"You can be angry, you an be outraged, but you need to stop being surprised." That is what a retired coworker said to me one day when I was debriefing with her about a particularly frustrating discussion about racial equity in our classrooms. I had told her I was just so surprised how often so … Continue reading How This Really Ends (please, prove me wrong)
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It’s a Perfect Time to Update My Blog
So this has been an on-again, off-again thing since sometime around 2003. There used to be several of us writing - then just a couple - then just me, 17 years later. There's a lot hidden within the archives at this point, especially some multi-part projects that I really did put a lot of time … Continue reading It’s a Perfect Time to Update My Blog
To Pimp a Butterfly #5: These Walls
[This is part 5 of a longer series - previous track "Institutionalized"- next track "u" coming soon] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drV0QatqbRU I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influenceSometimes, I did the same As Kendrick Lamar adds lines to his poem through the course of To Pimp a Butterfly, he explores different aspects of his journey away from … Continue reading To Pimp a Butterfly #5: These Walls
To Pimp a Butterfly #4: Institutionalized
[This is part 4 of a longer series - previous track "King Kunta"- next track "These Walls"] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqzWyq_aBfc I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence A technical term to describe what happens over tracks 4-10 is a "cumulative tale," like the nursery rhymes "this is the house that Jack built" or "I know an … Continue reading To Pimp a Butterfly #4: Institutionalized
To Pimp a Butterfly #3: King Kunta
[This is part 3 of a longer series - previous track "For Free?"- next track "Institutionalized"] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRK7PVJFbS8 If To Pimp a Butterfly were a movie, "King Kunta" would be the close of Act I. Sound-wise, the first three songs share a common up-beat energy: they're all relatively rhythmic, brash in terms of their use of … Continue reading To Pimp a Butterfly #3: King Kunta
To Pimp A Butterfly #2: “For Free? Interlude”
[This is part 2 of a longer series - previous track "Wesley's Theory" - next track "King Kunta"] "For Free?" is labelled as an "interlude," and though it does have the feel of skit that goes between two more properly formed songs, what happens on this track is much more than a transition. Under cover … Continue reading To Pimp A Butterfly #2: “For Free? Interlude”
To Pimp a Butterfly – #1: Wesley’s Theory
[This is part 1 of a longer series - next track "For Free?"] For a few years now I've listened to To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar's 2015 masterpiece, with my junior English classes. I have learned a lot about music, about the experiences of both Kendrick and of my students, as well as a … Continue reading To Pimp a Butterfly – #1: Wesley’s Theory
Something Nelson Mandela Taught Me about The United States
Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher Growing up in white suburban America in the 80's, I thought I knew some things about South Africa. Mostly I was taught that there was something called "apartheid" there and that it was bad (though I was not taught that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher both did what they could … Continue reading Something Nelson Mandela Taught Me about The United States
The Overstory – A Study in White Environmentalism
White environmentalism is a thing. I know I'm not the first to say that, but as I read over The Overstory, Richard Powers' in some ways majestic, and in other ways, deeply problematic 2018 environmental epic of trees, I got a clearer and clearer picture of what white environmentalism is and what some of its problems are. … Continue reading The Overstory – A Study in White Environmentalism
James Baldwin – The Evidence of Things Not Seen
This is - I believe anyway - the last book James Baldwin wrote and published before his death. There are lots of other incomplete manuscripts and unpublished materials, but this is a full essay. It's about a series of murders of black children in Atlanta in the early 1980's. Its foremost project is to problematize … Continue reading James Baldwin – The Evidence of Things Not Seen
Original Positions 