Nearly a century after his death, the glowering visage of “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman still looks down upon the people of South Carolina from its perch outside the State House in Charleston. 8 feet tall and made of bronze that has… Read More ›
Race
Black Protests, White Coverage: How The Mainstream Media Distorts The Uprising in Baltimore
You do not dress for war in order to wage peace. You do not suppress information when you have nothing to hide. You cannot serve & protect a community while you dig your knee into its neck. These would seem… Read More ›
Detroit’s 73 Story Mid-Life Crisis: How The GM Renaissance Center Embodies The Motor City’s Struggles
I’ve always found it strange that the melting pot is go to metaphor for politicians and public figures looking to expound upon the merits of America’s diverse populous, when all a melting pot does is mix ingredients about until they’re… Read More ›
But The Hate Remains The Same: Reconstruction & A Changing Of The Guard in Southern Politics
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 ›
Sins of Omission: The State of the Union & Obama’s Race Problem
Speechmaking has never been Barack Obama’s problem. From the first time the nation heard him as a young state senator from Chicago at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, through the Hope and Change stump speeches on the campaign trail in… 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 ›
Other Voices, Other Towns: Conversations With Complete Strangers
It was a little after 8:30 in the morning. I was sitting out on the concrete patio of a strip mall coffee shop in Dearborn, Michigan, still dead to the world due to the deficit of caffeine and nicotine in… 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 ›
When Hope Is Engulfed In Flames: Ferguson On The Night of The Darren Wilson Grand Jury Decision
Hope is like an appendage that hangs from your soul. It is flexible and it is lithe. It reaches out to grab hold of the things it needs to sustain it. And, like any other limb, it doesn’t grow back… 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 ›
Virally Suppressed - Muckraking For The Modern World 