May 2021

I am black and I am exhausted. This journey we embarked on, as a nation, to reckon with the myths we tell about America has left me drained. Before the world knew George Floyd’s name I devoured books that were the intersection of our complex shared history, race, law, and policy. I read all of the notable names. I watched their lectures. I scoured the internet for interviews. I consumed the knowledge with an insatiable appetite. I started with a question. Each book I read allowed me to refine the question. The authors forced me to rephrase the question so it was more precise. I realized at one point I was not even asking the right question. Where our history, race, law and policy intersect, I am confident to scrap with anyone. I am unafraid to wade, by myself, into unfriendly territory and spar with the opposition. Then, we learned George Floyd’s name.  We all watched Darnella Fraizer’s cellphone video, of George’s life slowly being squeezed out of him. I witnessed streets I knew, from my childhood, teens, and early twenties ablaze at night and smoldering in the dawn. When I was 19 I ventured to Lake Street, to have a profound transformation of my own. I had spent my freshman year in college growing my hair, so that I could make the pilgrimage from the confines of the southern suburbs to Lake Street to have my hair locked. My conservative father drove me the first time, for my initial… Read More »I Am Exhausted…And So Are You.

A Story About My Bloodline A black man was lynched in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was the descendant of chattel slaves like me. My grandmother’s grandparents were chattel slaves. My mom’s grandparents were children of chattel slaves. My grandmother was the grandchild of chattel slaves. At one point in my bloodline all my ancestors saw behind them was generations of chattel slaves. When they peered into the future all they could imagine was generations of chattel slaves.  My grandmother’s grandparents told her a story about when they were slaves. My grandmother told me, her grandson, the same story. Now I share that story with you. A chattel slave had escaped the plantation. The overseer organized a search party to find the chattel slave and bring the property back to the plantation. The overseer also had instructed the remaining chattel slaves to cut wood and pile it in a certain way so that when the property had been returned to the plantation it could be placed in the wood and be destroyed with fire. The overseer told each of the chattel slaves it would be their responsibility to keep the property from leaving the fire. They would be provided with hoes, rakes, shovels, and axes to keep the property in the middle of fire, while the overseer and other whites watched.  My grandmother’s grandparents told her that it was that day that all of the chattel slaves were going to turn those tools on the overseer and anyone else who demanded they… Read More »A Black Man Was Lynched In Minnesota: A Retrospective

Ban The Box Harms Black People Who Have Never Been Convicted Of A Crime. “That’s why ‘Ban the Box’ (BTB) policies, often touted as reforms designed to help formerly incarcerated people, have had the perverse consequence of hurting black men.” ― Paul Butler, “Chokehold: Policing Black Men” Tweet I first learned that BTB harms black people in 2017. I was listening to a podcast (Pod Save the People) and they brought this up for discussion. There were nothing but good intentions surrounding Ban the Box. However, we remember what Coates says about “good intentions” from a past day in black history. Then the data started to flood out. Dr. Jennifer Doleac is the most knowledgeable person in the world on this research. Her peer-reviewed research clearly found that BTB harms black men and women. This policy eliminates the spartan opportunities that already exists for black folk. When BTB gets passed the employment chances for black people evaporate.  BTB does not work, because too many employers assume that a young black male applicant has a criminal past, so they ding their application. Some civil rights attorneys who specialize in employment discrimination have sounded the alarm about this practice.Yet, the box actually protects black people who have never been part of our criminal justice systems. Absent this protection, systemic racism does what it does best and denies a black person a job that they are qualified for, on the basis of their skin.  “Another study from New York and New Jersey found… Read More »Ban The Box Harms Black People Who Have Never Been Convicted Of A Crime