Claiming my own humanity

Side-view of a Black woman in glasses with long straight hair looking off into the distance to the left of the screen, with the ocean behind her in the background

Over the years, as my writing has become almost entirely focused on whiteness and white people, I accidentally have moved further away from the very reason why this blog was created: To claim my own humanity while living in a very white state—and not lose my very essence as a Black woman.  While I have …

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Black cops, white minds

A police officer cap on small tabletop

I was six years old. It was March 13, 1979. My father took the oath to become a Cook County, Illinois, deputy sheriff. It was a decision that, for a Black man born and raised in Arkansas under Jim Crow to a family with little in the way of material resources, promised to be the …

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