Did you know the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world? (And we have had a 500% increase over the past 30 years!) Did you know the United States contains 5% of the world’s population but 25% of its prisoners? Did you know there are more black men age 20-34 […]
Aamer Rahman comedy – “Reverse Racism” – Fear of a Brown Planet
Aamer Rahman is an Australian stand-up comedian of Bangladeshi descent. This “Reverse Racism” clip was recently shown at an Understanding Racism workshop I attended and is from Rahman’s album “Fear of a Brown Planet.” The reason I’m posting this is 1.) It’s genuinely funny — if we can’t laugh at ourselves, we are in trouble. […]
Systemic Solutions to America’s Systemic Racism Problem
Having a black friend or making cookies for a black person (a.k.a. “love”) is not going to end systemic racism and systemic injustice. Systemic problems require system solutions. I asked my friend Joseph Harris (his “Boiling Points” poem is featured here) for some wisdom from an African American perspective on systemic solutions to racism. Below […]
Ignorance to Racism: Geraldo Rivera’s Comments on LeBron’s “I Can’t Breathe” Shirt
I’m not sure if Geraldo Rivera doesn’t know, doesn’t want to know, or simply doesn’t care. In a Fox News “Race in America” discussion, Rivera made the statement regarding the “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirt LeBron James recently wore in pregame warmups: “I wondered to myself,” Rivera said, “what if LeBron James instead had a shirt, […]
Come to Tuesday Town Hall Meeting in Support of Racial Justice
The Lansing Clergy Forum is issuing a call to action in Lansing about lethal force, racial injustice and the justice system. The Forum has called for a Town Hall Meeting Tuesday December 9th at 6:00pm at Union Missionary Baptist Church (500 S Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Lansing, MI 48915). I will be attending and […]
Love is not the Answer to America’s Race Problem
The sociological research book Divided by Faith by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith shows how white evangelical Christians see the solution to America’s race problem coming at an individual level, not a systemic or legislative level (p.115, “Let’s Be Friends” chapter). The predominant thought is that if everyone became a Christian, the race problem would […]