We’re all witness to a lot of fragility right now. It’s on our TV screens, in our former high school friend’s Facebook posts, on the timeline of that person you followed on Twitter because they said something funny that one time. We have become accustomed to the prevalence of this fragility throughout US culture and… Continue reading Why So Fragile, America?
Category: Whiteness
The Buck Stops Here
“Why can’t we all just get along? I didn’t do anything personally to cause oppression, so why would you call me an oppressor? You’re just stoking more racial tension by discussing racism.” Every day, these same delusional questions and statements are posited by us white folks. Every day, after centuries of racism and genocide at… Continue reading The Buck Stops Here
Rachel Dolezal and Defining Blackness
Outside of adoptions, “transracial” isn’t a thing, and race is not a social construct. Let me explain… By now, we’ve all heard of Rachel Dolezal. Yes, she is president of her local NAACP branch. Yes, she was recently outed by her white parents. Yes, she has been deceptive about her racial heritage. But transraciality doesn’t… Continue reading Rachel Dolezal and Defining Blackness
The Time I Scared a Security Guard by Being an Old White Guy
The other day I was walking through a big hotel in San Diego, on my way to give a keynote speech for a corporate event. I was the only person at the conference without an ID badge and I wondered how hard it would be to talk my way past security. I figured it would… Continue reading The Time I Scared a Security Guard by Being an Old White Guy
How to Be Beige
I was wearing my best polo shirt, baggy jeans, and gold hoops on the first day of high school. It was the perfect outfit for a ninth grader at the large New Jersey school I should have been attending, surrounded by all of my childhood friends, but a terrible choice for the suburban New England… Continue reading How to Be Beige
On Appropriateness and Appropriation
My fellow white men, Ferguson was insane. Back then, I split my time between New York City and North Florida, so I was able to witness two very different communities responding. Predictably, the white, male, cisgendered group (of which many of us are part) in Florida substantively crushed the myth of post-racism in modern society.… Continue reading On Appropriateness and Appropriation