Butterfly in the Sky “Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high.” If you grew up with Reading Rainbow, I probably do not even have to finish the rest because your mind already did it for me. There are certain sounds from childhood that can transport you back before you even realize what
LeVar Burton: Take a Bow, These Flowers Are Yours Read More »
The Sinbad I Remember There are entertainers you remember discovering, and then there are people like Sinbad who somehow seem as though they were always there. I do not remember the first time I saw him because by the time I became aware of him, he already felt familiar. I remember A Different World. I
Sinbad: Give Him His Flowers While He Is Still Here Read More »
Sixty People, Three Different Worlds Sixty people were living with serious psychotic illness and hearing voices, but those voices did not feel the same everywhere. In one study, researchers interviewed twenty people in California, twenty in Accra, Ghana, and twenty in Chennai, India. All met the study’s criteria for schizophrenia and had experienced significant disruption
Same Diagnosis, Different Voices: What Culture May Teach Us About the Mind 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 »
The Mind Is Always Looking for Patterns Human beings have something close to a superpower, although I would not describe it as supernatural. Our brains are remarkably good at recognizing patterns, connections, repetitions, and changes in the world around us. That ability helped human beings survive long before we had laboratories, textbooks, or computers. We
Pattern Recognition, Synchronicity, and the Meaning We Give to What We See Read More »
The Rule That Can Surprise You If you claim Social Security at 62 and continue working, there is an important rule you need to understand. Your earnings can affect how much of your Social Security benefit you receive before reaching full retirement age. That is something worth knowing before your paycheck and benefit checks start
Claiming Social Security at 62 While You Are Still Working Read More »
The Difference Starts With the Purpose Just like earning a bachelor’s degree and earning a master’s degree are different experiences, earning a master’s degree and earning a PhD are very different from each other. Sometimes I hear people say, “Should I just keep going and get a PhD?” and that question tells me they may
A Master’s Degree and a PhD Are Not the Same Journey Read More »
Words, Race, and Who Gets Corrected I came back to this subject because the way people judge Black speech has always stayed on my mind. Too often, the way Black people speak is treated as wrong simply because it sounds different from standard English. Some words and expressions have become strongly associated with Black culture
Black Words That Were Never Really Black Read More »
Suspicion Has a History Black people do not become suspicious every time something looks wrong because we are irrational. Sometimes suspicion grows out of history. That does not mean every suspicious death is a murder. It does not mean every official report is false. It does not mean every police department, medical examiner, sheriff, prosecutor,
Black Suspicion Did Not Begin on Social Media Read More »