Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Tag: racism
Losing My Racist Ear
“Oh my God, you have a racist ear!” A colleague and I were sitting in a coffee shop. This was before my cochlear implant a few months ago when my hearing disability was really at its peak. My work as a consultant puts me… Continue Reading “Losing My Racist Ear”
How Do We Talk about Race? By Starting
The first Black person I knew even remotely well was an elected official from Detroit. It was 1967. I was 19. He was 43. Nothing about our short relationship was coerced although one could argue that the huge age and power differential between us… Continue Reading “How Do We Talk about Race? By Starting”
Anti-Flag Day
I was astonished that Walmart decided to stop selling Confederate flag-themed merchandise. Astonished like I was when Richard Nixon, Mr. Anti-Communism, went to China, deciding that his and others’ decades’ long campaign to demonize countries with communist governments was a strategy going nowhere and,… Continue Reading “Anti-Flag Day”
Good White Person: Start Where You Are
For the past eight months, people in Milwaukee have been waiting for an official determination of whether a police officer would be charged with shooting and killing an unarmed man he found sleeping in a public park. From the way I phrase that, which… Continue Reading “Good White Person: Start Where You Are”
It’s Not New, It’s Just New to You
Something about Michael Brown’s shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, has struck a chord with white women bloggers because I sure have seen a lot of ‘I can’t believe how horrible racism is’ posts as if this is the first time they’ve realized that racism can… Continue Reading “It’s Not New, It’s Just New to You”
Tell Me What Really Happened
It occurs to me that the way to change people’s attitudes is to tell them the truth. If people are never exposed to the truth, we can’t blame them for not ‘getting it’ when we try to explain things like sexism and racism. Why… Continue Reading “Tell Me What Really Happened”
Say What You See
I started my professional life at 27 as a White girl in a Black anti-poverty agency called the Social Development Commission where the first day I was called out for shrinking back from a hug offered by an associate director who laughed at me… Continue Reading “Say What You See”
#4/100: Learning Curve
It isn’t everyday that something important sinks in. A little kid realizes that stones don’t float. They will never float, no matter how small they are or how light them seem. They will sink to the bottom of the lake every time. On my… Continue Reading “#4/100: Learning Curve”
Slumber Party
Racism pounces on you. You try to beat it back but it’s there. A story. A long time ago, my daughter, who was then 12 years old, accepted a slumber party invitation from a classmate. My daughter was white, her classmate black. Several girls… Continue Reading “Slumber Party”
Glimmer
When our kids were little, we would come home from work, change into bathing suits, grab two longneck Millers, a slew of juice boxes, and a bag of chips and head down to Lake Michigan for ‘cocktail hour.’ We made sure to go after… Continue Reading “Glimmer”
Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
Recent Comments