With his poem “I am Somebody,” Jesse Jackson bolstered Black children. Lucille Clifton’s poems are similarly uplifting.
Sign up for my weekly newsletter
Tag Archives: racism
Using Lit to Grapple with Racism
In which I look back at how I’ve grappled with racism over the years, along with the books that have helped me do so.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "note to self", Invisible Man, Lucille Clifton, Morehouse College, Ralph Ellison, St. Mary's College of Maryland Comments closed
Historical Fiction Is about the Present
Two recent historical novels, about Irish Boston and Bleeding Kansas, capture today’s tumult and they look backward.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bleeding Kansas, Civil War, Dennis Lehane, forced busing, integration, Small Mercies, Surrection, Will Martin Comments closed
Normalizing Nooses and Swastikas
The Coast Guard recently attempted to soften rules against swastikas and nooses before retreating. These lynching poems remind us what is at stake.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Strange Fruit", Abel Meeropol, Beloved, Claude McKay, Holocaust, lynching, lynchings, MAGA Comments closed
Military Service and the American Dream
Veterans of color, as Silko reveals in her novel “Ceremony,” often experience a disconnect between the military’s ideals and the country’s.
Morrison’s Healthy Response to Trauma
Stephen King (IT) and Toni Morrison (Beloved) show how we can live in thrall to our fears but also how we can move past them.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beloved, buried trauma, It, Stephen King, Toni Morrison, uncanny Comments closed
MAGA Seeks to Erase Scourged Backs
Trump and MAGA want to erase America’s slave past, including the image “Scourged Back.” Morrison’s “Beloved,” another art work featuring a scourged back, is also under attack.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beloved, MAGA history, Scourged Back, slavery, Toni Morrison Comments closed
My Life in Lit – Segregation
In which I recount growing up in segregated Tennessee and recount the books that helped me cope.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Harper Lee, Huckleberry Finn, integration, Mark Twain, May Justus, New Boy in School, segregation, To Kill a Mockingbird Comments closed
Shaw’s Don Juan in MAGA America
Shaw’s play “Don Juan in Hell” came to mind when I visited the du Pont museum, featuring their gunpowder business.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Dante, Don Juan in Hell, George Bernard Shaw, Inferno, Jesse Ball du Pont, MAGA, Man and Superman, white supremacy Comments closed