The threats are like a bad faucet, a ceaseless stream of invective and hatred. The pitter-patter is so constant that Robbie Kaplan has learned to tune it out; white noise. Still, some pronouncements land harder than others. The ones that promise violence. The ones that mention her son. The ones that are too detailed, filled…
Read more
She is long dead, but the presence of Sally Hemings looms larger than life at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, the plantation where she was enslaved for most of her life and where a $35 million restoration of the grounds made way for the “Life of Sally Hemings” exhibit—a modest room tucked away in a wing of…
Read moreCalling all civil activists: Just weeks after a “Unite the Right” rally left one woman dead and more than a dozen wounded in Charlottesville, a bloc of several activist groups are marching from the Virginia city to Washington, D.C. to protest white supremacy. Starting Monday (August 28) groups like Working Families, the Action Group Network,…
Read moreDear Ivanka Trump, I’m the proud mother of a three-year-old girl named Nylah. My daughter is confident, playful, expressive. Probably a lot like your daughter Arabella, Nylah loves to read, play with her dollhouse, and play make believe. Her imagination runs wild. There’s currently a zoo in our pantry, a gorilla that lives with us, and a…
Read more
Over the past week, tens of thousands of people showed up to rallies across the world that, in solidarity with the tragic violence in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend, protested against racism and bigotry. On Saturday in Boston, for example, police estimate 30,000 to 40,000 counter-protesters drowned out the roughly 50 people who showed up for…
Read more
Dear Charlottesville, HATE WON’T WIN. Two years ago, my grandfather was murdered at a bible study in a Charleston church basement when a white supremacist, who believed that African Americans are somehow undeserving of life, opened fired on an entire room of people during prayer. This man killed, in addition to my grandfather, eight other…
Read more
