One important question has not yet been answered about the racist Converse ad pulled over the weekend: What ad agency created this thing? Big companies like Nike, which owns Converse, typically work with national or global ad agencies to create…
Pardon for sin and a sin that endureth
I just returned from leading a group to visit the Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Ala. Each morning and evening, I offered a meditation to ground us for what we were about to see and process. One of the hymns we…
There’s a Texas GOP candidate worse than Ken Paxton
Believe it or not, there’s a Republican candidate for public office in Texas who is worse than Ken Paxton. Bo French is so bad that even Sen. John Cornyn called him out on social media this weekend. That’s right, Cornyn,…
Who killed Jason Arday?
On March 6, 2023, sociologist Jason Arday became the youngest Black person to be appointed as a Cambridge University professor. Three-and-a-half years later, on Aug. 14, 2026, he was found dead in a manner police called “unnatural” but “not suspicious.”…
Trump’s Racist Post About Abdul El-Sayed And His Wife Was Very Telling
We have reached the point in Donald Trump’s presidency where his Islamophobia is so recycled and predictable that it hardly registers as news — but one of his recent posts reached a new level of both cluelessness and racism.
White parents who tell their kids that race doesn’t matter are ignoring the long shadow of racism
For parents of Black children, these four statements represent routine guidance they give, part of “the talk,” a well-worn ritual of racial socialization that shapes how Black children and adults learn what it means to live and get by in a white-dominated society.
Supreme Court ruling annuls the idea of ‘Christian America’
Contrast this: “America’s doors are closed fully to asylum seekers.” — White House aide Stephen Miller, describing the current U.S. policy toward certain immigrants “I was a stranger and you took me in.” — Jesus of Nazareth, describing the terms…
America keeps mistaking Black children for threats
Cyrus Carmack-Belton. That was the name of the 14-year-old Black boy in South Carolina chased, shot and killed after being accused of stealing bottled water from a gas station store. A jury recently acquitted the store owner in his death….
Anecdotal stories do not tell the full tale of race in America
As I began the journey of promoting my new book, Bridging the Rivers of Difference, A Proclamation of Unity In Resistance, I have encountered wonderful interviewers. Mostly they seem genuinely interested in the topic and have read the book well…
The roots of Christian nationalism
Christian nationalism did not spring up fully formed during President Donald Trump’s first term. Its roots run deep in American soil. Unfortunately. In the Post-Reconstruction South, the United Daughters of the Confederacy planted a Confederate memorial on many a small-town…
To understand today’s SBC, listen to history
Across America this week, Baptist women are carrying a familiar weight. Some are pastors who have faithfully answered the call of God, only to watch the Southern Baptist Convention debate whether God possibly could have called them. Some are seminary…
I’ve been studying racist costume parties for a decade, and colleges are failing at educating the students about why they’re wrong
In 2014, a group of students at Bowdoin College thought it would be fun to dress up as Pilgrims and Native Americans for a Thanksgiving-themed party. This is not the first or last event like this, nor is it unique to one…