The Importance of Context
Context Until finding that first book by Langston Hughes with his photo on the jacket, I hadn’t realized that all the books I’d been reading and devouring were written by and about white people...
View ArticleThe Inoculation Effect
The Inoculation Effect happens when a child, in disadvantaged circumstances, is guided through childhood by his/her parents to particular schools, churches, out-of-school programs, enrichment and...
View ArticleBrown Boy Down (for Travon)
He’s a boy doing boy things but because he’s brown his actions (walking, standing, breathing) brings a frown, consternation, confrontation, evaluation, punishment, tears, banishment, arrest, and...
View ArticleDo as I say, not as I do – Voting & Reverend Eugene Rivers
Like countless other people, so-called adults, Reverend Eugene Rivers tells people to do things he doesn’t do. He talks sh** but doesn’t do all of the sh** he talks about. He talks a lot and has...
View ArticleWhat Social Justice Means (to me)
Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. Social workers aim to open the doors of access and opportunity for everyone,...
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Will this keep my grandson safe?
I have an old acquaintance who types all of his emails in capital letters. They all begin, GREETINGS, and they are annoying. On the other hand, my two-year-old grandson, Tommie, speaks his greetings in...
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The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (Copyright 2010, 2012 by Michelle Alexander, The New Press) There are books that hit you in your head and heart...
View ArticleHere + There = Everywhere
We are all in this together. What don’t we understand about this? We may all live differently in this world because of our individuality and our unique situations but we are still living on the same...
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Telling like it T-I-Is – Dr. Beverly Scott
Dr. Beverly Scott, who stunned Boston by announcing her resignation as General Manager of the Mass. Bay Transportation System or “The T” as we call it, is a refreshing public servant. I tweeted on...
View ArticlePositive Statistics about Black Men
I wonder if I should even bother with this post. After all, the Black men I know personally are positive people. Not only does this include my husband, son, brother, brother-in-law, uncles...
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This meeting needs an enema
“This town needs an enema,” the Joker’s character played by Jack Nicholson says in a Batman movie. He was referring to the town of Gotham. While Boston may or may not need a cleanse, a lot of...
View ArticleDefining Blackness – Beyonce, Jamelia & Candelaria
Note: I posted this piece in 2009. It bears repeating because of the recent brouhaha over Beyonce’s blackness. It has never been in question for me. I loved the spoof about this on Saturday Night...
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In despair about disparities
So, you’ve invited to the meeting, convening, conversation or whatever the hell it’s being called this time – Striving for Social Justice, Calling out Inequalities, Candid Conversations, City-wide...
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The 13th – Director Ava DuVernay’s documentary for Netflix
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their...
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Anyone but you (Trump)
Any place but here Anyone but you Any time ‘cept now Lord, please help me through. No place but here No one but you No time ‘cept now This is also true. by Candelaria Silva-Collins, November 9, 2016...
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Friends whose family I can’t meet – racists in the family
Turns out I have friends who have racists in the family. About 30 or so years ago, I worked with a vivacious and gregarious woman (White) at Boston City Hospital right before it became the Boston...
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We are all connected – Women’s March Boston
Participating in the Women’s March in Boston on January 21, 2017, with the multitudes of people got me to thinking how we, as human beings, are all connected. We are all connected – like it or not....
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Negative attention feeds Trumps tantrums and ego
Like a young child who wants attention so badly that they will do bad or stupid stuff to get noticed like having a tantrum, Trump will bask in the fact that he has gotten the attention of the world –...
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Po-Po-Poetry – Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Claudia Rankine Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine won the PEN Open Book Award and the PEN Literary Award, the NAACP Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. It was my...
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Hard come, easy go – workplace diversity
I used to keep my distance. I was professionally courteous but made little effort to get to know my colleagues very deeply. There were so few people in the work environment I could relate to...
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