The intersections of systemic violence in the US

  The intersection of environmental injustice and policing can be seen on Rikers Island, New York City’s most notorious jail complex, which is built on a landfill and surrounded by polluting infrastructure. Roughly 90 percent of those behind bars in Rikers are people of color, and they have long suffered extreme summer heat, flooding, and...

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream…

Between career changes and the climate crisis, dog grooming and drone assassinations—dealing with the mundanities of life while the world turns sometimes feels like a gentle trip down a stream with a crashing waterfall at the end. While my particular trip may be placid for now, I can see what’s at the end. I don’t...

Little Milestones Mark the Path of Big Change

As a relatively new scholar and even newer attorney, I often struggle to understand what kind of a difference my efforts make in the world. I look at renowned scholars, activists, and civil rights attorneys and sigh at how little I've done in comparison. My writing hasn't been cited in SCOTUS decisions, I haven't litigated...

I am not a liberal and hope I never become one.

"The difference between a liberal and a progressive is that a liberal is open to everyone’s views; a progressive is as narrow-minded and judgmental (more?) than any conservative." — Doug Reitsch, Pharmacist at Kamilche Pharmacy in Shelton, WA According to this myopic internet definition, being “open to everyone’s views” is good and something people should...

Muhammad Ali and Other Black Celebrities Didn’t ‘Transcend Race’

Transcending is a perpetual one-way street for black people, yet famous white people like Antonin Scalia, David Bowie and Merle Haggard weren’t asked to transcend their whiteness for black people to recognize their importance. They didn’t have to transcend being Italian-American, British or an Okie from Muskogee. They were just accepted for being who they...

#ReclaimMLK and the legacy of the real Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the light of King's powerful demagogic speech. ... We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro, and national security. —FBI Director William C. Sullivan, Enemies: A History of the FBI Today the...