Tag Archives: Black Lives Matter

Time to Revisit “I Have a Dream”

By Robin Bates | Published: June 6, 2020

Given the protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death, it’s worth revisiting King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, with its synthesis of civil rights and religious vision.

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Brecht Explains Castile Shooting

By Robin Bates | Published: July 6, 2017

To understand why cops continue to shoot innocent people of color and why juries acquit them, Brecht has the definitive explanation in his play “The Exception and the Rule.”

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Toni Morrison’s Caution about Black Anger

By Robin Bates | Published: July 11, 2016

The killer of the Dallas policemen is not unlike Guitar in Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon.” Through Guitar, Morrison shows how black anger is corrupted by violence. She also shows, through the novel’s protagonist (Milkman), how black resolve is stronger than anger and can soar above the earth.

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Homer’s Warning about Revenge Killings

By Robin Bates | Published: July 10, 2016

What will it take to bring peace between police and black communities? Homer has a vision of such a truce at the end of “The Odyssey” but it may not be realistic.

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When the Police Target Black Women

By Robin Bates | Published: December 21, 2015

If 2014 saw police victimization of black men, 2015 revealed some police victimization of black women. Alice Walker’s “Color Purple” warned us about this decades ago.

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Ellison’s Elegy for Innocent Police Victims

By Robin Bates | Published: October 12, 2015

The Invisible Man’s eloquent funeral elegy for his friend Tod Clifton, shot by a policeman, could be delivered over any of the unarmed black men who have been shot by police and vigilantes in recent years. It is relevant again as the city of Cleveland seeks to blame 12-year-old Tamir Rice for his death.

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Bernie, Black Lives Matter, & Invisible Man

By Robin Bates | Published: October 5, 2015

Bernie Sanders’s early missteps with Black Lives Matter, which bewildered him and his followers, is explained in Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man.”

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