I need to say this plainly: We do not know all the names. That is part of what has been sitting so heavily with, or maybe even on, me. Over the last 12 months, approximately 32 people have died in…
Let’s change how we talk about immigrants
Conversations about immigration, especially on social media, reveal hard lines in the sand, a closed binary line of thinking, along with disgust, anger and outrage. Bring up immigration at the family Thanksgiving gathering, and the turkey may burn in the…
Bravo to Baton Rouge Library for standing up to evangelical grievance
Seriously. How hard can it be to call someone by the name they want to be called? Is this such a huge imposition? To hear a lot of conservative evangelicals tell it, yeah, such a simple thing goes against their…
Speak their names, tell their stories
Four score and seven years ago. Call me Ishmael. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Opening lines at their best can capture your attention….
Call her by her name
Rep. Nancy Mace, after repeatedly mispronouncing the name of Kamala Harris on a CNN panel Aug. 15, was called out for her disrespect by fellow panelist Michael Eric Dyson, a professor at Vanderbilt University. Dyson said: “This congresswoman is a…
Words matter, even when talking about those you hope to empower
Movements for racial and social equity cannot succeed as long as their members and supporters use stigmatizing language about the challenges they face, social entrepreneur Trabian Shorters said recently on the “Interfaith America with Eboo Patel” podcast. Even when the…
Kansas school district gives $95,000 to teacher who violated its own policies on student names and gender
A Kansas middle school teacher who refused to call transgender or nonbinary students by their preferred names and pronouns has been financially rewarded for her defiance of school district policy — by the school district. Teacher Pamela Ricard will get…