Category: Racial Justice

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Trump’s Greatest Threat is to the Idea of Civilized Life Itself

  By Fascism, Philosophy, Political philosophy, Racial Justice, White Supremacy and Structural Racism

To understand Trump and his politics and what we have to do to stop it, we must recognize that he is ultimately a threat to the central idea of human political and social achievement, that human beings do better when everyone is included and our aim is the collective good of all. Let me start with one example, and then return to this general point. There is an interesting and complicated discussion in Machiavelli’s Discourses about whether it is better, when one is in a conflict with another state, to fight abroad or at home. There is a lot to be said on both sides when it comes to conventional war. But when it comes to dealing with infectious disease, isn’t it obvious that it’s better to fight abroad? That is, we protect our own citizens from infectious diseases by helping other countries contain outbreaks of them in their own… Continue reading

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The Fourth of July and Frederick Douglas

  By Philosophy, Racial Justice, White Supremacy and Structural Racism

I’ve re-read and posted Frederick Douglas’ essay, What To The Slave is the Fourth of July, every year for the last seven or eight years reasons I explain below. It’s one of the most important pieces of political writing by any American. It’s never been more important as a reminder of the original sin of our country, racism. But this year, I’m sad to say that it’s also never been more questionable because the end of Douglas’s piece is a paean to the ideals of the Enlightenment and their power to overcome the darkness of racism and bigotry. That power is fading before us. We need to do everything we can to restore it, before it is too late. I’m going to leave the rest of what I usually write about the text here, even though I’m far less confident than I’ve ever been that we can live up to… Continue reading

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No “Buts”—Really Seeing White Supremacy in America

  By Racial Justice, US, White Supremacy and Structural Racism

Prefatory note: I start more writing projects than I can finish and usually have 20 or 30 half-finished pieces that I’m waiting to complete at the right moment. This seemed the right time to finish and post this one on racial justice. There is nothing new here at all. But it seems important for white people to be talking about these issues at this moment. My colleagues in the State Directors Racial Equity workgroup of the State Priorities Project State Directors helped me immensely with the hard thinking and personal reflection that led to this piece. Of them, I particularly want to thank James Jimenez of New Mexico, a great colleague and friend who contributed in many ways to this piece. I’ve been part of a group of directors of organizations that parallel mine who came together to better understand how racial equity should fit into our work. And those… Continue reading

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Blinders

  By Racial Justice

One of Stu Bykofsky’s charming friends said to me on Facebook last night, “Are you blind?”’ Since laugh icons come easily to his friend and reasoned arguments come hard, I’m not exactly sure what he thinks I was blind to. But I suppose he thinks I’m blind to the random looting and torching of police cars in Center City. I’m not. I don’t approve of crime of any kind. I don’t like seeing shops torn apart and businesses hurt, even if they are no doubt well insured. And I don’t think that random looting and attacks on police cars (or police officers) is a useful political tactic for those of us who care about putting an end to racist police violence. But, unlike the hysterical old bedwetter Bykofsky and his friends, I don’t think it is the end of the civilized world. And I understand the anger with continuing police… Continue reading

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I Was HOJO Girl Number 14

  By About me, Feminism, Racial Justice, White Supremacy and Structural Racism

                      At the start of the summer of 1973, the year after my parents sold our hotel where I worked every summer from the time I was 11 to 16, I needed a job. When the new owners of the hotel called our house to ask where the switches were to turn on the lamp posts on the sidewalks, I said would work for them as a handyman which is what I had done at the hotel, among other things,  for two summers. I did have the capacity to fix many things, especially plumbing, and I knew the physical plant of the hotel. But they wouldn’t pay me the $125 a week I asked for so I need another alternative. Since I had some experience in the dining room and my cousin and some of her and my friends worked… Continue reading

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Why Black Lives Matter Matters

  By Racial Justice

Written for JSPAN and Originally posted on the Jewish Social Policy Action Network website as WHY BLACK LIVES MATTER MATTERS TO JSPAN Prologue In the aftermath of the controversial deaths of Black men and women at the hands of sworn officers of the law in Ferguson, Missouri; Staten Island, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Charleston, South Carolina; Baltimore, Maryland; Waller County, Texas; and elsewhere, a national movement called Black Lives Matter has risen in protest against injustice against African Americans. JSPAN’s Aim Black Lives Matter is a diverse, national movement, with many centers of activism across the country that have different goals and purposes. JSPAN cannot endorse every statement, idea, perspective, analysis, or policy proposal that flies under the banner of that movement. But, there is a long history of injustice against Blacks in America, a history that, contrary to the views of many, is not over. And there… Continue reading

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Why protests continue at the Valley Swim Club

  By Racial Justice

There are reports that The Valley Swim Club is offering the Creative Steps Day Camp an opportunity to return. I know nothing more than what is being reported in the Daily News at http://tinyurl.com/moea74. That’s a good first step. But I don’t know whether the club has offered an apology for its actions or is willing to take other steps to undo the harm it has caused. In the meantime, while things remain unsettled, the pastors, and people in the neighborhood, and those of us who have been organizing protests to this point, believe they should continue. Continue reading

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Next Protest: Saturday July 11 12:00 Noon

  By Racial Justice

First the critical news: Protests at The Valley Swim Club will continue Saturday, July 11, at 12:00 noon at 22 Tomlinson Road, Huntingdon Valley. Please join us. Yesterday about 45 people joined at various times in a hastily planned protest that lasted for a number of hours. We stood and marched around the entrance to the swim club chanting “Jim Crow Swims Here” and “No Justice, No Peace.” I was really gratified to see that most of the people protesting came from in the neighborhood. There were about four or five of us from West Mt. Airy. Continue reading

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Protest racism at the valley swim club today 5:30 pm.

  By Racial Justice

You may have read or heard or yesterday that a Huntingdon Valley swim club decided to cancel an agreement with a Northeast Philadelphia day camp to allow campers to swim at the club two time a week because, the black campers would “change the complexion…and atmosphere of the club.” Kids who came to swim were summarily asked to leave the pool and told not to come back? What is there to say to decent people about the existence of blatant racism in this day and age? It’s grossly immoral. It’s enormously ignorant. It’s a throwback to days most of us hoped were long gone. And it can’t be allowed to stand without legal action and protest. Not to stand up and say that this sort of behavior is beyond the pale, is to allow it, and the attitudes behind it, to survive one more day. Continue reading