What if I call the police and they send Officer Piner? This is a question I have asked myself a hundred times since last June when several local and national media outlets reported that Officer Michael “Kevin” Piner, of the Wilmington, NC Police Department, was inadvertently caught on his own body camera stating that he could not wait for the civil war because he was going to buy an assault rifle and “we are just going to go out and start slaughtering them f’ing ni**ers. God, I can’t wait.” He was also recorded as saying “Wipe ’em off the f’ing…

Despite the international attention that the death of George Floyd brought to the policing of Black and brown Americans, there are still far too many incidents of encounters with police and innocent people that leave the people traumatized, or worse, dead.

In the midst of the Texas snowstorm that slammed many cities and brought the state to a standstill, 18-year-old high schooler, Rodney Reese, was arrested by Plano, TX police for “being a pedestrian in the road way.” (Did you even know it was an actual crime to be a pedestrian in the road way)?

Reese was walking home from…

Let me start with a confession: I just read To Kill A Mockingbird for the first time last year. Somehow I managed to graduate from a good high school and a really good college without ever being assigned TKAM. I always understood it to be a book that I was supposed to read and last year, I finally checked it off my list.

A pivotal part of the narrative is the trial of a Black man — Tom Robinson — who is accused of raping a White woman — Mayella Ewell. Ewell and her father Bob are not credible witnesses…

Why it’s important to stop confusing the two.

The Christian Evangelical movement in the United States has become a powerful influence on American politics, culture, and media during the past four decades. The earliest proponents of the “Moral Majority” were unabashed and unashamed of their efforts to turn their large and loyal following into a powerful voting bloc. Among these leaders were Jerry Falwell, Sr. and Paul Weyrich, who made no secret of their desire to leverage the power of their numbers into a seat at the political table.

That seat was gladly granted as it became apparent that the…

One of the powerful undertones of Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah was Harry becoming “conscious” of unconscious bias. When Harry joins the interview, he talks about how surprisingly welcoming his family is to Meghan at first. Her reception goes better than he actually thinks it will. Harry says he’s done his own research and understands racism and the racial context within which his relationship with Meghan will be located. …

Shaina Bell is a 24-year-old single mother of two daughters. Until recently, the family was in a motel room in Liberty Township, OH. Acting on a tip, the LT police went to the motel and found the 10- and 2-year-old girls home alone. The older girl told the police that their mom was at work and would be home around 10 p.m. Subsequently, the girls were removed from their mother and returned to their father. Bell was arrested and charged with two counts of child endangering. She is out on bond pending an April hearing.

There are so many things…

President Joe Biden and a host of Congressional leaders are engaged in a painfully polite war to the death over the reduction or elimination of student loan debt. Currently, Americans carry $1.7 trillion (1,700,000,000,000) in student loan debt. That’s a whole lot of Ramen noodles.

The proposals that are bandied about most often are:

• A $10,000 reduction — which is insulting.
• A $50,000 reduction — which would be a game changer.
• A 100% reduction — which would be a life changer.

Amongst “regular” Americans, there are mixed views about the validity and morality of student loan debt reduction. One of…

How the season went down for them.

The NFL made history last September when 10 of its 32 teams named Black quarterbacks to their starting jobs. It was not that long ago that Blacks were viewed as not having sufficient cognitive acuity, pocket passing skills, and leadership capabilities to helm a pro franchise. Blacks were seen as “natural athletes” — perfect for running and catching — but not highly intelligent enough to learn complex playbooks and communicate those plays to their teams under the intense pressure and bright spotlight of an NFL game. …