“Could you send us an article?” Andrew Sullivan, the editor of the New Republic asked in a phone call. He was responding to a letter about how as a college instructor, I’d observed that I wasn’t sure young black men wanted to take advantage of the academic help being offered. I kept my voice calm. “Sure,” I said. Maybe this was my big break.

“Could you send us an article?” Andrew Sullivan, the editor of the New Republic asked in a phone call. He was responding to a letter about how as a college instructor, I’d observed that I wasn’t sure young black men wanted to take advantage of the academic help being offered. I kept my voice calm. “Sure,” I said. Maybe this was my big break. My writer’s group would have said, “You can’t say that racist thing,” but I’d quit going. Sullivan did not berate me. He ignored me. When I called to follow

The current crisis concerning policing is so multifaceted that it threatens to overwhelm and immobilize us. What are the root causes? In what order do we address them?

The current crisis concerning policing is so multifaceted that it threatens to overwhelm and immobilize us. What are the root causes? In what order do we address them? But this is no time for collective handwringing or causal inertia, no time for doing nothing until we can do everything. A small piece of our problem is the legal concept of "qualified immunity." We can address it now. It is a start. Let us begin. "Qualified" immunity is actually a misnomer. A judicially created concept, it

When my two sons were little boys, we lived in a very diverse Southern California community, where the local gas station displayed what was considered the largest American flag in the world.

When my two sons were little boys, we lived in a very diverse Southern California community, where the local gas station displayed what was considered the largest American flag in the world. My younger son Jordan was in preschool at the time and very proud of himself for knowing how to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Still learning the words, of course, he already knew the flag was a symbol of our country, that we needed to respect our country and our flag, that we took care of our things and

I had trouble digesting history classes in high school.

I had trouble digesting history classes in high school. I had no appetite for massive platefuls of dates and names … a chronology of events that I was forced to memorize. Those classes are history now. Ha-ha. Gone but not completely forgotten. Even now I feel pressure to never forget the significance of 1776. I still have trouble thinking in terms of dates. But there is something notable about all those names on that history plate. Yes, history buffs. Time and place are important. But if I were

“Black Lives Matter” is not just an expression, it is a fundamental truism in any fair society. It's deeply resonant because of the inherent and systemic injustice and violence that remains prevalent, and particularly commonplace in police forces around the country. But racists, in their willful ignorance, just don’t see it. Most racists probably don’t even know that they are racists.

“Black Lives Matter” is not just an expression, it is a fundamental truism in any fair society. It's deeply resonant because of the inherent and systemic injustice and violence that remains prevalent, and particularly commonplace in police forces around the country. But racists, in their willful ignorance, just don’t see it. Most racists probably don’t even know that they are racists. In 1903 W.E.B DuBois wrote “Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.”