The Symbols We Carry Every Day I have handled dollar bills most of my life without giving much thought to all those symbols printed on the back. There is an eagle, an unfinished pyramid, an eye above that pyramid, Latin phrases, stars, arrows, and an olive branch. Once you start looking closely, I can understand
What Are We Really Looking at on the Dollar Bill? Read More »
Whiteness Was More Than Skin Color One thing history taught me is that race in America has never been as simple as looking at somebody’s skin and deciding where they belong. The meaning of whiteness developed over time through law, politics, immigration, labor, property, and social custom. People we now casually place inside one racial
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The Argument Behind the Casting Every so often, a casting decision becomes about much more than a movie. Suddenly, people are debating history, race, cultural ownership, and who gets to represent the ancient world. The controversy over the possibility of Lupita Nyong’o portraying Helen of Troy raises those kinds of questions. Some people see a
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The Question Behind the Argument I keep coming back to a difficult question about race, law, and American democracy. For generations, openly discriminatory laws created damage that did not simply disappear when those laws changed. So how does a society repair that damage when some efforts to correct it can also be challenged as discriminatory?
When the Remedy for Discrimination Gets Called Discrimination Read More »
The Foundation of Character I once heard it said that courage may be the most important of all the virtues because without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue consistently. The older I get, the more sense that makes to me. Anybody can be kind when kindness costs them nothing. Anybody can tell the truth
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A Traffic Stop Can Change Quickly I have learned that some of the most ordinary questions can carry more weight than we realize, especially during a traffic stop. An officer may walk up to the window and casually ask, “Where are you coming from tonight?” To most people, that sounds like harmless conversation, and our
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The Idea of the “Dark Empath” I had heard people talk about empaths, and Lord knows I had heard plenty about narcissists. Then I came across another term that caught my attention: the “dark empath.” At first, it sounded like a person who understood other people’s feelings but used that understanding in the wrong way.
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A Different Kind of Education I have learned over the years that education does not always come from a classroom. Some of our most important lessons come from family, neighborhoods, workplaces, churches, the military, and the difficult situations we face in life. People who come up around the streets can develop a sharp understanding of
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What I Came to Understand About Education The older I get, the more I understand that education is about much more than what happens inside a classroom. We are usually taught that you go to college to earn a degree, learn a profession, and hopefully find yourself a good job. All of that is true,
Proximity Has Power: Sometimes the Education Is Bigger Than the Classroom Read More »
The Interview Is One Stop, Not the Destination One lesson I have learned about looking for work is that we can give one interview entirely too much power over our emotions. We walk into that room hoping this particular company will recognize our experience, ability, and potential. We prepare our answers, put on our best
Keep It Moving: Never Let One Job Interview Hold Your Future Hostage Read More »