We are living in strange times—a time where very few people are willing to stand on their beliefs. Instead, equivocation is what’s hot in the streets, even when it comes to being anti-racist or even naming racism. Apparently, words no longer have meaning, or maybe it’s just the natural consequence of the watering down of …
Entering Black History Month this year, the words that come to mind are cognitive dissonance. On the surface, it appears as if Black people in the United States have come a long way. We had a Black president, our current vice president is Black—hell, she’s an HBCU grad and a member of one of the …
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 …