Every once in a while I read about a phenomenon which is described as the “new” racism. That sends my thoughts racing, trying to figure out what is “new” about the action being described. Soon my thoughts go in two contrary directions: one direction tells me that there is no such thing as a “new” racism, and the other acknowledges that maybe there is. Read on…
... written in June, 1990 - filed under Racism and Language.Frequently I hear someone refer to a person or a group of people as being “nonwhite,” and it usually leads me to plead that we identify people by what they are rather than by what they are not. Read on…
... written in August, 1990 - filed under Racism and Language.I sat at a coffee table eating my evening meal, turned on the TV to see what was happening in the world outside my living room. What was happening, according to the newscaster was what he called the “Gulf War”, into which our nation had been so carefully manipulated. Read on…
... written in January, 1991 - filed under New Additions.The game was a close one, being played with intensity between well-matched teams, likely to go into overtime. The winners would then be at the top of their college league, at least until another game. Five thousand seats screamed with passionate joy or dismay at every play. Read on…
... written in January, 1991 - filed under Affirmative Action.Long ago a Black Puerto Rican man said to me that the organizations and institutions which are run by whites will go on just as they are with little change so long as the decision makers continue to believe, perceive, decide, and act as they have always believed, perceived, decided, and acted. That conversation illumined for me an important connection between individual and institutional change. Read on…
... written in January, 1991 - filed under Open Letters to White Males.“You killed! Killing is wrong. You’ve got to pay. You’ve got to die!”
Getting even is what it’s about Read on…
... written in February, 1991 - filed under On Responsibility.To work with the urban poor to fashion a vision of wholeness of human life against the realities of economic, racial and social injustice; to hold that vision and its responsibilities before the churches of the U.C.C. and the people of Metropolitan Boston; and to work with the urban poor towards the fulfillment of that vision. Read on…
... written in March, 1991 - filed under Racism and Language.Recently I had a brief phone conversation which exposed a stereotype about how the “old boys club” works. Read on…
... written in July, 1991 - filed under Open Letters to White Males.During a panel at a recent conference I heard an African American woman direct an important question. She directed it specifically to white males, and that is what prompted me to think about some response. Since she is a person for whom I have great affection, I am also eager to respond. Read on…
... written in October, 1991 - filed under Open Letters to White Males.