If Black Lives Really Matter, We Gotta Stop Hitting Repeat

There’s a black man. Police confront him. Police kill him, and we watch the video. There’s an investigation, protests and calls for justice. A community grieves, and we all hit repeat.

Alton Sterling, repeat. Philando Castile, repeat. Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Willie Tillman, David Joseph, repeat, repeat, repeat.

25318448514_d282285f5b_zI’m tired, y’all. I’m eff-ing tired. I’m tired of hearing about these families who have lost fathers and sons, listening to simple platitudes about thoughts and prayers, or the pretzel-like explanations for how it’s all … Read more ...

Mizzou Shakeup: My alma mater finally addresses its age-old issue

It’s a good day to be a Missouri Tiger.

I’ve been closely watching the racial unrest at my alma mater, the University of Missouri, where Tim Wolfe stepped down Monday as president amid criticism of his handling of social injustice issues on campus. Hours later, Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin announced he is leaving his post at the end of the year.

The campus movement started small with a handful of students, then a hunger strike, and finally, along came big Missouri football.

Missouri's football team, coaches and staff show solidarity amid racial unrest on campus. Photo from Pinkel's Twitter feed.

Missouri’s football team,

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Ferguson One Year Later: What’s truly changed?

What were you doing this time last year? In Ferguson, Missouri a 279-pound, 18-year-old college student lay dead in the street. His black body had been shot at least six times and his death became a reawakening to what many black Americans have been saying for generations.

Police brutality is more prevalent in communities of color, and sometimes it’s deadly.

This old adage caught renewed life in the past year since Michael Brown was killed. I don’t know if it’s because technology has allowed us … Read more ...

With each black man’s death I ask: Are you my Emmett Till?

Do you remember that children’s book, Are You My Mother? It’s where a bird goes around asking a kitten, a cow, a dog and others if they are its mother.

I feel like I’m that little bird when it comes to the spate of black men being killed. With each  Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin or Amadou Diallo, I’m asking: Are you my Emmett Till?

Protests in New York City after the grand jury decided not to issue an indictment in Eric Garner's death. By Otto Yamamoto.

Protests in New York City after the grand jury decided not to issue an indictment

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