<![CDATA[You probably already know this, but just in case you haven't been paying attention, here is a breakdown of the main facts surrounding Colin Kaepernick: Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made headlines last summer and fall when he chose not to stand during the national anthem that precedes every NFL game. His quiet…

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<![CDATA[Last night, I posted the following status update to my Facebook account:   Wait, there’s been reports of racial harassment to people of color from Trump supporters? Well, we shouldn’t be surprised. I mean, when white Republicans send candidates to the White House, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending a candidate with supporters that…

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<![CDATA[Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is out in theaters, and it dutifully fills all the boxes in the spy thriller checklist. Lifelike masks? Death-defying stunts? Car chases? Gunplay and physical combat? Glamorous locales? Check, check, checkity-pop-zoom-bam-BOOM. One thing that stuck with me was the title; an interesting development, because action movie titles are…

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<![CDATA[One of the great ironies of Justin Simien’s masterful directorial debut, Dear White People, which released in theaters nationwide this last weekend, is that although it’s aimed at white people, it’s not about white people. And just now as I was writing, I was tempted to use another, less weaponized-sounding verb, but truly, “aimed” is the right…

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<![CDATA[This is a response I see a lot… all the time, in fact. I saw it in response to the Ferguson shooting, but honestly I've been seeing it for years… decades, perhaps. It's  a common response from white people who don't understand why everything is always about race with you people. So I thought I’d write…

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<![CDATA[  It may be miles and miles away from where you live, but Ferguson, Mo. is closer than you think. This national embarrassment, this ridiculous cluster-you-know-what, is terrible, virtually indefensible on so many levels. But the seeds of this atrocity were planted a long time ago. What’s worse, they’ve been planted all over our nation.

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<![CDATA[ (Editor’s Note: If you don’t know the history behind the term “modest proposal,” you won’t understand unless you read the whole thing.)   Well, last night happened and, as far as I can tell, the four horsemen of the apocalypse have yet to appear. Which world-shattering event am I referring to? A new development in…

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<![CDATA[(Editor’s Note: This post began as an addendum to something I wrote in April about life in Portland as a black person. For more context, or if you’re not intimidated by a 3,000-word post, check it out.)       My social media feed has been blown up with old school nostalgia. I’m seeing a ton of…

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<![CDATA[So it seems that a series of circumstances have all led me to reminisce, Pete-Rock-&-CL-Smooth-style, about my upbringing here in Portland Oregon, the undisputed whitest major city in America. Reconnecting with old friends from high school, being a little less homebound and a little more out-and-about in the city (which is a typical, if subconscious…

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