-
Why “CRT” is the new conservative Christian boogeyman
David French gets at fundamental issues with how CRT has become the new dog whistle for conservative Christians. Note this: he makes the bold claim that the definition of CRT was fundamentally and intentionally changed by conservative activists to encompass and enormous number of arguments and ideas about race, including arguments and ideas that have nothing to do with CRT.
-
The canon of reading in racial justice
This past week had an optic that was stark for me. It was during the confirmation hearing of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and the Republicans were working for their sound-bite “gotcha” moments. Senator Ted Cruz hammered away at the curriculum at Georgetown Day School, where Judge Jackson is on the board of trustees.
-
The Pilgrimage, Part 1
In his book, How the Word is Passed, Clint Smith tells the stories of 8 different places in the U.S. that have been touched deeply by slavery and how those places tell the story. One place he visited was the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana. It is the only plantation open for tours that takes the visitor on a journey entirely…
-
The education we need
We need to move past defending needless monuments erected in eras that sent specific messages to formerly enslaved people. We need to understand our history more, not less. That means we deal with the power of Thomas Jefferson’s words as well as his slaveholding mentality and brutality. We need a more full education as we keep cutting history programs from…
-
Tell the stories
Four books I have worked through in the past few weeks give me the same theme: tell the stories. Don’t just work on the stats. Hear the stories. Walk the places where they happened.
-
Monuments and the “Lost Cause”
“The myth of the Lost Cause does not begin or end with the Confederate monuments. The myth seeps into many other facets of state-sanctioned life. In eleven states there are a total of twenty-three Confederate holidays and observances. As of 2020, in both Alabama and Mississippi there is a Robert E. Lee Day, Confederate Memorial Day, and Jefferson’s Davis’s birthday;…
-
The 13th Amendment
How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith tells the story of how we have handled race, slavery, and racism in America through several locations in our nation. Those places tell us how we’ve done and how we’re doing… and why too many white Americans think Black Americans should “get over it” when it comes to slavery and racism. We’re…
-
Our problem isn’t erasing history
Our problem isn’t “erasing history.” Our problem is not knowing history. Clint Smith reflected on his visit to the Whitney Plantation in his book, How the Word is Passed:
-
The difference between history and nostalgia
I am now reading through Clint Smith’s book, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. Smith’s goal is to examine places in America and how they tell the story of slavery and racism in American history.
-
Diminishing the Black voice and life
“One of the most damning legacies of white supremacy was not just the way it terrorized us with impunity and devalued us by denying our citizenship and disrespecting us by assaulting our dignity, it was also how it wounded our minds and wounded our souls and wounded our bodies. Any conception of God, (James) Baldwin wrote, must deal honestly with…
Tag: Racism
