Category: Race
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After Your Neighbor Calls the Police on You
Before reading this post, you may want to read the post, Before You Call the Police on Your Neighbor, to establish some context. So far every response to my blog post about someone calling the police on my family instead of knocking on my door to express their apparent concern for my dog has been…
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Before You Call the Police On Your Neighbor
Yesterday someone called the police on me because they were apparently concerned for my dog, Journey, who was in the backyard laying in the snow. Giving the person the benefit of the doubt, I imagine that they feel like they were doing something of a kindness toward Journey. The officers who did the welfare check…
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The Curious Case of Mohamed Noor
Remember when Mohamed Noor was convicted of murder when he mistakenly shot Justine Ruszczyk. I knew he was going to go down because of how it is. And notice that I didn’t define “it”. Because most of us who have to live with “it” know how “it” is. That’s why even though they say their…
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Ending Racism: How to Change the World in One Generation
The other morning I was feeling the weight of trying to articulate possibilities in the face of polarities. I prayed for some guidance on how to reimagine some of the conversations we’re having on race. Next thing you know, I get this email from my new friend Justin Michael Williams inviting me to preview an…
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What Are You Talking About Witness?
How committed are you to a just an equitable world? This piece is a repost of a reflection that I shared in the Together Colorado Faith Voices newsletter. When I was growing up, I used to watch a show called “Diff’rent Strokes”. It was the story about two young Black boys who were adopted by…
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What We Can Learn From George Floyd’s Death
When we realize how much we’ve been failing each other as we have in the wake of the death of George Floyd, we tend to try to close our hearts. We lock ourselves away from the pain by getting into old patterns of thinking. But as Winston Churchill said when he borrowed from George Santayana,…
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Society Unmasked
This sounds like a beginning of an inappropriate joke but it isn’t. It was just an interesting experience. Three Black guys who don’t know each other walk into a grocery store. Two give each other a knowing glance and the customary head nod. They are wearing N95 masks. One is not. As they get their…
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Harriet’s Daughters: The Legacy of the #StrongBlackWoman
In theaters right now, there is a biopic based on some aspects of the life of Harriet Tubman. As a character in history, Harriet Tubman has always held a special place in my heart because she refused to be a slave. And according to legend, she refused to let anyone who said they wanted to…
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Communicating to Death (or some better title)
“Urkel is dead and I can’t breathe.” Those were the words Oprah spoke to the interviewer when they asked her about one of the most recent casualties of a senseless shooting. I couldn’t breathe either. How could Urkel be gone? He held the hopes of so many of us. He had achieved the dream and…
The Roofless Church 