The Burden of Having to Stay Excellent There are times when being Black in America can feel like being asked to remain excellent while somebody keeps moving the goalposts. We are expected to walk into the room prepared, polished, professional, strategic, calm, and confident no matter what is happening around us. We are told to
When the Goalposts Keep Moving Read More »
A Young Woman With Everything in Front of Her Every now and then, I learn about a talented Black performer from years ago and wonder why later generations barely know their name. Sheila Guyse is one of those performers who deserves another look. At one time, her future seemed full of possibilities. She had beauty,
Sheila Guyse: The Star Who Was Supposed to Be Next Read More »
When Having Less Costs More The older I get, the more I understand something about poverty that sounds backward until you look closely at how America works. Sometimes having less money actually makes ordinary life cost more. A person with savings can absorb an emergency, while somebody living paycheck to paycheck may have to borrow
The High Price of Being Poor Read More »
When Chaos Starts Feeling Normal I have come to understand that a person can live under pressure for so long that pressure starts feeling normal. Chaos becomes familiar, stress becomes expected, and struggle becomes part of the daily routine. You wake up preparing for trouble before trouble has even shown its face. After enough years
When Survival Mode Becomes a Way of Life Read More »
Quiet Should Never Be Confused With Weakness I heard a saying that stopped me for a minute: “Just because I’m laid-back doesn’t mean I won’t lean forward.” There is a whole lot of wisdom packed inside those few words. Some people have a habit of mistaking a calm personality for weakness. They see somebody who
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When History Is Written in the Body The more I learn about African American history, the more I realize that some of our story survived outside courthouses and history books. For more than two centuries, slavery controlled where millions of Black people lived, worked, and raised their families. It also separated families and forced people
What Our DNA Remembers: Slavery, Ancestry, and the Great Migration Read More »
Coming Home Is Not the Same as Being Free One thing people do not always understand is that walking out of prison does not mean prison immediately walks out of you. A man can come home, hug his family, sleep in his own bed, and still feel locked up somewhere inside his mind. I heard
Prison Does Not Always End When the Gate Opens Read More »
The Date Is Only the Doorway When people hear the word Juneteenth, many immediately think of June 19, 1865, and that date absolutely matters. That was the day Union Major General Gordon Granger announced in Galveston, Texas, that enslaved people were free under General Order No. 3. The announcement came more than two years after
Juneteenth Is More Than a Date Read More »
When Artemis II Came Home When I watched the story of Artemis II unfold, I saw more than another successful NASA mission. I saw another reminder that Black achievement in science and technology did not begin yesterday. Artemis II carried four astronauts around the Moon and safely returned them to Earth on April 10, 2026.
Black Excellence Was Never a DEI Experiment Read More »
The Warning That Caught My Attention When I first hear somebody say, “Goodbye Zelle, goodbye PayPal, goodbye Venmo,” I understand why the message gets people’s attention. Money is personal, and anything involving the federal government and our bank accounts deserves careful examination. The claim is that FedNow will eventually become the funnel through which practically
FedNow, Digital Money, and the Fear of Losing Control Read More »