racism
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Wednesday, May 14th, 2008From Little Things Big Things Grow
If you thought socially conscious music in the mainstream was a thing of the past, turn your ears to what Australia is listening to. A song about justice and reconciliation in Australia was the highest new entry in the charts two weeks ago - starting out at #2 on the [...]
On the Legacy of Sean Bell
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
50 shots fired by three detectives.
Two men injured and one dead in the early morning hours of his wedding day.
The headlines made New Yorkers cringe, and the Sean Bell tragedy demanded a thorough investigation and an appropriate response. But in the wake of Friday’s acquittal of the police officers, is [...]
On the Politics of Race
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008Kudos to Barack Obama for publicly rebuking his grandstanding former Pastor Jeremiah Wright.
“It took more time than it should have, but on Tuesday Barack Obama firmly rejected the racism and paranoia of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., and he made it clear that the preacher does not represent him, his politics or [...]
Reclaiming the lost art of speech making
Thursday, March 20th, 2008I meant to post this yesterday, but time got the best of me.
Barack Obama did it again, redeeming what for lesser politicians might have been a fatal association by delivering a world class speech. As an orator, Obamania combines content and charisma, composition and delivery in the tradition of Presidential speech masters Reagan, [...]
Monday Morning MP3
Monday, February 25th, 2008
Kara Powell Interviews Lina Thompson
Conversations to Right Racial Wrongs
Excerpts of this interview appear at the end of Chapter 8 in Deep Justice. Lina Thompson is a friend and the National Director of Training for World Vision US.
Courtesy: Center for Youth and Family Ministry
+ CYFM Deep Justice resource page
+ Note: I was privileged to contribute [...]
Monday Morning MP3 (Tuesday edition)
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008The Church on the Frontier of Racial Tension, Martin Luther King, Jr., at Southern Seminary (1961)
In honor of King Day, here’s an MP3 from a speech 32-year-old Dr. King gave at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, challenging Southern Baptists and evangelicals of all stripes to embrace racial reconciliation in a post-colonial world, seven years before his [...]
Living Down to Stereotypes
Friday, April 27th, 2007Stereotypes rob people of their dignity. They cause prejudgments and misunderstandings and constrain how we and others think about who we are and why we exist. People who care about people constantly fight against stereotypes, their own and others.
That’s why it’s so painful to watch people live down to them.
Last night at the [...]
"He knows that we know his leadership lacks integrity"
Friday, April 13th, 2007Jason Whitlock on Rev. Al and the Imus melodrama (watch on CBS News if YouTube video doesn’t work).
UPDATE
More class from Coach Vivian Stringer and the Rutgers basketball team.
Rutgers women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer said Friday the team had accepted radio host Don Imus’ apology. She said he deserves a chance to move on [...]
A contrast in race matters
Thursday, April 12th, 2007Fortunately, Rev. Al’s reactionary racial motiff isn’t the only option for those who care about reconciliation and justice. Contrast his hypocritical bombast with the humble determination of North Park University Professor Soong-Chan Rah. HT: Peter Ong and Jesus Creed.
For good measure, another link to Ed Gilbreath of Reconciliation Blues. And [...]
Thoughts on Race, Rap, Duke, Imus, and Rev. Al
Thursday, April 12th, 2007First, the disclaimers.
1. I am not an Imus fan.
2. His comments last week were racist, sexist, and typical of his show.
3. He should have been fired a long time ago.
Next, the ironies (hypocrisies).
1. MSNBC fired Imus the same day last year’s rush-to-judgment, race-fueled charges against the Duke lacrosse players were completely [...]
Who’s most responsible for true beauty?
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007In January, I posted this tragic video for the first time.
In light of Don Imus’ racist rant against the Rutgers women’s basketball team last week and the resulting controversy, I wonder who’s more responsible for the current climate that could cause black girls to express themselves as they do in that video? Are [...]
The Ministry of Reconciliation: A Tribute to Oscar Romero
Monday, February 19th, 2007Much love and appreciation to Rev. Dr. Alfred Cockfield and his wife Linette Savory-Cockfield of God’s Battalion of Prayer Church in Flatbush, Brooklyn, for inviting me to preach at their Black History Month “Celebration of Latin America” service last night. Congregational members from Cuba, Costa Rica, and Panama helped us glimpse the flavor of [...]
Something the Lord Made
Saturday, February 17th, 2007SOMETHING THE LORD MADE is the story of two men - an ambitious white surgeon and a gifted black carpenter turned lab technician - who defied the racial strictures of the Jim Crow South and together pioneered the field of heart surgery. Mos Def breaks the rapper-turned-actor mold in a star-making performance as Vivien [...]
How can we be friends?
Friday, February 2nd, 2007A must read: Reconciliation Blues by Edward Gilbreath, the first African American staff reporter at Christianity Today. His insights about the state of race relations within evangelicalism are excerpted here. One story he tells reminds me of my own experience at a lilly-white evangelical conference, as told in “Losing Races: A Dream Deferred” [...]
A Girl Like Me
Monday, January 29th, 2007Well, uh, not exactly like me. But like Kiri Davis, a 17-year old New York City high school student whose short film has caused a sensation at film festivals around the country and reignited a debate about race.
Fifty years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case desegregated schools, Kiri decided [...]