Thoughts

Alright, alright, alright. I should be prepping my curriculum right now, but I couldn't get something off of my mind. The "Bad Blood" video has been circulating the internet lately. Don't get me wrong, I think the video is well done, cheeky, creative, and has a bomb catchy beat. But here's the thought that stubbornly stays in my head the entire time I watch that video. "You're too skinny to be able to realistically do any of that stuff" Let's be real, T-Swift might be borderline anorexic. Now I'm self conscious for this post, because on one hand, I'm not a fan of body shaming. And in no way is being lean, skinny, or etched inherently negative. There is a part of the skinny continuum though, near the anorexic side that becomes problematic. Not because the body type is ugly or wrong, but because the cause is of an underlying personal or societal problem. That being said, I will admit that I feel an emotional reaction when I see ...

All of my citations were footnotes, which did not get transferred over in the blogger format. I promise all of my statements are backed up though.  This essay gives a brief history of Black relationships to the land, and focuses on how two paradigms of relationship to the land have flourished and intertwined throughout American history. One is 'land as commodity' and the other is 'land as community'.  The lens of land as commodity was a very European understanding of land value. Land as community can be seen heavily in West African Customary law (these are very loose assumptions, and should be seen as paradigms rather than historical facts). But the entanglement of these two paradigms is particularly interesting in American history.  It is the commodification of land and labor propagated by the colonists protestant land ethic that was a driver of the Trans Atlantic Slave system. Agrarian virtues that were core to American citizenry and ethic were a key argument...

Yes. I am going to write a piece about a song from a young adult fan fiction remix. But there is a reason it has resonated with so many (including me) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14H8OzTzne4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyYTcMFKFXY From staggering wealth inequality to the grim realization that they are at the wealthy's mercy for climate change mitigation, young people today fully realize the times they are living in and the costs of inaction. Many times we simply distract ourselves from the horrifying possibilities of our futures. We distract ourselves from the reality that water will soon be a scarce resource, that variable weather and climate change will cause our stomachs to growl with hunger we have never yet experienced, and question our ability to have resolution as we tuck in our basements time and time again while storms charge through with increased intensity and severity than ever before. But I think what scares young people most, is the realization...

Our America  is a non-fiction story that chronicles the lives of two inner city Chicago boys, LeAlan and Lloyd. The boys were given a microphone to record their experiences and thoughts growing up in the south side of Chicago in the early to mid nineties. Our America is the transcribed version of these stories. This essay intertwines LeAlan and Lloyd's stories with the stories told by black artists through the decades. _____________________________________________________________________________ Our America: A Look Beyond the Veil Introduction “We want to give you kids in America a message: Don’t look at ghetto kids as different. You might not want to invite us to your parties, you might think well rob you blind when you got your back turned. But don’t look at us like that...We have a hard life, but were sensitive. Ghetto kids are not a different breed--were human” p. 83 Public Enemy: Don’t Believe the Hype “BACK!” Chuck D spits, and it pops like a guns...