Wednesday That Breonna Taylor’s family is receiving a $12 million settlement and the promise of police reform following her wrongful shooting by Louisville police is in part a testimony to Black Lives Matters protests and other instances of public pressure. Without them, we might not even know her name. With that in mind, I return […]
Tag Archives: police brutality
Battling Our Inner Darkness
Terry Pratchett’s “Thud!” deals with violence–both the violence we are witnessing around us and the violent thoughts these call up within ourselves. It helps explain police brutality.
From God’s Breath to “I Can’t Breathe”
Wednesday This past Juneteenth I was flipping through channels and caught MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell quoting James Weldon Johnson’s “Creation.” It was a moving application of poetry to this important moment in time. Mitchell was referring to George Floyd’s plaintive cry “I can’t breathe” before he was suffocated by Minneapolis police. Johnson’s poem, she said, reminds […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Creation", Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, James Weldon Johnson Comments closed
Cops’ Invisible Disciplinary Records
There’s a thrill in acting with impunity. Bad cops know this and so does H.G. Wells’s invisible man.
Sartre Captures White Privilege
Sartre’s “Respectful Prostitute” captures many of the race dynamics of our current situation.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Jean Paul Sartre, racism, Respectful Prostitute, white privilege Comments closed
In Aeneid, It’s the Wives Who Riot
The riots in the wake of George Floyd’s death recall for me the wives rioting in the Aeneid–another neglected and long-suffering group who are fed up.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aeneid, George Floyd, Minneapolis riots, racism, Virgil Comments closed
When the Police Target Black Women
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.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alice Walker, Black Lives Matter, Color Purple, Daniel Holtzclaw, Sandra Bland Comments closed
Protesting Baltimore’s Racial Divide
The racial divide we are currently seeing in Baltimore was noted by Countee Cullen in 1925.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Incident", Baltimore, Countee Cullen, killing of unarmed black men, racism, social unrest Comments closed
