Tag archives: slavery

Slavery Today?
By Robert Bernstein   |   January 30, 2024

My recent article on slavery, abortion and states’ rights promised a follow-up. This is it. My college lady friend was volunteering at a community medical clinic in 1981 for her pre-med program. The clinic was in a very poor minority neighborhood. They educated the volunteers and patients about the history of oppression as part of […]

States’ Rights for Slavery and Abortion?
By Robert Bernstein   |   January 16, 2024

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley was asked by a voter in Berlin, New Hampshire, “What was the cause of the United States Civil War?” She treated it as some kind of trick question. After three rounds back and forth, she never mentioned the word “slavery.” Obviously, she did not want to alienate racists in her base. […]

Reparations 101: A Path Through Our Division
By James Joyce III   |   February 22, 2022

It was towards the end of Black History Month in 2019. Coffee with a Black Guy (CWABG) was hosting our first community conversation in a yearlong collaboration with the Lois and Walter Capps Project (now the Common Table Foundation). More people were gathered for this event than any of the previously convened conversations since launching […]

Are We Really Free?
By Ashleigh Brilliant   |   December 7, 2021

None of us is really free — nor would any thinking person really want to be. We are captives in our bodies and our minds. We are victims of all kinds of circumstances we cannot control – the weather — world events — the whims of natural catastrophes, and the mysterious fact of our own […]

The Incredible Jerry Forney
By Hattie Beresford   |   July 9, 2020

I have to say, when I first heard his story, it read like tall tale or legend, much like the stories of Paul Bunyan and John Henry. Bigger than life heroes, for sure; so the skeptical side of me decided to do some fact checking. What I discovered, despite the erroneous claim that he was […]

Our Forefathers, Forecasters? Forthright?
By Gwyn Lurie   |   July 9, 2020

I wrote this letter July 4th-5th, 2020. Growing up, Independence Day was one of my favorite holidays. It was a celebration of the strong shoulders upon which this great nation was built; a celebration of the principles our Founding Fathers fought for and a celebration of the Founding Fathers themselves. The food was great and […]

Juneteenth: A Holiday that Matters
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   June 25, 2020

We are writing this piece on June 19, 2020, and wanted to wish everyone Happy Juneteenth! For many of our readers, this might be the first year you’ve heard about the holiday called Juneteenth, but it’s been celebrated around parts of the United States since 1886, with more and more people celebrating it each year. […]

Half Slave, Half Free
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   June 11, 2020

The two original sins of this nation are the systematic genocide of Native Americans and slavery. Both were the result of overt racism which has become so imbedded in our culture that we’re now left with only this choice: either be racist, or be anti-racist. There is no longer any middle ground. It’s not going […]