Inside from the Inside

Read Full Post »

September is Latino heritage month.  CNN is launching Latino in America with editorial content similar to the series, Black in America.  I may not have the eight most popular last name of, “Garcia” but I qualify to tell you what it’s like to be Latino. 

Read Full Post »

“Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought is great and swift and free.” 
Bertrand Russell
Ellen is a passionate activist for a large disenfranchised demographic being discriminated by those in power. 
The Wall Street bubble bust created a financial tsunami that was felt the worst [...]

Read Full Post »

The fight against health care reform is in full force.  Two polar opposites are generating surges of electricity in the media and the masses, so it seems.  On one end of the spectrum are powerful special interests and uninformed people fighting for profits and the status quo.  The other side has President Obama, health care reformers and [...]

Read Full Post »

In an earlier post I referenced the work of Noel Ignatiev and his newsletter, Race Traitor. In his book, “How the Irish became White”, he tells the story of how the Irish went from being a despised minority to full fledged members of the oppressor class. The English historically considered the Irish as being only [...]

Read Full Post »

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865 when Union General Gordon Granger informed the slaves of Galveston, Texas that they were free. Currently recognized by thirty one states Juneteenth should be a national holiday on a par with July 4.  If this country was “born” July 4, 1776, it surely was “born again” June 19, 1865 when [...]

Read Full Post »

Great Oscar Wilde quote on a Catholic New Yorker’s blog today:
Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
America, and Americans, cannot undo what has been done.  It is there, it is written, it is recorded, it has already been experienced.  It is still being experienced, right now, in different forms in every [...]

Read Full Post »

Differences in the conditions borne by Black and white Americans can be measured by all kinds of metrics—life expectancy, infant mortality, rates of incarceration, and many more.
But according to Smart Money magazine, when it comes to quantifying the economic disparities between Black and white Americans, median net worth may be the most trenchant and clarifying [...]

Read Full Post »

This is an exceedingly simple story. Yet from the first time I heard it, I sensed there was something very tender about it.
The woman on the left is Tracie. She was my boss for over six years, until I was laid off recently. The man on the right is her co-worker, Mike.
The story is that [...]

Read Full Post »

“Why does Rice play Texas?”
- President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962
Do what is right because it is right - sometimes.  That’s on a personal level.  At a group level, it happens a little less frequently.  As a society, it’s getting pretty tough to pull off [unless there's a related benefit to be realized], and [...]

Read Full Post »