division
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Unearthing Whiteness
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2 min read
The greatest challenge to race relations in the US is whiteness. Not in skin color, but the belief that European cultural roots are fundamentally better. Part 1 “If Trayvon was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk?” —President Barack Obama, July 19, 2013 This is the question we refuse…
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How to summarize a time of great division
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6 min read
Kelly Brown Douglas confronts the history which not only brought us Stand Your Ground laws, but undergirds a constant struggle for continued oppression.
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Our problem isn’t that we can’t tell when someone’s lying. It’s that we refuse to punish those who lie or protect those who tell the truth. Truth is a weighty topic. And yet it all feels so subjective. The elephant parable comes to mind. The one in which many people touch the different parts of…
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More Than Two Internets
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14 min read
We talk like we’re divided in two. But if there were two internets, it wouldn’t be split left/right. It’s more like right vs. everyone else. The way we talk about American culture is a lie based on truth. How we come to this lie, and why we stretch the truth to justify it, is vitally…
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Why I Confess – Empire
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12 min read
Confronting the truth about our people is hard. Especially when the truth is about the evil of empire, oppression, and persecution. But that’s no excuse to avoid or deflect–we must engage with it. Arrogance and dealing with the enduring terror of empire “Anglicans persecuted everybody.” I felt my body squirm. The hairs on the back…
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Fundamentalism and the Fear of Being Wrong
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10 min read
We keep hearing about how divided we are. That we’re more polarized and uncivil than ever. That we hate each other more. But this isn’t the whole truth. Our division doesn’t come from a common rejection of the common ground. It stems from fundamentalism, which is a fundamentally divisive ideology. Because fundamentalism has to be…