The Race Did Not Start Fairly Imagine one runner starting a race 100 meters ahead. Changing the rules later does not remove that head start. In the same way, equal rules today do not erase the effects of past unfair treatment. The Monopoly Example Imagine joining a Monopoly game after the best properties are already
Equal Rules, Unequal Starting Points Read More »
The Color of Law Changes the Way You See the Map One of the most important things The Color of Law forces us to confront is that residential segregation in America was not simply an accident. Richard Rothstein argues that government policy at the federal, state, and local levels helped create and preserve many of
The GI Bill, the Suburbs, and the Black Americans Left Behind Read More »
We Have Never Agreed on the Number One thing keeps coming back to me when I think about the economic condition of Black America. We have organizations, movements, conferences, slogans, hashtags, speeches, and enough meetings to fill every ballroom in the country. What we have rarely had is one sustained national process where we sit
One Table, Real Numbers, and a Plan We Can Measure Read More »
The Stereotype Has Been Repeated Too Long One of the most damaging stories told about Black Americans is that we are somehow naturally violent and constantly killing one another. That idea gets repeated so often that some people no longer stop to question what the statistics actually say. The truth is more complicated than either
Stop Turning Black People Into a Crime Statistic Read More »
What Did We Prepare the Next Generation For? I sometimes wonder whether my generation did enough to prepare our children for the realities they would eventually have to face. A lot of Baby Boomers worked hard so their children would not struggle the way they did. We wanted better schools, safer neighborhoods, stronger careers, and
Comfort Is Not the Same as Preparation Read More »
A Champion America Barely Remembers Some stories make you uncomfortable because they expose contradictions we would rather leave alone. Cornelius Johnson’s story is one of them. He was born in Los Angeles in 1913 and grew into one of the finest high jumpers in the country. By the time he was still a teenager, his
Cornelius Johnson: A Gold Medal Between Two Worlds Read More »
The Marker I Almost Walked Past This is going to make some people uncomfortable, but it happened right here in Tampa. While I was out filming a story about the Fortune Taylor Bridge, I came across a historical marker that nearly escaped my attention. Something told me to stop, so I turned around and read
This Happened Here in Tampa Read More »
The Contradiction There is something about The Great Migration that has always bothered me because the contradiction is hard to ignore. Southern officials spent generations telling Black people that they were inferior, unwanted, and needed to know their place. Yet when Black people finally started packing their bags and leaving, many of those same communities
They Said They Did Not Want Black People, So Why Did They Stop Them From Leaving? Read More »
“There Are No Black People in El Salvador” There is an old idea repeated in El Salvador that says, in one form or another, there are no Black people here. It gets said so casually that you might think the country simply came into the world that way. But once I started digging into the
The Black People El Salvador Learned Not to See Read More »
A Debt She Could Not Pay The year was 1902, near Dadeville, Alabama, and a Black woman named Sarah Neely found herself caught inside a system much bigger than the charge against her. Sarah was arrested for larceny, taken before the local mayor, convicted, and ordered to pay a fine. On paper, this may have
Sarah Neely: Freedom in Name Only Read More »