Politics and its Discontents

Most nights, after watching a half-hour of American news,  my presence at the dinner table is suffused with cynicism and disgust. Tales of v...

If you don't know the tragic story of Emmett Till, you can click here to read something I posted about him a few years back. It is the ...

JAMES BALDWIN addresses the University Of Cambridge during his epochal debate with William F. Buckley in 1965. Oratory and content of the v...

Fate can be cruel. It is not unheard of to be going about, minding one's own business, when a person of unknown provenance accosts you a...

  Interestingly, that is exactly what Marlon Brando was talking about in 1972, when he refused the Oscar for Best Actor (The Godfather). H...

  I am one who firmly believes that far too many people are far too easily offended today, whether it is reflected in demands to tear down s...

Education. Well, it's part of the answer anyway. And the question? How does society mount a serious effort to combat racism in its many ...

Now that the U.S. has announced its land borders will be open to vaccinated Canadians sometime in November, many, especially snowbirds, are ...

  There is a scene in the 1960 movie, Inherit the Wind , (about the Scopes Monkey Trial) where Spencer Tracey and Frederic March, courtroom ...

Recent events here have served to amply remind all of us that, as Canadians, we do not walk on the side of the angels. However, events south...

Although we are fast-approaching the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre , I am almost ashamed to admit that I knew absolutely noth...

I'm not entirely sure why these things bother me so much, but I suspect it has a lot to do with my hope and expectation that Canadians ...

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird , Atticus Finch famously tells his daughter Scout, "You never really understand a person until you c...

Almost two years ago I wrote a series of posts on racism, starting with the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy horribly tor...

Georgia State Representative Erica Thomas was subjected to a vicious racist verbal assault while shopping. Painful to watch, it once againt ...

In light of the rampant racism that seems to be engulfing Western nations, John Lewis utters words we all need to hear. I know racism when...

Colin Kaepernick is someone I admire. As previously noted in this blog , the former NFL player, whose decision to protest police brutalit...

Colin Kaepernick, the young NFL quarterback about whom I have previously posted , has shown remarkable integrity and fortitude dealing wi...

On August 28, 1955, Emmett Till was murdered in a horrific racist crime that reverberated throughout the world. In April of this year, Jaz...

In Part 1 , I discussed the murder of Emmett Till, the exoneration of his murderers, and the tactics used by the racists of 1955 Mississip...