The Divided States of America: I’m inspired and afraid

Each day I sit down at my laptop and begin to write. There’s so much to discuss, so much has happened, but each day there’s a new political bombshell. Like many of you, I start each day wondering what’s next America?

Obviously, I’m talking about the President of the United States who has been in office for less than two weeks. In that time, presidential orders have been made to ban immigrants from a country founded by immigrants, to build a $40 billion wall, restricting … Read more ...

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 ...

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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Who says you can’t talk about race, religion and gender?

How do you guys feel about book clubs? I’ve never really belonged to one, well at least not beyond reading the first book. Since moving to Portland, I’ve been checking out different groups to meet people to build up my tribe.

It’s important for me to have a tribe, a group of good friends who are there for you, are honest with you, even if it’ll make you mad, and really just love you unconditionally. My friend Patti mentioned she was going to ask her … Read more ...

Talking About Race With My Biracial 5-Year-Old


It’s interesting being a parent of biracial children in that like with most things with motherhood, I’m fumbling around in the dark.

Digging through my 5-year-old’s backpack, I ran across a worksheet on Martin Luther King, Jr.  Curious, I asked him what he learned about King in school.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Image from mattlemmon.

He told me that white people used to not let brown people do things and King made a lot of white people mad because he was helping the brown people.

Hmmm. Well, kinda.

Since … Read more ...