May 17Africatown Redemption Voyage-Reclaiming What Was Lost“Old pirates, yes, they rob I/ Sold I to the merchant ships/ Minutes after they took I/ From the bottomless pit/ But my hand was made strong/ By the hand of the Almighty/ We forward in this generation/ Triumphantly/… Won’t you help to sing/ These songs of freedom?/ ’Cause all…Redemption Voyage9 min readRedemption Voyage9 min read
May 17Listening to the AncestorsHere in Plateau, Alabama, the group stops at the entrance of the Africatown Cemetery and one elder Black woman shakes her head. She speaks solemnly: “Something is not right; the ancestors are not happy.” She tells us: The ancestors are speaking; they say: “We are calling you. Listen.” When elder…Africatown4 min readAfricatown4 min read
May 1Hispanics/Latinos Beware — Becoming a “Race” is Not All ThatHispanics/Latinos/Latinx — BEWARE As recently as 2022, Pew Center for Research noted that approximately 25% of Latino/a/x/e’s self-identified as Afrolatin, and among those 1/3 identified as Black, effectively 4–6 million self-idenified in the U.S. In changing the Categorizations, it will severely hamper any further opportunity we, the Afrolatinx community has…Afro Latino10 min readAfro Latino10 min read
Feb 16How the Diversity Profession Has Fu*ked/Failed Black Women and Other Non-white PeopleI am pissed off and decided to write about how Black women and other nonwhites have been fu*kedb/ failed by the Diversity profession and leadership in corporations, nonprofits, and academia. It is my up close and very personal reaction to a #LinkedIN posting. …Diversity7 min readDiversity7 min read
Jan 25Zora Neale Hurston on My Mind: ‘Claiming Her Space’ Beyond the Shadows of AnthropologyI count myself among that generation of Black anthropologists and writers strongly influenced by Zora’s example. I cannot say that I followed Zora’s path consciously. Nor can I say for sure now whether it was Zora who brought me to Florida to teach in the anthropology department at the University…Zora Neale Hurston10 min readZora Neale Hurston10 min read
Oct 20, 2022Daniel Prude and the Price of Black Lives — Is $12M Enough?My family needs to heal, and communities need to know that there will be at least some accountability when police kill people like my dad, whose only crime was needing help.” Nathanial McFarland (son of Daniel Prude) Exactly two months and two days (March 23, 2020) before the murder of…Daniel Prude4 min readDaniel Prude4 min read
Aug 23, 2022No Safe Space for Black Women Globally: Brittney Griner & Russia’s Anti-Blackness & Anti-American RulingThe guilty judgment against Brittney Griner, WNBA Basketball player, cements the reality of anti-blackness as a global phenomenon (https://apple.news/ATrcxXgVfQwWpzN3hUZU1uQ). It is also a commentary on the state-of-affairs of American-Russian diplomatic relations. Had Brittney been a “blondie”, would the United States have acted sooner to rescue her? We have witnessed time…Brittney Griner7 min readBrittney Griner7 min read
May 21, 2022The Buffalo, NY Massacre and the Unspeakable Horror of White Hatred in AmericaWhat happened in Buffalo, New York on May 14, 2022 is further evidence that the disease of racism has resurfaced in the United States with a vengeance and passion. We have not witnessed such despicable acts of white supremacy since slavery, since lynching became a sport during post-Reconstruction, since white…Buffalo Ny Massacre10 min readBuffalo Ny Massacre10 min read
Dec 26, 2021Umoja: Rest in Power Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931–2021)Image: https://www.tutulegacy.com/#GallerySection. “…a living embodiment of faith in action, speaking boldly against racism, injustice, corruption, and oppression, not just in apartheid South Africa but wherever in the world he saw wrongdoing. …” Desmond Tutu Foundation (https://www.tutulegacy.com/message). The quiet death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu this morning (December 26) gives us pause…Desmond Tutu3 min readDesmond Tutu3 min read
Published inZORA·Dec 16, 2021Member-onlyOde to bell hookssista bell hooks, to you, we owe an enormous debt that can never really be repaid in full. You fed our minds, gave us concepts like Black Feminism to chew on, masticate, then swallow like a snake consuming the whole body of its prey. We ingested your words, your radical…Bell Hooks2 min readBell Hooks2 min read