This essay is a remix of some of the ideas I pondered earlier in my series of essays: Racial development, Antiracist white identity, Racial agency, and Antiracist competencies. I grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the white son of white parents -- a teacher and an engineer. My parents, my sister, and I…
Excavating white anxiety
As humans, our brains are attuned to expect the worst. This adaptation has helped us thrive in the world as it is. We look for the negative effect, the deficit, the problem that needs addressing so that we can survive. We also have developed a tremendous intellect, an ability to manipulate abstract information, to extrapolate…
When will “Black Lives Matter” no longer matter?
Store windows were smashed. Merchandise was stolen. Black people were blamed. "This won't help their cause," white people said. "I support Black Lives Matter, I'm against looting, and I support good cops," white people said. "When will this chaos be over?" white people said. We white people always have a way of twisting things around…
Reflections on the Cicada, Part 2
Last August, I had an encounter with a cicada and recorded my thoughts in this blog. With the return of the cicadas this summer, here are my thoughts on another encounter. As we walked through the yard outside our building, we noticed a cicada shell hanging from a tree branch. We had noticed a number…
Living into change: A vision for pandemic schooling
It is the first day of school, 2020. This year has not been like other years. This school year will not be like other school years. Jonathan is a sophomore in high school, and his freshman year was upturned by the arrival of the coronavirus, which shuttered his school, as it did schools across the…
Searching for treasure
In the early evening light, a brilliant monarch butterfly alights on the purple milkweed flowers in our yard. It drinks, rises up, flits through the air, and lands to drink again. As the sun drops toward the horizon, the butterfly floats away and the cicadas begin to whine. Their humming starts quietly, crescendoing gradually. As…
In mourning
I mourn for a world that never existed. I remember a time when I had no worries about viruses, imminent disease. I remember a time when I could come and go as I wanted. I remember a time when I moved through the world without recognizing the white supremacy embedded in every institution. I remember…
On writing
About one year ago, I started this blog as a way of sharing my perspective on racial and climate justice. In some ways, it is a self-indulgence for one more white man to project his voice into the world. At the same time, I believe it is important for us white people to advocate for…
Interdependence Day
On July 4th, we are fond of celebrating independence, freedom, liberty. This quality is the logical end-point of the United States' national mythology -- the story of the brilliant architects of our national revolution and Constitution, the story of the brave pioneers who set out on their own to subdue the wilderness, the story of…
Loss
It was such a surprise to hear. Truthfully, we hadn’t spoken in five or six years. Partly this was just the natural result of time and distance; it is also because I do not do well keeping in touch with those I do not see regularly. But to hear that you died suddenly yesterday --…
