Stopping self-imposed limitations is one piece of solving the racial puzzle. — A recurring complaint many white folks share with me is that they’re tired of people playing the victim card. “I get it. There’s racism,” they say. “But I don’t think that should be an excuse.” This oft-repeated complaint shows an utter lack of empathy and compassion given how much racism…

The top five nutty, ignorant, micro-aggressive things white people say to me — Online dating is interesting. On the one hand, you meet people you never would’ve met. On the other, you meet people you never would’ve met. I tried it several times in the past, and while I won’t be joining the ranks of “I should write a book about this shit,”…

We’re forgetting the ‘Inclusive’ part of DEI. — I’ve worked in many jobs and been in many organizations that internally and publicly tout diversity ted as a major value. “We love diversity,” they all say. So many companies are quick to promote some award or recognition they’ve received for being one of the top 100 best companies for…

Self-reflection and meditation are needed to return society to a more caring place — In our age of seven hours per day screen time and an endless supply of in-your-face social media, 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal’s words read like pure prophecy: All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone Pascal could never have imagined smartphones…

Providing space for Black Americans to reclaim their roots — The Associated Press guidelines on word usage state that when a writer is referring to Black people in a racial, cultural or ethnic sense, the “B” should be capitalized. But when it comes to white people, we don’t capitalize the “w.” WTF? With a capital W. This follows similar guidelines…

Let’s have a funeral for the negative images of Black women — You may not have been aware of it, but for generations now, we’ve all been fed a steady and unabated diet of negative imagery and information about Black women in America. The most prevalent stereotype of Black women, deeply rooted in American culture, past and present, is the angry and…

Raising kids according to “their” way, not ours. — There’s fascinating advice from the Jewish King Solomon, told to his United Kingdom of Israel and Judea over 2,900 years ago and recorded in the ancient text, the “Book of Proverbs.” Educate the child according to his way; even when he grows old, he will not turn away from it. …

Many countries built their wealth on atrocities — One of the places my young adult kids and I visited on our recent vacation was Spain. As the online brochures suggested, it didn’t disappoint. Charming old cities with shops tucked into architecture that existed well before America’s founding. Churches and other buildings that in some cases were over 1,000…

Let’s finally use our energy to fight racism — I just got back from vacation with my three young adult children. We toured Tangier, Morocco and Gibraltar, then Ronda, Córdoba, Marbella and Málaga, Spain. Every year I take my kids on cultural, experiential vacations to raise them into worldly human beings. To see the humanity that universally exists regardless…