This week a man gunned down 8 people in Atlanta. They were all hard-working, underpaid women, and most were Asian-American. Following terrorist attacks like this, the media is perpetually focused on motive. It seems like nothing can really be decided about the crime until someone comes up with a reason why it was committed. Why […]
Recently I was stuck in traffic and noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of me. It read “God Bless Our Troops. Especially the Snipers”. The first part – God Bless Our Troops – okay I get that. Of course we all uphold the courage and sacrifice of the brave men and women […]
Insurrection. Isn’t that what is supposed to happen in countries whose names we can’t pronounce? Or countries we look down upon? That was before. Before January 6th, when there was insurrection in the United States. In the capitol city, Washington DC. In the temple of our democracy, the US Congress. On the other hand, isn’t […]
I was sitting with the African American Mom of a preschooler and we were chatting about kid things. Her family had recently moved and her four year-old son had just begun attending a new preschool. I am White. She was saying that the curriculum and routine were quite similar at both schools, something that had […]
JD Vance’s 2016 bestselling book, Hillbilly Elegy, has been made into a movie. Vance tells his own story, how he survived poverty, with a family history of dysfunction and addiction, and then graduated from Yale Law School. Both the book and the movie have been roundly criticized for their portrayal of generational poverty. Vance’s family […]
We are a nation that is crazy for sports. We elevate sports to occupy a very important place in our nation’s zeitgeist. We are also convinced that sports are extremely important for children, and communities and families invest much time and money into children’s sporting organizations. It is said that sports promote both healthy competition […]
A legacy burden is a belief or an emotion bequeathed to us by our family, ethnicity, or culture. The U.S. is rife with legacy burdens: racism, sexism, materialism, homophobia, individualism. White Supremacy is a legacy burden. It is a (fallacious) belief system that Black people are inherently inferior to White people, and has been used […]
Recently I took a walk on garbage day. I passed a house where an animal had gotten into the trash can, and yucky debris was spread over a large area. Just then the White homeowner started out of the driveway in an Audi SUV. He was front first, and so couldn’t miss the mess. I […]
How is it that a car crash can tie up traffic on both sides of the highway? An accident can be completely contained on one side of the highway divider; yet traffic can come to a virtual standstill on the other side. We call it rubbernecking – implying that we may have to work pretty […]
I’d like to pass along some wisdom regarding our American love affair with what we call rugged individualism. The first two people quoted are activist clergymen, the other three are sophisticated therapists. William Sloane Coffin: Many of us overvalue autonomy, the strength to stand alone, and the capacity to act independently. Far too few of […]