History is not a linear thing. It is not neat, nor is it ramrod straight. It’s beginning is theoretical; its end, unknowable. History—like the rotation of the earth, the orbit of the moon and the life, death and rebirth of… Read More ›
Civil Rights
Edward W. Brooke & The Importance of Moderate Republicans in American Politics
Given the frenetic and bloody start this new year has taken with the Charlie Hebdo killings, the Boko Haram massacre of thousands of innocent civilians in northeastern Nigeria and the row over the murders of two NYPD officers, even the… Read More ›
When ‘It Gets Better’ Isn’t Enough: Leelah Alcorn & The Struggles of Transgender Youth
Adolescence is a wretched place—a charnel house chock full of freshly formed skeletons waiting to be shoved into closets and strange erogenous urgings that spring up at the most inappropriate moments. It is a time of kinky little hairs that… Read More ›
The Whiteness of My Discontent: How Privilege Affects The Way I Protest
My whiteness speaks volumes, but I cannot hear them. It tells the world around me that my life matters—that the shedding of my blood and cracking of my bones will bring with it consequences denied to darker-skinned men. In my… Read More ›
Mother’s Milk & Mace: A Poem For Ferguson
Just about once a year, I am struck by an unshakable urge to write poetry and, as it turns out, that once a year is now. I don’t claim to be a poet, but hopefully the words I’ve written down… Read More ›
The Men in the Plastic Masks: How Anonymous Complicates Protests in Ferguson
A movement without organization is little more than a ship without a rudder. Take an idea—any idea, no matter how noble or just—and let it loose upon the world in great numbers without anyone to guide it and it won’t… Read More ›
Country Club Problems: The Dangers of Driving While Black In St Louis County
Country Club Hills. The name conjures up images of gated communities chockablock with gaudy McMansions and Maseratis that sit at the end of enormous gravel driveways; places with front lawns the size of football fields and guesthouses that are bigger… Read More ›
The Center Cannot Hold: St. Louis County on the Eve of the Darren Wilson Verdict
The meeting starts and everyone around me instinctively stands up and faces towards the front of the room. It takes me a couple seconds to realize they’ve all angled themselves towards the American Flag and that they’re about to say… Read More ›
The Last of The Gang to Die: How Democrats Lost the Deep South
On the evening of July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson lay down beneath the grand canopy of his four post bed in The White House’s 2nd floor living room, exhausted; his mind surely swirling with that mixture of clear conscience… Read More ›
Different Shades of Black: A Conversation About Race & Class in America & Abroad
On the day that I happened to visit Tallahassee last summer, a group of student activists who call themselves The Dream Defenders were going into their 3rd week of physically occupying the lobby to Governor Scott’s Capitol office in protest… Read More ›
Virally Suppressed - Muckraking For The Modern World 