OBAMA KILLS STEREOTYPES
A recent Los Angeles Times article asked if having Barack Obama in the White House would change negative stereotypes about black men. Well, I don’t think it will change a thing. Anyone who is prejudiced enough to believe that the majority of black men are dangerous, unintelligent, lazy, immoral and predisposed […]
POLITICS/RACE
By now, I am sure that you are aware of the fallout over the Nov. 4 election results that passed Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution to make marriage legal only between one man and one woman. And I have no doubt that many of you reading this op-ed were a part […]
“All the white people she has ever met needed, in one way or another, to be reassured, consoled, to have their consciences priced but not blasted; could not, could not afford to hear a truth which would shatter, irrevocably, their image of themselves. It is astonishing the lengths to which a person, or a […]
As I casually strolled across the dingy city playing field on a brisk Sunday afternoon, the winds began to whip through my jacket and the words “watch your step” scrolled across my mind as I carefully navigated through the debris that is a part of many urban ball fields. Broken glass, geese droppings, etc. […]
When I was a little girl growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, every Sunday my mother would transform me from an ashy-legged, nappy-headed tomboy into a Sunday morning debutante. She’d press and curl my hair, dress me up in the obligatory uniform—starched dress, anklets and black patent leather Mary Jane shoes so I could watch […]
“He need his ass beat.”
That’s the first thing I thought when I saw the video recently of a man punching a girl in a South L.A. McDonald’s.
A teenaged girl, who posed absolutely no physical threat to a grown man, laid out flat … as if in a boxing ring.
No dialog can be heard […]
“Damn, not again,” I silently thought to myself as I watched this young black boy approach my truck with a can in his hand while stopped at a red light on my way home from work. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Times are hard these days and it’s sad for this child […]
When I drive around “da hood” I see the parking lot kings and queens reigning supreme, malt liquor in hand hollering “nigga this” and “nigga that.” I see us pushing carts up and down street, sleeping on bus stops, cars rolling by with the booming system on 20-inch rims with tinted windows being driven […]
40 years ago, on Feb. 9th 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, preached what might be considered his own eulogy. It was called “A Drum Major’s Instinct.” In it, he described how he envisioned his funeral. I first heard this shortly after I touched the very cart they used to carry his casket through […]
What is “The Race Card?”
Is it a membership card? Is it a credit card? Who gives it out? Who’s allowed or entitled to get one? Can it be revoked? Does it have limits? Where can you use it? Whose idea was it? Most importantly, why doesn’t […]