Across the U.S., people of color point to a root cause: environmental racism
“Wind blows oily black dust onto cars, windowsills, and lawns as a 100-car train loaded with coal rolls past Parchester Village, a historically Black neighborhood in Richmond, California. This happens a couple of times a week. The train’s cargo, mined from the mountains of Utah by the coal giant Wolverine Fuels, will join the towering piles of coal at the Levin-Richmond Terminal, a privately owned coal shipping port seven miles away. The terminal is responsible for a quarter of the coal the United States ships from the West Coast to Asia.
The Derek Chauvin trial and the portrayal of George Floyd
Listening to a New York Times podcast covering the Derek Chauvin trial this week, I heard excerpts of the voir dire, that part of jury selection where prospective jurors are questioned about their reading habits, political beliefs, and various other convictions and opinions, so the attorneys on both sides can winnow the jury pool down to just those bland individuals who do not hold any polarizing beliefs or opinions. That they will admit to, anyway.
In the voir dire for Chauvin’s trial, the prosecutor questioned a man about whether he is a football fan. The New York Times podcast played…
Let’s Unpack This
A fired professor’s words belie the truth of her anti-Black academic bias
When I consider the level of commitment it took for me to enroll and graduate from law school, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story’s words still ring true: “The law is a jealous mistress and requires a long and constant courtship. It is not to be won by trifling favors, but by a lavish homage.” I became intimate with Justice Story’s words as law school became the single most important thing in my life, allowing little room for anything else romantically, socially, or financially until I graduated.
For three years, on most days, I’d wake up early and head to…
THIS WEEK IN RACISM
Your weekly dose of racist news to know
This week’s look at the race and racism stories you may have missed offers plenty of examples of how the effects of racism permeate everything from the air we breathe to the roads on which we travel — but there are some glimmers of hope on the horizon. And this week’s bit of good news is proof that the mass movement against police brutality and for Black lives is bearing fruit.
When racism is in the polluted air we breathe: The Environmental Protection Agency’s new chief, Michael Regan, is ordering the department to use the “full array of policy and…
Vinnette Carroll, the trailblazing actress, director, and playwright, was the first Black woman to direct a production on Broadway.
How just mattering ruffles White feathers
“Black Lives Matter, Too” technically would have been a more accurate slogan, but it’s a bit of a marketing mouthful.
As the trial of George Floyd murderer Derek Chauvin enters week two, it’s a good time to reflect on why this simple phrase remains as important as ever. But even after the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others, the phrase still causes angst for many White Americans.
You would think that the straightforward phrase “Black Lives Matter” would roll off the tongue smoothly. Yet the second it was chosen as the new phrase to advance…
To kill a word, you first have to kill an idea
“I looked over and saw a boy, no more than 18 years old, sitting on his bike. He waited for my reaction, his foot poised on the pedal in case…
“The Chauvin trial isn’t just about the murder of George Floyd; it is about the lack of compassion and humanity shown toward Black people in this country and whether or not America will choose to ever see it. What’s most troublesome about the beginning of this trial is the trauma that will be reignited. Every time an innocent Black person is murdered, it is like all of us receive yet another slash to our hearts — death by a thousand cuts. We’re told not to protest, not to cry out, not to seek justice, and just wait as a system…
