Racial Justice
If Your Teacher Looks Likes You, You May Do Better In School
Think back to grade school for a moment and envision that one teacher who could captivate you more than any other. Did that teacher look a bit like you? One recent study says: probably. There’s mounting evidence that when black students have black teachers, those students are more likely to graduate high school. That new…
KC Vet Recalls Discrimination in Vietnam
Thomas “Buck” Jenkins doesn’t like to talk much about his year of Army duty in the Vietnam War — a time in his life with too many bad memories from too many bad experiences. Like many, Jenkins returned home to people who criticized his service, yet had never walked five steps in his shoes as…
The Fatigue of Discomfort
Unless you often enter a space where you need to do an instinctive assessment of your environment based on race, you may not get why I’m so tired. This past weekend, between errands in another part of town, I spent a couple of hours knitting in a coffee shop. It was a hopping place. But…
Protecting the Playwright Preserves Our Truth
Edward Albee and Shonda Rhimes. Funny how the twain can meet. The other night, a tornado watch interrupted the season finale of the TV show “Scandal.” That lead to a protracted ripple of conversation among my friends regarding the intense monologue by a character in that episode on the state of being a black woman…
What If I Told You That Kansas City Is Not A Racist Community?
What if I told you that Kansas City is not a racist community? Instead, I tell you that Kansas City is a great city, with a lot of great people. It is also inhabited by a miniscule number of racially divisive people that come from all ethnic backgrounds. Terrelle Pryor, Sr., wide receiver for the…