This is the house that slaves built.
This is the con
Who lives in the house that slaves built.
This is the tart
Who screwed the con
Who lives in the house that slaves built.
This the goon
Who wasn’t that smart
And paid off the tart
Who screwed the con
Who lives in the house that slaves built.
When most people think of racism, visions of terrorism delivered mano a mano come to mind. You know … slavery, white hoods, lynchings, and other acts of abject terrorism and the trauma they leave in their wake come to mind. Interpersonal racism’s more comely, yet equally damaging sibling:institutional racism is not only alive and well, but thriving in the most unlikely of places. The time has come to shine a light on a textbook example to provide a better understanding.
Things are tough. All over. A lot of people are hurting physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually. All any of us need do is turn on the TV, log into social media, or if you’re really daring, step outside your front door and there it is: the awfulness of humanity. With this pervasive level of devastation, a friend of mine asked, as I’m sure many more of you have —
“If God is real, then why do things like [insert tragedy] happen?”
It’s easy to lose sight of the good in the world, but it’s out there, doing it thing - in ways you never expected. You just have to know what to look for and where to find it. The answer’s a lot more accessible and potent than many would have you believe.
One of my favorite gifts is a rather weighty and sizable prop plane ornament, given to me ten years ago by Joey M., a then nine-year-old fellow actor in New York’s Radio City Christmas Spectacular. He bestowed me with this memento as a final gift during our annual Secret Santa gift exchange. He gave it to me as a reminder of a specific moment in the show, but it has come to symbolize a greater gift I was given by him and so many others. One I try to share as often as possible.
I hate. A lot.
Yes, the guy who ends his essays with Christ’s second command to “love one another,” hates. There, I said it.
Thanks to the lovely Lecia Michelle for tagging me in this challenge! Here goes, tipping my hand just a little. Hopefully, not too much.
I don’t have the patience for them. They’ve got too much energy and require a ton of attention. They’re not high maintenance.
People who don’t listen aren’t interested in a conversation. What they want is to stand on their soapbox and give a lecture.
It seems with each passing day that it’s becoming more difficult for people with differing opinions to have reasonable discussions about those differences in opinion. Call me an optimist, but I do believe it’s still possible. The trick is to
have a strategy before you start the discussion. Otherwise, it’s way to easy for the conversation to dissolve into a real world version of “Clash of the Titans.”
Yesterday, Nike kicked off a new ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, in celebration of its thirtieth anniversary of its iconic Just Do It campaign — three days before the 2018 NFL Kickoff Game takes place in Philadelphia, with the Falcons visiting the Eagles.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
–Albert Einstein
Humans. We’re reactive by nature. Give me a puppy, a sweet potato pie, a lump of gold, or a month-long vacation in France, and I’ll give you a positive reaction every time. A boa constrictor, lima beans, a lump of coal in my Christmas stocking, or a fresh parking ticket will produce a reaction somewhere along the negative end of the emotional spectrum.
