… unconventional. Traveling on a…

Race in America

My best friend says I’m a glass-half-empty type of person. I prefer to think of myself as a realist, if a bit cynical. Yesterday, Derek Chauvin, the man who murdered George Floyd in broad daylight on a public street with dozens of onlookers, was found guilty on all counts.

Most people are celebrating this, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. What does this verdict change?

And I don’t mean that in the what-does-this-change-in-the-great-scheme-of-things-because-we-have-a-shitty-criminal-justice-system way, although that is a valid question I’ll get into later in this article.

I mean, how does the emotional impact of this verdict…

Writing

Black or black? And yes, it matters.

Six years before I was born, James Baldwin gave a speech at UC Berkely about what it means to be a Black writer.

“What a writer is obliged to some point to realize is that he is involved in a language which he has to change. For example, for a black writer, especially in this country, to be born into the English language is to realize the assumptions of the language, the assumptions by which the language operates, are his enemy.”

The English language, at its default setting, is inherently racist. It is…

Economics

Last week, the United States Senate passed a 1.9 trillion dollar Covid-19 relief package that includes modest cash payments for American families and massive asset purchases for banks — proving once again where our national priorities lie.

Historically speaking, the United States has a track record of doing what it takes to keep the uber-rich happy while generally screwing over everyone else. That’s why in 2018 Congress solidified and expanded the tax exemption for being a private jet owner. It’s why in 2008, banks got bailed out by the government while homeowners got put out in the streets.

It’s why…

Equality

Last month, I wrote about America’s Sordid History of Paying Reparations to White Enslavers. After reading my article, a church member reached out to me to let me know about the Haitian revolution and how France charged them 21 billion dollars (in 1825!) to acknowledge their freedom, a sum Haiti is still paying today.

“Will France pay it back?” he asks.

*groans in irritated Black girl*

I’m not sure what was going on in his head when he wrote this response (or why he insists on copying my entire article into an email instead of sending out a link to…

If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone over 30 say “they just don’t make good music anymore!” I would finally be able to live out my dream of becoming the Black Tinsley Mortimer. Alas, I fear becoming a rich eccentric is not in my future.

Fortunately, I can guarantee that all the good music is not in my past. There are several new artists making music with mass appeal for Grandmas, aunties, and folx whose knees survived the “Buss It” challenge. …

Race in America

I once had a commenter tell me: “most of us white people in America want to live in a place where skin color doesn’t matter, because to most of us it really doesn’t. And the only way we know how to get there is to behave like skin color doesn’t matter.”

This is flawed logic. What social problems have we fixed by ignoring them? Sexism? Classism? Ableism? Transphobia? Xenophobia? Youth Suicide? Seriously, think about it for a minute — if social problems could just magically be solved by ignoring them we wouldn’t have any social problems in the first place.

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