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Facing Racism, Embracing Hope Part II
Slavery. Convict leasing system. Sharecropping. Jim Crow. Restrictive housing covenants. Redlining. Eugenics. War on Drugs. Vietnam. Mass incarceration. Police brutality. 400 years of continual...
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Feigning Ignorance
In my brief 33 years of living, I have come across many people of all walks and stripes – conservatives, liberals, Christians, agnostic, men, women, rich and poor – who sincerely believe that blacks...
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The Danger of North Minneapolis’ Single Story: The Way We Talk About Black...
“Show a people as one thing and only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Danger of a Single Story. Dangerous. Crime ridden. Littered with trash...
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Black Gold
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. – Psalm 139.14, NASB I know that my identity as a black woman is affirmed...
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Do We Really Want Reconciliation? Or Are We Just Conflict Averse?
Can we all just get along? If you were around in the early 1990s, you would remember this challenge posed by Rodney King, a black man who was beaten by police officers in Los Angeles. To quell the...
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3 Things I’m Thinking About in Light of Orlando
It has been exactly a year since the horrific mass shooting took place in Charleston, North Carolina. As soon as I heard about this extreme act of terrorism against black bodies, I was quick to rush to...
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What It Means to Be a Woman in a Male Dominated World
Shamed for being too vulnerable, chastised for being strong. No permission to be weak, balancing the world on your shoulders. If you refuse, it just may topple. Few take up the mantle, the burden, to...
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Your Vision of Racial Reconciliation is Inadequate
I see you. I see your facebook posts and tweets calling for racial reconciliation in light of last week’s compounding tragedies. I see your vision for unity and peace, for America to bridge the racial...
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Give Me Faith…Like a Woman
Sometimes I feel like Moses, praying you would send someone else. At times I feel like Gideon, desperately looking for a sign that you have spoken to me. On occasion I feel like Saul, hoping to...
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Feelings
Sadness. Everywhere I go, freedom escapes me. And that hurts, like a thousand paper cuts on the knuckles of the thumb. When will the pain end? When will enough be enough? Link to image >Filed under:...
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Charleston
Your oppressors forced you to carry a cross, That they fashioned with their own hands That killed your loved ones and would eventually claim you. They made you say, “Father forgive them, they know not...
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Dirt
Dirt. Ending up in places you don’t belong. Whoever thought you could be the source of so much unhappiness? What did I ever do to you? Have you come to disturb my peace? Have you come to unearth its...
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Breathe
I can’t breathe. Your unrealistic expectations are suffocating me. But you can’t hear my cries for help, Over the noise of your ego. Maybe my existence clashes with your own. But I don’t need to die,...
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Angry Black Woman
How should I compose myself? Now that you have killed my children, Raped my mother, And beat me beyond recognition? You force me to live in dilapidated housing conditions, Where the rent is higher than...
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White
They told me I was white Because I did not speak like the other black girls So I stopped talking And learned to write instead. I hid behind the written word So that no one would ever call me that...
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Where Do We Go From Here? Maintaining Faith in the Midst of Suffering
“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him. For the help of his presence.” – Psalm 42.5 After another agonizing week of...
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White Church So Silent, White Church So Complicit
*A version of this post has been posted at RaceRhetoricandReligion. On Wednesday, I awoke to the news that Bethel University’s St. Paul, Minnesota campus – the school I attended for Seminary –...
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The Bad Engagement: Never Too Late to Say No
He walked into your life 18 months ago although you’ve known him much longer. He was always the charismatic guy able to woo a crowd, you were just the socially awkward one standing up against the wall...
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Fragmented Stories: On Love, Loss and Memory
Dear Granny. I’ve always loved you. I hope you understand that. Since I was a little girl, you were one of my most favorite people in the world. Your smile brought me great delight and your house, at...
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Salvation
There is no power gained by oppressing others. No glory. No honor. No peace. No joy. Only terror, the terror of living under the tyranny that your own hands have wrought. The agony of your own...
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