The controversy over athletes kneeling during the national anthem reveals America's unholy trinity of patriotism, militarism, and sports.
racial justice
The role of county prosecutors in mass incarceration
John Pfaff's Locked In adds to what we've learned from Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow.
Neighborhoods real and imagined
Ideas about the ghetto matter. They always have.
It was the congregation's pro-LGBTQ stance that brought Robbyn Davis-Ellison's family to United Church. The commitment to racial justice kept them there.
Alternative realities
John of Patmos presents readers of Revelation with fantastical visions of what life could be, just as Dickens does to Scrooge.
Someone else's liberation
Reading Exodus together with Isabel Wilkerson reminds me that the biblical story is not told from my point of view.
In the civil rights movement, language of political participation was central. BLM activists are making a more profound demand.
Lent is early this year, so it coincides with Black History Month for a full 18 days. This overlap of sacred and secular calendars proves doubly sacred for Christians in the U.S. The sacred journey of Lent leads us to the cross—at the end of Jesus’ life of healing ministry and preaching good news to the poor. The sacred journey of Black History Month leads us to the lynching tree—as well as to African American innovators such as the man who developed modern blood storage and transfusion.
Scandal and New Girl are not ordinarily “about” race. But as national conversations on police violence intensify, they’ve stepped into the discussion.
Last week, when protests, violence, and a celebration of hope for justice took place in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, I found myself back in my hometown, as well as in my grandfather’s. Each was the site of riots connected to race and law enforcement.