“One discovers the light in darkness. That is what darkness is for. But everything in our lives depends on how we bear the light. It is necessary, while in darkness, to know that there is a light somewhere, to know that in oneself, waiting to be found there is a light. What the light reveals […]
Although there was no such thing as polling back then, I suspect that if you had asked a representative sample of Londoners in the early 1770s whether or not the American colonists were getting a fair shake from King George, most would have said yes. It is doubtful they would have thought much about any […]
It is an axiom of modern American politics: whenever someone does something that you really don’t like, they are to be immediately analogized to Hitler. Conversely, when someone does something you support quite a bit, you are to proclaim them the modern day incarnation of Martin Luther King, Jr. Or at least Rosa Parks. Thus, […]
The following is an essay by author and journalist Stacey Patton, which I have decided to publish on my site for a few important reasons: first, because as with all of her work, this piece is hard-hitting, analytically on-point and presents a vital perspective that needs to be heard; and secondly because despite the above, […]
From the Q&A from my keynote in Lexington, KY, December, 2014, (MOSAIIC Conference) discussing the history of movement building and the importance of youth activism
I wish there were an actual recording of the speech itself, rather than just this re-reading of it, but still, this is powerful…and a reminder that white people have a choice as to whom our role models will be. That more people know of George Wallace and Bull Connor than Charles Morgan Jr. tells us […]
…and if you need some, there are few images as capable of filling the bill as this one. This is, to me, the most inspiring photo from the civil rights era: Richard Avedon’s photo of the Atlanta SNCC staff in 1963 (and a few national leaders), including Julian Bond, Bob Zellner and Dottie Zellner. The […]
Thanksgiving has always been among my least favorite holidays. Not merely because of the mendacity of the traditional narrative regarding its origins — you know, the whole “Indians and Pilgrims living in harmony” nonsense that conveniently ignores the genocide being planned even then by the latter — but because confining gratitude to one day of […]
Published as a ZNet Commentary, September 24, 2000 That I’m no Biblical scholar is an understatement of monumental proportions. Yet I recently found myself, for reasons I’ll explain shortly, thinking of the following verse from the book of Matthew, if memory serves: Why behold the mote in thy brother’s eye, but consider not the beam […]
