The secret ingredient of systemic racism — I was just a year out of law school, working for a prestigious law firm in St. Louis, when one of my bosses asked me to work on a case involving family farmers suing a corporate hog farm. I’m Jewish and don’t eat pork, so I found the assignment a…

If we want to combat racism, let’s end “bystanderism.” — Nearly every morning from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., I head to my favorite coffee shop in Denver to write. Sometimes with our new 25-week-old Bernedoodle, Gucci, by my side. For anyone wanting to write a book, this is actually the best advice I can give. Make an appointment with…

The finally told story of Bayard Rustin. — There are a lot of reasons many people don’t know the names of Black civil rights giants aside from Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. Some were killed before they made their mark, like Reverend George Lee; voter registration organizers Lamar Smith and Herbert Lee; and young, energetic civil…

Appreciate good things happening, too! — Like any issue, we can get so immersed in the depth of our fight for racial justice or any other issue, we have trouble letting in the light. Or even the lighter. The second we see something on the news or witness what appears to be an unjust moment, we’re…

Distorting the Black Lives Matter movement — After the terrorist group Hamas brutalized, slaughtered, and kidnapped Israeli babies, toddlers, teens, young adults, and the elderly, the organization known as BLM posted the above graphic that was horrifically offensive to most people who don’t hate Jews. The picture, in case you haven’t been paying attention, is of a…

Advice on civility from our former president. — In 2003, my friend Rick called to see if I wanted to attend a fundraiser for some guy named Barack Obama, who was running for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois. Republican Peter Fitzgerald retired after just serving one term, which left the seat open with no incumbent running. I…

To the 40% of white Americans who still think it’s okay — Halloween celebrations began some 2,000 years ago in Celtic-speaking countries and are traced to the ancient holiday of Samhain. According to the myth, it’s when the Lord of the Dead rides across the land with his ghostly hounds. In 1745, the celebrations became known as Halloween, derived from the Christian…

“If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him” — On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched the worst attack on Israel in the history of the modern state. It was the longest 48 hours of my life. One of my children was attending school in Israel for a year before returning for college in the U.S. Because it was the…

How’s an independent supposed to vote? — I don’t belong to either political party. To participate in our political system, I have to pick between a party that sort of acknowledges our deep racial problems and is on some level trying to fix them, and the other party, which doesn’t really acknowledge them. As a result, I…